2024-12-25
5 分钟The Economist Hi there, this is Jason Palmer,
co-host of The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs show.
This is Editor's Picks,
where we take an unmissable article from the latest edition of The Economist and get someone with better diction than mine to read it aloud.
Have a listen.
The story is set in a town called Hope Springs, your first clue to the film Schmaltz.
which hosts an annual snow sculpture contest.
A local Michelangelo has sculpted a snowman with a chiseled face and rippling muscles.
On a whim, a young widow drapes a red scarf over the frozen figure.
Naturally, magic brings the ice-cold hottie shivering to life.
Recently released on Netflix, Hot Frosty is a truly absurd Christmas film.
No one in Hope Springs seems perturbed by a snow sculpture becoming a fully sentient being.
One person simply shrugs, it's Christmas.
Nor do viewers seem to mind the movie's outlandish premise.
Subscribers spent nearly 52 million hours watching the film in the three weeks after its release.
It has been one of the most popular movies on Netflix,
enjoying nearly 35 times the demand of an average film in America,
according to Parrot Analytics, a data firm.
Hot Frosty points to a hot area of entertainment.
Light-hearted, generally predictable,