A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas: The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show (2019)

The holiday season is the last bastion for a type of programming that used to be incredibly common--the variety show.  Every holiday season, there are usually several specials hosted by a famous singer--generally promoting a brand new Christmas album--featuring cameos by some of his or her famous friends.  A lot of songs will be performed, a few comedy skits will play out, and maybe they'll be an overarching storyline connecting the fun.

Of course, these specials are generally the providence of network television.  NBC, in particular, seems to be the most invested in these types of shows.  But it's 2019, and its been decades now since the Big Three had a monopoly on what we can watch.  So, while the networks still have their new product (one of which I'll be reviewing in a couple of days), arguably the biggest variety debut of this year is a production of Amazon Prime.

The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show is a deliberate throwback to the specials of the 60s and 70s.  Musgraves, who has won six Grammys and six CMA awards so far, plays host on what appears to be an elaborate, two story set, designed to look like a mansion, with numerous color-coded, interconnected rooms.  If this doesn't at least get nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special, then I don't know what to tell you.

Luckily, this is more than just set design.  Like the specials of old, Musgraves welcomes a series of guests to her "home", supposedly on Christmas Eve, each one to sing a duet or do a comedy bit, with the help of her backup band, which is just conveniently hanging around.  The guest list is pretty impressive.  James Cordon drops by to duet on "Let It Snow".  Fred Armisen tries to sing "Silent Night".  Leon Bridges and Musgrave dance in a most unusual place (admittedly, the dance's thunder was stolen by Billie Eilish's Saturday Night Live performance, but its still impressive).  Kendall Jenner shows up to do yet another parody of the card scene from Love, Actually.  Also showing up are Zooey Deschanel, Lana Del Ray, Troye Silvan, and the Radio City Rockettes.  Clearly, Amazon didn't spare much expense.

This is all tied together by a faint storyline, involving Musgraves trying to prepare for Christmas, peppered with fourth-wall-breaking narration by Dan Levy, who is considerably more cynical than narrators of holiday variety specials usually are (and he does get called on it by Musgraves).  To reinforce the retro feel, during the times where the special would usually be breaking for commercial, there are instead scenes of people watching on old console TVs or a shot of the extremely retro control room.

I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed The Kasey Musgraves Christmas Show.  It was clever and funny, and Musgraves, who I will admit to not having been all that familiar with before, has a lovely voice.  I was actually sorry that it did wrap up after only 45 minutes.  If she wants to do another one of these specials next year, I'll happily watch again.

Next time: Simply because the trilogy is over doesn't mean the specials are.