What To Watch This Weekend: Stream Our Top 7 TV and Movie Picks (Dec. 1–7)

Troll 2 | Netflix | Fantasy, action, adventure

Movie, Monday, Dec. 1: Nope. Netflix didn’t commission a big-budget remake of Claudio Fragasso’s Troll 2 (1990), the world’s “best worst movie.” Rather, this creature feature is a sequel to Roar Uthaug’s 2022 Troll, which is basically Godzilla through the lens of Norwegian folklore. Uthaug’s Troll 2 is more like Godzilla vs. Mothra, though—except it’s troll-on-troll action as two fugly giants made from stone and earth (one feral, one friendly) do battle.

The Pitt | TNT | Medical drama

TNT premiere, Monday, Dec. 1, 9:00 p.m. ET: You’ve heard about the medical drama either from word-of-mouth or via news about The Pitt v. ER, due to the former’s resemblance to the latter. If you don’t have HBO Max and you wanna catch up on the (fictional) drama, the show’s first season is now airing on TNT. Then, if you’re interested in the tea, you can Google for a cup.

The Merchants of Joy | Prime Video | Documentary

Movie, Monday, Dec. 1: In New York City, five families fight for control of … It kinda sounds like I’m intro-ing an organized crime story, huh? Well, this is a documentary about a much more cutthroat gang: Christmas tree merchants. There is fierce competition between these “frenemies,” but not for bookmaking territory or sanitation contracts. Nope, they just want to put dead trees in our house to bring out the evil in our cats and leave foot-shredding needles all over the floor. Or they just wanna make a living in the biggest big city while helping us celebrate with our families.

It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley | HBO, HBO Max | Documentary, music

Movie, Thursday, Dec. 4, 9:00 p.m. ET: I wrote this one up back in August when it debuted on video-on-demand (VOD). Now that it’s streaming on HBO, Amy Berg’s documentary about the legendary, gone-too-soon singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley deserves another nod—if only to get you to listen to the music, which Buckley knew would live on. Asked how he’d like his fans to remember him, Buckley tells an interviewer in the doc, “Just the music,” he said. “‘Cause when I’m dead, that’s the only thing that’ll be around.”

The Abandons | Netflix | Drama, western

Series premiere, Thursday, Dec. 4: From creator Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy and its spinoff, Mayans M.C.) comes something beside motorcycles. The Abandons is a western with two female leads (Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey), each portraying the matriarch of rival families (the Van Nesses and the Abandons) fighting for survival and supremacy in Washington Territory. The ensemble cast also features Patton Oswalt, Lucas Till, Diana Silvers, Michiel Huisman, and more. Don’t get too excited about Sutter’s involvement, though—he left the production with a few episodes to go, citing creative differences with Netflix.

Spartacus: House of Ashur | STARZ | Drama

Series premiere, Friday, Dec. 5, time TBD: The original Spartacus (2010–2013) had so much fighting and sex that you’d think the story was secondary, but there was enough plot there to keep the Roman gladiator tale interesting across three seasons and a prequel miniseries—and for the show to survive after the death of its lead actor, Andy Whitfield, in 2011. Now this revival-slash-sequel series follows the villainous gladiator Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) thanks to some creative retconning (Ashur died in one of the previous seasons).