This post contains spoilers for "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special."

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has truly come a long way, from the days of Tony Stark fighting against essentially a disgruntled employee to becoming a franchise dealing with alien conquerors, ancient gods, and multiverses. Nowadays, every Marvel project feels like a massive event rather than a cool adventure. A decade ago, the past few years of Marvel movies would have felt incredible, but with the galaxy at stake every time, it is hard to feel like the films are building toward something incredible when every piece of the puzzle everything has high stakes. Worst of all, the MCU has mostly abandoned the smaller, hanging-out moments of earlier movies in favor of spectacle 24/7.

This makes the Disney+ Phase 4 era of the MCU all the more special. The TV shows have not only provided a great variety of stories in vastly different genres, but they've given us small-scale stories that are focused on character, on making us feel close to them and their environment, like we're just hanging out. Now, Marvel is taking that idea further with its Special Presentation titles, which tell a concise and complete story in under an hour, prioritizing character over spectacle.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is the latest example of this, a fantastic, sweet, endearing, and heartfelt special that brings to the MCU something we haven't really seen in years — small scenes with characters just hanging out in mundane situations.

Small Stories, Big Payoff

Granted, the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies have always been a bit different from the rest of the MCU. Sure, they still deal with potential threats to the safety of the entire galaxy, but they find more time to just have the characters hang out and develop their team dynamic and individual arcs. So, when it came to "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," we get a brand new experience for the MCU, one that should spark a tradition.

The special finds the Guardians in charge of Nowhere after acquiring it from The Collector, seemingly leaving their adventuring lives behind to manage a community. When Mantis realizes that Christmas is coming, she decides to try and make Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) feel better about the whole Gamora situation by presenting him with a present: Kevin Norwood Bacon. So, she heads out with Drax, flies to Earth under the cover of night, and shows up at the door of the legendary actor to kidnap him and gift him to Quill.

This might just be the smallest-scale story the MCU has ever done, and it rules. The stakes are so small, Peter doesn't even seem down at all during the special. He doesn't really seem to care about what the others are doing and he's not even that stressed out about the work on Nowhere. The special is so, well, special, because it is essentially 40 minutes of Mantis and Drax hanging out and being adorable and impressionable. Meanwhile, Bacon is having an absolute time playing himself. The special serves mostly as a window into the Guardians' lives during downtime, where they can hang out and go on side quests without worrying about the world's fate.

Let's Not Stop Here

Now, "Werewolf by Night" was great. The special introduced a world of monsters and horror to the MCU, but "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" brings characters we know from before, and changes the story scale to fit this new format. With it, the Special Presentations show you can bring in the big stars and the big CGI creations to the small screen without replicating the movies' scale. This proves that productions can maybe take a few extra days from shooting one of the films, slightly change the sets, and film a new special about a small-scale story. What if, for Valentine's Day, they give us a special tied to the new "Ant-Man" about Scott trying to go on a date with Hope? The possibilities are endless.

By now, the MCU is finally fulfilling the promise of the end of "Iron Man" in delivering a superhero universe too big for any one hero. Likewise, the specials are showing that the franchise has grown too big to be confined to giant 2-and-a-half-hour movies with end-of-the-world stakes. It is time to embrace different mediums and formats and simply tell fun stories with these beloved characters, no matter how small.

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The post The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is the Most Minor MCU Story Yet, And That's Okay appeared first on /Film.