Adam falls in love with Die Hard, which he thinks is the best Christmas movie. He's disappointed however, that broadcast TV has changed one of its most memorable lines to make it TV-friendly. Now that he's engaged to Lainey, Barry will be celebrating Christmas. Beverly isn't ready for that. Once he gets to Lainey, he discovers that Lainey and Bill don't celebrate Christmas at all. Uncle Marvin shows up and tells Adam that he's gonna be a huge TV star with a show on Fox. Beverly is trying to make Hanukkah more appealing to Barry to keep him from celebrating Christmas with Lainey and Bill. Despite there being no Christmas at the Lewis house, Barry uses this to his advantage to make Beverly give him an amazing Hanukkah. Adam is pitching Marvin ideas for a new Die Hard movie, and they settle on one set in a treehouse. Murray lets them do it surprisingly, and Pops tells him to stop it.
Murray tells Marvin to shut down their Die Hard movie, but he just bails without telling Adam. Barry brings Bill over for each night of Hanukkah, which gets better as time goes on. Beverly starts to be burned out on Hanukkah though, and Day 8 goes horribly, with all of the elaborate decor of the prior days gone. Beverly tells Bill to just take Barry for Christmas, and he tells her that they never actually celebrate Christmas. Now, everyone feels betrayed.
Barry comes up with a plan to save Christmas for Bill and Lainey, but it's terrible and Beverly and Erica have to come up with a plan. Beverly decides to steal Christmas for the Kremps, who are away, to make a Christmas for Bill and Lainey. At the movie theater, Barry and Murray see a trailer for the movie Adam and Marvin made together, meaning Marvin finally came through on one of his promises. Beverly and Barry are able to save Christmas and give Lainey and Bill their first good Christmas memories in ages.
Wrap-Up:
This was a really enjoyable episode, even if I didn't enjoy it as much as last year's holiday episode. Adam's storyline started out pretty slow, and I wasn't really interested in it at first, but the ending was so sweet and redeemed the entire plot for me. Seeing Uncle Marvin come through and actually do something positive for Adam was great, and it was even better to see Murray actually proud of him for a change. Barry's plot was definitely the more enjoyable one overall, and it was hilarious to see Beverly way overdo it with her Hanukkah celebrations before just giving up. The plot did seem to end rather abruptly though, and I wish we would have had more time to see the resolution (maybe even a scene of Beverly going into the Kremp home and getting ready to "save Christmas?") All in all though, it was a lot of fun and it was definitely different from the other holiday specials that the show has done so far.
As a side note, I really appreciated the playing of Christmas Wrapping, one of my favorite Christmas songs ever, in the episode.
I'm super excited for the midseason premiere, as we finally get to see the big wedding. Plus, the new spinoff Schooled will be making its big debut, and I'll be here to review that, as well. It's gonna be a big 2019 for the Goldbergs!
Score: 8/10
Grade: B
