What to watch on streaming in December across Netflix, Disney, Stan, Prime Video and more

GOODBYE, JUNE (Netflix, 24th)

Tis the season … to work with your kids. Kate Winslet is making her directorial debut with Goodbye, June, a film written by her son with Sam Mendes, Joe Anders. This Christmas family drama looks to be a reliable tear-jerker thanks to its combination of a story about four siblings whose mother is on her death bed, and a cracker cast including Winslet, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall and Johnny Flynn.

AMADEUS (Binge, 21st)

Will Sharpe has many facets but given his better-known recent roles include The White Lotus and Too Much, you can totally see why he was a great pick to play the impish Mozart to Paul Bettany’s imperious Salieri. Peter Schaffer’s acclaimed play is mined for new life by Joe Barton, the British screenwriter behind Black Doves and Giri/Haji, to explore the bitterness, jealousy and artistic temperaments that defined a rivalry between music masters.

SUNNY NIGHTS (Stan, 26th)

What trouble could two Americans possibly get into in Sydney? Apparently, loads, especially when Willy Mason is involved. The show is Sunny Nights, and it’s a local comedy with two US leads in the form of beloved comedy personalities Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden. They play a brother and sister trying to launch a spray tan business but with big dreams and almost no money, it doesn’t take them long to get caught up in Sydney’s underground. Mason makes his acting debut and there’s also an exploding crocodile.

EMILY IN PARIS S5 (Netflix, 18th)

Ciao, bella! Emily Cooper is still reinforcing stereotypes about Americans in Europe and she’s not about to apologise for it. Why would she when everyone inexplicably fall all over her? Technically it’s a comedy, but Emily in Paris has always operated in the realm of fantasy – how else to explain her bewitching of all who cross her path? This season finds her still in Rome, with a side-trip to Venice, but presumably at some point she’ll have to return to the City of Lights, it’s in the title.

FALLOUT S2 (Prime, 17th)

Nuclear winter is no joke, especially when survivors run the risk of being irradiated and turn into noseless ghouls. Yikes, we’re very pro-noses here, although no disrespect if you lack one. The post-apocalyptic action-thriller adapted from the popular video game series returns with a second season that explores more of the mysteries of its world. Will all those frozen middle-managers in vault 31 be thawed out? Will The Ghoul find his family? What is going on with Kyle MacLachlan? And is the promise of New Vegas going to live up to expectations? Allow Walton Goggins to be your noseless guide.

THE ABANDONS (Netflix, 4th)

Thanks to the volume of streaming, every genre is enjoying a renaissance moment, and that’s certainly true for westerns. Everyone wants to capitalise on the popularity of the now-departed Yellowstone, so why not put Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson in some big hats and have them face off against each other?

The two grand dames play matriarchs of very different families – one poor and gritty, the other rich and cruel – in 1850s Oregon as they vie for power and survival. Created by Sons of Anarchy’s Kurt Sutter.

OH. WHAT. FUN. (Prime, 3rd)

Such is our existence that every Christmas brings with it reams and reams of new festive movies, most of which doesn’t bear acknowledgement.

To stand out, you have to do what Oh. What. Fun. and filmmaker Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer) does - put Michelle Pfeiffer in your movie, and surround her with a cast which includes Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, Denis Leary, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria and Danielle Brooks.

Pfeiffer plays the matriarch of the Clausters, who always pulls out the stops for Christmas, but this year, she’s vanished.

STRANGER THINGS S5.2 (Netflix, 26th)

Wow, how about that final shot in the fourth episode of Stranger Things season five? Doesn’t it make you desperate to see what happens next? Episodes five to seven will release on Boxing Day, the perfect time for a reprieve from your family and the cricket (that’s a thing, right?).

The stakes are life-and-death for not just the characters but the whole world, and only this ragtag group of Hawkins residents stands between our reality and the Upside Down. The ultimate showdown, though, won’t drop until New Year’s Day.

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE END OF AN ERA (Disney+, 12th)

Taylor Swift is always going to Taylor Swift. The woman is damn prolific, because she never wants you to forget her relevance.

This six-part docuseries will chart her experiences behind the scenes of her record-breaking Eras tour, promising new insight, never-before-seen footage and testimonials from the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Florence Welch, Ed Sheeran and Mr Swift aka Travis Kelce.

The series will drop two episodes at a time, weekly. On the same day is the release of the final cut of her concert film, captured in Toronto, now with Tortured Poets Department included in the setlist.

THE FAMILY MCMULLEN (HBO Max, 5th)

Sometimes it’s hard to remember what happened 30 years ago, but Ed Burns and The Brothers McMullen really had a moment there as a talky inheritor of Woody Allen.

The film about three brothers from Long Island now has a three-decades later sequel, The Family McMullen. Burns wrote, directed and starred in this follow-up with Connie Britton and Michael McGlone also returning, while new cast included Tracee Ellis Ross and Brian d’Arcy James.

We meet the McMullens again, plus a new generation, as they work through their various dating dilemmas.

WITH LOVE, MEGHAN: HOLIDAY CELEBRATION (Netflix, 3rd)

Hey, kids, Meghan Markles loves the holidays! Look, it’s fine, although it is always tempting to see how haters will twist her generic appreciation of all things festive into some polemic about why she’s ruining Christmas.

Watch, it’ll happen. Someone will write that piece. Meghan returns with her uninspired but inoffensive lifestyle series, and this time you’ll follow her as she picks out a tree, fashions wreathes and bakes cookies shaped like snowflakes, which someone will probably cite as evidence of a character deficit. Honestly, the discourse is way more dramatic than anything on screen.

MADE IN KOREA (Disney+, 24th)

With a title like that, is there any doubt where this series hails from? Just in time to cap off a year where Korean culture continued to storm Western markets, this 1970s-set crime drama will give international audiences a taste of its history mixed with thrills.

The main character is an intelligence agent who moonlights as a smuggler at night, and is amassing vast power until he meets an immovable object, a prosecutor who cannot be corrupted.

The series is directed by Woo Min-ho and has already been renewed for a second season, which suggests a lot of confidence from Disney.

THE GAME (Binge, 8th)

With a cast of “oh, they look familiar” faces, this British thriller series should scratch the itch for audiences who love nothing more than watching a retired cop try to catch a serial killer.

It’s a teeming genre, but crime lovers will find something in the story of the unfinished business of Detective Miller who still wants to nab the Ripton Stalker, even if it broke him and left his reputation in tatters.

His Spidey senses are tingling when a neighbour dies mysteriously and new tenant moves in and drops a common phrase that was associated with his nemesis.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS S2 (Disney+, 10th)

Based on Rick Riordan’s book series of the same name, this high concept fantasy series is playfully set in the world of Greek mythology, but don’t count on it being too faithful to the original stories.

No matter, neither were Hercules and Xena Warrior Princess. Here, the lead character is Percy, a demi-god and the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman.

The first season was well-received by OG fans, who appreciated the show’s fast-paced action and coming-of-age grounding. This follow-up instalment adapts Sea of Monsters and sends the heroes on an aquatic adventure to save Camp Half-Blood and their friend.

KEN BURNS’ THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (SBS On Demand, 7th)

Ken Burns is synonymous with American history and his incredibly respected documentaries are unparalleled in ambition and comprehensiveness.

This year, he turned his mind to the Revolutionary War in a six-part series that runs over 12 hours. This may be the thing your dad will most want to watch over the Christmas and New Year’s break.

Filmed across 150 locations for almost six months, the docuseries is a deep exploration of the founding stories of America, when the country erupted in conflict, ostensibly in the quest for a fairer and democratic future. Might have some resonance today, just a thought.

MAN VS BABY (Netflix, 11th)

Rowan Atkinson is a comedy genius partly because when you watch his stuff, you don’t see the seams of the hard work it takes to provoke those belly laughs with silly goofs.

He makes it seem effortless. This four-episode comedy is a follow-up to the 2022 series Man vs Bee, which was exactly what it sounds like. Now, after his chaotic encounters with the buzzers, Trevor (Atkinson) has taken a job as a school caretaker. It was meant to be quiet, but he finds himself guardian to a baby when the tyke in the nativity play isn’t picked up. What could go wrong?

ABBOTT ELEMENTARY S5 (Disney+, 17th)

Australian fans of Abbott Elementary have had to watch their American counterparts meme and laugh at the latest season of the workplace comedy while it stubbornly remained unavailable in the antipodes.

Finally, that’s about to change with the release of the fifth season which takes everyone back to Abbott, where the funding is never plentiful but the intentions are almost always good. This season will feature the shenanigans of a gas leak, a new teacher, cheating kids and a Halloween camping trip.

KUMAIL NANJIANI: NIGHT THOUGHTS (Disney+, 19th)

Whenever Kumail Nanjiani does anything, it’s worth paying attention. There is a sizeable population out there who only knows him as that nerdy Silicon Valley dude who went viral after he got seriously swole to play a Marvel hero in Eternals, but Nanjiani is a legit talent and incredible storyteller.

If you saw The Big Sick, which was based on his experiences as a Pakistani immigrant trying to make it in America and his real-life love story with wife Emily V. Gordon, you get it. Everyone else, it’s time to jump on the Kumail train, and why not start with this stand-up special.

DEATH IN/BEYOND PARADISE CHRISTMAS SPECIALS (Britbox, undated)

OK, it’s really cold in the northern hemisphere this time of the year, so it makes sense that instead of playing beach cricket, all the Brits are gathered around the TV with the throngs of Christmas specials.

There’s no Doctor Who chapter this year, but cosy crime staples Death in Paradise and its spin-off Beyond Paradise will fill that void. In the former, the case involves four friends waking up with killer hangovers only to find a stranger shot dead in the pool of their holiday rental.