The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (TV)
By this point, we should have already had our third feature film with the “Guardians of the Galaxy” from James Gunn. Unfortunately, right-wing trolls and a pandemic put that on hold, but as we wait for the final film in Gunn’s trilogy, he decided to gift us with a holiday narrative that shows us more about Quill, and what he’s inspired in the rest of the guardians. It’s an entertaining story that gives two of the weirdest guardians a chance at the spotlight; in a way, I almost wish it was as chaotically loopy as the “Star Wars Holiday Special”- unfortunately, Gunn is too controlled in his chaos to allow that to happen.
We begin with a story of the first Christmas Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) had with Yondu (Michael Rooker) as told by Kraglin (Sean Gunn), and visualized in lovely rotoscope animation. He’s telling the story to Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and it’s a sad one, so Drax and Mantis decide to take it upon themselves to make Quill’s holiday a little brighter thanks to a misguided attempt to play Santa themselves.
The dynamic between Drax and Mantis is one of the unique pleasures we’ve seen play out since “Vol 2.,” but having them at the center of the action can only go so far in this 41-minute story. It’s certainly well-written, and honestly, having these two be the ones to try and bring Kevin Bacon (in a delightful cameo, even if he screwed up the story of his character’s death in “Friday the 13th”) to Nowhere is a riot, because only they would be fascinated by the holiday decorations. That said, we don’t get enough of Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel), although Nebula (Karen Gillan)’s few moments are well-observed for her, and this almost feels like a half-hearted adventure to fill the void between guardians film appearances from Gunn. Truthfully, though? Gunn wins us over by the end with his sweet writing and the revelation- that actually makes a certain degree of sense- that will probably play a part in “Vol. 3.” I cannot wait to see these characters again, and what Gunn is able to do truly unleashed.
