Yearly, idiosyncratic sitcom-lovers in every single place collect across the TV with a mug of scorching cocoa and watch the all-time seasonal episodes of– oh, wait, Britta’s on this?
For a present that spent its whole six-season run consistently battling cancellation and switching out each showrunners and networks, Group pulled off some actually unbelievable feats of TV comedy. Dan Harmon’s cult darling a few group of eccentrics combating to earn their affiliate’s levels was, in so many meta methods, a love letter to TV itself, particularly round Christmastime, when the Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Atheist/Agnostic/Jehova’s Witness/Reformed Neo Buddhist examine group introduced out the massive (paintball) weapons to have a good time TV’s favourite vacation.
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In every of the present’s first 4 seasons, the Group Christmas episode mixed coronary heart, humor and ingenuity to type a festive storyline that eschewed conference and predictability whereas making us ask massive questions like, “How many individuals has that instructor from Glee killed?”
Very similar to the remainder of Group Season One, the first-ever Group Christmas episode, “Comparative Faith,” was comparatively tame to what would come subsequent. As Shirley explores the remainder of the group’s wildly disparate beliefs that conflict along with her personal staunchly Christian method to the vacations, Jeff prepares for a bodily conflict with a bunch of bullies, culminating within the festive fisticuffs and Pierce giving Jeff the Christmas reward that half the Group forged in all probability needed to offer Chevy Chase.
The following 12 months, the examine group (and the NBC sensible results division) stepped it up a notch with “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” a claymation trauma response during which the titular TV savant’s shattered psyche obtained a Rudolph the Purple-Nosed Reindeer-style makeover. That includes twists, turns and John Oliver’s Christmas Pterodactyl, the stop-motion remedy experiment is as whimsical and satisfying as a claymation cookie with an ideal chew mark taken out.
Then, in fact, there’s the Group Christmas tour de power “Regional Vacation Music,” during which the suspicious deaths of the complete Greendale glee membership set the even-more-suspicious Mr. Rad on the examine group’s path as he converts them to the cultish world of festive acapella one after the other. Sadly for Mr. Rad, his plan is in the end Britta’d, which, for as soon as, is a Christmas miracle.
Lastly, there’s “Intro to Knots” from the Harmon-less fourth season of Group, during which Malcolm McDowell performs the a part of the Scrooge-like Professor Cornwallis because the examine group makes an attempt to seduce him into a greater grade. This one is completely satisfactory, however not fairly as grade-A because the prior two Group Christmas episodes.
Truthfully, simply between “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” and “Regional Vacation Music,” Group has the resume to assert the crown of Sitcom Christmas King. Whereas there are definitely worthy rivals on the market, corresponding to It is At all times Sunny in Philadelphia, The Workplace (U.S.) and, in fact, South Park‘s yearly vacation entry, no one else experimented with the very concept of a vacation episode to the identical diploma because the Group writers, and just one present in TV historical past might ever pull off a Muslim claymation Christmas story that explores household trauma by the twinkling lens of psychosis.
