The Love Boat (TV Series) The Christmas Presence (1982) User Reviews

Weird episode

[aramis-112-804880 · 4 April 2023]

Disclaimer: I'm a Christian and I believe in angels and miracles. But this one left me scratching my head (metaphorically speakung).

Review: The Love Boat sets sail on a Christmas cruise, with its usual minor or former celebrities replete with problems.

Donny Osmond and Maureen mcCormick are an impossibly beautiful couple en route to divorce.

Keenan Wynn and Henry Gibson are crooks planning to use a bevy of nuns unknowingly to smuggle stolen gold.

Gopher forgot to get Christmas decorations for the massive tree.

Then there's the irrepressible Mickey Rooney playing a mysterious character with the unlikely name Angelorum.

I suppose they take their text from Hebrews 13:2 (spoiler).

Whatever, it's a curious mix that doesn't make much sense. But it's wonderful to see a TV show, especially a popular one, whose Christmas music bravely consists if more than a limp "Jingle Bells," a ditty I can't stand. If any trappings of faith make you livid and want to reach for your firearms, avoid this one.

The Pacific Princess Steers Straight for a Theological Whirpool!

[WalterKafka · 7 April 2024]

'Smile at the nuns, Henry.' Donny Osmond has a beard! What a Christmas gift for all of us! Dark Donny! It's a surly version of Donny, who's always complaining about his wife. 'Don't ever marry a woman with a career,' he says. His wife is Marcia Brady. Keenan Wynn is the head of a novelty company, Henry Gibson his put-upon assistant. They've got a secret. We've got orphans for Christmas. Why is it always orphans? Oh. Mickey Rooney is God. Or something. I'm going to a have a lot of theological questions. He's doing his magical mischief all over the place. What a meddling elf! Isaac calls his mom. I wonder which his version of his mother he's calling. I hope that orphan isn't sick. A sick orphan could really ruin the Christmas mood. This one's unusual in that there's a good 12 minutes of episode after the cruise ends. (But they still disembark at the end of the episode, after they've checked into customs. It makes no sense. Also Marcia and Donny just take their new orphan child, with no legal process whatsoever.) You know, if Julie McCoy goes into a church, I think she'll burst into flames. She's had thousands of lovers. On Kafka's Love Boat Scale, this episode gets 2 1/2 * out of a possible 4 *. See you in 1983.