The Hallmark Channel is not just a go-to for charming romantic movies and family-friendly fare. It’s also a reliable place to discover great TV shows. The Way Home, a surprisingly addictive show that’s a family drama combined with a time-travel mystery (and filled with tons of great original music too!), is coming back with a fourth season this spring. If you’re new to the show, you can subscribe to Hallmark Plus to binge past seasons, but there’s also a way to catch every episode of The Way Home without paying for a new, niche service. Starting on Feb. 1, every episode of the series will be available to stream on Netflix.
The Way Home, which first premiered in 2023, features an impressive cast: Andie MacDowell plays matriarch Del Landry, who lives with her adult daughter, Katherine (Chyler Leigh of Grey’s Anatomy), and granddaughter Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) in their family home located near a forest that’s adjacent to a pond. Why am I describing the landscape features around their house? Because the pond is also a portal to other time periods and holds the key to several family mysteries, including the disappearance of Del’s long-missing son Jacob. After they move in with Del, Katherine and Alice both start messing around with the portal, even meeting each other in the past and becoming friends. But when they start trying to change their family history, things get complicated.
The Way Home stands out because it doesn’t necessarily feel like a Hallmark production. It’s more in line with shows like Netflix’s Virgin River or Sweet Magnolias. In fact, The Way Home was originally developed for Netflix. It became a Hallmark series when the Netflix executive in charge became Hallmark’s head of programming and brought the show to the network.
The series feels like a departure from Hallmark, mainly because most Hallmark releases don’t dabble in science fiction or time travel, or feature such twisty, complex plots. The show is clever and smart, weaving multiple timelines together and allowing new mysteries to unfold each season, but still accessible and appropriate for most ages.
Seasons 1 and 2 have been on Netflix since October, and with the arrival of season 3, you can now catch the entire series in one place. Want to watch the series for free? You can catch all three seasons on Hoopla, which is available through many libraries, but the downside is you only get seven days to watch. (With 30 hour-long episodes, even we can’t binge that fast.) Then once you’ve polished off the first three seasons, you’ll be ready when the fourth (and final) season arrives on the Hallmark Channel this spring.
