Villainess Review: Charlene Crawford (Reba McEntire's The Hammer)

Out of Lifetime's first batch of upcoming films for 2023, I actually looked forward to Reba McEntire's The Hammer the most, and the reasons were simple. It's epic enough that Reba McEntire, a country music icon and actress was behind an actual non-holiday Lifetime film, but we get the added bonus of a blast from the past. We get a Reba sitcom reunion, as Reba co-starred in this film with Melissa Peterman, who portrayed Barbra Jean on Reba's self-titled sitcom. Also part of the cast is Rex Linn, who is Reba's real-life boyfriend, and while I always think of CSI: Miami when it comes Linn, he and Reba are currently stealing scenes on ABC's Big Sky.

So again, I was excited for this film, and it features Reba as Kim Wheeler, a no-nonsense judge whose nickname, "The Hammer," becomes bestowed upon her when she takes down an unruly defendant with her gavel. Epic! So Kim ends up replacing the deceased judge Jacob Brewer at her small hometown, and among her cases is one centering on Dirk Crawford, who ran down a friend of his for dating his ex--said friend ended up dead as a result. We see Kim meet up with Dirk's father, Bart Crawford (the aforementioned Linn), get used to her position at her hometown, and also visit her sister, Kris Wheeler (the aforementioned Peterman), who runs a brothel known as "The Shady Lady."

Meanwhile, some details are revealed regarding Brewer's death: he was actually murdered. To be more specific, Brewer had a huge amount of oxycontin in his system. Because he was found at The Shady Lady, Kris is not only suspected, she's actually arrested! As Kim works to clear her sister, she ends up convicting a sex offender who set up various women as drug addicts in response to their refusal to have sex with him, and as for the Dirk Crawford case, Kim hands Dirk quite a sentence of two years in jail, and is ordered to undergo anger management.

The sentence doesn't set to well with Charlene Crawford, Dirk's mother and Bart's ex-wife, and she gets in Kim's face and lets her have it...big time. She's calmed down by bartender Vance, and is later reassured by Bart, who agreed with the sentence. A nightly home date ends with Kim running off, as she recognized Bart's boots as the ones worn by someone who was apparently tracking her, and had been behind some various threats. At the bar on the following day, Kim leaves with Vance due to having some info on the case, but her bailiff, Vicky, discovered that Vance had the access to the drugs in Brewer's system, and Kim also puts two and two together and realized that Vance killed Brewer.

Vance spiked Brewer's drink with rohypnol, and after tracking him to The Shady Lady, he injected the oxy into Brewer to finish him off. Kim suspected that Vance was acting under Bart's order, only for Vance to criticize Bart for not taking care of his family, leading Kim to realize that the Crawford pulling the strings was actually Charlene. As it turned out, while Bart felt that Dirk should face the consequences, Charlene expected Bart's influence to save their son, and when Bart refused, Charlene seduced Vance into killing Brewer for her. Vance voiced his love and devotion to Charlene, because simps gotta simp, while Kim (who was drugged by Vance) attempted to convince Vance to testify against Charlene. They ended up crashing, but as the calvary arrived, Vance was subdued by Kim. As for Charlene, she ended up arrested, and went into full Karen mode by threatening to have the arresting officer (Deputy Wayne) fired.

Reba McEntire's The Hammer aired on Lifetime on January 7, 2023, and featured Canadian actress Candyce Weir as the evil Charlene Crawford. I absolutely loved Charlene and was elated that she was the villainess, because it fit Vicky's description of her early in the film. As Vicky stated to Kim, Charlene's an ex-beauty queen who is used to getting what she wants, and based on everything that's revealed about her, she doesn't take "no" for an answer. So Charlene's quite unscrupulous based on that description alone, and she turns up big time with her transformation into a murderous mastermind. We don't really see a whole lot of Charlene, but she still provided quite a lot, especially in her scene with Reba's Kim Wheeler. That scene was Charlene's heel persona at center stage; the entitled and arrogant mother who thinks she's right and was in Kim's face about it. Weir acted out that scene very, very well, and I couldn't help but love Charlene's "Karen" moment when she was arrested; that was more stellar acting from Weir.

I had to Google Candyce Weir; her filmography mainly consists of short films, some of which she's directed. This film was Weir's first Lifetime movie role overall, and this was an absolutely amazing one from Weir. I would absolutely love to see Candyce Weir in more Lifetime films. As for the film overall, I absolutely loved it; it was a Lifetime thriller mixed in with a lot of the good stuff you see in Hallmark's mystery films.

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Check out Charlene Crawford's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!