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What to Watch This Week: Relax With Our Top 16 TV and Movie Picks (December 23–January 5)

Entertainment writer Randy Harward recommends the best shows, movies, and more on TV this week, including live sports, holiday specials, the return of Squid Game, and Aladdin 3477: The Jinn of Wisdom on VOD.

A collage of images from Squid Game season two, the 47th Kennedy Center Honors, Your Friend Nate Bargatze, and Horror's Greatest—four of the shows covered in CableTV.com's What to Watch This Week for December 23 through January 5.
Clockwise from top left: Squid Game (Netflix), the 47th Kennedy Center Honors (Gail Schulman), Nate Bargatze (Netflix), and Horror's Greatest (Shudder).

New on TV this week

Due to the imminent holidays, we’re serving two scoops of What To Watch picks to cover you into the new year. We have series premieres (Going Dutch, Happy’s Place), holiday specials (from Dick “Ryan Seacrest” Clark, Doctor Who, and Dolly Parton), Squid Game season two, the video-on-demand (VOD) debut of the fantastic-looking Aladdin 3477: The Jinn of Wisdom, and much more. Let’s hit the couch, everyone—we’ve earned it!

Night owl? Peep what’s on late-night TV this week.

New on Paramount+ this week

47th Kennedy Center Honors | Paramount+ | Awards show

Special, Tuesday, December 24: In case you missed it on CBS on Sunday, you can now stream the 47th Kennedy Center Honors on Paramount+. If you’re not savvy, this event is where The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts honors lifetime artistic achievements. For 2024, recipients include director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, legendary rockers The Grateful Dead, singer-songwriter-guitarist Bonnie Raitt, and jazz trumpeter-pianist-composer Arturo Sandoval. The ceremony was taped on December 8 at the iconic Apollo Theater before an audience that included A-list celebrities and even the President and Vice President of the United States in a rare joint appearance.

New on Netflix this week

Your Friend, Nate Bargatze | Netflix | Stand-up comedy

Special, Tuesday, December 24: In his fifth stand-up special (third for Netflix), “Everyone’s best friend” and “The nicest man in stand-up” (The Atlantic Magazine), Nate Bargatze covers marriage, pets, pizza, and professional insecurity: “They asked [a dining companion] how long you have to go to school to be a surgeon,” Bargatze yarns. “And he’s like, ‘54 years’ or whatever. And they asked me how long to be a comedian . . . I was, like, ‘You’re good now.’” Performed in the round before a live audience (natch) in Phoenix, Arizona.

Click on your favorite streaming service below to see new releases and classic recommendations from our TV critics.

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New on Disney+ this week

Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special | Disney+ | Sci-fi, holiday

Special, Wednesday, December 25: Who needs Santa Claus when you have danger, dinosaurs, and the Doctor? The synopsis for this sci-fi holiday special goes like this: “When Joy checks into a London hotel in 2024, she opens a secret doorway to the Time Hotel—discovering danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas.” We wish this meant that Joy (Nicola Coughlan) and the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) would hop in the Tardis—now powered by a team of 8–9 dinosaurs—and save Christmas. But it probably doesn’t (unless Santa hears my Christmas wish).

New on ABC this week

NBA on Christmas Day | ABC, ESPN, ESPN+, Disney+ | Live sports

Sports, Wednesday, December 25 (see below for times): If you have a basketball jones, NBA on Christmas Day feels like another goodie-drop from Santa. Here’s all the slamma-jamma action tipping off at noon ET today:

  • San Antonio Spurs @ New York Knicks, 12:00 p.m. ET
  • Minnesota Timberwolves @ Dallas Mavericks, 2:30 p.m. ET
  • Philadelphia 76ers @ Boston Celtics, 5:00 p.m. ET
  • Los Angeles Lakers @ Golden State Warriors, 8:00 p.m. ET
  • Denver Nuggets @ Phoenix Suns, 10:30 p.m. ET

New on Netflix this week

NFL Christmas Gameday | Netflix | Live sports

Sports, Wednesday, December 25, 11 a.m. ET: If you were hoping for football instead of basketball this Christmas, here ya go. Netflix’s NFL Christmas Gameday features two NFL matchups (plus a two-hour pregame show) with commentary from 20 NFL experts—including players Drew Brees, Robert Griffin III, and Manti Te’o—along with comedians Nate Bargatze (in the studio) and Bert Kreischer (in the parking lot—tailgate duty). Who’s playing? Check it out:

  • Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m. ET
  • Baltimore Ravens vs. the Houston Texans, 4:30 p.m. ET

New on Netflix this week

Squid Game | Netflix | Sci-fi, thriller

Season 2 premiere, Thursday, December 26: Netflix’s Golden Globe-winning dystopian thriller about the realest untelevised reality competition finally returns for its second season. Original hero Seong Gi-hun returns to the game in order to back up his pledge to end it and its creator. Will it be as good as the first season? The 2024 Golden Globes nominating committee seems to think so, having singled out Squid Game‘s second season before it’s even released.

New on NBC this week

Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas | NBC | Holiday movie

Movie, Thursday, December 26, 9 p.m. ET: In this 2022 “modern-day movie musical,” the sweetest woman who ever walked this Earth aims to bring the world some of the “mountain magic” she cultivates at Dollywood during the holidays. To that end, she’s organizing a TV network special. While rehearsing for it, she winds up on a Dickensian journey through her past and returns renewed and inspired. Derivative? Yeah. But Dolly’s so pure she can derive from anything she wants.

New on Paramount+ this week

Grammy Retrospective Specials | CBS, Paramount+ | Music

Specials (dates and times below): With the Grammy Awards® coming in about two months, CBS and Paramount+ have two retrospective specials cued up to whet our awards-show appetites. Hosted by Gayle King and Mickey Guyton, Grammy Greats: The Stories Behind the Songs (Friday, December 27, 9 p.m. ET) talks with artists—Brandi Carlile, Michael McDonald, Alicia Keys, and more—about the tunes that earned them a Grammy for Song of the Year. Hosted by King and Jimmy Jam, Grammy Greats: The Most Memorable Moments (Sunday, December 29, 9 p.m. ET) is what you’d expect: A trip down musical memory lane with artist interviews (LL Cool J, St. Vincent, Joni Mitchell) and archival performances. Both specials stream on Paramount+ the day after airing.

New on ABC this week

Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest | ABC | Holiday, variety

Special, Tuesday, December 31, 8 p.m. ET: Has someone already proposed a conspiracy that Dick Clark found the fountain of youth and now goes by Ryan Seacrest? Probably. But even Clark—the dad-est dad-rocker of them all (RIP)—is cooler than Seacrest, so consider it debunked. Anyway, expect the usual celebrity interviews, musical performances, and midnight ball drop (don’t miss Seacrest this time, OK, Rockin’ Eve crew?).

New on Shudder this week

Horror’s Greatest | Shudder | Documentary

Season 2 premiere, Tuesday, December 31: The first season of this Shudder original series—”a deep dive into everything we love about horror”—debuted earlier this year. The new season has five episodes, and the first, “Animal Attacks” (think man-eating sharks and face-ripping chimps), premieres tonight. The rest—“Killer Dates,” “Hidden Gems,” “Film Scores,” and “Space Horror”—will come every Tuesday through January 28. There’s no trailer yet, but you can watch the first-season trailer on the left.

New on ESPN this week

College Football Playoff Quarterfinals | ESPN | Live sports

Sports, see dates and times below: College football fans should be thrilled with all the live NCAA action on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with four College Football Playoffs quarterfinals (all times ET):

  • Fiesta Bowl (Boise State vs. TBD): Tuesday, December 31, 7:30 p.m.
  • Peach Bowl (Arizona State vs. TBD): Wednesday, January 1, 1:00 p.m.
  • Rose Bowl (Oregon vs. TBD): Wednesday, January 1, 5:00 p.m.
  • Sugar Bowl (Georgia vs. TBD): Wednesday, January 1, 8:45 p.m.

New on Netflix this week

Cunk on Life | Netflix | Mockumentary

Series premiere, Thursday, January 2: In her Netflix mockumentary series, Cunk on Earth, Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) strives to understand the world. Like a stern, deadpan version of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Kazakhi journalist Borat Sagdiyev, Cunk asks puzzled interviewees incisive queries like, “Who are you?” and “What is a building?” and “When you teach a kid Shakespeare, do their heads grow physically bigger?” Cunk on Life is more of the hilarious same—only this time, Cunk wants to know the meaning of life.

New on FOX this week

Going Dutch | FOX | Comedy

Series premiere, Thursday, January 2, 9:30 p.m. ET: As he did in the comedy-dramas The Job (as a detective) and Rescue Me (as a firefighter), Denis Leary once more plays a deeply flawed blowhard—but in a military uniform this time. In Going Dutch, Leary is decorated US Army Colonel Patrick Quinn. After shooting off his mouth, Quinn is sent to a surprisingly posh base in the Netherlands to command “a diverse group of underdogs,” including his estranged daughter, Maggie. It might be more of the same, but Leary’s shtick is usually reliably entertaining.

New on ABC this week

Only Murders in the Building | ABC | Comedy

Season 2 ABC premiere, Thursday, January 2, 9 p.m. ET: If you don’t mind waiting, you don’t need a Hulu subscription to watch this popular Hulu original series. Although the comedy about a trio of true-crime buffs—Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez—turned gumshoe detectives is four seasons deep, Hulu lets ABC show the seasons once they’re about two years old. Hence, Season Two arrives on ABC today.

New on NBC this week

Happy’s Place | NBC | Comedy

Series premiere, Friday, January 3, 8 p.m. ET: Hey, Reba McEntire fans—if you miss the country singer’s old sitcom Reba, you’ll probably be happy with her new comedy. While it’s not exactly Reba, the new joint Happy’s Place—where Reba inherits a bar—will probably feel familiar since Reba’s a one-note actor. That’s truth, not hate. Since Reba basically plays herself in any role, and she’s kind of adorable, Reba fans will enjoy this.

  TV Tan Podcast

Bill Frost and Tommy Milagro serve up TV news, reviews, and cocktails every week—at 500+ episodes over 10 years, it’s the longest-running television podcast ever (confirmation pending). Subscribe to TV Tan Podcast now on SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube MusicYouTubeAmazon PodcastsAudible, or your favorite podcast app. [NFSW]

New movie releases available to rent/buy on VOD this week

Aladdin 3477: The Jinn of Wisdom (2024)

From Star Wars artist Matt Busch comes the first film in a trilogy 12 years in the making. Set 1500 years from now, Aladdin 3477: The Jinn of Wisdom (yup, based on that Aladdin) could be as basic as (a hypothetical) Aladdin in Space. But, judging from the banger of a trailer, the film could live up to its hype, which references Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and The Lord of the Rings. If Busch’s film is as impressive as it looks, it could one day be a peer to its influences.

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