Christmastime at Night Court. Abby recruits Dan to find a child's Santa letter. Gurgs gives Dan an unexpected gift. A witness believing she's the Ghost of Christmas Present haunts Olivia.Christmastime at Night Court. Abby recruits Dan to find a child's Santa letter. Gurgs gives Dan an unexpected gift. A witness believing she's the Ghost of Christmas Present haunts Olivia.Christmastime at Night Court. Abby recruits Dan to find a child's Santa letter. Gurgs gives Dan an unexpected gift. A witness believing she's the Ghost of Christmas Present haunts Olivia.
- Jerky Santa
- (as Payam Banifaz)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaChronologically, this episode is out of order. The story does not pick up where the Season 1 finale ended, with Dan Fielding as a judge in Louisiana with Roz as the person whose case he is to judge. Instead, he is back in New York working as a lawyer. Also, Neil (Kapil Talwalkar) has been replaced by Flobert (Gary Anthony Williams) for no explained reason. A reason will be given in the next episode, which was actually meant to be the first episode of Season 2.
- GoofsAbby has a group of carolers jailed because "you can't be naked in the park". Actually, NYS law allows public nudity in connection with art performances (a concert would qualify).
- Quotes
Dan Fielding: Tonight, a lot of people's Christmases are gonna be ruined because of you. And I think that's fun. But to put it in more festive terms, 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the court, there were sex workers and muggers, of every odd sort. There were pub-crawling Santas and pickpockets and drifters, and a pretty tough Knife-fight between two angry re-gifters. The festive old Judge, who just loved the season, was crushed all night long by hard facts and cold reason. She wanted to be Rudolph, or maybe a cartoon St. Bernard, but because it's her job, she had to Grinch it real hard. Despite a perfect defense, off to prison they'll head. Merry Chris-wanker-whatever and all that sugary crap, she said.
- ConnectionsReferences Home Alone (1990)
Kapil Talwalkar as Niel the clerk is out and while no explanation was given, it is probably for the best as his character was all kinds of awkward and creepy in Season 1. He's replaced by Gary Anthony Williams who is a fine comedic actor in his own right and I hope he stays with the show going forward. He was fantastic as Flobert.
However, the biggest change is that they finally found the formula "secret sauce" that made the first series work so well. The writing on this episode was better than anything they did in the first season and I'm proud to say, the Dan Fielding we all knew and loved from the original run is mostly back.
The rest of the cast are much better in their roles as they seem to understand and execute them better now than they did in Season 1. While John Larroquette still outshines everybody; he doesn't carry the whole episode, his costars (Melissa Rauch especially) hold their own and you get the kind of legit laughs that remind you of the original run of the show.
The only drawback is that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar seemed to be reading directly from the cue cards even though he was playing himself. One of his jokes deserved a much better laugh track than it was given too. But it was still a very enjoyable cameo.
Hope this portends good things for this going forward.