What to Watch This Week: Relax With Our Top 9 TV and Movie Picks (December 9–15)

New on TV this week

This week’s What To Watch picks include series premieres (Dexter: Original Sin, Secret Level, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and No Good Deed), returning series (Bookie season two), Funday Football with The Simpsons, holiday horror (Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage), and Jamie Foxx finally spilling his tea in his Netflix comedy special (What Had Happened Was . . .). Let’s get to the couch!

The Simpsons Funday Football | Disney+, ESPN+ | Live sports, animation

Series premiere, Monday, December 9, 8 p.m. ET: The teaser trailer for this virtual recreation of the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Dallas Cowboys gridiron matchup says, “It’s more than just football; it’s family.” That’s because the teams, as animated avatars, are joined by Bart Simpson and Homer Simpson, respectively, adding an element of extreme father-son rivalry to the game. (If past The Simpsons episodes are prologue, Bart and his pop will probably get ejected early for excessive flagrant fouls.) Watch for Marge and Lisa doing interviews, Maggie piloting the SkyCam, and appearances from dozens of other Springfield residents.

Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was . . . | Netflix | Stand-up comedy

Special, Tuesday, December 10: Remember Jamie Foxx’s mysterious health scare from April 2023? How could you forget the headlines and rumors that the actor/comedian was paralyzed, blind, and possibly a clone—or a Diddy victim? In this Netflix comedy special, the (supposedly) real Jamie Foxx will finally talk about his experience, where he was “gone for 20 days” and awoke with no memory of what happened—but he’s gonna talk about it “a funny way.”

Secret Level | Amazon Prime Video | Adult animation

Series premiere, Tuesday, December 10: Do you like video games? How do you feel about the Love, Death & Robots series on Netflix or its inspiration, the animated film Heavy Metal? If you’re a fan of any of those things, Secret Level is for you. The new adult-animation anthology series consists of 15 episodes, each one about an iconic video game like Pac-Man, Warhammer, or Mega Man. We’ve only seen the trailer, but the production value appears to be on par with that of Love, Death & Robots—which is fantastic. Let’s hope the writing is also as good, and this series lives up to its predecessors.

One Hundred Years of Solitude | Netflix | Drama

Series premiere, Wednesday, December 11: Nobel Prize–winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez’s best-selling magical realist novel gets its first mainstream screen adaptation (Japanese filmmaker Shûji Terayama adapted it in 1981). The story follows the Buendía family’s search for happiness in the mythical town of Macondo while experiencing madness, love, war, and a terrible curse. The series, directed by Alex García López and Laura Mora, consists of 16 episodes released in two parts. We get the first eight eps now, but Netflix hasn’t announced a release date for the series’ second half.

New on Max this week

Bookie | Max | Comedy

Season 2 premiere, Thursday, December 12: Bookies Danny (Sebastian Maniscalco) and Ray (Omar J. Dorsey) return for a second season of taking (and placing) sketchy bets while chasing weird and wacky debtors and contending with the existential threat of legalized gambling. Guest stars in the new season include Charlie Sheen, Ray Romano, and Zach Braff. Expect new episodes weekly on Thursdays through the January 30 season finale.

No Good Deed | Netflix | Comedy

Series premiere, Thursday, December 12: In this dark comedy series by Dead to Me creator Liz Feldman, three Los Angeles families want to buy the same 1920s Spanish villa which, like everyone involved—including the sellers, Lydia and Paul (Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow)—have all kinds of closeted skeletons. Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me), Luke Wilson, Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), Teyonah Parris (WandaVision), O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Poppy Liu (Hacks) also star. All eight half-hour episodes hit Netflix today.

Dexter: Original Sin | Paramount+ with SHOWTIME | Drama, thriller

Series premiere, Friday, December 13: Everyone’s favorite seriously deranged but ultimately ethical serial killer, Dexter Morgan, is back. Don’t expect to see Michael C. Hall in this prequel, though. Patrick Gibson portrays the antihero this time, with Hall providing narration. You’ll also see new actors playing familiar characters, including Christina Millian as Lt. Huerta and Christian Slater as Dexter’s adoptive father and teacher, Harry Morgan. Dexter: Original Sin also airs on SHOWTIME starting Sunday, December 15.

Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage | Shudder | Horror, comedy

Special, Friday, December 13, 9 p.m. ET: Is all you want for Christmas the sixth The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs holiday special? Congrats—you must’ve been on the nice list. In Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage, the raconteur/horror host puts on a live double-feature watch party with a charity auction including Joe Bob memorabilia, merch, and props. Shudder hasn’t announced the two films, but we suspect at least one is Alice Maio Mackay’s slasher, Carnage for Christmas, which hits Shudder on Sunday—the day Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage becomes available to stream on-demand.

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