Mariah has been really pushing the Christmas thing in the last few years and she really bashes it out of the park with this Christmas special. Basically, it's a series of music clips strung together with a plot skimpier than her costumes (but considerably less tight). Fans will love it. She is carefully arranged and lit in each scene and can still belt out a tune with a bit of electronic assistance.

Still, I can't help but feel they could have really gone all out with a different perspective and made a her a lonely, demanding and obnoxious diva who is mean to one and all and wants Christmas to be cancelled until she discovers and the importance of Christmas and family - sort of like The *itch Who Stole Christmas, if you get what I mean.

Hey, I should copyright that!

Only a Scrooge would say something bad about "Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special," the Queen of Christmas' new Apple TV+ celebration of the season she holds most dear. The 44-minute musical ode to the magic of Christmas gives the holliest, jolliest diva of all a chance to parade around in a series of low-cut, cleavage-baring dresses while singing Christmas carols as wind machines blow her hair just so and her glittery eye shadow sparkles underneath the North Star. You were expecting less? It's all right there in the title, dah-ling. You want a Mariah Christmas, here's a Mariah Christmas, delivered to your streaming device as if dropped off by Santa himself. The elephant in the room is hinted at but never addressed by name. Narrator Tiffany Haddish makes an early reference to "the rough year" the people of Earth have endured, and the very loose plot, as it were, revolves around Mariah doing her best to ensure that Christmas continues even during the global bummer. A handful of famous friends drop by: Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande join Mariah to sing runs on a new version of "Oh Santa," Snoop Dogg and Jermaine Dupri aid her on a version of "Here Comes Santa Claus" and even the Peanuts gang makes an animated cameo where they sing "All I Want for Christmas is You." "Mariah Carey, you are a very difficult woman to keep track of," Eichner frets, after Mariah wanders off into a snow-covered meadow to sing a solo rendition of "Christmas Time is in the Air Again," which is the most on-brand thing she could do. "It's called elusive, dah-ling," Mariah snaps back, self-referential and in her element. Even in a pandemic, nothing's going to kill her Christmas spirit, or the essence of what makes her Mariah Carey. Now on APPLE TV+.

Basically 40 minutes of bad acting until Mariah sings all I want for Christmas.