- "Nobody does Christmas like us."Sean Moody
A Moody Christmas is an Australian comedy that follows Dan Moody as he returns home from England each year to spend Christmas with his dysfunctional family. The series was written and created by Trent O'Donnell and Phil Lloyd, and directed by Trent O'Donnell. It stars Ian Meadows, Patrick Brammall, Jane Harber, Danny Adcock, Tina Bursill, Rachel Gordon, Phil Lloyd, Robina Beard, Darren Gilshenan and Guy Edmonds.
The series was popular enough that a sequel has been made called The Moodys.
Adapted in the U.S. as The Moodys' Christmas by Fox in 2019, a three-episode miniseries that covers one holiday season.
A Moody Christmas contains examples of:
- The Big Damn Kiss: The series ends with Dan and Cora kissing passionately, after several false starts.
- Bookends: The first scene features Dan getting dumped at the airport. The final scene is Cora getting with Dan at the airport.
- Christmas Episode: An entire series made of these.
- Christmas in July: Being set in Australia means that December 25th is in the middle of beach season, hence the frustration over the incomplete swimming pool. Lampshaded in one episode when Dan brings an English girlfriend home and she complains about how hot it is.
- Crappy Holidays: Anything that can go wrong on Christmas Day inevitably does.
- Dysfunctional Family: The Moodys.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Sean and Bridget. Dan usually takes on the responsible role when engaging in antics with Sean.
- Freudian Trio: A few examples.
- Amongst the older generation of males, violent criminal Uncle Rhys is the Id, his brother in law Kev is the Super Ego and Kev's hopeless romantic but otherwise functional brother Terry is the Ego.
- Of the Moody siblings, Sean is the Id, Bridget is the Super Ego and Straight Man Dan is the Ego between them.
- Funny Foreigner:
- Uncle Terry's girlfriends Dashenka, Irena and Oksana
- Dan's third girlfriend Patience, who is a total airhead.
- Bridget's adoptive son Max, who is a Deadpan Snarker.
- Mistaken for Gay: According to the grandmother, they used to think Dan was gay.
- Mistaken for Racist: In the first episode an unfortunate comment about boat peoplenote leads many to believe that Dan is racist.
- Only Sane Man: Dan Moody is this to the rest of his family. His reactions to some of the things they do are priceless.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: In the first episode Dan mistakes Cora for a door-knocking Red Cross volunteer because of her shirt, and donates some money. It turns out she is his cousin's new girlfriend, isn't a volunteer, and designed and hand-made the shirt herself.
- Percussive Maintenance: In one episode when Dan's brother Sean is fixing an aircon at a customer's house, a kid at the house tries to get a playstation control to work by hitting it.
- Running Gag:
- Dan coming home from England and failing to have made any improvements in his life.
- Terry going from one woman to the next.
- Bridget and Roger trying to have a child.
- The backyard pool is always put off for at least another year.
- The grandmother is fussed over as she could be dead by next Christmas.
- A banner welcoming Dan's original girlfriend to the country is left up for 6 straight years despite her leaving Dan in the very first scene.
- Sensual Slav: Terry's second girlfriend is an attractive Russian nurse.
- Timeskip: As each episode covers one family Christmas, there is a jump of exactly a year between each one.
- Wacky Cravings: When Bridget is pregnant she says that she sometimes craves salt-and-vinegar chips and ice cream.
