What to watch: We are sooooo ready for Christmas

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No matter that the Art the Clown Halloween decorations are still up and you’ve got leftover candy. It’s time to get psyched for the real holiday season. Hit it, Mariah Carey!
Given that it’s November and we’re already in the yuletide spirit, it’s time to look at all the big films coming to theaters between now and the end of 2024 – gird your musical loins for “Glicked”! – plus watch as Hallmark looks for its next Christmas movie hunk. Of course, we have to get through Election Day first, and there’s plenty of political TV (like Netflix’s excellently soapy “The Diplomat”) to provide distraction. And when it comes to viewing recommendations, we’re feeling nostalgic for the 2000s because “About a Boy” stars Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette are back onscreen together in a new Clint Eastwood flick.
Now on to the good stuff:
I know what you’re thinking: “What’s this ‘Glicked’ thing he’s talking about?” That’s the unofficial, “Barbenheimer”-style name we’re using for the obvious double feature of the musical “Wicked” and sword-and-sandals sequel “Gladiator II,” which come out Nov. 22. Both are must-see spectacles in my holiday movie preview, which also includes high-profile fare like “Nosferatu,” “Moana 2” and “Mufasa: The Lion King,” plus Oscar-ready projects “The Brutalist” and “Nickel Boys.”
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Those who really want to dive into the season – and/or have been watching that “Hot Frosty” trailer on repeat – will want to check out “Finding Mr. Christmas,” a new reality series that anoints a champion who automatically earns a lead role in a 2024 Hallmark Christmas movie. (That film? Dec. 21’s “Happy Howlidays.” I wish I was kidding.) My colleague Bryan Alexander did a piece on the show and interviewed host (and “Mean Girls” alum) Jonathan Bennett and lead judge Melissa Peterman, who talked about how there was a Christmas-y kerfuffle to find the right “You’re fired” catchphrase. “I had a great one,” she says. “Mine was, ‘You just got Kringled!’ Boom!”
There’s quite a bit to like in Clint Eastwood’s steady and thought-provoking new courtroom drama “Juror #2,” with standout performers (from Kiefer Sutherland to national treasure J.K. Simmons) and moral quandaries aplenty. And if you need a nostalgia hit, Toni Collette and Nicholas Hoult – who played mother and son in 2002’s “About a Boy” – are back onscreen together for the first time in a couple of decades.
I chatted with the duo about their reunion, with Hoult saying how “very happy” he was to share scenes with Collette and her feeling a sense of pride performing beside him again: “Like, oh, my God, look at my boy go! He was so good. He’s become like this incredible actor.”
“Stranger Things” and “Squid Games” might get the popular vote but one Netflix show you should be binging is “The Diplomat,” an entertaining and over-the-top thriller with Keri Russell as the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Britain who’s kinda sorta being vetted to be vice president and finds herself immersed in all sorts of international geopolitical crises. (Rufus Sewell is a smarmy delight as her husband, a former diplomat and still a power player.) The first season is great and TV critic Kelly Lawler says the second is just as good in her ★★★ review: It definitely delivers for “the kind of person who wants distraction from the real world of politics with a fake one that has more ridiculous conspiracies and government officials in nice suits making flirty eyes at one another.”
And because it’s election season, Kelly put together a ranking of the 10 best political shows ever, including “The West Wing,” “House of Cards” and “The Good Wife.”
Got thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns, compliments or maybe even some recs for me? Email [email protected] and follow me on the socials: I’m @briantruitt on Twitter (not calling it X!), Instagram and Threads.