When it comes to Thanksgiving, it’s one of the Holidays that I put on my B-list – a sort of inconveniently-placed day that falls in-between the two greatest Holidays of the year – Halloween and Christmas. It’s become easier for us in recent years, but Thanksgiving has traditionally been the gateway into the massive headaches of the “when do we have to be where?” season, where getting together with family turns into arguments about why you can’t physically be in several locations at once, and why work schedules largely dictate the can and cannots. But, there is still plenty of good to be had, ushering in the day with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and settling in for some prime viewing on Netflix. While I’m generally more inclined to skip right into the Christmas specials (our tree has been up for over a week already), here’s some fun (and off-the-wall) turkey-tinged treats to check out this week!
FREE BIRDS is perhaps the first truly perennial favorite outside of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I took Addie to see this in the movie theater last year, and this tale of a pardoned bird and his time-traveling adventures is now a permanent fixture for the Thanksgiving season. Do they get turkey off the menu in favor of pizza from Chuck E. Cheese’s? Perhaps, but the fun is finding out.
THE MUNSTERS – “Low-Cal Munster” is one of the more under-the-radar choices, a classic episode of the 1960s series that finds Herman Munster making an attempt to lose weight (odd, as you don’t really think of Frankenstein’s Monster having a working metabolism), and it all comes to a head on Thanksgiving Day. What ends up happening? Herman busts in on the neighbors and gobbles up their Thanksgiving feast!
THE AQUABATS! SUPER SHOW! doesn’t really have a “Thanksgiving” episode, but a day off is a prime time to binge watch the exciting adventures of the Bats’ first season with the entire family. The Emmy-winning series that was unceremoniously dropped by the recently-collapsed Hub Network has it’s five-episode second season and last year’s trio of Holiday “specials” that need to be reissued (I really want to see the Christmas-themed Krampus episode again), but if my information is correct, Season One is only locked into Netflix until December 15, so watch it while you can. Could THE AQUABATS! SUPER SHOW! be added to the Netflix Originals lineup for future adventures? I’d love to see some new episodes, would you?
Bonus Fun: THAT ’70s SHOW – “Thanksgiving” and AMAZING STORIES – “Thanksgiving”
After-Hours Thanksgiving Fun for Grownups:
FAMILY GUY – “Thanksgiving” is extra dirty in it’s Netflix version, with unedited language and more not-safe-for-kids than usual. Here we find a massive feast at the Griffin’s house, where a who’s who of Quahog’s most notable are interrupted by the possibly-AWOL son of Joe Swanson. Meanwhile, AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE – “The Dressing” finds a robotic turkey (perhaps 1 of 5000 ever made) paying a visit to Frylock and the gang, and then there’s ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK – “F**ksgiving” that isn’t exactly an uplifting tale, but a necessary one for the hit Netflix Original Series.
