In the words of Taylor Swift, we’re “back to December,†and while that spelled heartbreak for 2010 Taylor, it spells time for the holidays for everyone else. While there’s an absolute plethora of holiday movies to choose from, two new entries are vying for your Christmas-viewing rotation, most notably Matt Rogers’s new special, Have You Heard of Christmas? Here, the rest of our picks for this quiet post-holiday weekend:
Bullet Train
Bullet Train just feels like the kind of movie you’d find playing on TNT while flipping channels, and now, you can sort of have that feeling when it hits Netflix. Watch Brad Pitt get his ass kicked, Bad Bunny look menacing and still hot, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry steal the show as a heartfelt, shit-talking pair of assassin brothers. Where’s their spinoff?!
Violent Night
Honestly, it’s about time David Harbour played Santa Claus. Society needed it, and of course, in Violent Night, he plays a Santa who kicks ass, which is LOL. Who does he kick ass for? Well, while delivering his yearly presents, he finds himself in the house of a wealthy family getting captured by mercenaries. Great timing for them, truly. Violent Night may not enter the pantheon of all-time great Christmas movies, but it may induce a laugh and a cheer, so if you’re interested, why not check it out?
Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas?
The Las Culturistas co-host now has a comedy special doing what he does best: singing! Any Las Cultch fan knows Rogers (and Yang) end each podcast episode bursting into song, and in Rogers’s new Showtime special, he performs a hilarious hour-long ode to Christmas. It’ll be a fun addition to your holiday rotation.
Gossip Girl season 2
Sometimes I love mess, and Gossip Girl is very much that. To be honest, the first season of this reboot could’ve stood to be a lot messier (in terms of the scandal and drama). Just let the girlies be mean! But season two is looking like it’ll step that department up a bit. It does help that this season is bringing back OG Gossip Girl’s chaotic queen bitch Georgina Sparks (played by Michelle Trachtenberg).
Willow
It’s been a big past few months for fantasy shows. Now off the heels of The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon, Lucasfilm is keeping the ball rolling with Willow, a fantastical adventure series based on the 1988 film of the same name. Warwick Davis returns as the eponymous hero-slash-sorcerer and is joined by Willow newcomers like Solo actress Erin Kellyman, Tony Revolori, Ruby Cruz, Dempsey Bryk, and more as this new group of characters venture off onto a life-threatening quest. You know the drill.
Also! Read our streaming recommendations from the long holiday weekend of November 23. Vulture’s next list of weekend streaming picks goes online Friday, December 9.