It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Dark skies by 4:00 p.m., temperatures below 30 degrees, and — best of all — crazed shoppers at every turn. Fortunately, there is no shortage of quality television to watch over the holidays, so to go with your December shopping list, Rotten Tomatoes has prepared your December bingeing list — a mix of new shows, returning shows, and what’s fresh on DVD and Blu-ray — some naughty, some nice!
What it is: The most recent addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Jessica Jones, about a broken superhero (Krysten Ritter) who runs her own P.I. business. Battling PTSD, our anti-hero finds herself struggling to defeat Kilgrave (David Tennant), a super-villain who has inflicted unconscionable harm upon countless innocents.
Why you should watch it: Marvel’s Jessica Jones is a dark, psychologically complex, and thoughtful meditation on what it means to be a hero. It is also engrossing, action-packed, compassionate, and visceral. Jones is binge-worthy for a number of reasons, but what elevates this well-executed comic adaptation is having a powerful female centered alliance at its core.
Where to watch: Netflix
Commitment: About 11 hours.
What it is: Jeffrey Tambor plays a father who wants to live his life as a woman and needs to tell his adult children.
Why you should watch it: Tambor’s turn as Maura is award-worthy, but what is most surprising is how it’s just one facet of this family dramedy. All the members of the Pfefferman clan are struggling with their own demons and each storyline is full and fascinating to follow. It’s a study of faith, family, and dysfunction that is well worth the day or two it takes to binge-watch it.
Where to watch: The complete first season is streaming on Amazon Prime now, with season two scheduled to drop on Dec. 11.
Commitment: 10 hours for both seasons.
What it is: A prequel to the AMC hit The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead begins in Los Angeles at the dawn of the zombie outbreak as the government employs survival tactics that fuel the apocalyptic fire.
Why you should watch it: Even though fans know what’s coming, somehow the prequel is even scarier than The Walking Dead. All of the shortcomings of the human race — fear, abuse of power, false trust — become factors in the death of society, as one already-dysfunctional family must stick together to survive. It’s not just zombies they must battle, though, but also the failing system that was designed to protect them.
Where to watch: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Playstation Video, Vudu, and Xfinity (with subscription). Season one is also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Commitment: Five hours.
What it is: A group of five slacker friends — known collectively as “The Gang” — run an Irish pub in South Philadelphia and get into all sorts of predicaments because they lack both common sense and social graces.
Why you should watch it: Sunny isn’t a sitcom for everyone; its characters are self-centered, misanthropic, and frequently obnoxious. That said, their resilience in the face of countless defeats is strangely endearing, and their adventures are so outrageous and hilarious that it’s almost therapeutic to watch them scramble through each half hour. With season 11 set to premiere in early January, now’s the perfect time to catch up with the Gang’s insane antics.
Where to watch: The first nine seasons are available to stream on subscription services Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix, and you can rent or purchase episodes from all 10 seasons on Google Play, iTunes, PlayStation Video, Vudu, and Xbox Video.
Commitment:About 42 hours.
What it is: This BBC drama follows a brilliant Detective Chief Inspector (Idris Elba) who finds it difficult to strike a work-life balance as he struggles to toe the line between genius and madness.
Why you should watch it: Elba won a Golden Globe for his performance as DCI Luther, a sexy cross between Sherlock Holmes and Columbo, in this gritty character study that adds a new dimension to the cop show genre. Plus, fans of The Affair will enjoy Ruth Wilson in her role as the seductive serial killer Alice Morgan. Catch up in time for season four, which starts on Dec. 17.
Where to watch: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Netflix, PlayStation Video, Vudu, and Xbox Video. The first three seasons are also available on DVD.
Commitment: 16 hours.
What it is: Based on Blair Tindal’s tell-all book, Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, this lighthearted comedy from Amazon Studios shows the inner workings of the contemporary fictitious New York Symphony, led by a young upstart conductor (Gael García Bernal).
Why you should watch it: What makes Roman Coppola’s adaptation of Mozart such a spritely binge is the commanding and hilarious performance by Bernal as Rodrigo (based on the Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel), along with memorable turns by Bernadette Peters as the elegant Symphony manager, Lola Kirke as the oboe-playing ingénue, and Malcolm McDowell as the ousted old-guard maestro.
Where to watch: Season one is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Season two premieres Dec. 30.
Commitment: Five hours.
What it is: Criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) assists the FBI in apprehending serial killers, but as the job begins to eat away at his mental health, he starts meeting with therapist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), a cannibal who murders rude people and serves them at fancy dinner parties.
Why you should watch it: The third (and likely final) season of the critically acclaimed show comes to Blu-ray December 8. There really isn’t anything quite like Hannibal; it’s a crime procedural and a psychological thriller, filled with horror and just the right dash of romance and comedy.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu, and on DVD/Blu-ray.
Commitment: 27.5 hours.
What it is: Based on the award-winning BBC series of the same name, Showtime’s hit dramedy stars Oscar winner William H. Macy and tells the story of the scrappy Gallagher kids as they struggle to keep body and soul together despite the constant burden of a dysfunctional alcoholic father.
Why you should watch it: Shameless features a great cast, including a stellar Emmy-award winning performance by the ever-adorable Joan Cusack. Holidays have always been a time for dysfunctional family fun, and nobody does it better than the Gallaghers. Shameless comes back for a sixth season on Jan. 10 so now is the perfect time to binge.
Where to watch: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, PlayStation Video, Showtime Anytime (with cable subscription), Vudu, Xbox Video, and Xfinity (with cable subscription).
Commitment: 60 hours.
What it is: In this western-sci-fi mash-up, humans, aliens, and hybrids all fight for their rights and acceptance, while a human lawkeeper bonds with his adopted Votan (alien) daughter in 2046 Defiance (formerly St. Louis, MO).
Why you should watch it: Defiance’s backstory is wonderfully complex and reads like a lesson in mythology. The humor is addictive and the scenery and creature designs are breathtaking. The show’s inter-species tension is a clear commentary on cultural struggles, but not presented as a lecture on contemporary acceptance. Rather, it throws intense action, soapy character interaction, and some sexy stuff at you. And Grant Bowler (Nolan) is still one hot leading man.
Where to watch: All three seasons are available on Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, Playstation Video, and Vudu. Season three hits DVD/Blu-ray on Dec. 22.
Commitment: 26 hours.
What it is: The residents and domestic staff of a grand English country estate deal with household intrigue and societal upheaval in the first decades of the 20th Century.
Why you should watch it: With its lavish setting and British accents, this might look like your typical PBS prestige show at first glance. But Downton Abbey gives equal dramatic weight to the household staff and the Crawley family. Indeed, what makes the show so compulsively watchable is its richly nuanced characters, each of whom are bound by societal conventions but occasionally finds a way to expand their limits.
Where to watch: Seasons one through five are available on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, and Xbox Video, as well as DVD/Blu-ray. The sixth and final season premieres on PBS on Jan. 3.
Commitment: 43 hours.
It’s a big week for TV, as many networks roll out their new shows and bring back popular series. Rotten Tomatoes, which is collecting reviews for all of the new and returning shows this fall, gave its Certified Fresh rating to four new series this week: Gotham (Mondays on Fox), black-ish (Wednesdays on ABC), How to Get Away With Murder (Thursdays on ABC), and Transparent (Amazon Prime). The sixth season of The Good Wife, which returned to CBS on Sunday night, is also Certified Fresh at 100 percent.
SyFy announced Thursday a third-season order of 13 episodes for its sci-fi action series Defiance. Set in the near future, Defiance portrays Earth after the arrival of seven unique alien races. Syfy also announced 13 more episodes of Dominion, a supernatural drama set in Vega (formerly Las Vegas), about a power struggle between angels and humans. Both series are produced by Universal Cable Productions and are slated to return with all-new episodes in 2015.
Ahead of its mid-season finale, Starz confirmed that the remaining eight episodes of season one of Outlander will return to TV on Saturday, April 4, 2015. The hit series, which has averaged more than five million viewers for each of the first four episodes, was renewed for a second season back in August. Outlander is based on a popular book series by Diana Gabaldon and season one is currently Certified Fresh at 90 percent. The mid-season finale, “Both Sides Now,” airs this Saturday on Starz at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
For months, HBO’s True Detective‘s biggest mystery has been not about catching a psycho but casting a lead. This week, HBO confirmed that Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell will join the cast (both choices had been rumored this summer) and the blogosphere would have you believe that confirmation of Taylor Kitsch is imminent. Meanwhile, just as fans settle down over the Vaughn-Farrell news, in comes the question of the female lead. Deadline reported that eight actresses were invited to read for show creator Nic Pizzolatto: Rosario Dawson, Kelly Reilly (who didn’t make it on account of being in New York), Jessica Biel, Malin Akerman, Abigail Spencer, Oona Chaplin, Jaimie Alexander and Brit Marling. In the same report, Deadline also casually mentioned Keira Knightley as a possibility, a movie star whose credits have been devoid of TV work (aside from voiceovers) for over a decade. Season One of True Detective is Certified Fresh at 84 percent. Filming of season two is set to begin in California this fall.
NBC is developing a single-camera comedy based on the 1985 cult film Real Genius which starred Val Kilmer (casting of the TV version is unknown at this time). The project will be developed by Sony TV, Adam Sandler‘s production company Happy Madison, and 3 Arts Entertainment. Craig DiGregorio (Workaholics) and David King (Parks and Recreation) will pen the present-day reboot, a workplace comedy about the relationship between a genius and his naive co-worker. The ’85 movie Real Genius is Fresh on the Tomatometer at 74 percent.
This week on home video, we’ve got Seth Rogen and Zac Efron facing off in a comedy, Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson facing off in a post-apocalyptic road film, and Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne facing off in a sci-fi thriller. Then we’ve got the requisite smaller releases, a ton of recent TV seasons (and one complete collection of a popular sitcom), and three big horror franchise sets. Read on for details:
With hit projects both as director (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek) and writer (the two recent Muppets movies) under his belt, it might be surprising to learn that Nicholas Stoller’s most successful film to date was Neighbors, a raunchy comedy that opened one week after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and one week before Godzilla. Pitting Seth Rogen against Zac Efron, Neighbors follows a young couple with a newborn baby who find themselves at odds with their new neighbors when a fraternity moves in next door. Most critics found the comedy surprisingly sturdy, if a bit vulgar, and praised its game cast, which included supporting turns from Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Special features on the disc include the requisite gag reel and deleted scenes, alongside a handful of making-of featurettes.
Australian director David Michod’s 2010 film Animal Kingdom was a powerhouse debut, so it wasn’t unreasonable to set expectations high for his follow-up, The Rover, which opened in limited release back in June. While the latter wasn’t quite the critical darling its predecessor was, it still managed to impress critics to the tune of 66 percent on the Tomatometer. Utilizing the Australian landscape as a post-apocalyptic backdrop, The Rover stars Guy Pearce as Eric, a lone drifter who gets carjacked by a gang of combative thieves. In search of leads, Eric runs into Rey (Robert Pattinson), the brother of one of the thieves, and the pair set out across the desolate landscape to locate Eric’s car, encountering trouble along the way. Moody and violent, The Rover struck most critics as a stylish exercise in ambiguity, with a relatively thin story held aloft almost entirely by its stars’ compelling performances. Only one bonus feature comes with the disc, and it’s a 45-minute making-of doc.
Films that rely on sustained tension in service of a big final payoff are difficult to craft; sometimes, they’re more confusing than they need to be, and sometimes the anticipated twist is underwhelming. Unfortunately, there were enough critics who found both to be true for The Signal that the film mustered only a mediocre 55 percent on the Tomatometer. The story revolves around a trio of MIT students (Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp) driving across the Southwest whose road trip takes a detour when they begin to receive taunting messages from an MIT hacker. Before they are able to confront their nemesis, however, they black out and find themselves trapped in a mysterious research facility, unable to explain what happened. Critics found The Signal ambitious and initially intriguing, but felt it could have used a lot more narrative finesse to deliver its climactic reveals. The film comes with a feature commentary with the director and writers, some deleted, extended, and alternate scenes, and a behind-the-scenes doc.
Every television season sees the arrival of some fun (some might even say great) shows that go unnoticed by regular television audiences. One show that is off mainstream radar and is worth a look is the sci-fi/fantasy show Defiance. Holy “shtako,” season two starts tomorrow, June 19! Here’s why we think you’ll dig it.
What’s the premise? In 2046 Defiance (a city-state formerly known as St. Louis, MO), humans, aliens, hybrids, and mutated species of Earth all fight for their species’ rights and acceptance, while a human lawkeeper, Nolan (Grant Bowler of True Blood, Liz and Dick, Ugly Betty), discovers and bonds with his adopted Votan (alien) daughter.
What’s it like? It’s like a western/sci-fi hybrid, with lots of brilliantly designed aliens, intense action, soapy character interaction, and some sexy stuff too. The show’s inter-species tension is clear commentary on cultural struggles of the here-and-now, but it’s not presented as a lecture on contemporary acceptance. Rather, it’s a faux documentation of where we might find ourselves if Votans joined us here on Earth and said, “Hi, we’re here to share your planet; please have some delicious river otter.”
Where can I see it? Season one is available to stream on Amazon, Vudu, iTunes and for members of Amazon Prime (the first two episodes of season one are free!). It’s also available on DVD. Season two begins on 6/19 at 8/7c on the SyFy Channel.
How long will it take? There are only twelve episodes in season one, each running under an hour (without commercial interruptions). So you could speed through it in about nine hours. That’s barely enough time for a Sensoth to ask you for the remote!
What do the critics think? The reviews were mixed upon Defiance‘s premiere last summer, largely due to what some critics felt was a lack of originality. Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Globe said, “SyFy’s Defiance is the Frankenstein of TV series — built from the parts of other shows.” But its weakness, then, was also part of its success: Maureen Ryan of the Huffington Post said, “Defiance is not just a smart, well-crafted TV show with a good cast and an adventurous flavor, it’s also indisputably science fiction, which is a relief.” Ethan Alter of Television Without Pity called it “solid meat-and-potatoes sci-fi that has the potential to get better the longer it remains on the air.” Its appeal extended beyond just sci-fi enthusiasts, too: “I am engaged by the show’s lively metaphor for a polyglot culture fractured by tribalism and Otherness,” said Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly. Currently, Defiance sits just above Fresh on the Tomatometer at 61 percent.
Why should I watch this? Defiance has something for everyone; it stands on its own as an action/adventure, a drama, even a romance. All of it just happens to exist in this fictional version of our future world. You don’t need to understand the history of this world to enjoy the show, but its backstory is wonderfully complex and reads like a lesson in history or mythology. As a result of a mysterious explosion known as the “Ark Fall,” several spaceships hovering in orbit were destroyed, and the terraforming technology they carried has transformed Earth and its inhabitants. Governments have fallen and risen again, allowing many humans and Votans to test the boundaries each day. Some of the plots are soapy, but deliciously so, equipped with heroes to root for and villains to love-hate, while unlikely alliances help to drive its unusual narratives. The humor is addictive, especially regarding the Castithan species’ strikingly amorous nature (bathing alone is considered “weird”). The scenic landscapes and thrilling creature designs also deserve props, and you gotta love another SyFy show that invents its own vulgar slang; Battlestar Galactica had “frakking” cuss words, but we think Defiance is the “shtako!”
What’s my next step? If you currently enjoy Defiance, other SyFy Channel shows like the now defunct Battlestar Galactica and Caprica, and the more recently Certified Fresh Helix might interest you. In 1983, the miniseries V was a pop-culture hit about an alien invasion on Earth, leading to a follow-up miniseries (V: The Final Battle) and a full season as a TV show (1984/85). The franchise had a similar theme to Defiance, but it was set in contemporary times. The 2009 re-imagining of V lasted two years, the premiere season of which earned a fresh Tomatometer score of 71 percent. On the film scope, John Carpenter’s They Live is a great aliens-on-earth movie, and Alien Nation, while not as critically acclaimed, was popular enough to result in a television series of its own. The Alien film series is always a good choice as, of course, are the Star Wars and Star Trek films. Since Defiance was the first TV show to premiere simultaneously with a coinciding video game, you may want to try your hand at that, especially now that users are able to play for free. There is also a web series of minisodes at Defiance.com.
Have you tuned in to Defiance and will you be watching season two? Tell us why!
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The Hollywood Reporter brings news on the next project for "Mummy" director Stephen Sommers, and it looks to be the high-concept comedic fantasy entitled "A Night at the Museum."
The Fox project was written by Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, with a few revisions here and there from Scott Frank.
"The family comedy centers on a goodhearted but bumbling security guard at the Museum of Natural History who accidentally trips an ancient curse that causes the animals and insects on display to come to life, wreaking havoc in the area."
The screenplay is loosely based on the children’s novel by Milan Trenc.
Other flicks in Sommers’ repertoire include "The Mummy Returns," "Van Helsing," and "Deep Rising."
