These are a few of my favorite things...
Dec. 8th, 2004 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charliesmumWatching cheesey made for TV Christmas movies makes me happy. Last night on the "USA Channel" there was a new movie starring Steven Weber (formerly of Wings) and Molly Shannon (formerly of Saturday Night Live) called "Twelve Days of Christmas Eve". It was great. And by great, I don't mean ground breaking or terribly original, but rather it was a formula Christmas shows, with all the elements that make a Christmas show fun.
It had the Successful Rich Guy who Has Forgotten The Meaning of Christmas.
It had the Put Upon Employee Who Does Know The Meaning of Christmas But Must Forgo His Family Because of His Boss (The aforementioned SRG)
It had the Adorable Child of SRG Who Wants His Daddy To Spend Time With Him.
It had the Redemption Theme, where SRG is given a Divine Chance to Start Again.
Most importantly, It Always Snows on Christmas Eve. Always. The show could take place in Los Angeles and the writers would come up with a reason for Snow on Christmas Eve.
And the humour in it was just enough to cut the saccrine, and make it fun instead of painful.
The plot, lifted a bit from Groundhog Day (and before that movie was 'reliving days' a standard plot theme? Does anyone know?) was this. Calvin (Steven Webber) is the SRG who runs a very big and successful discount store called The Buck Stops Here. Their logo is a big pointing hand. Over the door of the building is a big pointing hand that moves up and down. This Is Important. On Christmas Eve he wakes in his super fantastic bachelor pad with his beautiful blond girlfriend, and does the exposition dance wherein we find he has an ex-wife, the Adorable Child aka an nine year old boy called Eric, a brother who is a school teacher (having forgone success for Family Values or whatever) and a father who is slowly becoming forgetful. SBG, Calvin, spends Christmas Eve selling the idea of expanding his chain of stores into Latin America by charming and smoozing with this businesswoman from Brazil. End of the day, he's missed his kid's Christmas concert (cue the Adorable Child's Sad Eyes) made his Executive Assistant guy miss the entire Christmas Eve, including dinner, with his wife and Bonus Adorable Children, and skipped lunch with his girlfriend. He is happy, though, beacuse the Brazil deal went well. He steps outside his office, and gets smashed by the big finger.
He wakes in a weird hospital where Molly Shannon introduces herself as 'Angie' and doesn't tell him much, execpt to respond to his remark that he'd just had the perfect Christmas Eve by saying 'almost perfect'. Next thing he knows he is reliving Christmas Eve, only to again die at the end of it. Eventually he finds out he has 12 Christmas Eves to get it right, or he won't make it to Christmas. You can basically fill in the rest of the plot on your own, I'm sure.
It was great. I just love happy, sappy Christmas stories that try to remind us that what is important is who we are with, not what we are getting. I even enjoy the irony ofthe self-same show being interrupted at intervals to tell me that buying expensive things is what one should be doing this Christmas, or better still, that one should buy oneself a car to make up for the ugly sweater your Aunt made you.
So, question of the day - Favourite Holiday special, and why?
(in other news, I went on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
platform_934 and have been sorted into Hufflepuff. Which is cool. When I was answering the questions, I felt I was more Hufflepuff than anything.)
It had the Successful Rich Guy who Has Forgotten The Meaning of Christmas.
It had the Put Upon Employee Who Does Know The Meaning of Christmas But Must Forgo His Family Because of His Boss (The aforementioned SRG)
It had the Adorable Child of SRG Who Wants His Daddy To Spend Time With Him.
It had the Redemption Theme, where SRG is given a Divine Chance to Start Again.
Most importantly, It Always Snows on Christmas Eve. Always. The show could take place in Los Angeles and the writers would come up with a reason for Snow on Christmas Eve.
And the humour in it was just enough to cut the saccrine, and make it fun instead of painful.
The plot, lifted a bit from Groundhog Day (and before that movie was 'reliving days' a standard plot theme? Does anyone know?) was this. Calvin (Steven Webber) is the SRG who runs a very big and successful discount store called The Buck Stops Here. Their logo is a big pointing hand. Over the door of the building is a big pointing hand that moves up and down. This Is Important. On Christmas Eve he wakes in his super fantastic bachelor pad with his beautiful blond girlfriend, and does the exposition dance wherein we find he has an ex-wife, the Adorable Child aka an nine year old boy called Eric, a brother who is a school teacher (having forgone success for Family Values or whatever) and a father who is slowly becoming forgetful. SBG, Calvin, spends Christmas Eve selling the idea of expanding his chain of stores into Latin America by charming and smoozing with this businesswoman from Brazil. End of the day, he's missed his kid's Christmas concert (cue the Adorable Child's Sad Eyes) made his Executive Assistant guy miss the entire Christmas Eve, including dinner, with his wife and Bonus Adorable Children, and skipped lunch with his girlfriend. He is happy, though, beacuse the Brazil deal went well. He steps outside his office, and gets smashed by the big finger.
He wakes in a weird hospital where Molly Shannon introduces herself as 'Angie' and doesn't tell him much, execpt to respond to his remark that he'd just had the perfect Christmas Eve by saying 'almost perfect'. Next thing he knows he is reliving Christmas Eve, only to again die at the end of it. Eventually he finds out he has 12 Christmas Eves to get it right, or he won't make it to Christmas. You can basically fill in the rest of the plot on your own, I'm sure.
It was great. I just love happy, sappy Christmas stories that try to remind us that what is important is who we are with, not what we are getting. I even enjoy the irony ofthe self-same show being interrupted at intervals to tell me that buying expensive things is what one should be doing this Christmas, or better still, that one should buy oneself a car to make up for the ugly sweater your Aunt made you.
So, question of the day - Favourite Holiday special, and why?
(in other news, I went on
platform_934 and have been sorted into Hufflepuff. Which is cool. When I was answering the questions, I felt I was more Hufflepuff than anything.)