‘The Chicken Sisters’: Love & Conflict Are Key Ingredients in Hallmark+’s Tasty Series

Damian Holbrook October 5, 2024, 1:00 pm

The Chicken Sisters Hallmark - Schuyler Fisk, Genevieve Angelson, Lea Thompson, Wendie Malick — Hallmark Media / Kailey Schwerman

The Hatfields and McCoys have nothing on the feuding kinfolk in the Southern-fried soap, The Chicken Sisters! A comfort-food adaptation of KJ Dell’Antonia’s bestseller about two colorful restaurant families at war has the sass of the 2020 novel (a Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick!) and all the staples of a Hallmark hit: small town, big heart, hunky fellas and strong-willed women. Oh, and a ton of humor.

“I’m a Gilmore Girls stan,” comedy-trained showrunner Annie Mebane (The Goldbergs, Shrinking) offers. “And I wanted that sort of cozy feeling where people are witty in the way real people are witty, not working overtime to make a joke happen.” With Dell’Antonia’s tale as the main ingredient, Mebane and fellow executive producer Bradley Gardner have whipped up a celebration of sisterhood with more kick than spiked sweet tea.

The book is set in Kansas, but the series takes place in fictional Southern Merinac (“so it could be everywhere and nowhere,” says Mebane). Chicken is rooted in the decades-strong beef between the Moores and the Hilliers, proprietors of the town’s two fried-chicken eateries. Per Merinac lore, things first went fowl, er, foul 100 years earlier when besties Mimi and Frannie hatched the Chicken Sisters restaurant, only to fall out when Frannie’s husband claimed he was the father of Mimi’s child — which Mimi denied. The women then opened their own eponymous joints. “Once those two split,” narrator Margo Martindale drawls in the pilot, “everyone in Merinac picked sides.”

Lea Thompson and Wendie Malick in 'The Chicken Sisters'

Things are just as messy a century later. Mimi’s current owner, Gus Moore (Wendie Malick), has been running the place solo since her ambitious eldest daughter Mae (Genevieve Angelson) flew the coop for New York City, where she cohosts a home-organization show, and her younger child, Amanda (Schuyler Fisk), wed the son of frenemy Nancy Hillier (Lea Thompson), now the operator of Frannie’s. With a headstrong teen of her own (Cassandra Sawtell) and a checked-out hubby (James Kot), the unfulfilled Amanda at least has a surrogate mom in Nancy. And that has Gus madder than a wet hen.

“Although she acts like Nancy is her archenemy, they were once best friends,” says Malick, whose mix of folksy and feisty steals every scene. “Deep down, Gus wishes she could be more like her. It’s especially heartbreaking because Nancy has become so close to her estranged daughter.”

“She truly loves Amanda as the daughter she never had,” echoes Thompson. “And she was good friends with Gus, so her feelings are complicated…but ultimately, she wants everyone to get along.”

That’s so far proven to be a big ask for these ladies, especially with a reality show called Ultimate Kitchen Clash fixing to film an episode pitting Frannie’s against Mimi’s. Mae’s back to help a suspicious Gus get Mimi’s up to snuff, a miffed Amanda’s butting heads with her prodigal sister at every turn, and an escalating prank war has tensions boiling on both sides of the grudge.

'Chicken Sisters' Cast Talk Family Drama and Dream Hallmark Guest Stars

“Ultimate Kitchen Clash coming to Merinac puts a magnifying glass on all the cracks in the foundation of many of the relationships in this small town and really stirs the pot,” says Fisk. “There are some shocking romantic developments, and sometimes you may not know who to root for.” To complicate things, Ultimate Kitchen Clash’s host Sabrina (Rukiya Bernard) may have a grudge against Mae, and, via several flashbacks, a somber Moore family secret is standing in the way of any sort of sisterly reunion.

“The biggest impediment to Mae’s relationship with Amanda is because the things they needed to rescue themselves from their childhoods were opposite,” hints Angelson. “On the inside, the motivations behind their opposite life choices make sense. On the outside, where things get misinterpreted and miscommunicated, there’s hurt and anger that have accumulated over a lifetime.”

“This is a show about breaking generational cycles, so that’s one of the reasons we have a lot of these flashbacks…to see how they got to the stuck place,” continues Mebane, adding that The Chicken Sisters “wouldn’t be interesting as a show unless there was deep love underneath the conflict.” To that end, she has made sure to give each character grace. “Nobody’s doing anything because they’re a bad person or because they’re just mean. They had to have a deeply relatable reason in their backstory to explain the moments that they’re being heinous.”

Off-camera, Mebane need not worry about anybody getting their knickers in a knot. Thompson reports that Fisk and Angelson are “two of the loveliest women I have ever had the privilege to share the screen with,” going on to rave that “the whole cast was so determined to give their all to this project.” But she reserves her highest, most Merinac-worthy praise for sparring partner Malick. “Wendie is so smart and funny, and I have always wanted to work with her,” she gushes. “The sniping is just the icing on the sweet roll.”

And we are plum eatin’ it up!

The Chicken Sisters, Streaming Thursdays, Hallmark+