Welcome to Streaming Rewind, a weekly breakdown of the new and noteworthy as we work to help readers wade through the absolute deluge of television series and movies in the streaming space.
Welcome to Christmas and New Years limbo, where the time is made up and the date doesn’t matter. There’s a limited number of releases this week, because Hollywood typically just shuts down for the last month of the year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few surprises.
The Beyoncé Bowl (Netflix)
If you’re not a football fan, you may not have known that Beyoncé did a halftime special for the Ravens vs. Texans game on Christmas (that’s right, Netflix does football now too). In said special, she performed some of the songs from her Cowboy Carter album live for the very first time. If you’re a member of the Beyhive who wasn’t willing to sit through a football game to watch Queen Bey perform, Netflix released a stand-alone special of the performance today. And, for those wondering, Netflix did, indeed, manage to host two whole live events on Christmas day without its typical buffering issues.
Squid Game is Back for Round 2 (Netflix)
It’s been a Netflix week! The highly anticipated second season of Squid Game finally dropped, ironically resulting in many across the industry working during Christmas and continuing the trend of Netflix completely missing the point of the series. Reviews have been mixed due to it being painfully obvious that Seasons 2 and 3 were meant to be one complete story rather than split in half, but our critic Shannon Miller liked the season. If you’ve already finished your binge, check out how Squid Game’s Season 2 ending sets up Season 3.
The Order (On Demand)
Nicholas Hoult has yet another film out on demand, this time alongside Jude Law and Jurnee Smollett. The film’s been met with early acclaim, and is based on a true story (and adapted from Kevin Flynn’s novel The Silent Brotherhood) centered on a string of bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest. You may have seen it during its brief theatrical run when it released on December 6 but, if you missed it, it’s available for purchase now.
New and Notable:
Gladiator II — December 24 (On Demand)Y2K — December 24 (On Demand)Doctor Who Christmas Special — December 25 (Disney+)
That’s, well… that’s pretty much it for this week. You can check out the few titles that are available on PVOD up above in the New and Notable section and, if you haven’t caught up just yet, there are a few options from last week that are still noteworthy. The Simpsons Christmas Special, O C’mon All Ye Faithful springs to mind! You can check out our review of the special if you’re not sure if you want to spend your precious lounge time on it. Don’t forget that What If…? Is dropping new episodes weekly, and that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Creature Commandos are in the middle of thier runs as well!
