My grand unified theory of Home Alone is that, while people might think they enjoy it because of all the nightmarish torture Macaulay Culkin inflicts on the Wet Bandits, they actually enjoy it because of Old Man Marley, the figure ruined by loneliness after becoming estranged from his son. This is because Old Man Marley reminds us that, for all the ribbons and celebration, most adult Christmases come laced with an indelible streak of melancholy.
The good news, then, is that Sky’s new Christmas special The Unofficial Science of Home Alone nails this tone to perfection. It is ostensibly a show where comedians James Acaster and Guz Khan recreate all the main stunts from Home Alone to see if any of them are survivable. But there’s melancholy, too, because watching it makes me really miss Mythbusters.
