Okay, Netflix: I Have So Many Questions About ‘Merry Happy Whatever’
If marathoning the movies in Netflix’s holiday selection isn’t enough, then you may want to consider diving into the streaming platform’s holiday miniseries called Merry Happy Whatever. The eight-episode show stars Dennis Quaid, Ashley Tisdale, and Bridgit Mendler (aka Teddy from Disney’s Good Luck Charlie). And while the show doesn’t seem any different than your typical Christmas family comedy at first, stick to it and you’ll find that it’s a sitcom with a lot to say.
It all begins with Los Angeles–based couple Emmy (Bridgit Mendler) and her musician boyfriend, Matt (Brent Morin), flying to Philadelphia for the holidays. This is Matt’s first time meeting Emmy’s family, including her strict, traditionalist police officer dad, Don Quinn (Dennis Quaid). From the get-go, it’s clear Don doesn’t like Matt. And although the family patriarch admires the newcomer’s courage to ask for his blessing for his daughter’s hand in marriage, he says no.
The challenge for Matt then becomes to gain Don’s approval so he can propose to Emmy on Christmas Day. Luckily, he has the help of the “Outlaws”/“Quinnlaws”: Joy (Elizabeth Ho), who is married to Sean (Hayes MacArthur), and Todd (Adam Rose), who is married to Patsy (Siobhan Murphy). The two help him navigate the “G-rated cult” that is the Quinn family and survive the holidays.
With these types of plotlines, it’s easy to guess that after a silly game of cat and mouse between the father and son-in-law-to-be, they eventually make up and become one big happy family. But Merry Happy Whatever goes beyond a shallow, just-for-laughs comedic approach. Although it doesn’t exactly fill the gaping hole that One Day at a Time has left in the streaming service, the series has that similar feel of teaching modern-day values by breaking down long-standing, problematic, sexist, “traditional” thinking.
A post shared by Ashley Tisdale (@ashleytisdale) on Nov 23, 2019 at 7:45am PST
Although Dennis’s character starts off as a total hard-ass who loves to control his children and firmly believes in his saying, “There’s the Quinn way and the wrong way,” he eventually shows his vulnerabilities and becomes open to change. The key to his change of heart is ER nurse Nancy (Garcelle Beauvais), who makes him weak in the knees and question his ways of thinking and for whom he is willing to break old family traditions.
By the end, Don becomes more open-minded. He declares that he’s willing to make new traditions, he’s done meddling in his children’s lives, and he accepts them all for who they are and who they want to be—including Ashley’s character, Kayla, who reveals she’s gay.
But beyond the major conflict with Don regarding tradition, the show also addresses other themes in the conflicts between the married couples. Of course, there’s Kayla, who separates from her spouse, Alan (Tyler Ritter), after having realizations about her sexuality and identity. There’s Patsy and Todd, who argue about religion and whether they’re going to raise their child Jewish or Catholic but decide on a compromise. There’s Sean and Joy, who encounter problems when Sean gets laid off from his job but eventually resolve the issue with a nontraditional solution. And then there’s Matt and Emmy, who argue about their financial situation and definition of success but won’t let these problems get in the way of their love.
The most epic thing is the ending, which had a lot riding on it. Emmy gets a job offer in London just before Matt decides to propose. I held my breath as Emmy tells Matt the news after she said “Yes!” And thankfully, the reversal of problematic thought prevailed as Matt was willing to make the move in order to advance his fiancée’s career.
Merry Happy Whatever is a short series, so it isn’t that hard to watch in one sitting—I should know, because that’s exactly what I did. Maybe you can have it play in the background during your family holiday gatherings. But it’s something you may want to consider sitting down and actually watching with your family this Christmas, especially if you have more close-minded relatives. Who knows, they may become more open and accepting like Don Quinn? Anything is possible with the magic of the holidays and Dennis Quaid.
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