Grab the popcorn, cause there are a lot of Christmassy stuff to watch this year

94 new Christmas movies, to be exact. At least that is what Entertainment Weekly is saying. I am sure that there are a lot of holiday gems amongst them, but what I wanna talk about is a new Netflix show called Dash & Lily.

Ok, ok, I usually agree with the Internet meme “For every Christmas tree lit before Thanksgiving, an elf drowns a baby reindeer”. But this year, with Covid, quarantine, and the seemingly looming end of the world, I think we are allowed to start Christmas early. With so many missed opportunities to celebrate, who does not need some holiday cheer in their lives? Dash & Lily brings just the correct amount of Christmas spirit to the table.

While the plot of the series does not shine as the most original, the idea behind it is something I have never seen before. The rom-com is based on a book called “Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares” and follows the relationship that develops between two teenagers, based on the clues and dares they leave for each other in a red notebook.

Lily, a bubbly but closed up seventeen-year-old, who have never been kissed before, decides to follow her brother’s advise and leave a notebook full of clues in her favorite New York bookshop. It is found by Dash – her total opposite and a real Grinch at that. Throughout the show we see their characters grow, as well as their mutual feelings for each other.

I do not want to spoil the series for those, who haven’t seen it yet, but I do wanna say a few words about it. First of all, I binged all 8 episodes in one evening. I thought the show to be funny, relaxing, festive, although a little bit of a cliche. I liked the idea behind it and was looking forward to see what new dares will appear in the red notebook and how the two protagonists will solve them. What I did not like were the plot points that you see in every other Christmas movie – an obstacle appears towards the end, another woman/man threatens the relationship, the heroine finally finds her voice in the last few minutes and everything gets resolved on New Year’s. And it is absolutely not realistic. But that is ok, I guess, as the Christmas holidays are the perfect time of the year to let our imaginations run wild and to believe instead of stay grounded.

On another positive note, each episode is only about 20 minutes long, which makes the show not time-consuming at all. I would actually recommend not to do like me and binge it, but watch an episode per day for just the right amount of Christmassy feels before Thanksgiving. There is also a great surprise for the Jonas Brothers fans – a cameo may or may not be involved.

But if you, like me, have taken out your Santa hat already, probably would not listen to my advise. For those Christmas enthusiasts I can recommend two more Netflix originals that I have watch already.

Holidate is not set specifically on Christmas, but more or less all major holidays around the year, for which two strangers agree to be each other’s platonic plus ones. Of course, things do not stay that way, but I will let you see for yourselves. In my opinion the movie is great, for sure gets the pressure of being single during the Holidays and Emma Roberts superb acting is a huge plus.

Although I did not like it as much as Holidate, Operation Christmas Drop is also something that you should put on your watch list if you aim for light, romantic movie. A bit of cliche as well (but what Christmas movie nowadays isn’t?), it is set on a paradise island where “a by-the-book political aide falls for a big-hearted Air Force pilot while looking to shut down his tropical base and its airborne Christmas tradition” (description is from Netflix). Alexander Ludwig, who plays the pilot, is an absolute eye-candy and, according to me, good reason enough to watch the movie. Another thing I liked about it, is that it is loosely based on a real-life humanitarian mission called with the same name.

I will mention Midnight at the Magnolia just because you cannot like every single Christmas movie you see. For me this one was plain boring, I kept getting distracted almost the whole time and still was able to keep up with the extremely banal love story. There was not even one thing to set this movie apart of all the rest and it was not even that Christmassy.

With 91 more Christmas movies to go, I can definitely say that, even in a lockdown, we will surely have what to watch. For me Dash & Lily was a good beginning for my festive marathon. So grab the popcorn and lets see what else is to be discovered this Holiday season!

P. S. Which is your favourite Christmas movie of all times?

Photos: Internet