Leave it to streaming services to create an optimum version of something broadcast networks created — the TV Christmas special.
Now practically extinct from regular TV, the sentiment, corniness and humor is neatly preserved in “A Very Murray Christmas” (Netflix, streaming) is the essence of the old variety show perennial, while poking generous fun at the form.
Letting Bill Murray run free or extend the kind of nightclub singer he’s presented since Nick Rails sang “Star Wars” when the first movie came out practically guarantees enjoyment. That he’s accompanied at every turn by the piano playing Paul Shaffer reminds us how much we miss his nightly presence on TV and what a canny music director he is. The special also allows him to indulge in the Christmas traditions he enjoyed doing so much on “Late Show with David Letterman,” including a version of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.”
The showbiz-weary Murray presented here is essentially the same character he played in the sublime “Lost in Translation.” Famous, bored, full of ennui. And like that film, this special is directed by Sophia Coppola.
“A Very Murray Christmas” culminates in a high budget production number where George Clooney and Miley Cyrus join him on an all-white sound stage with dancers and orchestra to sing some well chosen seasonal songs of cheer. But that only happens in the dream sequence at the end of the nearly-feature length special.
Most of the “Murray Christmas” occurs in an empty Carlyle Hotel, where a planned telecast from the lounge is threatened by a blizzard that’s shut down the city. Managers including Amy Poehler encourage him to go through with it. And he grabs bypassing Chris Rock to get through one song. Then he settles in the bar and sings with Jenny Lewis, David Johansen (the bartender), Maya Rudolph and the band Phoenix. Murray also consoles a couple who’ve had to cancel their wedding, Jason Schwartzman and Rashida Jones – who has a wonderful voice, no surprise.
Murray has a much more questionable voice of course, but the idea of singing along anyway is perfect for the season. Just the notion that this is all commercial free goes a long way to spread tangible warmth and cheer.
Look, any special that includes “Fairytale of New York” can do no wrong in my book.
This is the best special, for my sensibility, since the ones from Colbert and Pee-Wee Herman. A keeper that should become an annual tradition.
And even one you might want to watch in the summer.
Stuck without the streaming service? Murray’s 1988 “Scrooged” (AMC, 9 p.m.) will have to do.