The best new TV shows to stream in December

Lately people have been asking me what we’ll be watching in 2026. My answer is that, in part, we’ll be viewing what we watched 25 years ago. Next year is shaping up as the year of the silver anniversary streaming schedule, with reboots or revivals on the way for Scrubs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Malcolm in the Middle and Stargate SG-1.

Television has always been a business open to appeasement, but what we’re seeing with this latest wave of back-to-the future productions is the ascendance of Millennial audiences. This is the sizable age group that Hollywood wants to snare, and they’re very open to familiar titles returning.

In terms of December’s releases, there are some familiar names on the list, although The Count of Monte Cristo is closer to 200 years old than a mere 25. The lead-in to the holiday season can be a quieter streaming month, but I’m definitely excited for HBO Max’s offbeat animated thriller Common Side Effects and Netflix’s revisionist western The Abandons, the new series from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter.

Gillian Anderson as Constance Van Ness in The Abandons.

Netflix

My top Netflix recommendation is The Abandons (December 4).

Set in the 1850s, this western is galvanised by a conflict over a valuable piece of frontier land. If that’s a familiar outline, the combatants provide an intriguing change. The holder is a devout Irish woman, Fiona Nolan, and her family of adopted sons; the interloper is a wealthy European newcomer, Constance Van Ness. The two women are played, respectively, by Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files). That’s a compelling pairing, especially with Sons of Anarchy creator Sutter in charge. Lawlessness, spilt blood and menacing dialogue are his natural building blocks as a storyteller.

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Also on Netflix: Benoit Blanc is back! Daniel Craig, no stranger to popular movie franchises, will play the Knives Out master detective for the third time in Wake Up Dead Man (December 12). Filmmaker Rian Johnson, whose love for the murder mystery genre is akin to an act of faith, is once again plotting the twists, with Blanc investigating the murder of a charismatic priest by one of his parishioners. As with the original Knives Out and the Glass Onion sequel, the supporting cast is ludicrously stacked: Josh Brolin (Dune), Josh O’Connor (Challengers), Kerry Washington (Scandal), Glenn Close (Damages) and Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) are just some of the pieces in play.

George Clooney is the glamorous but shallow Jay Kelly.Credit:

Filmmaker Noah Baumbach has become a deeply astute observer of Hollywood. 2019’s Marriage Story starred Scarlett Johansson as an actress returning to Los Angeles for a harsh divorce battle, while Baumbach’s latest feature, Jay Kelly (December 5), stars George Clooney as a veteran Hollywood star having a late-life crisis while trying to reconcile with his teenage daughter, Daisy (Grace Edwards), on a European trip.

There are definitely elements of Clooney in the title character, and the film has some great Hollywood insider roles: Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems) plays Jay’s manager, with Laura Dern (Big Little Lies) as his publicist. This is definitely at the gentler end of Baumbach’s spectrum.

November highlights: Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys were electrifying adversaries in the psychological thriller The Beast in Me, Death by Lightning told the story of a 19th century presidential assassin, and Joel Edgerton was Oscar nomination-worthy in Train Dreams.

Will Sharpe as Amadeus and Paul Bettany as Salieri in Amadeus.Credit:

Binge

My top Binge recommendation is Amadeus (December 22).

It’s 40 years since Milos Forman’s period drama about the tragic rivalry between the brilliant young composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the veteran he supplanted in Vienna’s 18th century royal court, Antonio Salieri, won eight Academy Awards. This limited series adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s original play is by Joe Barton, who previously had a hit on Netflix with Black Doves. The casting is crucial, as Mozart is both an unparalleled genius and a total dilettante, while Salieri is a pious artist driven to foul ends. It’s a tick for Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) as Mozart, with Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) as Salieri.

Simu Liu in The Copenhagen Test.Credit:

Also on Binge: There are cerebral espionage thrillers and then there’s The Copenhagen Test (December 27). In this near-future mystery a spy, Alexander Hale (Simu Liu, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), begins to suspect that his brain has been hacked, making him an involuntary double agent. Treated as a mole, and unsure who might be pulling his strings, Alexander has to fight his way out of a tight corner, backed by a fellow operative whose allegiance remains unknown, Michelle (Melissa Barrera, Scream). Fans of The Night Agent are definitely in the target audience.

November highlights: Succession’s Australian star, Sarah Snook, found her next hit with the riveting kidnap thriller All Her Fault, while Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Munro got a suitably wild adaptation.

Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at Accor Stadium, Sydney, in 2024. Credit: Wolter Peeters

Disney+

My top Disney+ recommendation is The End of an Era (December 12).

Spanning 149 stadium concerts across more than 18 months, the Eras Tour was Taylor Swift at her most complete: a career-spanning retrospective that became a cultural event and the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. The capper is this six-part documentary series, which offers an intimate, authorised look at the tour’s preparation and participants, perils and pleasures. Swift is front and centre, along with fiancé Travis Kelce, the Swift clan, and musical guests such as Ed Sheeran and Sabrina Carpenter. The music tour documentary is a venerable genre, but you can expect Swift – as ever – to offer more than expected.

November highlights: Was it so bad it was good? The glam Los Angeles legal drama All’s Fair, headlined by Kim Kardashian, went to all the extremes.

Common Side Effects.Credit:

HBO Max

My top HBO Max recommendation is Common Side Effects (December 16).

The wait is over. Equal parts conspiracy thriller, offbeat comedy and psychedelic satire, this adult animation drew rave reviews when it debuted in America in February. Co-created by Joe Bennett, who was integral to Binge’s 2023 animated sci-fi wonder Scavengers Reign, Common Side Effects follows Marshall (voiced by Dave King), a quiet fungi expert who discovers a mushroom with remarkable healing powers and reconnects with his high school friend, Frances (Emily Pendergast). The pair have to deal with the US government, Big Pharma – King of the Hill’s Mike Judge plays a CEO – and, ultimately, each other.

Also on Max: In the mid-1990s, a generation of American independent filmmakers went from low budget to high profile. Think Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi), Kevin Smith (Clerks) and Edward Burns, who wrote, directed and starred in 1995’s The Brothers McMullen, an audience-pleasing New York comic-drama about a trio of brothers struggling with adulthood. Burns has enjoyed a successful acting career (Saving Private Ryan), but he’s going back to where it started with The Family McMullen (December 5). The sequel finds Burns’ Barry McMullen as a father trying to help his children through their 20-something crises, with Connie Britton (The White Lotus) among the original cast members also returning.

November highlights: I Love LA hit the spot as a buzzy new comedy from the anxious age of influencers, plus a pleasingly trashy drama of wealthy Brits running amok in Wild Cherry.

D’Arcy Carden and Will Forte in Sunny Nights.Credit:

Stan*

My top Stan recommendation is Sunny Nights (December 26).

Sydney plays host to this culture-clash crime comedy, about a pair of American siblings – straitlaced Martin (Will Forte, The Four Seasons) and the irresponsible Vicki (D’Arcy Carden, The Good Place) – who come to Australia to start a spray tan business only to get mixed up with a criminal syndicate that wants more than a perfect summer skin tone. With Australian director Trent O’Donnell (Colin from Accounts) steering the mishaps, the considerable comic chemistry between the leads is augmented by a supporting cast that includes Rachel House (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Jessica De Gouw (Reckless) and rugby league great Willie Mason (2004 NRL Grand Final). It’s an ideal Boxing Day binge.

Also on Stan: Our collective interest in the case of convicted triple murderer Erin Patterson is not abating – copies of Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein’s book on the saga, The Mushroom Tapes, are flying off the shelves. Now come the two concluding episodes of Revealed: Death Cap Murders (December 7), the detailed true-crime documentary led by The Age journalists who covered the story. September’s first episode covered the initial investigation into how three of Patterson’s lunch guests died after she served a beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms, and her subsequent arrest. The new episodes cover the revelations and the trial that drew global attention, with a slew of key witnesses among those interviewed.

November highlights: There were good grades for the satirical university campus mystery He Had It Coming, plus a chase across Italy in the extravagant AI thriller The Iris Affair.

Ella Purnell in season two of Fallout. Credit:

Amazon Prime Video

My top Amazon Prime Video recommendation is Fallout (December 17).

Amazon Prime Video took a big swing in April 2024 with the first season of this blockbuster video-game adaptation, which was set in a post-apocalyptic America where the monsters and the mayhem came thick and fast. A goofy, gory tone hit the spot, with standout performances from Walton Goggins (The White Lotus) as wasteland bounty hunter the Ghoul and Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets) as Lucy MacLean, the audience proxy who emerges from an underground idyll to experience above-ground chaos. Toting another serious budget, the second season finds the main characters converging on Las Vegas, as Lucy continues to search for her missing father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan, The Lowdown).

Also on Amazon Prime Video: Americans love a Christmas-themed comedy where the extended family comes home to mum and dad and shenanigans ensue. But you have to sift out a lot of dirt to find the gems, such as Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays. This year’s candidate is Oh. What. Fun. (December 3), which stars Michelle Pfeiffer (Scarface) as a holiday season perfectionist driven to her limits by a demanding family that includes Denis Leary (Rescue Me) as her husband, Felicity Jones (Train Dreams) as her daughter, and Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) as her granddaughter. The director is Michael Showalter, who delivered with The Big Sick.

November highlights: With David Duchovny starring, the British thriller Malice gave us the super-wealthy as we most like them: suffering.

Cheetah cubs in Born to be Wild.Credit:

Apple TV

My top Apple TV recommendation is Born to Be Wild (December 19).

Apple TV has steadily been accumulating a catalogue of high-end nature documentaries, including David Attenborough’s The Blue Planet, Big Beasts and Earth at Night. Each delivers family-friendly viewing through the latest technology and an immersive intimacy. Narrated by Hugh Bonneville (Downtown Abbey), Born to Be Wild was filmed over several years across three continents as it documents the journey of different animals – from an elephant calf and young cheetahs to African penguins and Iberian lynx kittens – who are returning to their traditional habitats after being rescued and fostered by conservation programs. It’s a story of resilience and rehabilitation, in their world and ours.

November highlights: Starting with an all-time plot twist, Pluribus was the gripping new science-fiction series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, while Kristen Wiig and Laura Dern returned for a new season of Palm Royale.

Hard Quiz: Battle of the Networks with (from left) Larry Emdur, Leigh Sales, Tom Gleeson, Angela Bishop and Karl Stefanovic. 

ABC iview

My top iview recommendation is Hard Quiz: Battle of the Networks (December 17).

Ever wondered how Hard Quiz interrogator Tom Gleeson would fare if the contestants on his quiz show were television veterans undaunted by the studio lights? The answer should be revealed in this holiday season special, which has four familiar Australian television names bringing their area of expertise (and ability to trade sly banter) onto the Hard Quiz set. Ten’s Angela Bishop will be tested on her Phil Collins knowledge, Seven’s Larry Emdur is sticking close to home with Australian game shows, ABC alumni Leigh Sales will be revealing her knowledge of TV show openers, and Nine’s Karl Stefanovic has all of Australian cricket to master.

November highlights: Australia’s sturdy electoral system was celebrated with Annabel Crabb’s Civic Duty.

Sam Claflin and Ana Girardot in The Count of Monte Cristo.Credit:

SBS On Demand

My top SBS On Demand recommendation is The Count of Monte Cristo (December 13).

It makes sense to turn this classic 19th century adventure tale into a streaming series, given that French author Alexandre Dumas wrote it as a serialised tale published in the newspaper Journal des debats between 1844 and 1846. This English-language adaptation follows Edmund Dantes (Sam Claflin, Daisy Jones & the Six), a young sailor who returns home to marry his sweetheart but is unjustly accused of treason and sent without trial to a forbidding island prison. His many years inside include an education from a fellow prisoner (Jeremy Irons, Watchmen), and when he reaches freedom, Edmund pursues his enemies in high society Paris. It’s the foundation tale of hope and vengeance.

November highlights: Fargo came to Freo with the darkly comic story of feuding siblings covering up a crime in Reckless, plus the top new Kiwi comedy Warren’s Vortex.

A still from the documentary Predators by David Osit.Credit:

Other streamers

My top recommendation for the other streaming services is Paramount+’s Predators (December 8)

Acclaimed after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, David Osit’s documentary dissects the impact of To Catch a Predator, the US network television show that aired between 2004 and 2008. The reality series used undercover stings to lure men to houses where they believed they would have a sexual encounter with a minor they had met online. The decoys were all over the age of 18, and the men would be greeted by host Chris Hansen, camera crews and law enforcement officers. The show was a hit, but the ethical and legal issues it raised, particularly regarding entrapment, were extensive. To Catch a Predator also spawned numerous unofficial copycats, which is just part of its complicated legacy.

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Also: Dedicated to the breadth of world cinema, the streaming platform Mubi is a global favourite of arthouse movie devotees. Now it’s adding original series to its catalogue, starting with The New Years (December 3). Each of the 10 episodes in the Spanish series takes place on a New Year’s Eve, beginning in Madrid where Ana (Iria del Rio) and Oscar (Francesco Carril) first meet at a party and begin a complex relationship. The show is made with cinematic long takes and a deliberately diverse tone – one episode might be framed as a romantic-comedy, another as a surreal interlude. Challenging is an integral Mubi quality.

November highlights: Paramount+’s Ghosts Australia was a worthy local edition of the hit supernatural sitcom franchise, while 10Play’s The Celebrity Traitors gave fans of the insightful British reality series a welcome extra dose of deception.

*Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

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