The Christmas specials seem to arrive earlier each year, as cable and streaming services start stuffing sleighfuls of formulaic holiday cheer down our chimneys the minute the trick-or-treaters stop knocking. That means, come November, it can be hard to find something novel on TV that is not a kiddie Santa-fest, an HGTV roundup of houses with elaborate seasonal lighting, or a snowy romance in which a lonely, workaholic businesswoman reluctantly returns to her childhood hometown to abandon all pretense of ambition and smooch her ruggedly handsome high school sweetheart under the mistletoe.