The holiday race is on at the streamers, and the week’s offerings feel like a sampler pack designed for couch-suspension marathons: big studio sequels, prestige reimaginings, buzzy genre series, concert events and a dash of operatic British reality chaos.
The built-in marketing cycle is the paramount reason some of us take time every November to pen our annual streaming turkey list. Industry trackers like Nielsen’s The Gauge and Antenna always remind us that Thanksgiving week = one of the heaviest viewing, sign-up surge periods of the year, and this year it appears that all the big boys came ready.
Read on for our guide to the latest stories coming to Netflix, Prime Video, Peacock, Hulu, Max, Shudder and streaming services everywhere — including a few that will tide you over until New Year’s Eve.
Big movie premieres across Netflix, Max, Hulu, Peacock
The Bad Guys 2 leaps its way onto Peacock, offering co-viewing families a high-energy caper for the season.
According to Universal, the first film broke the $250 million barrier globally; the sequel jumps deeper into the franchise’s kinetic, hand-drawn-meets-CG rhythm and features a loaded voice cast led by Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Marc Maron and Zazie Beetz. Look for splashy set pieces and a redemption arc with teeth — er, fangs.
The Conjuring: Last Rites comes to Max, a franchise capper that reunites Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga for one last case from the Warrens’ legendary database. The Conjuring Universe has thus far drawn more than $2 billion worldwide, according to Warner Bros., and this chapter panders dutifully to the faithful with diabolical lore, attic anxiety and a greatest-hits tour of haunted history.
On Hulu, “The Roses” reimagines Warren Adler’s divorce satire with the director Jay Roach and the writer Tony McNamara corralling an A-list sparring match between Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch. The tone is wicked but wry, less scorched earth than slow burn, with comedic ringers, including Andy Samberg and Allison Janney, tuned to a racy pitch.
Like your holiday counterprogramming thorny and intimate? If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, available to rent and buy on Prime Video, features a raw, tightly wound Rose Byrne as a mother who freaks out under pressure. And it’s the kind of actor’s showcase that lingers.
Buzzed TV and specials on Netflix, Peacock, and Prime Video
Prime Video’s The Mighty Nein transforms the fan-favorite characters of Critical Role’s Campaign 2 into an animated epic. Longer run times allow the oddball misfits’ traumas and triumphs to breathe, while an original cast of characters — including Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer and more — translate table chemistry into cinematic stakes. The first three episodes are live now, and new chapters post every Wednesday.
“The Celebrity Traitors” (Peacock) imports Britain’s hit format, and it’s a riot. Instead of reality regulars, this outing rounds up actual household names — Stephen Fry, Tom Daley, Charlotte Church, Alan Carr — and lets the social strategy simmer next to pure camp. Here’s a guide on how to get started. All nine episodes await!
Netflix’s A Man on the Inside Season 2 reunites viewers with Ted Danson’s sweetly sincere detective now working incognito in a liberal arts college. Look forward to a show from Mike Schur that feels like the streamer’s destiny-fulfilling answer to “Friends,” as well as a gently twisty case-of-the-week pulse and a new wave of tenderness as Mary Steenburgen joins the ensemble.
Also on Netflix, The Great British Baking Show: Holidays Season 8 comes back with familiar bakers, holiday-themed briefs and the sugar-dusted snugness that year-over-year reliably spikes social chatter every December. It’s like the television equivalent of a warm mince pie.
Music and live events to stream on Netflix and Prime Video
Here are the week’s best new movies and TV shows available on streaming services.
“But Where Are You Really From?,” Season 1 — now on Netflix. This six-episode series uses well-defined characters to test the boundaries imposed by a culture hyper-focused on identity.
John Cena’s Last Raw, now on Netflix, follows the WWE icon in his final Monday Night Raw match at Madison Square Garden. In a landscape in which Netflix is delving further into live and sports-adjacent content, this is a smart archive play that doubles as fan service for an era-defining star.
“One Shot with Ed Sheeran” (premieres on Netflix). This hourlong, single-take roving concert from director Philip Barantini follows the British musician as he performs an impromptu show around London. Across subway platforms and rooftops and barrooms, the idea mixes busker spontaneity with formal filmmaking bravado — catnip for both music-doc and technical-craft devotees.
Amazon Prime Video’s Hazbin Hotel: Live on Broadway captures a one-night-only concert featuring the cast of the animated hit. Short and tuneful, it runs 46 minutes, pumped up by a cosplay-charged crowd — an effortless recommendation for fans who have had the soundtrack on repeat.
“Selena y Los Dinos” on Netflix takes a close-up look at Selena Quintanilla using family home videos and new interviews. The director, Isabel Castro, puts the art before the icon here and paints a picture that’s personal rather than hagiographic.
Horror highlights on Prime Video and Shudder this week
Shelby Oaks, from Prime Video, is a found-mystery drama in which a woman searches for her sister who disappears in Ohio woods. The writer-director Chris Stuckmann, though hardly a master craftsman, establishes dread via absence and whispered lore rather than jump-scare overload.
Shudder debuts Buen Chico (Good Boy), a lean new chiller with indie-horror hall-of-famer Larry Fessenden in the cast. If you’re lining up late-night frights, this is the week’s freshest entry.
One to bookmark for next month on Netflix: Train Dreams
Train Dreams hits Netflix next month, an adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella with Joel Edgerton playing a railroad worker whose life is mapped along America’s early 20th-century dislocations. From the Sing Sing duo Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley, with a Bryce Dessner score and Adolpho Veloso cinematography, it’s scheduled to be that quiet stunner you tell friends about.
Quick picks:
- Families: The Bad Guys 2; The Great British Baking Show: Holidays.
- Horror hounds: Last Rites; Shelby Oaks.
- Buzz magnets: The Mighty Nein; The Celebrity Traitors UK.
Happy streaming.