Looking for some extra Xmas gifts? How about some top-notch new streaming releases this coming week in the form of the return of Squid Game, the musical adaptation of The Color Purple, the VOD debut of Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2, Tyler Perry’s WWII drama The Six Triple Eight, the final season of Marvel’s What If…?, and more?!
SERIES
What If…? S3
22 December 2024 – Disney+
I guess this serves as my official reminder that I need to finally scratch What If…?’s second season off my backlog so that I can get cracking on Marvel’s reality-hopping animated show’s third season and final season next week. Especially since I have a pretty strong feeling that we may see elements from this show popping up in either 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday or 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars on the big screen, much like how we got What If…? season one’s Captain Carter making her live-action debut in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Either way, What If…? has always had cool story ideas and jaw-dropping animation, so watch it!
White Lies S1
23 December 2024 – Showmax
If you’ve heard the hype about British actress and Game of Thrones alum Natalie Dormer starring in an “eye-popping and Sherlock Holmesian” local South African murder mystery series, well now you can see what all the fuss was about for yourself as MNet’s White Lies makes its streaming debut on Showmax next week. Dormer stars as Edie, an investigative journalist looking into the murder of her estranged brother in his luxury Bishopscourt home, of which his own teenage children are the prime suspects. As if that was not complicated enough, Edie also finds herself bumping heads with the veteran police detective assigned to the case, who has his own ideas about what truly happened.
Doctor Who Christmas Special: Joy to the World
25 December 2024 – Disney+
Christmas Day each year sees an impossible man break the laws of time and space and beams into millions of households around the world to bring joy. No, not Santa Claus! I’m talking about the Doctor! Ncuti Gatwa’s infectiously cheerful new version of the beloved Galifreyan Time Lord gets his second Christmas special under the tenure of returned showrunner Russell T. Davies with Joy to the World. And this time things are getting even more timey-whimey as the Doctor finds himself in a “time hotel” that links to Christmases everywhere all at once. Joining the Gatwa’s Doctor is Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan as the eponymous Joy, who is about to get caught up in an unimaginable adventure.
Squid Game S2
26 December 2024 – Netflix
26 December a.k.a. Boxing Day, is generally a day of unwinding and relaxing with loved ones after the frantic pressure of Christmas Day. And what better way to do that than watch a group of desperate people from all walks of life being brutalized and killed in a nerve-wracking series of games, all in the quest of a big pile of life-changing money? Yes, Squid Game is back! The record-breaking global sensation picks up three years after Lee Jung-Jae’s Seong Gi-hun a.k.a. Player 456 won the game and a chance at his dream life overseas… except Player 456 gave up on that dream and signed up again for another round of life-or-death games with strangers. Why would he do that? Well, we’re going to have to watch to find out!
MOVIES
A Quiet Place: Day One
20 December 2024 – Showmax
A Quiet Place was a tour-de-force directorial debut for John Krasinski in 2018, breathing new life into the post-apocalyptic horror genre with its tense tale of a world overrun by extra-terrestrials that hunt by sound. It somehow even managed to produce a fantastic sequel, which hinted in its opening frame of how that invasion initially takes place. Prequel/spinoff A Quiet Place: Day One now expands on those hints to tell the full story of the alien invasion, but this time from the POV of Lupita Nyong’o’s Samira, a new character to the franchise who finds herself in New York City with her service cat Frodo on the day the world as she knows it comes to an end. Supported by Joseph Quinn and Nat Wolff, Nyong’s Sam has a much more character-driven story, resulting in a film that is not quite as scary as its predecessors. But as Noelle says in her 8/10 review, “thanks to emotive, likeable performances and a “show don’t tell” approach to world-building, Day One still emerges as a smart and (mostly) satisfying blockbuster for people who prefer something a bit more intimate, and heartening mixed in with the apocalyptic gloom.”
The Six Triple Eight
20 December 2024 – Netflix
As tragic and horrific as it actually was, World War II has given us some incredible stories of courage and heart on the big screen. There are many stories that have been left untold, as they just never got the representation they deserved. The Six Triple Eight is one such story. Written, directed, and produced by Tyler Perry, this WWII drama Kerry Washington as Major Charity Adams, the commanding officer of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color to serve overseas in WWII, the “Six Triple Eight”, as they were known colloquially, would face a mission unlike any other: to restore hope to WWII’s frontlines by delivering over 17 million backlogged letters.
Sugarcane
22 December 2024 – Disney+
And sticking with the theme of telling untold stories, Sugarcane is a harrowing new documentary feature film that tells of the investigation into the Canadian Indian residential school system, and the incendiary fallout from it. Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, this story began when a series of unmarked graves are found on the grounds of a native residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada, unearthing a history of abuse and neglect, of which the victims and survivors have been forced into silence by a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities.
The Color Purple
23 December 2024 – Showmax
Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel The Color Purple has seen its fair share of adaptations, the most famous being Steven Spielberg’s 11-time Oscar-nominated 1985 film that gave Whoopie Goldberg her breakthrough role and Oprah Winfrey her acting debut. When the story was turned into a Broadway musical in 2005, it was once again a smash-hit, earning 11 Tony Award nominations in its original run from 2005 to 2008, and then scoring two Tony wins in 2016 after it was revived for a second run. And it’s this stage musical version which has now been adapted to the screen. Directed by Blitz Bazawule, and produced by Spielberg and the recently late musical legend Quincy Jones, this adaptation stars Grammy winner Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi. Set against the backdrop of Georgia in the early 1900s, the story centres on Celie (Barrino, in her film debut), who endures countless hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the decades-long unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
Juror #2
Purchase: Apple TV – R170
Rental: Apple TV – R45
Nicholas Hoult will be taking on arguably his most high-profile role next year as Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s much-anticipated Superman reboot, his second comic book movie gig after his tenure as a young Beast in the X-Men movie franchise. But it’s not all silly comic book stuff for Hoult as he recently kept things very grounded and serious in Juror #2, the latest star-studded film from Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood. In the mystery drama Hoult plays Justin Kemp, a young family man called up for jury duty on a big case in which a man is accused of killing his girlfriend after a drunken altercation at a bar. But what if the accused didn’t do the killing? What if Justin has a direct link to the very murder which he is supposed to be deliberating on that he was not aware of until now, leaving him in a major moral conundrum? Toni Colette, J.K. Simmons, and Kiefer Sutherland co-star.