Le Noël de trop

Netflix seriously underestimates its audience at Christmas. I just can't get into the dozen or so Hallmark/Lifetime style movies they churn out every year... so formulaic and cheesy.

It was SUCH a refreshing change of pace to find a laugh out loud funny, heartwarming, and much more honest take on the holidays. Sure there were some predictable plot points, but in all I found the characters to be genuine and loved the escapist scenery.

I liked this one. It had (1) somewhat different culture than the usual fare and (2) an after school special on growing up for the twenty somethings.

I liked how the family was drinking so much to mask uncomfortable feelings - just like real life families! I liked how they tried to shoehorn joy into past feast traditions when they would probably have more fun with new traditions - just like real life! I liked how all of the people were flawed - just like real life!

It was a real life Christmas that actually portrayed the reality of going back to your small hometown. You can have fun with friends, tolerate your family, start to feel the joy of becoming the responsible adult in the family, enjoy the feasting, and learn that gifts will always be mismatched. Also it shows the forced celebrations with a recipe of specific traditions (put forward by the mother in this instance) were not really the point of Christmas nor the source of joy. Communal celebrations and real friendships, conversations and support for family are more important.

Echoes of 'Dan In Real Life', 'What We Did On Our Holidays', and 'Home For The Holidays', all of which are practically perfect love.

Voice overs done fairly well, but the translators have GOT to return to using 'damn' and 'hell' rather than vocab that is disgusting, especially at Christmas. We just don't need that imagery.

The relationships and situations are tough to watch and grandma's crudeness was overdone, so didn't come off as funny.

The one and only Black character was stereotypical. Sad.

BUT... We loved being in a beautiful German village for a few hours. Loved the multi-episode form. Loved the messages. Loved the imagined scenarios.

It starts off reasonably funny. Bit weird premises but ok, il'll go with it. Towards the end it get cringeworthy. So all in all mediocre.

Actually right now, I think the only thing I want has nothing to do with Christmas and I bet almost every person on this planet wants: the end of the pandemic and the restrictions. But let's not get political or into details, because if you don't like my review I hope it is because you don't like the review and not what my thoughts are on the pandemic.

That being said, it seems that doing tv shows/series is the thing to do right now. This could easily have been a movie and a bit shorter instead of a 3 part series. But what do I know right? Anyway well acted and quite the heroes journey (if you are lost, I just mean the main character and his discovery tour through the movie). Well acted and edited, this works quite nicely.