November 11, 2020
Dash (Austin Abrams) was an aloof young man who the enjoyed the bookstores, libraries and museums of New York City. Eight days before Christmas, he found a red hard-bound notebook among the J.D. Salinger books at The Strand. In it were written clues to follow to discover a hidden message. His interest piqued, Dash was game to enough to follow the whole game through. He would continue the challenges with the help of his best friend Boomer (Dante Brown) who worked at the pizza parlor and video rental store.
Lily (Midori Francis) was an overprotected 17-year old girl from an Asian family living in Manhattan. Rather eccentric with odd interests, she enjoyed activities with adults than her peers. That Christmas, her parents left for a second honeymoon to Fiji, leaving her with her grandfather Arthur (James Saito) and her gay brother Langston (Troy Iwata). She was that one who left the red hardbound notebook among the J.D. Salinger books at The Strand, with the help her cousin Mark (Patrick Vaill), hoping to find someone who shared her .
Dash's rich father Gordon (Michael Park) was always away on business and had a revolving door of girlfriends. The gorgeous and gregarious Sofia (Keana Marie) was once Dash's girlfriend, but they had to split up when she had to move to Brazil, on top of personality differences. Lily was very close to her godmother and her grand-aunt, the fabulously fashionable Liliane (Jodi Long), whom she code-named Mrs. Basil E. (from her favorite E. L. Konigsburg novel). In the course of the story, Lily would run into Edward Thibaud (Glenn McCuen), a boy who had bullied her back in middle school.
I just saw Austin Abram in a recent very angsty young-adult romance entitled "Chemical Hearts," and his Dash here was more or less the same type of loner guy. As for Midori Francis, it was always refreshing to see a lead character of Asian descent in an American series. Her Lily may have a quirky fashion sense, but she was nevertheless lovable with her delightful oddness and effusive optimism. Even if the series following the usual rom-com formula, the chemistry between Abram and Francis made sure we followed their relationship all the way to finale. The dramatic snag in Episode 7 might have been inevitable, but it made Episode 8 too irresistible to miss.
This cheerful holiday mini-series had all the trappings and tropes of a typical Christmas rom-com which was expanded to eight easy-to-digest episodes of just about 25 minutes each. What made this one very interesting was that we knew things Dash and Lily did not know, and we enjoyed following their long winding process of getting to know each other only from what they wrote in the notebook. Their challenges may seem silly, shallow and juvenile, however they were actually pushing each other to break out from their respective comfort zones. 8/10.
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