'Turkey Drop': Freeform's Thanksgiving special could have been a fun romantic comedy if it wasn't for the poor execution
When it comes to holiday movies, Christmas always gets more attention than Thanksgiving. And in a season when every network is striving hard to spread the Christmas mood through movie marathons, Freeform pushed its luck with its original Thanksgiving special 'Turkey Drop'.
Named after the popular teenage adage, 'Turkey Drop' deals with breaking up with a high school sweetheart over the Thanksgiving holidays.
When 19-year old Lucy comes to her small-town home for her fall break, she is afraid she will be dumped by her high school boyfriend Jordan, who happens to stick around in the town.
Lucy will do anything to stop Jordan from breaking up with her, from learning to cook, running a marathon, and even learning to dance.
But things get more complicated when she finds too many changes around her family and parents, the presence of her brother's best friend in the house, and things going in the opposite direction from what she expected.
Typically, there are high points and low points in a movie. But when you have a story with mostly low points, then there isn't much to do other than digging out the best of the worst. Such is 'Turkey Drop' for you.
The Thanksgiving seems perfect with the warm, fall colors, holiday food, and lots of seasonal accents, without any Christmassy feel. But it alone cannot be a real high point either.
Despite being visually delightful, it couldn't keep us hooked. Halfway into the movie, we lost touch with the characters. The predictability of every character, combined with overacting, almost backfired into making us like the movie.
We see serious attempts to make Lucy likeable. While she is smart and funny, her character appears sometimes way too edgy. Now, Olivia Holt is a good actor, and we have seen her doing some really good work.
Perhaps romantic comedy is really not in her league. And truth be told, though she had her shortcomings, she remains the only focus of viewers, and we can easily overlook the other characters.
In the end, 'Turkey Drop's attempt to become a special fails miserably and remains one of the many, easily forgettable comedies, which you can skip this holiday season.