What's new on Netflix, Prime, Disney, Crave, Apple, CBC Gem, Criterion

A weekly round-up of the new movies and TV series on Netflix, Crave, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, CBC Gem and Criterion Channel

New on Netflix

One certainly can’t accuse Ryan Murphy of under-delivering on his deal with Netflix. The Prom (Dec. 11) is his fifth Netflix project of 2020, though it may well be the least. A garish, one-note adaptation of a hit Broadway musical, it stars Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman and Andrew Rannells — see my review here. Also hitting the service today are Giving Voice, a documentary about the August Wilson monologue competition, and the Spanish mystery series The Mess You Leave Behind. On Dec. 14, you can stream A California Christmas, a Hallmark-ish Netflix original that adds to the already-crowded pool of Christmas rom-coms. On that same day you can also stream Tiny Pretty Things, a Toronto-shot ballet series starring Lauren Holly.

On Dec. 15, you can stream the newest season of the music show Song Exploder as well as season 7 of Paw Patrol — so you can add some brand new chaotic background noise to your life. In other Christmas content news, the South African series How to Ruin Christmas: The Wedding drops on Dec. 16 alongside true-crime miniseries The Ripper, about British serial killer Peter “The Yorkshire Ripper” Sutcliffe. It’s a small week in terms of catalogue titles: the only two “new old” movies hitting the service are Lee Daniels’ The Butler and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.

New on Amazon Prime Video

Rachel Griffiths stars in The Wilds, a show about a group of young girls who find themselves stranded on a deserted island. One assumes that, this being more or less the premise of Lost, it’s going to go in a different direction. It has, indeed, been described as a “survivalist adventure.” It hits Amazon Prime today alongside I’m Your Woman, a ’70s-set crime drama starring Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) — see my review here. Season 5 of the sci-fi show The Expanse hits on Dec. 15 alongside all seven seasons of Elementary. The Indian anthology film Unpaused streams on Amazon as of Dec. 17 alongside Roger Michell’s family drama Blackbird, starring Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill and Kate Winslet.

New on Disney Plus

Jay Reeves, Thaddeus J. Mixson and James Badge Dale star in Reginald Hudlin’s inspirational football drama Safety, which streams on Disney Plus as of today alongside Ralph Breaks the Internet and the latest episode of The Mandalorian.

New on Crave

Frank Marshall (Congo, Arachnophobia) directs The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, a feature-length documentary about the life and times of the baroque-pop-turned-disco sibling group. It’s available to stream on Crave / HBO as of Dec. 12. Also available on the service as of today are the animated Scooby-Doo reboot Scoob!, the telepathic-dog drama Think Like a Dog starring Josh Duhamel and Megan Fox and the recent musical reboot of the ’80s classic comedy Valley Girl. A little later this week, on Dec. 16, you can stream the documentary The Art of Political Murder, a documentary about the murder of Guatemalan human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi.

New on Apple TV Plus

Today marks the release of Wolfwalkers, an animated feature film set in a fantastical version of Ireland in which some people are rumoured to turn into wolves at night. Reviews are almost uniformly positive for the film, which first premiered at TIFF earlier this year.

New on CBC Gem

Season one of the acclaimed British drama Call the Midwife is available on CBC Gem as of today. It tells the story of midwives working in London’s East End in the 1950s. For the Record is an anthology show in which each episode uses a song to bring two soulmates together. Sir David Attenborough narrates both Great Barrier Reef and India’s Wild Karnataka; the first is a four part series while the other is an hour-long documentary.

New on Criterion Channel

Alain Berliner’s documentaries are featured this week in a four-part retrospective streaming as of Monday, Dec. 14. On Dec. 16, you can catch a whole heap of shorts from French filmmaker Marie Losier — not to mention two of her feature-length documentaries, including one about the late Genesis P-Orridge — and three awkward comedy features from Rick Alverson on Dec. 17. ■

See what’s new on Netflix Canada here.

For what’s new on Crave, click here.

Find out what’s new on Amazon Prime Video here.

See what’s new on Disney Plus here.

For what’s new on CBC Gem, click here.

Find out what’s new on Apple TV Plus here.

See what’s new on Criterion Channel here.

For more film and TV coverage, please visit the Film & TV section.

A weekly round-up of the new movies and TV series on Netflix, Crave, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, CBC Gem and Criterion Channel