Still aren’t in the Christmas spirit yet? With no Christmas day episode of Doctor Who this year, Netflix is filling in the gap with an episode of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina called “A Midwinter’s Tale,” another solid episode of the series taking the story forward where the first season left off, and delving into some classic tropes of American and Victorian Christmas lore. It’s all with the twist of the darker, horror-infused world of the show, but as Miranda Otto’s character Aunt Zelda says, “Christmas is the best time for ghost stories.” See A Christmas Carol, as an example.
Plenty of Christmas episodes of past genre television series are available right now, most via services you may already subscribe to, others for a few dollars (and some you may find free to watch on YouTube). How about starting with the unofficial sequel to Die Hard and Die Hard 2 starring Reginald VelJohnson (Ghostbusters, Tron: Uprising) in his third appearance as Sgt. Al Powell? He’s one of several actors guest starring in a trilogy of Christmas episodes of Chuck, available on Amazon Prime. First is “Chuck vs. the Crown Vic,” then VelJohnson and Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead) in “Chuck vs. Santa Claus,” rounded out with Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Arrow) and Stan Lee in an early cameo as himself in “Chuck vs. the Santa Suit.” But be careful, you may end up getting sucked into the rest of the series, starring Zachary Levi (Shazam!, Psych the Movie, Thor: Ragnarok), Yvonne Strahovski (The Predator, The Handmaid’s Tale), and Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Leverage, Castle).
In the same vein as Sabrina, check out Grimm with Christmas episodes “Twelve Days of Krampus” and “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas,” both available on Amazon Prime. “Twelve Days of Krampus” provides one of the best illustrations of Krampus, the folkloric character who has been a subject of this time of year for more than 2,000 years. Ever get coal in your stocking? Learn more here. And you’ll find some familiarity with the critters in “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas” as the new Sabrina episode. Each of these Grimm episodes is among the best of Christmas episodes, and overall great episodes of the series. And if paranormal shows are your thing, don’t forget the Supernatural episode, “A Very Supernatural Christmas.” Catch it on Netflix. The Winchester Brothers pursue some pagan gods at Christmastime, revisit their own Christmas past, and try to share a Christmas together as only they could.
That brings us to six classic Christmas episodes. How about six more?
is pure gold. Twelve years before the Nakatomi building siege in Die Hard, Willis is a beat cop in Manhattan. He is working with a loud-mouthed training officer that might as well be played by Dennis Franz. The art by Stephen Thompson is well done, and McClane is drawn to resemble a young Bruce Willis, enough that you never doubt it with McClane’s trademark dialogue style.
comprises Issues #4-8.
, Goodwin particularly is in prime, zealous form. He likens himself more of a Gary Cooper than a Clark Gable. Those who don’t know him see him as slick, and chastise his ego, as someone who “thinks he can slide uphill.” On an errand for Wolfe to inspect three rare black orchids, he happens upon a woman wading her legs in a pool and this image alone puts him in a mode to fantasize her as his fiancée, for nearly the entire story. As fate would have it, the man she is with is found with a hole in his head of the revolver variety, and Police Inspector Cramer has his sights on Archie as the trigger man since Archie was first to discover it. Ultimately everyone who appears in the cast of characters becomes a suspect, and like a game of Clue, you can’t really know how the facts come together until the last scene.
