📺 Fake it til you make it
Happy Holidays! Earlier this week, Jess and I attended our first press screening in New York for the upcoming Peacock series, Paul T. Goldman. Yes, we’re very official now, thank you for noticing. The first three episodes will premiere on January 1st, but we’ll give you an inside scoop on our thoughts before then. Stay tuned!
In today’s edition:
Weekly watchlist
Welcome to Chippendales
The Recruit
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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We keep an eye on all of the new streaming content that is set to premiere. Here’s a list of new shows & movies to watch this week.
Glass Onion: Movie — The second Knives Out mystery is almost here! Daniel Craig will reprise his role as master detective Benoit Blanc taking on a new case.
Watch on Netflix: December 23
Alice in Borderland: Season 2 — The Squid Game-esque action thriller is back for a second season today, and I (Jess) am thrilled. If you missed it a few weeks ago, check out my Season 1 review here.
Watch on Netflix: December 22
Treason: Miniseries — Daredevil star Charlie Cox leads this limited series as the newly appointed head of MI6 who gets into trouble when his past catches up to him.
Watch on Netflix: December 26
Top Gun: Maverick: Movie — If you missed the best movie of 2022* when it was in theaters, now is your chance to stream it for free on Paramount+.
Watch on Paramount+: December 22
Matilda the Musical: Movie — The beloved Roald Dahl children’s book about a telekinetic young girl, adapted for film in 1996, then adapted for Broadway in 2011, is now back in cinematic form as a musical movie.
Watch on Netflix: December 25
*Jess’s opinion, Jenni refrains from comment.
Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.
Welcome to Chippendales
Keywords: true crime, drama, 80s
Watch if you like: The Dropout, Pam & Tommy, WeCrashed
Jess’s Rating: C+
From the creator of Pam & Tommy, Welcome to Chippendales is a true crime miniseries about the first male stripping empire and the series of murders surrounding it. Kumail Nanjiani stars as immigrant Somen “Steve” Banerjee who becomes the unlikely founder of the first major male strip club, Chippendales, in 1979. Kumail Nanjiani is well cast as the calculating businessman, and is joined by Emmy-winning Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) and Tony-winning Annaleigh Ashford.
The true story behind Banerjee’s meteoric rise and disastrous fall from grace is salacious and surreal, so it’s no surprise that it’s been made into a true crime dramatization (in following with the 2022 trend). There’s nothing glaringly bad about this show. The problem with the series, as is my problem with many of these dramatizations, is that it’s purely a retelling. The show doesn’t seem interested in examining the newness of women’s sexual freedom in this time period, or in the conflict of Banerjee’s racism as someone who has experienced racism throughout his life, or in the toxicity of the American Dream. It’s also 8 episodes when 4 would have sufficed. Just go watch Curse of the Chippendales, the docuseries, instead.
— Jess
Length: 45-min runtime, 1 season / 6 episodes out so far with new ones each Tuesday
Watch on: Hulu
The Recruit
Keywords: spy drama, gritty, comedy-thriller
Watch if you like: Chuck, The Rookie, Castle
Jenni’s Rating: D+
In this off-kilter spy thriller, Noah Centineo plays a rookie CIA lawyer who immediately gets in over his head after he contacts a former asset threatening to expose agency secrets.
Created by the producer of popular comedic procedural dramas like Castle and The Rookie, The Recruit tries to tap into a similar combination of intensity and levity, but falls short. The show somehow simultaneously takes itself a little too seriously and also misfires in the designated cheeky moments. As per usual, my main criticism is the inconsistency of tone. I don’t know if it’s the writing or just the acting that’s making a usually winning combination fall flat, but what should’ve been a gripping story arc instead began to lose my interest by episode three.
Centineo’s character is comically reckless (to the point of frustration) and plays as very ‘one note’. I suppose he’s sort of charming at times, but mostly, the show is leaning on a few solid actors in the supporting cast — Kristian Brunn and Laura Haddock to name a few — and they aren’t quite enough to hold it up. If you absolutely need a new action series to watch in the background, The Recruit is fine, I guess, but it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice.
A final word of warning: the gritty espionage scenes can get rather gory.
— Jenni
Length: 60-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Your shows, returned:
The Head, Season 2: Premieres December 22 on HBO Max
Alice in Borderland, Season 2: Premieres December 22 on Netflix
I Hate Suzie, Season 2: Premieres December 22 on HBO Max
Letterkenny, Season 11: Premieres December 26 on Hulu
The Circle, Season 5: Premieres December 28 on Netflix
Upcoming new releases:
The Witcher: Blood Origin: Premieres December 25 on Netflix
Treason: Premieres December 26 on Netflix
📺 Looking for a list of all the shows that we’ve ever reviewed? Check out the Double Take database here.