The wife and I were greeted with the big splash landing page for Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special and thought to ourselves, "What in the ever-loving-hell-of-Netflix-original-programming?!?!?!?!" I would've passed on this without a second thought. Especially after the disastrous Bill Murray Christmas Special. However, seeing the minds behind Comedy Bang Bang & Lonely Island attached to this piqued my curiosity. That and the Boltron (aka, Michael Bolton) popped up–with some surprising comedic chops–on Honest Trailer's Willy Wonka episode recently released on YouTube.
So we let 'er rip... {spoilers ahead} It starts of with a music number about Valentine's Day being 10 months away and that "that's what Valentine's Day means to me." That opening, in and of itself, made me start putting on cringy-change-it-pants. Then Santa shows up with the news that his Elves have made too many toys and he needs Michael's help. I was in mid eye-roll when Michael Bolton pulls out a hand-cannon and offers to take out Santa's Elves. This was the first sign of great things to come. Sufficed to say, this brilliant special quickly had me pissing in cringy-change-it-pants.
The best thing about it is the pacing. The writing constantly veers Bolton towards cliché sappy TV special territory, only to be railroaded by the surreal and outlandish. Each little bi lasting just long enough to set up the premise and get the laughs rolling before jumping onto the next. The "Punks have arrived in the studio" bit is a great example of this. Bolton starts in on a head scratching rendition of "Old Time Rock-n-Roll" to prove he's cool to a group of punk rockers, complete with a 50's diner set and Tom Cruise in Risky Business backup dancers. You barely have time to process the weird little things going on (like him pointing to floating framed guitars during guitar solos, not drinking the milkshake, playing air piano above the keyboard, a guy in a weird black foam suit playing saxophone) before it cuts to a behind-the-scenes dress rehearsal clip. The insane choreographer Carl Flossy (played by Michael Sheen) walks a confused Bolton through the inexplicable routine we just witnessed, delving deeper into madness until cutting back to the routine in progress. Bloody brilliant! My favorite skit has to be Maya Rudolph's musical meta masterpiece "Key Change." Once I understood the joke that was unfolding, I absolutely lost it. We watched this one 3 times.
If you have any love for ludicrous sketch comedy, you'll love this!
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