What to Watch in December 2024

From the return of Feathers McGraw to a new season of Squid Game, here's your guide to all the best new films and TV shows coming in December

Film

Nightbitch (December 6)

Billed as a ‘comedy-horror’ – albeit one that’s very light on the ‘horror’ bit – Nightbitch is based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder and stars Amy Adams as a woman grappling with motherhood and lamenting the loss of her former lifestyle. Overwhelmed by the seemingly endless demands of caring for a toddler and feeling isolated from both her inattentive husband (Scoot McNairy) and the other kindergarten moms, her frustration begins to boil over and awakens something feral inside her.

Directed by Marielle Heller and also starring Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Ella Thomas and Jessica Harper, Nightbitch may come with a large helping of magical realism, but it’s an enjoyable rumination on the pressures of modern parenthood – and often a highly relatable one too.

Rumours (December 6)

A surreal, satirical tale that’s part horror, part comedy, Rumours follows the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations as they attend a G7 summit in an attempt to thrash out a deal to solve an imminent global crisis. Exactly what crisis they are trying to solve remains a mystery throughout, as the attendees find themselves preoccupied by a series of strange events that begins with the discovery of some mummified ‘bog bodies’ in the woods nearby. It soon transpires, however, that these ancient corpses aren’t quite as dead as they appear.

Directed by Canadian trio Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin, the film features an impressive ensemble cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance, Alicia Vikander, Roy Dupuis and Takehiro Hira. A wonderfully weird film that has been described as ‘Night of the Living Dead meets Dr. Strangelove’, Rumours is certainly one of the oddest things you’ll see in a cinema this year, but also one of the most strangely compelling.

Queer (December 13)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the man behind films such as Call Me By Your Name and the Challengers, Queer is described as a ‘period romantic drama’ and is based on the 1985 novella of the same name by William S. Burroughs. Set in the 1950s, the film stars Daniel Craig as a gay man named Lee who escapes to Mexico City after fleeing from a drugs bust in New Orleans. There he finds himself becoming infatuated with a young and recently discharged American Navy serviceman.

Also starring Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman and David Lowery, Queer sees Daniel Craig deliver one of his finest performances yet and if you’ve enjoyed Guadagnino’s other films, you’ll no doubt find plenty to like about this one too.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (December 18)

In the pantheon of cinema’s greatest villains, amongst the likes of Michael Myers, Norman Bates and Darth Vader, there must surely be a place for Feathers McGraw. First introduced in Nick Park’s 1993 film The Wrong Trousers, where his nefarious plans for diamond theft were foiled by our hapless heroes, the stop-motion Moriarty returns to the big screen this month and seems to have only one thing on his devious mind: revenge.

Co-directed by Park and Merlin Crossingham, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl arrives on December 18 and is the first Wallace & Gromit film not to feature the voice of Peter Sallis as Wallace, with Ben Whitehead taking over the role following the veteran actor’s retirement. New additions to the voice cast include Peter Kay, Reece Shearsmith and Diane Morgan, with cameos from others including Lenny Henry and Roman Kemp. There’ll be laughs, there’ll be drama, and there will almost certainly be cheese.

Mufasa: The Lion King (December 20)

Following the ‘photo-realistically animated’ remake of Disney’s hit musical The Lion King in 2019, this new prequel delves into the backstory of Mufasa, Simba’s father, following the tale of the orphaned lion and the origins of his friendship with Taka, a young prince (later to become known as Scar), his adoption by Taka’s family, and his eventual rise to becoming king of the Pride Lands.

Directed by Barry Jenkins, the man behind films such as Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, the film’s extensive voice cast includes Aaron Pierre, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Donald Glover, Thandiwe Newton, Mads Mikkelsen and Beyonce, with latter’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter also making her feature film debut in the role of Kiara, the young cub who is daughter to Simba and Nala. If the new Wallace & Gromit film leaves you wanting more family-friendly fun – or if you’ve got some Disney fans in the family who need entertaining over the Christmas period – this heart-warming prequel is just what you need.

TV

Squid Game – Season 2 (Netflix, December 26)

Few TV shows in recent years have inspired quite as much excitement and discussion as Squid Game became the most-watched show on Netflix on its release in 2021, drawing in some 142 million viewers and surpassing even the mighty Bridgerton. Created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show details a sadistic reality game in which the winner can take home a fortune, but only if they survive a series of deadly challenges.

For those that haven’t seen the first series, we won’t spoil the almighty twist in the tale that came at the end of the show’s first season. For those already up to speed, the second series sees the game’s eventual winner Seong Gi-hun – aka player 456 – heading back to participate in the game for a second time. This time around however, it’s not the prize money he’s after – instead he’s intent on taking revenge on the game’s creators and putting an end to the contest for good.

Black Doves (Netflix, December 5)

This slick new spy thriller series from Joe Barton (Girl/Haji, The Lazarus Project) stars Keira Knightly and Ben Whishaw and occupies a space somewhere between Slow Horses and John Wick. Knightly stars as a spy named Helen who become involved in a passionate affair which threatens to blow her cover. When her lover becomes a victim at the hands of London’s underworld, her paymasters send in an old friend in an attempt to protect her.

Alongside Knightly and Whishaw is a cast that includes Happy Valley’s Sarah Lancashire, Tracey Ullman, Andrew Koji and Omari Douglas, Black Doves arrives on Netflix this week and looks set to be one of the streaming platform’s most compelling new shows this year.

The Sticky (Prime Video, December 6)

Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions stable have made a name for themselves in recent years as specialists in the horror genre, with films such as M3GAN, Speak No Evil and Five Nights at Freddy’s all garnering some tremendous reviews. Their latest offering, though, is something quite different indeed.

A comedy-drama series created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro, The Sticky is a heavily fictionalised account of ‘the great Canadian maple syrup heist’, as it became known, which saw the disappearance of nearly 3,000 tonnes of the sticky stuff over several months in 2011-2012, valued at the time as being worth over 18 million Canadian dollars.

Margo Martindale stars as Ruth Landry, a maple syrup farmer who finds her livelihood under threat from government bureaucracy and decides to take her revenge by plotting a heist from Quebec’s maple syrup reserves. Also featuring a splendid guest appearance from Jamie Lee Curtis (who additionally serves as a co-producer on the new series), this riotous new crime caper arrives on Prime Video this week and looks like a whole heap of messy fun.

100 Years of Solitude (Netflix, December 11)

An ambitious adaptation of the magical realism masterpiece by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, 100 Years of Solitude comes to Netflix this month and its eight-episode first season will cover roughly the first half of the novel (a second covering the latter half is reportedly already in the works). Much like the book, the story follows the multi-generational exploits of the Buendía family, whose patriarch founded the (fictional) town of Macondo, where much of the action takes place.

A town unconnected to the outside world where unusual and extraordinary events have become commonplace, the tale follows the family and their attempts to escape from their (largely self-inflicted) misfortunes over seven generations. Claudio Cataño, Marco González, Leonardo Soto and Susana Morales lead the cast of this epic adventure, which makes its TV debut on December 11.

No Good Deed (Netflix, December 12)

Sitcom legends Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow star in this new comedy from Dead to Me creator Liz Feldman as a couple trying to sell their house, with three other interested couples all desperate to make the house their new dream home. Unbeknown to them, however, the house has a dark history, and as the competition between prospective buyers starts to become fierce, things start to get nasty pretty quickly.

Also starring Luke Wilson, Linda Cardellini, Denis Leary and Poppy Liu, No Good Deed lands on Netflix on December 12 and will have you glued to the screen throughout.