JohnIRTMAN

I don't think that many people will be surprised to hear that this is a pretty fun special. James Gunn is known for turning up the weird factor in his movies, so a super powered holiday special with Kevin Bacon isn't that crazy when you know who made it. There are some flaws with this special, personally I didn't think that every joke landed, but for the most part I found myself laughing. There are also some surprisingly good original songs, which definitely elevate the film and add to the Christmas mood. It also added more to the "Guardians of the Galaxy" story than I expected, with this special pretty much being essential viewing in preparation for the third film. Overall, I found this special to be a lot of fun, even with a few flaws, and it left me highly anticipating the third film.

This episode really gives me hope for the rest of the season. As usual the season premiere was great, and then after that there was a bit of a decline. I liked the A plot of the second episode, but the Die Hard plotline just didn't do it for me. The third episode had some funny moments, but there wasn't a very strong story to support it. Usually, Rick and Morty gives clever sci-fi stories, and I felt the third episode to be lacking in that. This episode, however, was (in my opinion) the funniest of the season so far, and the best conceptually. The tone was fresh and nearly all the jokes landed. If the season is able to keep up this quality, I think it would rank up there with the first 3 seasons.