TV Watchlist: 'The Crown' Ends, 'Reacher' Returns and Mark Wahlberg Has the Family Plan

Plus the final "Doctor Who" special hits Disney+ and a new "Chicken Run" movie on Netflix Plus the final "Doctor Who" special hits Disney+ and a new "Chicken Run" movie on Netflix Week of December 9 – 15 Nothing beats cozying up by the fireplace, especially if there’s a flat-screen TV hung above it. And this week’s TV and streaming line-up is filled with warm and fuzzy returns, perfect for the cozy wintertime vibe, with “Reacher,” “The Crown” (for its final batch of episodes) and “Doctor Who” (for the final Christmas special before the new season) all making a return, along with a long-awaited “Chicken Run” sequel, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” and a new “30 for 30” doc on ESPN. But even the new offerings seem perfect for a snuggly night in, from a high concept Mark Wahlberg movie (“The Family Plan”) to a doc about our relationship with trees (“Trees and Other Entanglements”) and an adult animated series about the apocalypse (“Carol & the End of the World”). Grab your blanket! On with the television! Reacher Friday, December 15, Prime Video Source: Prime Video Jack Reacher, the man who is described in the books as having hands the size of baseball mitts (in one particularly memorable moment from the books he crushed a bad guy’s head in his hands), is back for a sophomore season. For season 2, “Reacher” is adapting Lee Child’s novel “Bad Luck and Trouble,” which was the 11th book in the series published (back in 2007) and is set in Los Angeles (which means they probably filmed it in Montreal). This time around Reacher (played, quite well, by Alan Ritchson), is embroiled in a mystery that involves his old army buddies getting bumped off one by one, leading to Reacher exposing an elaborate conspiracy. (Are there any other kinds of conspiracies?) Also Robert Patrick is in this season, which lends it some more action movie grit. This season is based on one of Child’s best, most propulsive books, and Amazon seems very happy with the outcome too – “Reacher” has already been renewed for a third season. Three episodes premiere on Dec. 15, with installments then debuting weekly through January 19. Buckle up. [[TRAILER](] Doctor Who: The Giggle Saturday, December 9, Disney+ Source: Disney+/BBC Less a finale and more of a “we’ll be right back,” “The Giggle” is the third and final of the “Doctor Who” Christmas specials that saw David Tennant return to the role of Doctor Who (for those keeping track he was the 10th Doctor and now the 14th), alongside his erstwhile companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). The specials also saw the return of Russell T. Davies, who was the showrunner of the series back in 2005, and the first collaboration between the BBC and Disney. And it could have just been an odd little trifle, but the shows are some of the most emotionally compelling, exciting and fun episodes of television in 2023. And the big finale sees Neil Patrick Harris show up as the villainous Toymaker, while Ncuti Gatwa will make his debut as the 15th Doctor. Have the TARDIS on standby. [[TRAILER](] Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Friday, December 15, Netflix Source: Netflix Finally, the long international nightmare is over. Aardman Animation’s “Chicken Run” returns. The long-awaited sequel to the 2000 film, which would become the highest-grossing stop-motion animated feature ever, sees the formula of the first film inverted. Instead of a prison escape movie, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” sees the chickens trying to break into the farm, to free some young hostages from becoming nuggets. (Think more “Mission: Impossible” than “The Great Escape.”) Directed by Aardman veteran Sam Fell (who directed the underrated “Flushed Away” among many other projects for the studio), the sequel features the voices of Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Nick Mohammed and Miranda Richardson. The film debuted earlier this year at the BFI London Film Festival, where it was warmly received. A “Chicken Run” sequel is not something to cluck about. [[TRAILER](] Trees and Other Entanglements Tuesday, December 12 at 8 p.m., HBO Source: HBO This documentary looks utterly fascinating. What could have been some ho-hum documentary about trees instead looks really moving and involving. According to the official synopsis, filmmaker Irene Taylor’s “Trees and Other Entanglements” is a “poetic meditation on nature, mortality, and the passage of time in her exploration of our symbiotic nexus with trees.” The doc “uses artful imagery, photography, and animation to weave together several stories of arboreal adoration. What unfolds is a human tale of our connection to both the natural world and one another.” Count us in! [[TRAILER](] Robin Robin Netflix Source: Netflix With “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” Aardman’s latest stop-motion marvel, premiering on Netflix, why not revisit “Robin Robin,” which has the benefit of being a) a Christmas special and b) 32-minutes long. This miraculous little film, directed by actual wizards Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, follows Robin (Bronte Carmichael), a bird that has been raised by a family of mice, as she searches for acceptance. Instead of the typical Claymation-style animation, “Robin Robin” utilizes an arts-and-crafts-y aesthetic, with the characters crafted from felt. It’s utterly intoxicating. And if you aren’t sobbing by the end, you might be a cyborg. When “Robin Robin” became the first Aardman/Netflix joint, it was clear that this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. [[WATCH](] Source: Apple TV+ “30 for 30: The Great Heisman Race of 1997” Saturday, December 9 at 9 p.m., ESPN Every “30 for 30” documentary is great. Even if you have no interest in sports or, indeed, documentaries. The latest, “The Great Heisman Race of 1997” uses an immersive approach to tell “the story of the Heisman Trophy race of 1997, going back a quarter century to chronicle a season that fans will never forget, with future Hall of Famers Peyton Manning and Charles Woodson headlining a cast of legendary players – and living at the center of a debate that still lives on all these years later” (according to the official press release). It will be made available to stream on ESPN+ immediately after its debut on linear ESPN. What a catch. [[TRAILER](] “The Crown” Thursday, December 14, Netflix After the first four episodes of the sixth and final season of Peter Morgan’s monolithic “The Crown” appeared on Netflix last month, we now get the very end of the show – the six last episodes. Once again Morgan has written or co-written every episode, with the timeline of the show ending up somewhere around 2005. But considering Queen Elizabeth II’s recent passing, could it flash forward even further? There is only one way to find out, as they say. And that’s to tune in. One last time. [[TRAILER](] “Carol & the End of the World” Friday, December 15, Netflix Dan Guterman, a veteran of The Onion whose past credits include “The Colbert Report,” “Community” and “Rick & Morty,” created this new adult animated series, a kind of apocalyptic comedy about who you become at the end of the world. Martha Kelly plays the titular Carol, a drab woman in a drab world, who when faced with a planet hurtling towards earth, feels beholden to her obligations while others engage in hedonistic extremes. The animation style is really beguiling (it was animated by Vancouver studio Bardel Entertainment) and the story seems offbeat and (potentially) quite emotional. Time to spend some time with Carol, even if it is the end of the world. [[TRAILER](] “The Family Plan” Friday, December 15, Apple TV+ High concept action comedy incoming! In “The Family Man,” which shouldn’t be confused to the similarly titled “Family Switch” (because that one’s on Netflix), Mark Wahlberg plays a committed family man with a dark secret – he was once a government assassin. And, wouldn’t you know it, his past comes back to haunt him, leading Wahlberg to take his family on a “vacation” to Las Vegas where he can confront the man who is after him. This sounds incredibly similar to countless movies – we are thinking specifically of the underappreciated, very R-rated “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” which had an added element of amnesia. But that’s okay. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Plus “The Family Man,” from Skydance, has a killer (see what we did there?) cast that includes Maggie Q, Michelle Monaghan and Ciarán Hinds. While this will definitely be a more smoothed down action comedy, it’ll be one that the whole family can watch, which is what everybody really wants from a Christmastime streaming movie. Right? [[TRAILER](] “Such Brave Girls” Friday, December 15, Hulu This A24-produced “family sitcom about trauma” (according to creator and star Kat Sadler) originally premiered on BBC Three last month. But now it’s all ours! The series was warmly received by British critics and the trailer is really, really funny (you can watch it below). The best part? All episodes are available to stream starting today. Ready to binge? [[TRAILER](] 2034 Armacost Ave. | Los Angeles, CA 90025 [Unsubscribe](