Sarah Drew and Peter Mooney are bringing Mistletoe Murders back for season three on Thursday, November 5, and the pair say the off-screen spark that started over Zoom is still powering the show. Drew, who plays Emily Lane, and Mooney, who plays Detective Sam Wilner, say the chemistry that carried the first two seasons has only deepened as the series moves into another chapter.
That matters because viewers have already followed the first two seasons of Mistletoe Murders as they dropped on Netflix and built momentum around the uneasy pull between Sam and Emily. The series was created by Ken Cuperus from the popular Audible podcast of the same name, and the TV version now arrives with a bigger audience and a clearer identity: holiday setting, but far from a soft holiday story.
Mooney said the two first hit it off over Zoom, calling their chemistry “borderline alarming.” He said, “It’s hard to find chemistry over Zoom, but we managed to do it that day,” and added that “something about this has just kind of clicked from the beginning.” For him, the connection felt “familiar and comfortable and safe and trusting,” the kind of foundation that lets a relationship-centered mystery keep moving instead of stalling out.
Drew framed that same connection in almost the same terms, saying there is “an inherent, ridiculous silliness” they both possess. That, she said, means “you can do no wrong,” and the result on set is simple: “We’re gonna be laughing and guffawing,” she said. “We’re gonna trust each other.” Drew said both actors “really care about the work,” which is part of why the relationship between Emily and Sam keeps shifting instead of resetting from one season to the next.
She also pointed to the way the story has evolved, saying the show has taken “this beautiful journey where every season, we’re still moving toward each other, but it takes on a different layer.” Last season was more about whether the pair would get together, she said, while season three is more about how they will make it work. “There’s depth to it,” Drew said. “It’s real relationship stuff: how do we figure out how to do this thing for real?” Mooney answered with the same practical edge: “Yeah, how do you navigate that?”
That emotional track sits inside a much darker mystery. Mistletoe Murders is not playing like a typical Hallmark mystery; it folds holiday atmosphere into crimes, a secret dark past and romantic tension that keeps pulling the story off balance. Season three also opens with Catherine Bell as a prime suspect, though the specific case is not spelled out, which gives the premiere a built-in question even before the romance gets another turn.
For Drew, the role also fits a career built on ensemble chemistry. She spent nine seasons as Dr. April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy, and she has said the comfort and trust on this set lets the actors laugh, relax and focus on the work. That is why Mistletoe Murders keeps landing with viewers of Mistletoe Murders: the mystery may be sharp, but the relationship at its center is getting more complicated, not less. Season three premieres on Thursday, November 5, and the real question now is not whether Sam and Emily will connect, but how far that connection can go once the new suspect is in the frame.
