Top 5 Christmas specials of 2010

Well, just a couple of days ago was that time of the year again and, with it, came a cavalcade of season-themed features to populate our screens. Even though I’m not a big fan of the holiday and I’m fully aware that most Christmas specials are meant to establish a cheap sense of empathy with the viewers, I can’t help but feel a little warm and fuzzy inside. It must have to do with repetition making your inner child comfortable or some Freudian crap of the sort. So here are my top 5 Christmas specials of 2010. Now, of course, I haven’t seen everything that TV around the world has to offer, so this list is personal and restricted to that small percentage I’ve seen. Also, I don't care much about Christimas, so the list we'll be based strictly on how awesome the special was and not on how much it reflects the spirit of the season.

Without further a-do, the list:

Honorable Mention: Family Guy

To tell you the truth, I think this was sub-par. I usually find Brian & Stewie voyages a lot more fun. But I have a thing for sweatshops, in-breeding, and flesh-eating reindeers, so I’ll have to give them a couple of points for that. The other mentionable scene may be when Stewie and Brian try to deliver presents. I won’t spoil it for you, but I felt like they were trying too hard. I don’t know, I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. And at least it wasn’t the complete Futurama rip-off that American Dad was.

Number 5: The Office (USA)

Another one that I’m not really that hyped to talk about. Sorry, it’s been a slow season, but the next four will compensate for that. Anyways, back to the series, we’ve seen it go from absolutely brilliant to merely acceptable in the last couple of seasons. And the Christmas special was a reflection of all that. With some subplots going nowhere pretty fast and feeling disjointed at the end, this was far from a perfect episode. Remember when Jim gave Pam that teapot as a Secret Santa a couple of seasons back, but had to go through a long lot of trouble to get just to end up being a loveable loser once again? Those were the times. But this year special makes it to the list because of its heart-warming moment between the aforementioned couple and the escalating war between Jim and Dwight. Man, that ending was worth all the effort.

Number 4: Misfits

Misfits has been one hell of a series. This second season improved everything we loved about the series, with ideas so wild and well developed that our love could do nothing but burst. But it’s only 6 episode a year and the best gift of all was to receive a seventh episode as a Christmas gift. It didn’t play the Christmas card straight, but had someone that wanted to kill Jesus, the cast singing a carol and the most hilarious birth scene I remember seeing (comparable only to Coupling’s ending). It also handed us a sneak-peek of how’s life like for our five heroes after their ASBO term is over and left us anxious to know what the next season we’ll bring. To sum up, a job well done.

Number 3: Community

Community has been the go-to series for the nerd crowd. It beats the hell out of the clichéd, condescending wank-fest that is The Big Bang Theory, and represents our culture with much more respect, love and skilled craftsmanship. You probably heard of the legendary paint-ball episode, the legendary zombie’s episode and, now, the soon to be legendary claymation Christmas special. What’s more in the spirit of genre-bending, self-referencing Christmas specials that a good 23 minutes of claymation? The crew joins Abed on his trauma-induced hallucinatory trip through a ton of Christmas Specials clichés in journey to discover something hidden about his past and, maybe, recover the true meaning of Christmas. If it catches on and excels in its success, I would love to see the Christmas special from the other characters' perspective. Maybe as a DVD extra.

Number 2:  Doctor Who

Steven Moffat presents us a twist on Charles Dickens classic, A Christmass Carol. The story takes us to the familiars landscapes of an empty man consumed by his greed and the three ghosts that appear to show him the err of his ways and then it twists and turns through time-travel, cryogenics, flying fish, monsters and the freaking Doctor. Matt Smith has proven to be an excellent Doctor, capable of a full array of emotions without losing the distance and alien-ness that a being older than time should have. In this special, it was a ton of fun to see him interact with the child actor whose name I won’t look up. Was it a perfect episode? Hell no! But it’s the freaking Doctor, show some respect! And now we just have to wait (again) until the next season is released. Yeah, I know, it’s a drag, but there are at least two things that keep me hyped about season six: 1) Mark Sheppard (whose career I’ve been following since I saw his fabulous and perplexing Romo Lampkin in Battlestar Galactica) is making an appearance in the opening episodes and, 2) Neil Gaiman (yes, THAT Neil Gaiman) is writing an episode. This continues the longstanding tradition of writers I respect joining the ranks of the Doctor. And, until then, I salute those proud ranks.

Number 1: Haruhi Suzumiya no Shōshitsu

Fuck yeah, muthefucka’! It’s been almost a complete year since the debut of this bad boy in Japanese cinemas and its DVD release. And the wait was worth every agonizing second. For those not in the know, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was a series about a guy who is dragged into a club that, basically, concentrates on fighting boredom. The only thing particular about them is that the titular character is actually God, even though she doesn’t know it. Oh, and the other members are a time traveler, an alien and an esper. It is a slice of life/sci-fi/existentialist story that mixes its genres rather well and had an intense fan following. Last year, the original series received a sort of expansion pack that included an infamous story-arch called Endless Eight that seems to have pissed off everyone but me. I loved that shit, as it was up to the challenge of creating eight different stories with, basically, almost the same script, resorting to directorial decisions to create a difference. 

 

But I think the movie will appease anyone that still has faith. After all, it has everything: batshit crazy sci-fi story, major character development, genre-twisting handwaves and winks to the audience, existential crap for every taste and the integration of all the aforementioned elements to develop its plot and enrich its characters. And, even though its approach is completely secular, everything happens a few days before Christmas, giving me the perfect excuse to include this beauty in the list. I can’t really recommend It if you haven’t seen the series but, if you have, don’t miss it.