Excitable Edgar the arsonist: John Lewis burns Christmas to the ground!
(The Guardian Culture News)

For the first time, John Lewis has made their festive advert explicitly about a flaming idiot. He´s our evil new overlord - and he´s here to share a message of ill will to all menBy now the John Lewis Christmas advert formula has solidified into scripture. There´s a happy song performed in a comically depressed way. There´s a figure that represents the entire concept of agonising heartache. There´s a smattering of Christmas, the thinnest possible veneer of commerce and the lingering sense that we´d all be much better served if the whole thing was simply replaced with a caption reading `We sell some clothes and kettles´.But this year? Hoo boy, this year John Lewis has smashed the blueprint into smithereens. This is partly because the advert is actually for John Lewis and Waitrose, which may well be a concession to the crippling financial situation going on behind the scenes. But you can mainly tell we´re in brave new territory here because this is the first time the John Lewis Christmas advert has explicitly been about a twat. Continue reading...