The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)

*Premise spoilers—nothing that hasn’t been revealed in the trailers.*

Marvel’s second Disney+ TV special. For my money, while not nearly as excellent as Werewolf by Night, it’s a fun, irreverent way to spend 45 minutes on a little Christmas chaos with the MCU’s dysfunctional space family.

Peter has been having a hard time since the events of Infinity War and Endgame, and Mantis wants to do something special for him. With the Earth holiday Christmas coming up, she enlists Drax to come to Earth and help her get Peter the best Christmas present ever: his childhood hero, Kevin Bacon.

There’s a lot of what makes a quintessential James Gunn Guardians story in here: on-point needle drops, one-liners and comic scenarios, oodles of alien nonsense, some entertaining action, and moments of very genuine heart. It’s all the “stuff” of a Guardians movie packed into 45 minutes, and although I’d say things mostly come together, it falls short of measuring up to Vol. 1 or 2—or Werewolf by Night, for that matter. While the films have space to let you get into the rhythm of the shifting tones, and Werewolf by Night presents you with a compact, complete story in its limited screentime, the Guardians holiday special has an episodic feel to it. It’s amusing, it’s diverting, but even though there are certain plot elements that I imagine will be relevant to Vol. 3, it doesn’t make me excited for what comes next the way Werewolf by Night did.

But enough about what the special isn’t. Let’s focus on what it is. Mainly, it’s just fun. This is primarily a Mantis-Drax team-up vehicle, with the other characters bookending the story. For me, these two can be hit-or-miss together, but they work pretty well here. I love everything about Drax and Mantis tooling around Los Angeles, seeing the sights and being super-obvious aliens as they search for Kevin Bacon. Honestly, I would watch copious outtakes of them exploring the Hollywood Walk of Fame or getting down in a gay bar.

Like all the Guardians, Mantis and Drax have basically good hearts but flexible morals, and the special never loses sight of the fact that their completely whacked plan to kidnap Kevin Bacon and gift him to Peter is really Bad Idea Jeans. At the same time, we see what motivates them, especially Mantis, and in their own chaotic, misguided way, they’re just trying to do something nice for a friend.

The opening and closing sequences with the other characters is fun too. I like Peter rapidly losing patience with a wildly ill-informed Christmas ditty written by alien musicians who want an Earthling’s feedback. Every moment of Nebula’s brief time onscreen is a sour-faced delight, and while they’re used sparingly, we get some amusing moments from both Rocket and Groot. All the main cast is present here (minus Zoe Saldana, for plot-related reasons,) along with a few Guardians-adjacent characters and, of course, a very game Kevin Bacon.

Warnings

Comic book violence, language, drinking, some “don’t try this at time,” and thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: Sex Education: Season 2, Episode 7 (2020)

*Episode premise spoilers, which spoils the end of episode 6.*

Last week, I talked about how episode 6 of Sex Education’s second season did All the Things and basically blew up as much as could possibly be blown up. In light of that, episode 7 feels a bit oddly muted. Even though there’s still a lot of big stuff going down here, I don’t feel like the fallout matches the intensity of the previous episode’s build-up.

After getting monumentally drunk at his party in the last episode, Otis winds up sleeping with Ruby, one of the “untouchable” popular kids. When they can’t find the condom and realize they were both too drunk to be 100% sure they used one, they go on a mission to get Ruby a morning-after pill. At the school, someone (a.k.a. Headmaster Groff!) took Jean’s notebook, full of countless sex secrets from students and faculty alike, and put up photocopies all over the school, causing mayhem. Viv told Jackson’s moms that he intentionally hurt himself to get out of swimming, and his moms have found a therapist for him to see, but family conflicts come to a head on the car ride.

Pairing Otis with Ruby is fun. Not as a couple, of course, but in an, “Oh god, what just happened??” kind of way. Ruby cracks me up with the way she directs Otis with claps like a dog, and I love the moment where Otis awkwardly promises to step up if Ruby does turn out to be pregnant, which just horrifies her further.

The biggest thing to come out of the storyline about Jean’s notes is six of the major teen girls getting detention together when a teacher suspects one of them of having written a derogatory insult about her on the bathroom wall but can’t figure out which one. This gets Maeve, Ola, Viv, Aimee, Lily, and Olivia (another of the popular kids) stuck in a room together. There are some preexisting interpersonal conflicts to deal with, confessions to be made, and a surprising moment of solidarity from six girls who don’t otherwise have a lot in common. Also, I love this line from Viv: “You guys are such clichés. Except for you, Lily, you are genuinely weird.” Naturally, Lily thanks her for this.

Jackson’s plot is okay, and things between him and his moms have needed a reckoning for a while, but it takes a weird turn. As a result, it winds up with Jackson comforting/reassuring his white mom, the one played by Hannah Waddingham. Now, Waddingham is terrific and she does a nice job here, but I don’t like that a story about a Black boy’s mental health becomes about a white woman’s tears. I mean, really?

On the whole, it feels like the show pivots from the biggest things that were at issue in the multiple blowouts of the last episode. Because Otis is with Ruby, we barely see him deal with the things he said (very publicly) about Maeve and Ola while he was drunk. The Jean’s notes deals less with the massive shockwaves rippling through the school, or even Jean herself, and focuses more on the six girls, one of whom may have written something sexist about a teacher. And Jackson isn’t firmly the lead in his own subplot. Maybe the show is saving these big guns for the season finale? While that would be workable, I can’t help but think that the momentum from episode 6 has been too disrupted for it to land as effectively.

Eric has a small subplot in this episode, and it too is a mixed bag. He’s not sure what to expect when Rahim asks to accompany him to church with his family, and it gets tricky, to say the least. From reminding Rahim that they can’t get overly cozy in church to one of his sisters asking Rahim if he’s Muslim (he’s an atheist, which, to Eric’s mom, is probably worse,) this feels a little like Eric’s side misadventures early in season 1.

Not everything goes wrong, which is appreciated. I enjoy Eric and Rahim’s conversation afterwards about religion, and they’re able to come at a sensitive topic from very different perspectives in a respectful way. But there are also some shenanigans that feel forced in terms of the triangle, and I’m not a fan.

A few choice moments from Ncuti Gatwa, as usual. Again, he’s excellent in his conversation with Rahim after church—he’s open/listening, he’s a little dreamy over his boyfriend, and he’s clear-eyed and firm about his own beliefs. Additionally, his reaction to learning about Otis’s latest predicament is fantastic, and I love his stunned reaction to Maeve brushing off Otis’s attempt to apologize, simply saying, “That…was withering.”

Torchwood: Series 2, Episode 9 – “Something Borrowed” (2008)

*Episode premise spoilers.*

Although it’s definitely tropey, this is an entertaining episode. At times, it flirts with a Torchwood-sitcom vibe, while maintaining the show’s penchant for whacked alien shit. For a Gwen-centric episode, it’s pretty good.

Out chasing an alien on the night before her wedding, Gwen gets bitten by the creature she’s pursuing. There’s no serious harm done and she thinks little of it—until she wakes up the next morning heavily pregnant. With an alien baby incubating inside her and a host of friends and family about to descend, Gwen makes the utterly Gwen choice to not postpone the wedding. Let the hijinks and violence ensue!

“Insta-pregnancy with an alien/demon baby” is a well-worn trope, and it’s plopped into the middle of a bunch of other wedding tropes swirled into the episode. We’ve got an obnoxious groomsman hitting on Tosh, a nightmare soon-to-be mother-in-law, a bride packing heat, and Ianto finding a wedding dress to fit a ready-to-pop pregnant woman on short notice. Oh, and did I mention that the mama alien (who is of course lurking around the wedding, to keep an eye on baby) is a shapeshifter, meaning some of the cast play the disguised Nostrovite at different points? There’s a lot going on.

It’s not a favorite of mine, but it is entertaining. There’s some good laughs and some nice action, and we get some strong moments from Rhys as he tries to hold everything together in this intense situation. Most everyone gets a chance to shine at some point or another, and it’s just fun to see the Torchwood crew doing double duty at Gwen’s wedding, pretending they’re just there for the ceremony but continually running interference and searching for a murderous Nostrovite.

(I will say, though: how does Gwen not realize in the morning that she’s enormously pregnant until she looks down and sees her stomach? That would be so much extra weight in a flash—do you expect me to believe she wouldn’t feel that as she’s sitting up in bed? Tell me a man wrote this episode without telling me a man wrote this episode.)

Anyway, after the heavier Owen arc in the middle of series 2, “Something Borrowed” is a madcap palate cleanser before we get into the drama of the final episodes. This can make it feel flimsy, and I remember I wasn’t really that impressed the first time I saw it. But on reflection, I’d say it does what it sets out to do, so I can hardly fault it for that. Plus, the ending coda is a delight.