Patience, please: There’s a good comedy-drama here

At times, a show might demand extra patience.
A prime example is “Nugget is Dead: A Christmas Story” (shown here) from 8-10 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 21) on CBS.
At first, viewers might just be annoyed, because this bumps CBS’ best night. (“Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” slides to 10 p.m.; it repeats its delightful opener, followed by a “Ghosts” rerun.)
Adding to the problem is the fact that the movie gets off to a weak start. Some of the humor comes from overlapping dialog; that’s problematic because it involves Australian accents and characters we don’t yet know. But stick around. “Nugget” turns out to be a rare blend of sharp comedy and sturdy drama, with a bit of holiday warmth around the edges.
The film was written by Jenna Owen (who co-stars as the ultra-fit Shayla) and Vic Zerbst, who stars. (They’re shown here, Zerbst with the eyepatch.) She plays Steph, a doctor who is wrapping up her dermatology residence and living with a rich guy. Now she’s ready to visit his posh family for Christmas.
Then she gets a call: Nugget, the family dog, is dead …. or maybe just chronically ill … or ….
Steph figures she’ll juggle both worlds – visit her old one briefly, then go on to the new. Except that her extended family swarms upon her, a cacophony of love, anger and delusion, of the lofty and mundane.
At first, that’s difficult for American viewers.. We don’t yet know who these people are and it’s hard to translate the flurry of Aussie tones.
But if we wait, people shifts from noisy clichés to interesting souls. And all are linked by a dog.
The producers sort of know the turf. They also produce “Colin From Accounts,” a terrific Paramount+ series that has different writers and actors, but the same notion of a dog merging humans.
And these are, despite the first impressions, interesting humans. They get the Christmas TV season off to a fine start.