Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper! (2025)

Hear me out. There has been a major increase in the number of Christmas movies that we get each year. I think we can all agree on that. It's quite the busy little (Christmas) cottage industry. And Hallmark now finds themselves competing against not just other TV channels, but the likes of Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Disney, not to mention any of the star vehicles that end up gracing our cinemas. That means there are a lot more films out there that are a bit weak, to put it nicely, but tend to fill the screentime with snowy landscapes, hot chocolates, predictable romance, and some twinkly-eyed Santa figure, or some kind of Santa proxy. I hope we are still in agreement. I have nothing against these movies. I watch, and review, many of them. They often provide the cosy comfort that they aim to provide. But, and here's the radical part of this paragraph, I suspect that the excessive number of Christmas movies has allowed room for some features that actually feel properly good. Not just "Christmas movie" good. Not just good enough for that one evening of time-wasting as you do other studd. Properly, I could happily watch that again, good.

Maybe it's just a numbers game. More movies like this being made means more opportunities for talented people to have a go at them. Or maybe it's because we're also now at a time when the people behind the camera are so well-versed in the form that it's a lot easier for them to adapt their material into something Hallmark-approved, even while sneaking in the kind of subversive humour that would once have made such a film unsuitable for the intended viewership.

This is my way of telling you that Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper! is good. Properly good. That might be down to director Jason Bourque, but it's more likely to be down to writer Russell Hainline and star Robert Buckley (who is also credited with coming up with the central story idea). Let's just say what we would say with any other film though. Everyone works together here to provide something that's a genuine delight.

Buckley plays the titular Ted Cooper, a weatherman on a local TV station. He's heading home for the holidays, much to the amusement of his colleagues. Ted has had a notoriously bad run of luck when it comes to Christmas, but he remains optimistic. Not just about Christmas. Ted is optimistic about almost everything. And he knows that he can do some good work to help his sister, Kate (Meghan Heffern), with a local charity event. He's a bit surprised to find that he might also be able to spend some quality time with Hope Miller (Kimberley Sustad) though, a doctor he had a major crush on in high school. Will misfortune continue to plague Ted, or will his positivity finally boomerang back to him?

I cannot praise Buckley highly enough for his lead performance here. Ted Cooper is just the right mix of charm, cheek, and naïveté. He's a great character to spend the runtime with, able to laugh along with others laughing at his unbelievable bad luck, but also remaining so relentlessly upbeat that most people start rooting for him to get the happiness that he deserves. Heffern is also wonderful, a typical sister who can love and be irritated by her brother in equal measure, while also ready to step in and save him from himself when things look dire. Sustad is a winning potential love interest, and she also works as an audience proxy while she continues to struggle with just how happy-go-lucky Ted is. Others worth mentioning are Brendan Penny (a smug newscaster colleague), Barbara Pollard (ex-teacher, friendly face, and head of the Sole Sisters, a female jogging group that allow Ted to join their ranks), and Reedan Elizabeth (a medical colleague who forces Hope to admit whenever she may be having some feelings).

It would seem weird to spend so much time and space going on and on about what is, in basic terms, "just another Christmas movie" to help fill the schedules, but Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper! deserves it. Bourque may be slightly restricted by the obvious rules (the pacing, the planning around ad breaks, the need to keep everything suitable for all viewers), but he's helped by a screenplay that shows just how much fun it's possible to have within such parameters. I laughed at a lot of individual lines of dialogue and moments, I LOVED scanning scenes set at a Christmas party that featured people dressed up as characters from well-known Christmas movies (including Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, and, YES, Die Hard), and the predictability of the final scenes did nothing at all to ruin my enjoyment. In fact, I would have been apoplectic with rage if I hadn't been given the ending I wanted for Ted. 

I'm going to restrain myself when it comes to the final rating, but just know that I was sorely tempted to go a bit higher (which may or may not be a symptom of finding this such a blessed relief in comparison to so many other, lesser, TV movies I've already watched this holiday season). 

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Hot Frosty (2024)

While people may have been worried about Netflix making the bold move of "poaching" Lacey Chabert, AKA Christmas movie queen, for one of their main seasonal offerings this year, rest assured that there's nothing here to cause concern. Yes, there are a few bigger names in supporting roles than you might see in some other movies like this, and someone had enough cash to ensure a few big songs made it into the soundtrack selection, but the rest is pretty standard and safe stuff featuring someone who has played perfectly in the space that she has now made her main brand.

Chabert plays Kathy Barrett, a young widow who runs a popular cafe/diner in her small town. She is given a scarf by a friend one day, a scarf that may well bring her some good luck and love, and she wraps it around the neck of a strangely ripped snowman that stands alongside some others in the centre of town. A little tinkly music and hint of magic later, Jack (Dustin Milligan) is standing in that spot. And he's wearing naught but a scarf. He is in love with Kathy, for giving him life (of course), and starts trying to convince her that he is the perfect snowman-made-human for her. Meanwhile, the local Sheriff (Craig Robinson) and his deputy (Joe Lo Truglio) are looking for someone new in town who may have damaged a window and exposed himself to a couple of residents. 

Writer Russell Hainline doesn't seem to have been in the movie business for too long, although that's just going by the credits that he has amassed since 2018 (who knows how long he has been slogging away over numerous screenplays and trying his hand in a variety of roles), but he's certainly been busy delivering no less than five Christmas (TV) movies since 2022. Judging him by this alone, he knows the formula, and he knows how to have fun with it. Hot Frosty isn't entirely successful, it's surprisingly jarring to see both Robinson and Lo Trulgio in such prominent roles here, but it works well enough when not trying to turn the central character in a low-budget Buddy The Elf. 

Chabert is effortlessly delightful in the lead role, even when having to make a tiresome Mean Girls gag to justify the now-obligatory reference to other Netflix Christmas movies. Milligan does well as the innocent/naïve Jack, and he does well to bring a fun and energy to the role that saves him from being as irritatingly bland as many of these male romantic leads often are. Elsewhere, both Robinson and Lo Truglio are fun, even if they feel mis-cast, and there are enjoyable moments for the likes of Katy Mixon Greer, Sherry Miller, Lauren Holly, and everyone else orbiting our leads.

Director Jerry Ciccoritti is maybe not known for this kind of stuff, but he's been working consistently on TV shows and TV movies for the past few decades, after starting his career with some darker material in the mid-1980s. He is the very definition of a consummate professional, and subsequently treats the material here exactly how it should be treated. It's sweet, it's earnest, things are done to satisfy viewers who don't want to be distracted by pesky things like logic or plausibility, and it aims to give people a good helping of cold snow and warm loveliness, which I guess could also be referred to as a . . . Hot Frosty.

Like many of these Christmas movies, it's not really good, not when compared to other non-holiday movies, but it's enjoyable enough while all of the snow-dusted silliness plays out.

6/10

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