Tempête de Noël

If you liked "Home for Christmas" you will also like this Series. Its a heart warming look into the life of different people all sharing the same faith, as a storm causes them to be stuck at the airport.

It is not your typical christmas movie, which for chronic christmas movie watchers is a plus in it's own right.

There is not a main big-romance kind of plot going on, but of course you'll find your fair share of it.

What makes it really shine are it's many perspectives and the nuanced view on Christmas that comes with them.

If you saw "Home for Christmas", there are many actors you will meet again which is at first a bit confusing but you eventually get used to their new characters.

Exactly what you want from a Christmas show. Heartwarming, lots of life lessons and personal growth, love stories (romantic, friendship, family and even a dog) and a ton of emotions. The stories of the characters intertwine and the suspense each developing story line keeps you interested but not in a heavy way so it's easy watching. A few story lines are fairly predictable which for a generic show it might be a downside, for a Christmas show though it works perfectly. Other story lines are a little deeper and make for interesting characters. Perfect show to binge with a massive pile of snacks.

A Santa Claus, a priest, and a concert pianist walk into a bar... Sorry, couldn't resist. There IS a bar. And a guy working as a Santa Claus. And an actual priest. And a very indignant concert pianist, whose career is in free fall. There's also a pop star with her assistant and a body guard. A constantly fighting couple with a pre-teen daughter. A young woman meeting her lover. A very nasty female attorney. A girl sitting at the bar, working on a list of things her Dad might want for Christmas. Yeah, it's almost Christmas and all these people and many more are stuck in the Oslo airport due to bad weather.

Yes, it's a very overused setup. But we were browsing through Netflix on Christmas eve and literally all other Christmas movies looked downright ridiculous. At least being stuck at an airport because of bad weather is perfectly realistic. Airports do bring together people from all walks of life. And bad weather is a great equalizer - no amount of money will get you to your destination.

Over 6 30 minute episodes we get to know each of the many characters a bit and some of them get to know each other. Acting is excellent across the board. Everyone is a living breathing human being. This being a European series, there is a lot of sadness, but also a good amount of light. A skinny black Santa Claus manages to grant at least one child her Christmas wish, sort of. And one sugary miracle is forgiven.

At first I was really confused because there are a lot of very different characters, but after a couple of episodes you get a pretty good grasp of who they are. All the actors are doing a good job portraying their character, and makes the story decently believable.

It was a wonderful idea to have different nationalities a part of this show, I feel most of the time it works what seems effortlessly.

The soundtrack and mood is great in every episode, and you feel you get closer and closer to a happy ending for all.

There are some very weird dialogues here and there, and things I can't imagine anyone would say... One character swaps very cringey between languages for apparently no reason, and others just have truly odd lines. I also feel there is a character who got totally forgotten about which left me wondering why we didn't get to see their happy ending... But all in all, decent christmas show and worth a watch.

Of the thousands of Christmas movies I've seen since my first... Concrete-dam... I've never had this much difficulty writing a review. There are so many amazing elements. Instead of a proper critique, I'm just going to list why my parents and I absolutely LOVED it: an eclectic, hugely relatable, cast of characters, the myriad of emotions they and we expressed/felt throughout, chances are -at least- one character represents YOU, A story -and lines- written so well I'm 110% sure as least one member of the production crew has personal experience, way more true-to-life than any Hallmark movie, and to top it all off... "I CAN'T believe we MISSED that!" Want to know what "that" is? You know what to do.