And on the other side of the holiday, HBO Max’s new slate offers a tidy three-course binge: a fearless stand-up special from Sarah Squirm, a long-awaited Spinal Tap reunion, and plunges into decades’ worth of true crime with ID. It’s a schedule optimized for tasting new shows and also for binging others to the bottom of your weeklong binge list, from cult comedy to music-mockumentary mayhem and an investigation that won’t let history remain buried.
Spotlight Premieres: Stand-Up, Spinal Tap II and True Crime
Sarah Squirm: Live + In the Flesh returns Saturday Night Live breakout Sarah Sherman to her natural environment—on stage without the emergency brake.
Directed by Cody Critcheloe, also known in music circles as SSION, the special jacks the energy of a music video into stage chaos; it’s full of body-horror gags and unguarded confessions that are simultaneously transgressive and weirdly tender. HBO’s history of career-defining stand-up sets (see: Garry Shandling, Jerrod Carmichael) makes this a smart bet on a comic whose audacious aesthetic has already reimagined what network sketch can be. Rating: TV-MA.
Spinal Tap II: The End reunites Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer for another loud tour through rock-room nitwittery. Winding toward a climactic performance in New Orleans, the band’s misadventures riff on aging nostalgia and the perils of legacy branding without abandoning its lovable buffoonery. Initial buzz has it down as “brainless fun” in the best possible sense, with a current IMDb rating of 6.5/10—catnip for enthusiasts who’ve been quoting Stonehenge references for decades. Rating: R.
From ID, The Secrets We Bury is the week’s most chilling viewing. Director Patricia E. Gillespie tracks Mike Carroll, who as a boy was raised in the belief that his father abandoned their family—until a stunning find in the house flipped everything on its head. This is a memory-and-denial-and-slow-motion-revelation case, the type ID does so well: small, procedural, and patiently solved. For viewers who judge a doc by the goosebumps it leaves behind, this one delivers. Rating: TV-MA.
More to Stream on HBO Max: Comfort Watches and Curios
HBO Max is ensuring that its new releases are surrounded by a canny spread of comfort watches and curios. Comedy lovers can double-feature the new sequel with the original This Is Spinal Tap, and Stolen Children throws in another real-world wrinkle for true-crime enthusiasts. Families have new episodes in Toad and Friends Season 1; those looking for holiday fare can line up White House Christmas, and the warm whodunit tones of A Very Merry Mystery.
Nonfiction is especially strong: Assassination in the Valley of the Kings reframes an ancient tale with new forensics; MisinfoNation: White Genocide — The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper grills a dangerous conspiracy theory; Obsession: The Murder of a Beauty Queen takes a tabloid-era case apart with new rigor; and Saving Yellowstone with Dennis Quaid Season 1 looks at conservation under siege. Live junkies can get their fix with Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately?
On the scripted side, The Bold Type Seasons 1–5 brings a whole-office dramedy run in-house, perfect for multi-night binge cycles. Gearheads can cruise through Truck U Season 21, while Tony Shalhoub: Breaking Bread offers gentle, food-forward comfort anchored by one of television’s most reliable presences. Vantara: Sanctuary Stories Season 1. The first season of Sanctuary Stories is all about animal rescues and human resilience—an easy addition to the feel-good queue.
What to Watch First: A Quick Guide to This Week’s Picks
Begin with Sarah Squirm if you want a jolt of the new—it’s as quick-witted and inventive as anything, so an easy first pick. Then plug into Spinal Tap II for lols in a shareable language, particularly if you’re streaming with friends who know the jokes off by heart. Close with The Secrets We Bury; true crime plays well when you get to sit with it, and this one haunts. Then put Toad and Friends on for rest, while cable-friendly weekend options include White House Christmas and the original Spinal Tap for a comfort rewatch.
Why This Slate Works for Engagement and Retention
HBO Max is doubling down on categories that consistently over-index in engagement. For some time now with Nielsen streaming, you could see comedy surges throughout the holidays, while ID’s library is one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s strongest drivers of time spent. Franchise familiarity is often a retention key, and pairing new with the classic is textbook in terms of leveraging that dynamic.
There’s a smart programming cranny here, too: a splashy stand-up special to make social media clips, a franchise sequel to tie up weekends, and an intricately told true-crime story to spool out midweek viewing. Throw in family fare and seasonal titles, plus music content, and you’ve got most of the household profile covered without having to spend a fortune on original programming wall-to-wall—an approach executives on recent Warner Bros. Discovery earnings calls have emphasized.
Bottom line: Whether you’re after gasp-laughs, ironic power chords, or a mystery that spans generations, this week’s HBO Max lineup has something for everyone—and your quarantine queue. Cue it up, and the algorithm will take care of the rest.
