📺 Black Doves, Landman, The Day of the Jackal...
and The Sticky, plus 4 new TV shows and 4 new streaming movies to watch this week
Happy Thursday! Only 13 days left until Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah, so it’s gift-mode crunch-time for all who celebrate. ‘Tis the season for turning on a binge-worthy show in the background to bake, decorate, or wrap gifts to.
In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
Black Doves (Netflix)
Landman (Paramount+)
The Day of the Jackal (Peacock)
The Sticky (Prime Video)
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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Below is a selection of new shows and movies premiering this week. Our unabridged list of December releases, including theatrical releases and streaming debuts, is available here and published monthly for our premium subscribers.
No Good Deed (Season 1) — Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano lead this new dark comedy from Dead to Me creator Liz Feldman about three families vying to buy the same 1920s Spanish-style villa. Unbeknownst to them, the villa is actually haunted.
Watch on Netflix: December 12 (all 8 episodes)Dexter: Original Sin (Season 1) — This crime drama mystery prequel to Dexter features a star-studded cast including Patrick Gibson, Christian Slater, Christina Milian, and Patrick Dempsey.
Watch on Showtime: December 13 (1 of 10 episodes, weekly)Carry-On (Movie) — An airport security officer races to outsmart a mysterious traveler who forces him to let a dangerous item slip onto a Christmas Eve flight. Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman star.
Watch on Netflix: December 13Conclave* (Movie) — This psychological thriller follows a Cardinal (Ralph Fiennes) who uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the wake of the former Pope’s death.
Watch on Peacock: December 13 (*Streaming Premiere)Joker: Folie a Deux* (Movie) — In the follow-up to 2019’s Joker, Joaquin Phoenix reprises his role as Arthur Fleck/Joker, now awaiting trial for his crimes at Arkham. While there, he finds love with Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga).
Watch on Max: December 13 (*Streaming Premiere)Cuckoo* (Movie) — Cuckoo is a psychological horror film that stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens as two strangers who arrive at an idyllic mountain resort, only to find that not everything is as it seems.
Watch on Hulu: December 17 (*Streaming Premiere)Laid (Season 1) — Based on an Australian dark comedy, Laid follows a market researcher who discovers that every man she's ever dated is mysteriously dying. With her best friend, she embarks on a journey to find out why this is happening and stop the trail of deaths.
Watch on Peacock: December 19 (all 8 episodes)Virgin River (Season 6) — The picturesque town of Virgin River faces new challenges and changes as Mel, Jack, and the community navigate life, love, and loss.
Watch on Netflix: December 19 (all 10 episodes)
Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.
Black Doves
Keywords: spy thriller, drama, British
Watch if you like: Killing Eve, The Diplomat, Slow Horses
Jenni’s Rating: B-
This Christmas-time spy drama about sentimental killers has all the right ingredients to hook you without feeling too much like a hollow collection of recycled tropes.
When the British Defence Secretary’s wife (Keira Knightley), finds her position as a covert operative endangered, she’s drawn into a dangerous game. Her employer—a spies-for-hire organization trading secrets for the highest bidder—sends an old ally (Ben Whishaw) to protect her, setting off a tangled story of trust, betrayal, and survival in London’s political underworld.
Black Doves distinguishes itself mostly through the chemistry and performances of its leads. Knightley is refreshingly sharp and magnetic in a role that feels like it was tailor-made for her, while Whishaw captivates as a trigger man grappling with his conscience. Together, they elevate the series beyond its familiar genre tropes.
That’s not to say that this series is flawless. You’ll absolutely need to suspend your disbelief once, maybe twice per episode—to gloss over the spy gadgets and plot contrivances that stretch plausibility—but Black Doves makes it surprisingly easy to turn a blind eye, lean in, and get swept up in its high-stakes world.
With its compelling cast and sheer bingeability, it’s no surprise the show has already been renewed for a second season. If you’ve ever casually enjoyed a spy thriller, Black Doves deserves a spot on your watchlist.
— Jenni
Length: 40-min runtime, 1 season / 6 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Landman
Keywords: Western, melodrama, Taylor Sheridan
Watch if you like: Yellowstone, Lioness, Friday Night Lights
Jess’s Rating: D
Taylor Sheridan is the prolific writer-director-producer behind popular “dad Western” shows like Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and 1923, and his latest series follows his usual template. Set in the Permian Basin region of Texas, Landman is based on the 2019 podcast Boomtown, which explores how the oil industry drastically impacts the way of life for those around it. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Tommy Norris, a world-weary ”fixer” for a major oil company who bounces from crisis to crisis while trying to keep his CEO boss (Jon Hamm) appeased.
Like Yellowstone, Landman offers a dramatic depiction of the modern “Wild West” and all of the political scheming and underhanded machinations that run underneath a classic American industry. But if you’re here to understand what life is like in these parts of the country, lower your expectations. There’s an interesting story to tell about the way of life in oil-rich areas like these, but this isn’t that story. No doubt replete with inaccuracies and trumped up scenarios, this series is more interested in the political grandstanding and fawning over the wealthy we’ve come to expect from Sheridan than in dramatizing this Texan slice of life.
Most egregiously, Sheridan’s shortcomings when it comes to writing three-dimensional female characters has never been as evident as it is here. In the first episode, Tommy’s 17-year-old daughter spends much of the episode hanging around him and his coworkers in only her underwear while the older men try (and fail) to avoid gawking. She also tells her father in explicit detail about her sex life—something all teen daughters do, of course. And Ali Larter, as Tommy’s ex-wife, only exists to try to seduce him or to yell at him.
If you can look past the obscene male gaze that shaped this series, what remains is a serviceable melodrama—albeit one that feels vague and heavily derivative of Yellowstone.
— Jess
Length: 60-min runtime, 1 season / 5 of 10 episodes available now, weekly on Sundays
Watch on: Paramount+
The Day of the Jackal
Keywords: political thriller, assassin, action
Watch if you like: The Old Man, The Night Agent, The Bodyguard
Jess’s Rating: B
The Day of the Jackal modernizes the classic spy thriller of Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel. Set in the present day, the show follows an elite assassin known only as the Jackal (Eddie Redmayne), who kicks off the series with an inconceivably long range sniper hit on a German politician. The Jackal is later hired for another high-profile hit, but has to plan how to pull it off while being hunted down by Bianca (Lashana Lynch), an MI6 arms specialist who becomes obsessed with tracking him down.
More than any other aspect of the series, Eddie Redmayne is a reason to watch. He plays the Jackal with an incredible amount of nuance, weaponizing his typical mild-mannered charm to humanize a cold-blooded killer. His take on what could have otherwise been a one-note assassin brings ambiguity to the role, turning him into a lovable antihero.
Rather than rely on showy pyrotechnics and prolonged action sequences to keep the audience engaged, The Day of the Jackal expands on the cat-and-mouse thriller by exploring the the psyches of the two professionals at opposing ends of the hunt. The unexpected depth to these characters makes the series addictive—The Jackal isn't a faceless villain, but a complex figure with a family becoming increasingly suspicious of his secretive life. Similarly, Bianca's professional obsession comes at a personal cost, risking her family's safety in her relentless pursuit of justice.
Spy thrillers are a dime a dozen (especially right now; see Black Doves and The Agency) but this adaptation proves that a classic story can be reimagined for a modern audience. It’s a bit of a slow burn, and like many streaming shows it probably could have been 2 or 3 episodes shorter, but it’s captivating nonetheless.
— Jess
Length: 50-min runtime, 1 season / 10 episodes
Watch on: Peacock
The Sticky
Keywords: offbeat, dark comedy, Canadian
Watch if you like: Fargo, Barry, Deadloch
Jenni’s Rating: C+
Loosely based on the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2011 (a real thing, I checked), The Sticky delivers a tale of attempted robbery laced with plenty of dramatic irony and eccentric charm. When a maple farmer (Margo Martindale) discovers her land is under threat, she teams up with a small-time criminal (Chris Diamantopoulos) and an overlooked security guard (Guillaume Cyr) to try to steal millions of dollars worth of syrup.
While the premise leans into its silliness, there’s definitive grit beneath the humor. The series opens with the discovery of a dead body, and genuine threats of violence and loss loom throughout. This juxtaposition of quirk and crime in a small northern town evokes obvious comparisons to Fargo, though The Sticky feels like a sanded down version with significantly less edge.
The central trio of this series deliver strong performances, skillfully balancing the absurd with the earnest. And though the rest of the characters can be a bit larger-than-life, their eccentricities are fitting for the show’s unconventional tone. Co-executive producer Jamie Lee Curtis even makes a cameo that surprised and delighted me.
With its off-kilter humor, clever setups, and binge-friendly runtime, The Sticky offers a uniquely Canadian take on the heist genre. It may not stick the landing for everyone, but if you’re a fan of offbeat comedies or crime-dramedies like Fargo, this one’s worth a shot.
— Jenni
Length: 30-min runtime, 1 season / 6 episodes
Watch on: Prime Video
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Omg not D for landman 😭😭😭😭
I wanted to like The Sticky so much. I tried my best and agree with your grade