Christmas specials 2016

Happy New Year, dear friends!

As has become a bit of a tradition for me, here are my thoughts on the Christmas specials of 'my' shows.

This was the first time since 5 years that there was no Downton Abbey Christmas special, which felt a bit sad, to be honest. Especially as this was what I would always watch with my sister and we haven't really found anything to replace it.

Doctor Who: The return of Doctor Mysterio
Didn't really love it. Firstly, it wasn't very Christmassy at all! I know we've already done the 'big' Christmas stories like Santa and A Christmas Carol, but still, there should be more to a Doctor Who Christmas special than one view of a Christmas tree IMHO. Secondly, it was a bit all over the place (superhero, romance, aliens, newish 'companion') and not very impressive story-wise. The aliens I felt were rather generic. I liked the idea of combining Doctor Who with a superhero story, but I feel a better story could have been told with those two elements. I liked the romance of Grant and Lucy and Grant working as a nanny was a nice touch. I also liked Nardole, I think he works quite well with Capaldi's Doctor, but his character wasn't very developed (but did it seem from the trailer that he might be staying around? I'd like that). I loved the trailer at the end and am looking forward to new episodes and the new companion!

Call the Midwife:
Absolutely lovely! Call the Midwife at it's best I would say. The different setting really made all the best parts of this series come out fresh: the amazing and very human characters, the bittersweet storylines. I loved Trixie's storyline, her coming into her own and getting more confident. I adored Barbara and Tom together and their engagement was soooo lovely. Dr. Fitzsimmons was a very interesting character and played really well by Sinéad Cusack. The white landowner being persuaded to let the hospital use their land felt like a little 'Christmas' miracle and made the episode thematically very Christmassy, even in heat of South-Africa! I felt like everyone of the Poplar characters had a story of their own in this special, which is just very good writing. So really, I only have good things to say this year!