Happy December! Winter, the holidays, Sagittarius season if ya nasty. I can’t believe this year is almost over — and what a year it was. It feels inevitable that next year will be worse! What is there to do but wipe your mind clean with the healing blue light of your big screen and little screen.
Something Old, Something New for DECEMBER 2025!
Television
It’s become increasingly clear that my thought process of what this newsletter is going to be has become a part of what this newsletter is going to be. What is the mind, but the media of the self? Think about that.
All this is to say that when I am thinking about what to recommend, I really want to curate something beyond what is going to come up as a banner ad on every website you visit. Not that I wouldn’t recommend something on a banner ad if I was, personally, hype for it.
But all THIS is to say — yes of course there are things premiering this month, but I’d RATHER take a step BACK into November and look at some things I missed, things that you could BINGE in December.
Something New(ish):
Blossoms Shanghai — November 25th on the Criterion Channel
This show technically came out in China back in 2023, but it has only become available to the US this month thanks to our friends at the Criterion Channel (and let’s be real, they ARE our friends). Blossoms Shanghai is the first television show from Wong Kar-Wai, master of romanticism, lord of the yearn, and lover of California Dreamin’. The series follows one man’s rise and fall in 90’s Shanghai, against a number of plots and heavenly mis-en-scene. Bright lights, beautiful women, the pain of existence, just in time for the holidays!
Squid Game: The Challenge S2 — on Netflix
HEAR ME OUT. Obviously I watched the first season of Squid Game with the rest of the world, it was great, step on me Gong Yoo, etc. But I had very little interest in reentering that world with seasons 2 and 3, and nothing drives me crazier than when a character is like “we have to go back and repeat x” (except for on Lost of course) simply to create a sequel. Enter Squid Game: The Challenge — the reality series inspired by the narrative. Here is why, briefly, I believe the reality show rises above sequel series:
There is no plot armor. The contestants all have an equal shot of winning, no ‘character’ is protected by being important to the story. When you get someone’s eclectic backstory (i.e., pentecostal escapee or Alaska fisher lass) they could still be offed at a moment’s notice! Drama!
There is no side plot with the main mask guy and his billionaire cronies. Less lore, more mind games.
Speaking of mind games — often more interesting to see what real people will do in a Squid Games — like turn into a Karen, have a menty b, or heroically sacrifice themselves for a friend. It’s interesting to see the demographics that consistently are able to rise above, and those that melt down (men).
This is late stage capitalism for real, for real. What could be a better snapshot of our times than 400 people applauding their imprisonment in a death game simulator? Give in!!
Something Old:
Dead Like Me 2003 — streaming on Tubi, originally on Showtime
This is a Bryan Fuller foreshadowing, but before there were Pushing Daisies or homoerotic Hannibal’s, there was Dead Like Me, a two season premium cable dramedy about grim reapers in Seattle. Sure, Bryan Fuller abandoned it halfway through the first season, as is his trademark, but the series reflects his signature wry humor, love of death, and ultimate wonder for the world. Mandy Patinkin guides a rag-tag group of deceased humans who must perform their grim reaper duties, every episode receiving a post-it note with the name of the doomed, and escorting them to the afterlife. If you like your comedies tar pitch black with a heart of gold, this is for you!
Movies:
Many of the movies coming out this holiday season I covered in my Film Festival post — but of course there are EVEN MORE.
Something New:
Merrily We Roll Along — December 5th
It may be Wicked season, but you also have the opportunity to see my favorite musical on screen this December! This is a filmed version of the most recent Broadway revival starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, which I saw IRL and thoroughly enjoyed! I first fell in love with this musical when I was but a tot, and thought it was glamorous to fantasize about a successful entertainment career — and I still love it now that I am old and filled with regret! A musical for every stage of your life! Sondheim forever!
Dust Bunny — December 12th
Okay the foreshadowing has already paid off! If you are like me and are constantly checking Bryan Fuller’s imdb page to see what projects he’s signing on for and then dropping out of, maybe you’ve already been aware of his first feature film Dust Bunny. Starring Hannibal himself, as a literal monster assassin. Why not! The lack of marketing has made me suspicious of the quality, but I’m going to watch it either way, so.
The Testament of Ann Lee — December 25th
Last year filmmaking power couple Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold co-wrote The Brutalist, a historical fiction film about dudes building stuff with Corbet directing. THIS YEAR they have written a historicalish film about ladies building a radical religious movement with Mona directing! This is what true love must be. The Brutalist didn’t really interest me as I don’t care for Brutalism or Adrien Brody — but I LOVE Amanda Seyfried and musicals! A lid for every pot! On Christmas Day as you gather round the tree, know that I am watching this in 70MM in a trance state.
Something Old:
Sense + Sensibility (Dec 14-16th for the 30th anniversary)
December movies are really all coming up Martha. Sense and Sensibility is the movie that defined my childhood. We all had a VHS we wore out the tape on; mine was this. I dressed as Marianne Dashwood for Halloween, I wrote a fan letter to Emma Thompson, I was seven years old. For the film’s 30th anniversary they are bringing it BACK to theaters, and I highly recommend you go. Beyond it being just, objectively the best movie ever, it also won Emma an Oscar for adapting the script, and marked Ang Lee’s first English language film. Winslet, Rickman, Grant, fields, sheep, pining, empire waists — what else do you need from an art?
Books:
Something New:
The Curse of the Cole Women by Marielle Thompson — Dec 2nd
There sure have been a lot of novels about inter-generational family curses this year, or maybe it’s me that’s drawn to them every month. Either way, it’s giving It Didn’t Start With You. Three generations of cursed (literal) women, doomed to be lighthouse keepers on an island and repeat the same tragic beats of their forebearers. Moving to a lighthouse kind of sounds nice, but I assure you, in this scenario, it is tragic.
A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls by Adam Morgan — Dec 9th
A biography about a real one, and a dive back into the history of magazines! Margaret C Anderson had a dream in her heart — to write about books, run her own magazine, and smash hot babes. She accomplished all this and more. Eventually put on trial for the charge outlined in the title (lol) Margaret was a political agitator who brought James Joyce to America, suffragette, and slept with some showgirls along the way. A hero for her own time and ours!
Something Old:
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)
Keeping the Jane Austen theme alive, while Sense and Sensibility is my favorite JA movie and this is my favorite of her novels! A more overt send up of not only high society in Bath (her least favorite place) but also of the Gothic novel itself. Your girl’s got jokes. Mean girls, illicit book-reading, balls, ghosts, hot broody guys, what’s not to like? Besides, who amongst us has not run screaming through a mansion in a fit of literature-induced lady — hysteria! Who. Amongst.
Taryn Delanie Smith
Taryn is my everything influencer right now. She’s a Miss America runner up, so she’s bringing you the fashion and beauty you could expect to see. Need more? She’s remodeling her 200 year old farmhouse! And YET she is also a comedy CLOWN girly, and has been making some of my favorite funny bestie content. Scrolling her feed gives you a full MEAL of content.
!!!!SPEED ROUND!!!!
Season 9 /10 of ER update — when we started watching this, our agreement was to stop when Clooney left. That was 5 seasons ago. Look, the guest cast in this thing is insane — Julie Delpy as a lying floozy, Don Cheadle as a med student with Parkinson’s! My biggest regret about leaving casting is I cannot make it my life’s mission to systematically audition every long-running costar from ER. Kristin Minter, would I have had a cmail for you! A dream unrealized.
The New Yorker at 100 is coming to Netflix this month (Dec 5), and feels like a cozy family watch
Connected to the above: As a recent finisher of the Wes Anderson Criterion Box Set, The French Dispatch had a 180 redemption for me as a movie. A beautiful tribute to writing and the artistic process, which sadly feels all too in jeopardy these days.
For years, the rights of Dogma (one of Kevin Smith’s best movies) have been held captive by the evil Harvey Weinstein. This year, after decades, they were finally wrestled back and as a result, a steelbook copy is coming out in December! I’ve always loved Kevin Smith, and he was one of the only Hollywood figures to make any sort of reparations regarding his collaboration with Weinstein. The perfect stocking stuffer for any recovering Catholics or stoner Atheists on your gift list.
Happy Holidays friends and readers! I will see you later for BOTY list -unless I succumb to the ennui of winter and cold.
XO, MD ❤