THE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS
Family comedies and feel-good dramas seem to have died out as holiday television fare, writes Matthew Vice
No matter which end of year holiday tradition you embrace, or even if you embrace none at all, there’s plenty to like about the holiday season. As someone who never takes leave during this time, I quite like the fact that traffic is light as schools close and many Joburgers head out of town for a few weeks.
Television also used to take on a particular flavour around this time of year, the endless slapstick family Christmas comedies and feel-good dramas — though this seems to have died down over the past decade. Still, I’m sure the inclination to veg-out in front of the TV, eating something we promise ourselves we’ll work off come New Year, is something that many of us still like to engage in as the year draws to a close.
HISTORY
You know, if I were in charge of the History Channel (channel
186), I’d air some documentaries about the origins of different holiday celebrations and how they were changed and adapted over the years, but instead we get Forged in
Fire Tournament, Mondays at
8:15pm in which a bunch of wannabe blacksmiths and medieval combat experts make and test weapons and rate them on how effective they would have been in a medieval combat situation — as if they know.
The holiday feel continues on Wednesday December 5 at 9:10pm with 1968: The Year that Changed America, an actual historical documentary about a sucky time in US history.
And speaking of US history and sucking, there’s also The Clinton Affair on Sunday December 16 at 8:15pm, a documentary about how perceptions of the scandal have changed over 20 years. If anyone cares.
REALITY WEDDINGS
Yes, I got my obligatory scorn out of the way up front this month. Let’s see if we can find something good.
Here’s one that might be: Wedding Day Winners on itv
Choice, today at 6pm. Another wedding game show proving that there’s a contingent of people out there willing to sell out what should (hopefully) be one of the most significant days of their lives into a reality TV circus for the chance to win something — in this case, a dream honeymoon.
Actually, this has the families of the couples competing too, to increase their chances. From the trailers it’s hard to tell exactly what the challenges are. It looks like a lot of tomfoolery and pranks.
It’s hosted by Lorraine Kelly and Rob Beckett. It seems to have its fair share of critics, but hey, if the people involved are okay with it, then so be it.
VALUE OF FAMILY BLAH BLAH
Here’s one that I feel captures the holiday spirit, a comedy called Four Christmases on Universal TV (channel 117), Saturday at 8pm. It stars Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as a happily married couple whose vacation plans fall through and they end up having to visit all four of their divorced parental figures in one day. Family on the holidays — my definition of hell. Anyway, they learn over the course of these misadventures the value of family and blah blah blah, you know how it goes with these things.
WHAT THE DICKENS
And here’s the last interesting one I could find: The Man Who Invented Christmas, MNet Movies Premiere (channel 104),
Saturday at 6.45pm. It’s a biographical comedy about Charles Dickens (played by Dan Stevens) struggling to write a successful novel after a string of failures in the face of impending financial ruin and cumbersome family members. That novel turned out to be
A Christmas Carol, which is often credited with defining or at least influencing the traditional ideal of a western Christmas celebration: family gatherings, food, games, fun, presents, carols – all the Hallmark card stuff.
I’m no historian or literary scholar, so I couldn't say how true this is, but the movie is fun. And if you fancy something in a similar vein, you could always track down
The Muppet Christmas Carol with Michael Caine on disc or on your favourite streaming service.