Cozy up over the holidays with a Witcher spinoff, heartbreaking animal documentary or a Matilda musical No images? [Click here](
ID=167008;size=700x180;setID=556351;uid={EMAIL}7192949;click=watch-list; [TheWrap - SUMMER TV WATCH LIST] Week of December 24 â 30 Ho-ho-ho! Christmas is finally here and with it, hopefully, some time off. But what to fill these snuggly wintertime days with? How about a lot of great television? Because this week weâve got Michelle Yeoh in a âWitcherâ spin-off, a new Noah Baumbach movie, a heartbreaking documentary and plenty for the kids â from a live âEncantoâ special to a musical version of âMatildaâ to a brand-new Walt Disney Animation Studios film! Everybody in the house will be happy this holiday! On with the television! [Premiere of the week]
âThe Witcher: Blood OriginâSunday, December 25, Netflix [The Witcher Blood Origin] Photo: Netflix Michelle Yeohâs very big year concludes with an appearance in this, the brand-new spin-off of Netflixâs âThe Witcher.â âThe Witcher: Blood Originâ is set 1,200 years before the events of the mainline television show, exploring an ancient Elven community before it went extinct. Yeoh plays one member of a band of merry warriors in the lead-up to the creation of the very first Witcher (Sophia Brown and Laurence O’Fuarain are some of the other warriors). Chances are if youâre a fan of âThe Witcher,â then this four-part miniseries will be edifying. And since itâs a prequel series, if youâve never seen watched âThe Witcher,â this could be a good start. At the very least, the trailer promises epic battles, otherworldly creatures, mystical vortexes and Minnie Driver. Sounds like a witchy good time! [[TRAILER](]
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âZiweâSunday, December 25 at 11 p.m., Showtime Photo: Showtime Somehow it makes perfect sense that âZiweâsâ season two finale is airing on Christmas night and its theme is âJuneteenth.â Itâs unclear if Ziwe Fumudohâs cutting edge, button-pushing talk show will be back for a third season. If it doesnât, we have no doubt that itâll go out on a high note. [[TRAILER](]
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âWhite NoiseâFriday, December 30, Netflix [White Noise] Photo: Netflix For his first adaptation, filmmaker Noah Baumbach chose a whopper â Don DeLilloâs supposedly unfilmable 1985 novel âWhite Noise.â Adam Driver plays a professor at a leafy New England college (he teaches Hitler Studies) whose wife (Baumbachâs partner Greta Gerwig) he suspects of popping pills and whose boisterous family, mostly cobbled together from the children of their previous marriages, is a tornado of endless crosstalk and jibber jabber. Baumbach would probably be happy to just stay in their cloistered, dysfunctional enclave, but there are bigger issues here â primarily a train wreck that has unleashed a noxious cloud (classified as an âairborne toxic eventâ) that threatens their small town and allows for Baumbach to indulge in bigger action sequences that border on the Spielbergian. You can feel, while watching it, Baumbach using the endless runway afforded him after the success of his brilliant, Oscar-winning âMarriage Story,â to make something truly exceptional and definitely sprawling. And the movieâs very end, [an elaborate dance sequence]( set to a killer new LCD Soundsystem song, serves as the perfect postmodern punctuation. What a ride. [[TRAILER](]
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âWildcatâFriday, December 30, Prime Video [Wildcat] Photo: Prime Video This looks like itâll rip your heart out. From the studio that recently made you fall in love with a couple of Mars rovers (in the excellent documentary âGood Night Oppyâ), get ready for the adorable and we are assuming tragic relationship between a veteran and a wildcat, deep in the South American jungle. According to the official synopsis, a young British soldier recovering from his time in Afghanistan travels to South America where he âmeets a young female scientist running a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, and his life finds new meaning as he is entrusted with the life of an orphaned baby ocelot. What was meant to be an attempt to escape from life turns out to be an unexpected journey of love, discovery, and healing.â Get ready to get choked up. [[TRAILER](]
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âNational Lampoonâs Christmas VacationâHBO Max [christmas-vacation] Photo: Warner Bros. Judging by how many times itâs played on television this time of year and how lovingly its spoken about today, âNational Lampoonâs Christmas Vacationâ is a bona-fide Christmas classic. And it should be! The whip smart script by John Hughes rivals his other Christmas comedy favorite âHome Aloneâ and Chevy Chase, as Clark the leader of the bumbling Griswold family, actually has some depth and dimension as a dad wanting to give his family the greatest holiday ever. (Beverly D’Angelo deserves just as much applause as his long-suffering wife.) There are so many memorable set pieces in this movie, from the family chopping down the Christmas tree to Clarkâs attempts at putting on an epic light display. And Randy Quaidâs performance as Uncle Eddie is superb. Itâs also notable for featuring work from two geniuses who we lost earlier this year â Ralph Eggelston, who would contribute pioneering work to Pixar, was responsible for âChristmas Vacationâsâ animated title sequence; and composer Angelo Badalamenti, who gave the movie its lush, occasionally sinister, score. Watch âNational Lampoonâs Christmas Vacationâ again for them. And for you. [[WATCH](]
[- - -] [Premiere of the week] âRoald Dahlâs Matilda: The MusicalâSunday, December 25, NetflixSee if you can follow this: this is a feature adaptation of a Broadway and West End musical that was based in part on the Roald Dahl novel âMatildaâ that also serves as a remake to the live-action movie that starred Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. (Got all that?) This latest iteration has a truly insane cast (Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough) and people seemed to enjoy the stage version well enough. This could be the perfect thing to watch with the family this Christmas break (along with a couple of other chestnuts elsewhere on this list). [[TRAILER](] âTreasonâMonday, December 26, NetflixFrom the co-writer of Steven Spielbergâs âBridge of Spiesâ Matt Chapman, âTreasonâ looks like a twisty turny British spy thriller about the fallout after the head of the British intelligence agency MI-6 (Ciarán Hinds) is taken out of commission by an attempted assassination. Charlie Cox is the young, potentially compromised agent who steps up to the top job and attempts to untangle the mystery; Olga Kurylenko is a femme fatale. Weâre in. [[TRAILER](] âEncanto at the Hollywood BowlâWednesday, December 28, Disney+Everybody loves âEncanto.â This is just a fact. And a few weeks ago at the Hollywood Bowl, Disney put on an incredible live show that united the original, very adorable cast for a state production/watch-along that was really unlike anything weâve ever seen (we were there). Thankfully, they filmed it for the rest of the world and this should be a total delight. Watch as the iconic architecture of the Bowl is transformed into the Casa Madrigal via projection mapping and other magic only Disney could conjure. And yes, they do talk about Bruno. [[TRAILER](] âThis Place RulesâFriday, December 30 at 11 p.m., HBOA feature-length documentary from gonzo Internet journalist Andrew Callaghan, âThis Place Rulesâ charts the rise in extremism in the runup to the January 6 insurrection. Produced by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim and featuring a sequence where Callaghan drinks whiskey and lifts weights with Alex Jones, this is probably the closest weâll get to a third âBoratâ movie, at least for a while. [[TRAILER](] âStrange WorldâDisney+âStrange Worldâ is Disneyâs latest animated feature, a rip-roaring adventure fantasy that was all but lost when it opened earlier this year. Thankfully, Disney quickly shuffled the movie onto Disney+ (it quietly debuted there last week). And it really is worth your time. [Itâs the story]( of a family of explorers who travel deep into the earth to try and uncover the mystery behind their dying energy source, itâs full of wacky creatures, grand action set pieces and lovable characters (our favorite is Legend, the familyâs adorable three-legged dog named after actual Disney Legend Burny Mattinson). With some time off, itâs an excellent opportunity to explore this âStrange World.â [[TRAILER](] [- - -] That does it for this weekâs edition of The Wrapâs Winter TV Watch List.
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