The holiday season is in full swing, but gathering isn’t exactly a wise move this year. Fortunately, Netflix not only has a sleigh full of festive movies ready for the taking, but there’s so much more to look forward to in December from the streamer, which is keen to keep you bingewatching while avoiding doing the full-on family thing this year (and yes, avoiding those inevitable arguments, always a highlight).
Plenty of original offerings are on the way, including Chadwick Boseman’s final film that promises to win some awards. George Clooney’s also starring in and directing his own Netflix movie, and David Fincher’s sending out a love letter to moviegoing. On the TV front, the hormone monsters of Big Mouth will return, along with a final chapter from the chilling Sabrina Spellman and a Shondaland series that should get Twitter talking.
Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix in December.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix film streaming 12/18)
Chadwick Boseman left this world far too soon, but before he departed, he left us a lasting performance alongside Oscar winner Viola Davis. She portrays the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” and he’s her ambitious trumpeteer, Levee. Together with his fellow musicians, they will conquer a blazing hot 1920s Chicago recording session, and Levee will help inspire his colleagues to unleash truth-revealing stories that will alter their lives and, possibly, history itself. It’s a testament to the blues’ transformative power and adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s play of the same name with Denzel Washington onboard as producer.
Mank (Netflix film streaming 12/4)
All the iconic directors are crafting Netflix movies these days, and David Fincher is now joining them. Even more notably for cinephiles, he’s doing so with a 1930s Hollywood throwback to the days of Orson Welles, and when social critic/alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. “Mank” Mankiewicz scrambled to put the finishing touches (and his name) on the Citizen Kane screenplay. If Fincher’s prowess and Gary Oldman in the title role weren’t enough to get you onboard for Mank, then perhaps hearing that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are doing the musical honors will be the final enticement you need. As if we weren’t already hungry enough for the filmgoing experience, right? Between the sounds and the sights (sumptuously rendered through flawless black-and-white visuals), those who love movies are in for a treat.
Bridgerton (Netflix series streaming 12/25)
Shondaland brings us a series that I’m predicting will appeal to the Emily In Paris crowd but in a far less problematic way. Essentially, the show follows the debut of a daughter from a powerful family, who must navigate high society with the help of the rebellious Duke of Hastings, as they hatch a plan to reach their mutual goals. The romantic aspect of this series might be predictable, but the lessons learned and the lightly nibbling social commentary should strike a chord out there on Twitter.
Big Mouth: Season 4 (Netflix series streaming 12/4)
One of TV’s funniest shows is back to drum up anxiety, courtesy of Tito the Mosquito (who will be voiced by Maria Bamford), in addition to all the hormone monsters that you dearly love. Newcomer voices on the series include Ayo Edebiri replacing Jenny Slate as Missy, along with Zach Galifianakis, Seth Rogen, Josie Totah, Lena Waithe, Quinta Brunson, John Oliver, Sterling K. Brown, Paul Giamatti, Maya Erskine, and Anna Konkle.
The Midnight Sky (Netflix film streaming 12/23)
George Clooney’s got a Netflix movie coming, y’all. He’s also got a David Letterman beard while playing a cancer-afflicted, lonely scientist in the Arctic who’s also struggling to survive on post-apocalyptic Earth while attempting to help save some astronauts. The screenplay hails from The Revenant‘s Mark L. Smith, so The Revenant + Gravity? That sounds epic, Oscar-y, and like a different kind of late-December movie than we’re used to from Netflix (Bright, Bird Box, 6 Underground). Let’s hope we don’t see any angry (polar) bears entering the equation.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 4 (Netflix series streaming 12/31)
The Riverdale spinoff will come to a (planned) end with this fourth installment starring Kiernan Shipka. This time around, the Devil-afflicted Nick’s attempting to win Sabrina back after surrendering to his darker urges, but The Eldritch Terrors have descended upon Greendale, and The Void could truly be the End of All Things. Can the Fright Club save the day? I’m (strangely) pulling for Harvey over here.
Here’s the full list of titles coming to Netflix in December:
Avail. 12/1
Angela’s Christmas Wish
The Holiday Movies That Made Us
Natalie Palamides: Nate – A One Man Show
3 Days to Kill
50 First Dates
A Thin Line Between Love & Hate
Angels & Demons
Are You The One: Seasons 1-2
Chef
The Da Vinci Code
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Effie Gray
Gormiti: Season 1
The Happytime Murders
Ink Master: Seasons 1-2
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park III
Kung Fu Panda 2
Little Nicky
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Monster House
Peppermint
Quigley Down Under
Runaway Bride
Super Wings: Season 3
Stargate SG-1: Seasons 1-10
Transformers Rescue Bots Academy: Season 2
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family
Why Did I Get Married?
Avail. 12/2
Alien Worlds
Ari Eldjárn: Pardon My Icelandic
Fierce
Hazel Brugger: Tropical
Avail. 12/3
Break
Chico Bon Bon and the Very Berry Holiday
Just Another Christmas (Tudo Bem No Natal Que Vem)
Avail. 12/4
Bhaag Beanie Bhaag
Big Mouth: Season 4
Bombay Rose
Captain Underpants Mega Blissmas
Christmas Crossfire (Wir Können Nicht Anders)
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays: Season 3
Kings of Joburg: Season 1
Leyla Everlasting
MANK
Pokémon Journeys: The Series: Part 3
Selena: The Series
Avail. 12/5
Detention
Mighty Express: A Mighty Christmas
Avail. 12/7
Ava
Manhunt: Deadly Games
Avail. 12/8
Bobbleheads The Movie
Lovestruck in the City
Mr. Iglesias: Part 3
Spirit Riding Free: Ride Along Adventure
Triple 9
Avail. 12/9
Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love: Christmas
The Big Show Show: Christmas
Rose Island (L’Incredibile storia dell’Isola Delle Rose)
The Surgeon’s Cut
Avail. 12/10
Alice in Borderland
Avail. 12/11
A Trash Truck Christmas
Canvas
Giving Voice
The Mess You Leave Behind (El desorden que dejas)
The Prom
Avail. 12/14
A California Christmas
Hilda: Season 2
Tiny Pretty Things
Avail. 12/15
Black Ink Crew New York: Seasons 1-2
The Challenge: Seasons 10 and 13
Grizzlies
The Professor and the Madman
Pup Academy: Season 2
Song Exploder: Volume 2
Teen Mom 2: Seasons 1-2
Avail. 12/16
Anitta: Made In Honorio
BREAK IT ALL: The History of Rock in Latin America
How To Ruin Christmas: The Wedding.
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Nocturnal Animals
The Ripper
Run On
Vir Das: Outside In – The Lockdown Special
Avail. 12/17
Braven
Avail. 12/18
Guest House
Home for Christmas: Season 2
Jeopardy! Champion Run V
Jeopardy! Champion Run VI
Jeopardy! Teacher’s Tournament
Jeopardy! College Championship
Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Sweet Home
Avail. 12/20
Rhys Nicholson Live At The Athenaeum
Avail. 12/21
The Con Is On
Avail. 12/22
After We Collided
London Hughes: To Catch a D*ck
Rhyme Time Town Singalongs
Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer’s Llamas
Timmy Time: Season 2
Avail. 12/23
The Midnight Sky
Your Name Engraved Herein
Avail. 12/25
Bridgerton
Avail. 12/26
Asphalt Burning
DNA
Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Season 3: Sahara
Go! Go! Cory Carson: Season 3
The Magic School Bus Rides Again In the Zone
Avail. 12/27
Sakho & Mangane: Season 1
Avail. 12/28
Cops and Robbers
Rango
Avail. 12/29
Dare Me: Season 1
Avail. 12/30
Best Leftovers Ever!
Equinox
Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy: Chapter 2: Earthrise
Avail. 12/31
Best of Stand-Up 2020
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 4
Here’s the full list of titles leaving Netflix in December:
Leaving 12/1
Heartbreakers
The Lobster
Leaving 12/4
Cabin Fever
Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch
Leaving 12/5
The Rum Diary
Leaving 12/6
The Secret
Leaving 12/7
Berlin, I Love You
The Art of the Steal
Leaving 12/8
Sin senos sí hay paraíso: Seasons 1-3
Leaving 12/10
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2
Leaving 12/14
Hart of Dixie: Seasons 1-4
Leaving 12/17
Ip Man 3
Leaving 12/22
The Little Hours
Leaving 12/24
The West Wing: Seasons 1-7
Leaving 12/25
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Leaving 12/27
Fifty
Leaving 12/28
Lawless
Leaving 12/29
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Leaving 12/30
Dexter: Seasons 1-8
Hell on Wheels: Seasons 1-5
Ip Man
Ip Man 2
Nurse Jackie: Seasons 1-7
Leaving 12/31
Airplane!
An Education
Anna Karenina
Baby Mama
Back to the Future
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part III
Bad Teacher
Barbershop
Being John Malkovich
Cape Fear
Casper
Charlie St. Cloud
Coneheads
Definitely, Maybe
Dennis the Menace
Drugs, Inc.: Season 6
The Dukes of Hazzard
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fargo
For Love or Money
Frida
Gossip Girl: Seasons 1-6
Grand Hotel: Seasons 1-3
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The Inbetweeners: Seasons 1-3
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Interview
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Nacho Libre
Not Another Teen Movie
The Notebook
Octonauts: Seasons 1-3
The Office : Seasons 1-9
Poltergeist
Pride & Prejudice
Session 9
Splice
Starsky & Hutch
Superman Returns
The Town
Troy
WarGames
The Witches