Joanna Wilson

This is a dangerous book, which has already caused me to add some old tv series and movies to my Netflix and instant-watching queues and, even though it's not yet the season, to watch Christmas episodes of Family Ties and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. There's a lot listed here that I'll never watch (either because it's unavailable to someone who doesn't have a million cable channels, or because I'm not interested) but there's plenty of information for anyone who's at all interested in Christmas film and video.… (mehr)

Fun and informative, Joanna Wilson's The Christmas TV Companion, is a brief, breezy survey of the holiday television favorites that often have become an integral part of our general holiday experience.

In Wilson's book, she does an excellent job of sub-dividing the various kinds of holiday programming (i.e. Animated, Holiday Specials, Horror, Sci-Fi, etc.) into groups, where if one desired, you could pursue any particular holiday film or TV sub-genre interest, using the book as a guide.

Wilson's conversational, light-hearted style, makes for an easy read. However, the book seems heavily-slanted towards the modern era. In reading the book, I found that Wilson may have been better served doing even more research about holiday television and movies that were not broadcast in the past 15 years.

The brevity of the book makes it enjoyable, but also provides some limitations, too. In many cases, an entire book could have been devoted to subjects like holiday specials or holiday television episodes, yet Wilson's book provides just a quick scan overview.

The Christmas TV Companion is also light on commentary and criticism, which for the discerning cult television afficionado, may be disappointing.

Wilson provides a number of fun suggestions by which one might choose to view these films, yet provides little or no context or comparative evaluation by which to forge a starting point.

That being said, taken on face value, this is an enjoyable read which could provide even the scroogiest of film and TV fans with plenty of fodder to pursue for holiday viewing. Especially, if they are stodgy enough to have grown tired of the traditional holiday favorites many of us know and love.… (mehr)