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The Simpsons: "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace"

Bart Simpson's toy firetruck accidentally causes a fire which manages to burn down the Simpsons family Christmas tree and all the presents beneath it but leaves the rest of the house untouched. It's a Christmas miracle.

Of course, there is more than the episode than that but the one bit I mentioned above is enough for me to take this episode less than seriously. Indeed, it is like this whole series was some type of cartoon!

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Community: "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

Everyone's favorite pop culture enthusiast Abed Nadir has a nervous breakdown around Christmas time and starts seeing everything as if it were in stop motion animation. His friends try to ease him out of it by going along with his fantasy but things don't quite go right. Then they enlist the aid of British-born Professor Ian Duncan and things really go awry. But on the plus side, we get some really great songs out of it.

Plus we find out a lot more about our beloved characters' backgrounds. For example, Annie Edison turns out to be only half-Jewish. Who knew? And Abed's mother turns out to be of Polish descent just like my own real-life mother. That's an odd coincidence. I wonder if that means something.

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Warehouse 13: "The Greatest Gift"

Pete Lattimer accidentally stumbles upon an artifact that has the power to erase him from existence, forcing him to see what life would be like for his co-workers if he had never joined the staff of Warehouse 13 -- and, of course, putting him in the position of having to set things right again. As you might guess, the plot of this episode is a rather deliberate homage to It's a Wonderful Life; indeed, the writers of this episode are smart enough -- or at least, respectful enough -- to actually reference the original short story upon which the movie It's a Wonderful Life was based on instead of just attributing the whole storyline to Frank Capra like far lazier writers might have done.

It may not be the best homage to Frank Capra that I have ever seen but it is one of the better ones that I have seen so far. Then again, I have a soft spot for this show so what can I say?

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The Vicar of Dibley: "The Christmas Lunch Incident"

And you all probably thought that you all ate a lot of food this past Thanksgiving...

Please pity -- if you all will -- the poor Vicar of Dibley (played by Dawn French), who is forced through sheer politeness to eat not just one but three Christmas lunches. And not just a mere mouthful at each meal either.

On top of that, the poor Vicar runs into Peter Capaldi -- yes, the same guy who will later play the Doctor in a certain British sci-fi series -- and gets what she thinks is a marriage proposal. Alas, the proposal proves to be just part of yet another misunderstanding and the poor Vicar is given yet another reason to be miserable.

But don't worry. The villagers come round later in the episode to give the Vicar some much-needed Christmas cheer and everything ends happily. Sort of. Of course, it was the Vicar's very popularity with the villagers which caused much of her problems to begin with but alas, that is a subject for another day.

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Community: “Regional Holiday Music”

Here we are in February and I finally have discovered the most memorable Christmas special of last year: Community's 2011 holiday episode. Adding to the fun of the episode was a splendid parody of Glee, an even more splendid parody of "Santa Baby" and a classic parody of Doctor Who. And oh, yeah, I hear Community is a fun sitcom about a community college even when its writers aren't parodying things. Who ever thought that actor Chevy Chase would ever be on a funny TV show again?

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe"

As much as I like River and Rory, I was kinda glad to see the Doctor spend his time in this year's Christmas special with a new cast of characters for a change. This time out he played the mysterious caretaker to an old mansion which was to be the refuge for a young WWII widow and her two children. The Doctor had planned all sorts of surprises for the two children but the biggest surprise of all came from something he didn't anticipate. I guess it was a good thing for him that those WWII widows tended to be so resourceful...

Despite the episode title, the episode did not quite draw on the Narnia books as much as you might think. True, there was a trip from the mansion into a mysterious wintry world that could have been the inspiration for Narnia and I must confess that there were times when I kept expecting to see a faun or two. But apart from that, there was not much else that would remind one of things Narnian.

In any event, the episode was still enjoyable and though I had a few nitpicks as to such things as whether the RAF would really use a middle-aged father of two to fly planes when piloting planes during wartime was traditionally a younger man's game and why actor Bill Bailey was shown in the previews when his role came so close to being a cameo, I still enjoyed it more than last year's Christmas special.

I guess part of me was in the mood for a crowd-pleasing episode after the more disappointing episodes of the past season and this episode filled the bill. Granted, had it been a bit more shameless in its attempts to tug at my heartstrings, I might have had cause for complaint. But fortunately, it was not.

Christmas TV Shows

Community: “Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas”
Community" “Regional Holiday Music”
Doctor Who (The Second Series): “A Christmas Carol”
Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe”
The Vicar of Dibly: “The Christmas Lunch Incident”
Warehouse 13: “The Greatest Gift”

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “A Christmas Carol”

Well, I'm glad to see that my sister and I aren't the only ones who ever read Kate Douglas Wiggin's The Birds' Christmas Carol though I had no idea our Scholastic Books club had an outlet in Steven Moffat's country.

Anyway, it would have nice if Moffat had been available to come up with a happier ending for Carol Bir -- er -- Abigail if for no other reason than the fact that actor Dave Tennant officially used up all the "I'm sorry, so sorry" scenes one can reasonably tolerate in this series.

That said, this wasn't really a bad episode. More kind of a "eh?" episode. I did like all the Dickens references and the movie references -- even the shout-out to Jurassic Park III -- and I didn't think it was possible for me to like a shout-out to that movie.

I also must confess that I could have done without the Marilyn Monroe reference if for no other reason that Ms. Monroe seems to be the only American actress British sci-fi shows ever reference. Granted, a reference to an old-time British actress like, say, Diana Dors or Barbara Shelley would probably go over most younger TV viewers' heads but even that would be a bit more imaginative than another MM reference.