Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Michael Buble’s Christmas In The City’ on Hulu, Where The Singer Does Seasonal Favorites From SNL’s Stage

Nothing says Christmas like synergy. With his announcement this week of a six-show run in Las Vegas during April and May of next year, Michael Buble takes the stage in New York for Christmas in the City (Hulu), a lighthearted Christmas season TV special with jazzy versions of the classics you’d expect from the Canadian crooner, as well as a few special guests and a dollop of hammy jokes.

MICHAEL BUBLE’S CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: 30 Rockefeller Plaza, its Christmas tree glittering red. Inside, NBC pages open the doors to Studio 8H. It’s the longtime home of Saturday Night Live, but tonight, there’s a different engagement. Michael Buble and his band are tucked onto the stage, performing a bluesy rendition of the Elvis Presley standard “Blue Christmas.”
The Gist: Michael Buble is no stranger to Christmas. His 2011 holiday album, fittingly titled Christmas, has moved six million units to date, and the singer is your host for Christmas in the City, a ‘tis-the-season TV special with sponsorship from — it writes itself — Bubly Sparkling Water. “I want tonight to be about togetherness,” he says at the top; “that said, if I hear one person cough, you are outta here,” and with that light note he rings up the holiday chestnut “Holly Jolly Christmas,” which segues easily into “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” where Buble is joined by his first special guest, Hannah Waddingham of Ted Lasso fame.

With its familiar staging, camera angles, and lighting, Christmas in the City often feels like a mirror on SNL, and that sense is made complete when Jimmy Fallon shows up for a goofy, impersonation-fueled run through “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The fun continues with an appearance by “The frog, the myth, the legend” Kermit the Frog, and Michael and Muppet do some deadpan bantering before launching into “Jingle Bells.” (Will your Christmas be made complete by hearing a formal wear-clad Kermit launch into some jazzy scatting? Perhaps.) And with that, Leon Bridges makes the scene, with the immaculately-jacketed soul singer joining Buble on a duet version of “The Christmas Song” tinged with gentle strings and plinking piano. A big band/vocal group rendition of “White Christmas” is next, followed by an in-joke Buble-drinking-Bubly moment, and a comedy segment where the singer speaks with cute kids about Christmas. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and “Silent Night,” the latter filled out with a boy’s choir, close out the evening.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? NBC and Buble go back. In 2012, the singer hosted Michael Buble: Home for the Holidays, which also featured a Muppet — that time around, it was Elmo — as well as Blake Shelton, Carly Rae Jepson, and Rod Stewart.

Our Take: If Michael Buble isn’t planning a lateral move into variety show hosting a la Lawrence Welk, then he’s missing his calling. He’s an affable, engaging presence on Christmas in the City, as comfortable with light touches of bantering humor as he is with the classics from the holiday songbook that he performs here, many of them following the format laid out on his gazillion-selling 2011 album Christmas. Aside from the “Rudolph” bit with Fallon, which feels wholly imported from SNL or the late night host’s own program, Buble holds his own alongside variety show titan Kermit the Frog, and he and Leon Bridges mesh well on their “Christmas Song” duet. There might have been more interaction with his guests — Hannah Waddingham, after her big entrance, just disappears, and Camila Cabello performs separate and apart from Buble entirely — but Christmas in the City feels a little truncated, squeezed and shouldered into its hour-long runtime. A guy like Buble could of course go on forever singing holiday favorites and lightly toasting the gathered audience; maybe, for Christmas 2022, NBC/Hulu gives him a three-hour time slot.

Sex and Skin: What? Come on. Coal in your stocking.

Parting Shot: Michael Buble lays in the “Sleep in heavenly peace” line alongside his angelic boy choir accompanists, and Christmas in the City hits us with its executive producer title, which of course is Lorne Michaels.

Sleeper Star: Camila Cabello has a terrific take on “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” accompanied by a traditional mariachi band complete with brass, strings, and even a harp.

Most Pilot-y Line: “This is a little ditty I wrote back in 1951,” Buble tells the chuckling Studio 8H audience. “It was a big hit for me then…” — pausing for more laughs — “…and I think it holds up really well to this day.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Or, at least record it, and stream it as part of your holiday season background material. Christmas in the City is a perfectly satisfactory visual companion to Michael Buble’s existing Christmas album, with the added flavor of special guests, both human and muppet.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Watch Michael Buble's Christmas In The City on NBC