Comedy Tragedy Marriage

After a medical hiatus, Maude and Stan are back with a cautionary tale about their COVID-19 experience, they also look back at what was supposed to be the topic of their last pre-Christmas episode, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” along with other things they watched over the last four weeks. It’s good to be back.

Dolly Parton plays the guardian angel to a woman looking to leave painful memories and the small town of her youth behind in the Netflix original film “Christmas on the Square.”

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been translated to the screen more than two dozen times. We watched two versions, one from 1984 starring George C. Scott and a Disney animated feature with Jim Carrey voicing Scrooge. Both stick closely to Dickens novella, but there are differences that make one much better than the other.

Maude kicks off the holiday season with a classic, 1954’s “White Christmas,” starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.

Mix a snotty teenager, a glammed out Goblin King, a stolen baby and a bunch of life size Muppets, and what do you get? “Labyrinth,” a 1986 musical fantasy starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.

Maude’s choice this week is “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” a documentary about the meteoric rise and tragically short life of the great Janis Joplin.

The Day of the Dead doesn’t seem like a good topic for a kids movie, but the wizards at Disney/Pixar find a way in their 2017 release “Coco.”

When a tragedy brings a family together, they mix as well as oil and water...or gasoline vapors and a match. We watched “August: Osage County” starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Evan McGregor and many more.

Adolescence is hard enough without also being possessed by a demon. We conclude our Halloween film fest with the 1973 classic “The Exorcist.”

Maude’s selection checks another one off the must-see list as we watched “Rosemary’s Baby.”