St. Nick drives a Chevy in “Bad Santa.” And Tyler Perry’s Christmas movie airs on BET.
What’s on TV
BAD SANTA (2003) 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Comedy Central. In his review for The New York Times, Elvis Mitchell wrote that this Terry Zwigoff film about a mall Santa “takes all the Christmas season’s bad vibes and converts them into an achingly funny and corrupt dark comedy.” Billy Bob Thornton’s boozy Saint Nick drives not a sleigh but a rusted Chevy Impala. Along with his crime partner Marcus (Tony Cox), he uses his sit-down time in the Santa seat to ignore kids’ gift requests; instead, he cases the stores he works in for valuables that he can steal. The film also includes Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham and John Ritter (his final film role) in its cast. What it does not include, proudly, is any semblance of filter.
SCROOGED (1988) 6:15 p.m. on Sundance TV. This adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” stars Bill Murray as a fictional television network head — and a somewhat modernized Scrooge.
TYLER PERRY’S A MADEA CHRISTMAS (2013) 6:25 p.m. on BET. Tyler Perry plays his famous Madea in the comedian’s first Christmas film. In his review for The Times, Nicolas Rapold summed up the plot, writing that Madea “helps save a school, an interracial relationship, a bullied boy and a divided family, all while making fast friends with the white-trash royalty Larry the Cable Guy. She’d save a man from a burning wreck, but somebody else takes care of that.”
What’s Streaming
LEMONADE (2016) on iTunes and Tidal. Holiday-themed? Hardly. But those who want something that can be both watched and blasted throughout the house (and who might have new gift cards to spend) can revisit Beyoncé’s visual album, a multipart exploration of feminism, fidelity (the relationship kind) and race. After its surprise release last year, Wesley Morris wrote that the visual album is “less a dramatization than a daydream, infused with black magic, embracing — if only notionally — African tribalism, science fiction, menstruation and witchcraft.”
A CHRISTMAS PRINCE (2017) on Netflix. For light romantic comedy, try this new Netflix film about a young journalist who goes to cover the transfer of power in a fictitious nation and ends up finding something like romance.
TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB! CHRIMBUS SPECIAL on Adult Swim. In an article about the influential comedy duo of Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker, Mr. Wareheim told The Times this year that he and his comedic partner “feel like we’re the dads of the outsiders.” With appearances by Zach Galifianakis, Bob Odenkirk and John C. Reilly, this Christmas special from 2010 showcases the duo’s signature brand of humor, where carefully timed editing and intentionally awkward performances contribute to a public access vibe. In their comedy, Jason Zinoman wrote in The Times article, the pair “venerate the possibilities of terrible acting or the kinds of mistakes that reveal an honest moment in the middle of the artifice of show business.”
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