The 50 Specials Of Christmas - "Bewitched"
Based on nostalgia as it is, Christmas is a holiday best enjoyed in black & white. That can make it hard to determine whether aged television Christmas specials work on their own merits or simply on the quality of being old.
The Bewitched Christmas special is, thankfully, an example of the former.
A tradition, apparently, in Samantha and Darrin's neighborhood is to take home an orphan for Christmas. And, horrifyingly, dump them afterwards. So the kid gets a taste of life outside of vast, lonely dormitories run by cold-hearted spinsters and then put back so they can see the horrors of their empty existence. I mean, Jesus.
It's no wonder then that the kid that Samantha and Darrin adopt for a day is a complete prick. He's also the same kid who always sends adults to the cornfield in that Twilight Zone episode, so he should be evenly matched against Samantha.
My favorite part is the conversation where the orphan, who's only known hardship, says he doesn't believe in Santa Claus.
"You don't mean that, do you?" says Samantha.
Yes. He does mean that. While Santa seems to exist for everyone in South California with a two-car garage, it doesn't quite work for a boy who's only respite from all the pain of his day-to-day existence is the knowledge of his own mortality.
Despite the obvious cruelty of the storyline, this special does switch things up in the formula quite a bit. A lot of "disbelieving child" specials involve parents who also don't believe or a mean Santa Claus. Rather, everyone in this world knows magic exists - it's Samantha's forte. Santa Claus is really real in this special. It's only the child who's not keen on the reality of Christmas.
The switch works. This isn't a spoiled brat pulling on Santa's beard, it's a kid who's life has sucked hard. You believe he doesn't care about Christmas - it means nothing to him. So the infusion of magic into his life actually feels special.
The Bewitched Christmas special is, thankfully, an example of the former.
A tradition, apparently, in Samantha and Darrin's neighborhood is to take home an orphan for Christmas. And, horrifyingly, dump them afterwards. So the kid gets a taste of life outside of vast, lonely dormitories run by cold-hearted spinsters and then put back so they can see the horrors of their empty existence. I mean, Jesus.
It's no wonder then that the kid that Samantha and Darrin adopt for a day is a complete prick. He's also the same kid who always sends adults to the cornfield in that Twilight Zone episode, so he should be evenly matched against Samantha.
My favorite part is the conversation where the orphan, who's only known hardship, says he doesn't believe in Santa Claus.
"You don't mean that, do you?" says Samantha.
Yes. He does mean that. While Santa seems to exist for everyone in South California with a two-car garage, it doesn't quite work for a boy who's only respite from all the pain of his day-to-day existence is the knowledge of his own mortality.
Despite the obvious cruelty of the storyline, this special does switch things up in the formula quite a bit. A lot of "disbelieving child" specials involve parents who also don't believe or a mean Santa Claus. Rather, everyone in this world knows magic exists - it's Samantha's forte. Santa Claus is really real in this special. It's only the child who's not keen on the reality of Christmas.
The switch works. This isn't a spoiled brat pulling on Santa's beard, it's a kid who's life has sucked hard. You believe he doesn't care about Christmas - it means nothing to him. So the infusion of magic into his life actually feels special.
posted by Mike Drucker at
1:55 PM
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