One Direction’s NBC special: Harry Styles’ hair, Niall Horan’s antics, and various highlights

Tuesday night, NBC aired what can basically be described as an enormous tribute to One Direction. The British boy band from “The X Factor” crossover to America for a huge event at Universal Studios in Orlando, which also was in part a documentary containing some travels from the band all across the world.

Basically, your feeling about this special, much like the recent concert movie “This Is Us,” is going to depend heavily on how much you like Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, and Liam Payne going into it. We don’t quite know if it will recruit the band any new fans, but it will make diehard Directioners very pleased. Many of the band’s recent hits are performed, and there were a few other highlights to go along with it.

1. Somehow, watching boy band members dance their way out of a private jet is always fun.

2. Harry Styles’ hair is magnificent enough to basically be a sixth member of the band.

3. Niall Horan clowning around in “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” was worth a laugh. Typically, he strikes us as one of the band’s funnier members.

4. There was a nice little segment in here about how some of their songs ultimately come together.

Our one major criticism of the special, from an outsider looking in, is mostly that we wish the documentary aspect was a bit more real, and focused more on the sort life-altering feeling that comes from being one of the biggest stars on the planet, where you cannot walk into a room or get into a car without feeling like you are about to be accidentally mobbed by fans. We know that the band loves their supporters, but we wanted to see more of what their real daily lives are like. Only a select few get to this level of fame, and the real experience is mostly in the dark.

What do you think about this special? Share your thoughts with a comment, and head over here to get some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)