A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter

7/10

Does this special truly need a review? Not really. You're either gonna watch it or you're not. I happened to watch it, not because I'm a Sabrina Carpenter fan, but rather I follow her on social media and I'm very entertained by her.

My first introduction with her was on "Girl Meets World" and I thought she wasn't bad in that. I liked "Boy Meets World" and since then I've only followed her from a distance. Honestly this special was not bad. It's funny, it's entertaining, but it's too short. I think given the time she could definitely do a 90 minute special that shows off more of her music.

I didn't know many of the guest stars that appeared other than Shania Twain, and very surprisingly, Sean Astin who was a great Santa Clause. It's a simple Christmas special. Sabrina knows what she wants and she delivers it with some quirk. It finishes spectacularly with her great song "A Nonsense Christmas" where she still keeps it family friendly.

It's honestly a blast of a special. I'll say that honestly as someone who doesn't listen to her songs, but she knows her audience and she knows who's watching and that's what makes it great. Oh, and you learn everything you need to know about her in fifty minutes.... She just wants to be stuffed.

Sabrina Carpenter may well be on her way to Ariana Grande-like status in the pop music scene. The only reason she isn't there already is because she got trapped in some bad Disney music contracts that forced her to make middling, family-friendly pop for a number of years. Now, freed to pursue her own pursuits, Sabrina leans into that tongue-in-cheek, double entendre brand with this Nonsense Christmas special.

Basically, Nonsense Christmas is a collection of 6-7 Sabrina tunes (some of them duets, like with Shania Twain or Chappell Roan, amongst others), with comedy skits interspersed between the musical set pieces.

Because Sabrina's whole image is so "cringe", it is hard to give an event like this the full 10/10 star treatment. Granted, I don't get too fussed about it because she unapologetically leans into that image, but at times it will have you rolling your eyes as opposed to laughing out loud.

How can Carpenter largely get away with this? Because she's got the pipes. Her Fruitcake Christmas mini-album is an absolute holiday masterpiece, and her other tunes of late have rocketed to the top of all charts. Sabrina can really sing, and that's how (at least for the moment) she can get away with the dirty puns and raunchy-if-fun persona--because the vocals always back it up.

Overall, I enjoyed this Nonsense Christmas special. Nothing that will go down in the annals of holiday music specials, to be sure, but fun enough in that it knows exactly what it wants to be--Sabrina's pristine vocals mixed with cringy humor--and executes it perfectly.

I enjoyed but know for a fact I won't rewatch. When I think of a Christmas Special it's something you want to watch time and time again when the holidays come around. This is something that feels like an SNL segment, one off. It is missing something and I spent the whole special looking for it. Also the fact that Chappell Roan's end "blooper" is her complaining that the outfit she's in is straight is so weird to me when it's Sabrina's special and clearly what she wanted them to wear. The length of the special was perfect with little segments and showing us the behind the scenes of the shots as it's being shot. But again, it was just missing something.

I am a bit of an old soul and never get into new musical artists but I was impressed with the strong talent and lovely voice Sabrina has. She outshines all her guest performers by miles and shows how some of them can't sing a basic song. But Sabrina's wit, charisma, humour and smile is contagious. It should get viewers smiling and easily into a nonsense mood for the holidays. Also kudos to her for taking on this special as there could be fears it would bomb. My only suggestion would have been to include a story to make it more fun for viewers to follow along and have a final song session with all the musical acts. Overall harmless and fun treat.

Ok, for all the Scrooges giving this a bad review, what exactly were you expecting? An Emmy?? It's a Christmas special. It was 100 percent what you would want and expect. Great cameos, cheesy skits, and shameless puns. The songs were a blast, and full of the innuendos one would expect from Sabrina. Time to lighten up a bit , and enjoy the ride! This is a Christmas special I could see me watching each year. I would love to see other artists have a truly good time without worrying if it looks perfect. The bloopers at the end were a lot of fun too. Bravo to the producers and crew who brought this together!