My feelings for Dash and Lily the show are not unlike what I feel about the two books. A really good, fun beginning but man I wish there was a reindeer that could have run them both over somewhere between 5 and 6 and leave me with happy memories.
*All holiday films, books and shows will be judged on a Grinch Scale which is basically how much my heart grew, or didn’t, for the event in question. And since I wanted a reindeer to run them over we can all see where this is going.
So Dash and Lily starts with Dash finding a red book of dares in The Strand. Turns out Lily left it there at her brother’s urging to get out and do something instead of moan about how much life sucks because Christmas isn’t going her way this year and she may have to move to Fiji.
This begins a journal relationship back and forth as the two dare each other to do certain things. Lily wants Dash to get into the holiday spirit and Dash wants her to be braver.
Austin Abrams and Midori Francis are pretty good actors in my opinion because even if it does go over the edge at the end of the season they could have been a lot more annoying a lot sooner. I mean Dash is like a 16-year old who doesn’t realize he’s already fast turning into his own absent father spouting off pretentious book quotes, generally being rude (but oh they put a finicky spin on it) and even getting into dad’s booze and kicking back on his couch.
And Lily? Well she’s fun but she’s also one of those perfect movie girls- friends with everyone (except people her own age because they don’t “get” her) and makes her own clothes and wanders around with dog treats in her pockets to go to the park every day and just hand them out to the dogs cause ain’t she a sweetheart?
Excuse me while I put my Grinch away.
I think one of the reasons I stuck with it was because it was filmed in New York in 2019 and it’s like a time capsule when we were all so innocent or at least I was going into the holidays feeling a whole lot better than this holiday season.
Plus it’s got great music throughout.
But seriously there’s one part where Dash goes someplace he hates to apologize to a friend that he yelled at and the conversation is like:
Dash: I came here for you! Don’t you think that says something!
Friend: Oh yeah! Yeah that’s true! Okay we’re good.
Dash: Okay can we leave now? I need your help.
I’m paraphrasing but you get the idea.
Grinch Meter: My heart grew by 4 and then it was annoyed right back to where it started.
But Dash and Lily is a quick watch at only 8 under 30 minute episodes. If you want to watch it for the holiday music and memories of happier times before 2020 sank it’s claws into all of us.
I have seen the promos for this show and wondered about it. Wonderful grinch-inspired review! Not sure if I’ll watch it but I am glad to know what to expect if I do.
I just read the book to watch the TV show, I am absolutely in awe of the trailer 😍. Hope to get to it soon after exams. You did a great analysis of it here 👏
i laughed out loud with this post, honestly! dash and lily are the most annoying special snowflakes characters, so OF COURSE, i love them. any character that sounds like that jughead quote of: “in case you haven’t noticed, i’m weird. i am a weirdo. i don’t fit in. and i don’t want to fit in.” is automatically my child, but i do understand how it can get annoying pretty fast, hahah.
but the soundtrack, like you said, is BOMB. i was shocked by the jonas brothers’ appearance, but it improved my mood in 300%, as a huge fan of them, haha.
The one who appeared was apparently a producer on the film! Which I didn’t know they were producing films 🙂
Yeah, I saw that, and I had no idea he was in production either! It was kinda random but I loved it, hahah.