3 reasons to watch The Moodys Christmas

It’s the Christmas season which means food, family, and shenanigans where The Moodys are concerned. Fox’s holiday event is laugh out loud funny and has a heart as big as its dramatic family moments.

If you’ve been any place on the Internet where ads are prevalent you’ve most likely been inundated with promo for Fox’s three-night holiday event by the name of The Moodys Christmas.

The show promises a good time along with some laughs, but there are more than two reasons to watch this messy family try and figure themselves out. In fact, I have three more!

Sean Moody Sr. has cancer.

Breast cancer to be exact. Yes, in the midst of the hilarity The Moodys Christmas is bringing awareness through Sean (Denis Leary) to a health concern that’s talked about at length for the women it affects but not the men who can also contract the disease. He, along with his wife Ann Moody (Elizabeth Perkins), are working on telling their children the news.

It’s just kind of hard to do in between Zamboni theft and their kids running off to the annual holiday party thrown by a former classmate.

It’s quietly subversive, whilst still playing into well-trodden holiday with the fam style tropes.

While the show isn’t breaking new ground, it’s still nice to have a dad concerned with meal preparation and giving people a chance despite their home repair skills leaving much to be desired. As well as a mom whose gone back to school to earn a degree in psychology.

Sean Jr. (Jay Baruchel) is the child who hasn’t left home and probably will never leave, but he’s not the youngest, he’s the oldest of the Moodys’ adult children. He low-key gives me Jasper Jordan from The 100 vibes with his hi-jinks, just without a Monty Green by his side. And while he is a screw-up, he does have a job, pays his parents rent, and already considers himself to be the one most likely to take care of his parents when they’re older. Sean’s trying and that’s better than not trying at all.

Then there’s Bridget Moody (Chelsea Frei). The middle child. She’s an overachiever still concerned with people’s opinions about her and her life which is falling apart. There is almost always a family member who cheats before, during, or after the festivities and in this show it’s Bridget.

She got an F in fidelity, but the ‘why’ of it all has yet to be established. My hope is that her ‘why’ has to do with the possibility that her husband, Doug, wants kids and she doesn’t. Some women not wanting to have children is still an unnecessarily gasp level discussion, and it would be cool to see it brought up in a show like The Moodys Christmas in an irreverent, comedic, and yet frank way.

Dan Moody is so messy it’s popcorn worthy.

Sweet, charming Dan (François Arnaud) is a photographer. An artiste who moved to the big city to make his dreams come true only to become an assistant to a man who takes pictures of restoration hardware. Not to put down catalogue photographers, but that’s not what Dan went to New York City to do.

Dan’s struggles in his career do not, however, extend to his dating life. Can he keep a girlfriend? No, he has commitment issues (stereotypical of an artist, I know!), but he has no problem getting the attention of women. He’s brought so many girls home over the years that his family mixes up their names and their idiosyncrasies. But this year Dan is freshly dumped and unexpectedly mingling with his cousin Marco’s girlfriend, Cora. Let the awkward flirting and inappropriate glances across the room commence!

Marco (Josh Segarra) is not a bad guy. He’s a dudebro for sure, but he’s such a character and so freakin’ funny. Like you know Cora  (Maria Gabriela de Faria) is better suited to Dan–she’s an artiste, too, a jewelry designer–but her and Marco as a comedy duo are great. I love a messy holiday triangle that’s most assuredly going to blow up in unsurprising but fabulous ways especially when the ex rolls into town. God, I love when a trope truly pops off right.

What I’ve seen of The Moodys Christmas thus far has enticed me enough to sit at the table and grab a plate as I watch this family trade barbs, laugh, and get their acts together one shenanigan and ill-conceived plan at a time.

What did you think of The Moodys Christmas?