Mistletoe Match does have a tired premise. It did start out pretty well but then it fell flat on its face.

Olivia (Elena Juatco) is an investigative reporter who gets tasked to do a deep dive into Mistletoe Match, an annual singles event that claims a 90% success rate. She meets Thomas (Ryan Bruce), an artist that works at the local community center. Will the program work for them or will Olivia expose it as a sham?

When both Olivia and Thomas were on the “this thing sucks, let’s team up” train, it wasn’t a particularly innovative take on the plot but Juatco and Bruce made it interesting. It wasn’t until the plot started to focus on getting funding for the community center over the actual tasks/events at the Mistletoe Match that it started to fall apart. I don’t think they really needed a “what’s in it for him” take. They could have just had the two of them falling in love while doing things they both claimed were stupid. Then the B-plot would still be Thomas’ best friend/coworker Alfie (Vas Saranga) trying to get his act together to propose to his girlfriend, Mia (Dianne Aguilar). Bring in the part about Thomas’s daughter, Erin (Tessa Kozma), needing to write a story for a class assignment and we’re good. We don’t need the community center in dire financial need in order to make the relationship worth something to Thomas. It just muddies the water.

Rating: Not enough matching