Week of December 13 – 19

We’re inching nearer to Christmas although the yuletide fun is nowhere to be seen this week. Instead, we’ve got the highly anticipated return of “Fallout” (on Prime Video), the end of the first season of “It: Welcome to Derry” (on HBO) and a crazy new Adult Swim animated special called “The Elephant” (on Cartoon Network). There’s also a bunch of new stuff on Netflix, including a Korean disaster movie (“The Great Flood”), a documentary on 1970s cinema (“Breakdown: 1975”), a Neil Patrick Harris-led gameshow (“What’s In the Box?”), more David Letterman and the return of “Emily in Paris,” who is now also in Rome. Got all that?

On with the television! 

Fallout

Wednesday, December 17, Prime Video 

Source: Prime Video

The first season of “Fallout,” which premiered on Prime Video last spring, was one of the year’s biggest – and best – surprises. Now, a little over a year later, record time in terms of streaming series, the show returns with its much-anticipated second season. Once again based on the beloved videogame series of the same name, we are following our various characters – former vault-dweller Lucy (Ella Purnell), who is still on the hunt for her missing father (Kyle MacLachlan); Maximus (Aaron Moten), a member of an elite military squad; and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a seemingly immortal gunslinger, as they traverse a bombed-out, post-apocalyptic landscape full of killer, monsters and robots. It’s a blast.

As established in the first season finale, in the second season our characters travel to New Vegas in an attempt to get answers. We’re sure it’ll end well. Kumail Nanjiani and Macaulay Culkin are among the new cast members for season 2, and if you live in Los Angeles, chances are you saw the massive New Vegas set that the team erected in North Hollywood. Ready to go back to the wasteland? [TRAILER]

It: Welcome to Derry

Sunday, December 14 at 9 p.m., HBO

Source: HBO

“It” all comes down to this. The first season of “It: Welcome to Derry” was occasionally uneven, but it was consistently terrifying and always looked cool. And flights of fancy like the episode which delved into the history of Bob Gray (Bill Skarsgård), the human version of Pennywise who was replaced, are the kinds of things that would never make it into a feature version of the story. The finale does bring together several threads from the series well, even though, since everyone has seen the movies, we know that Pennywise hasn’t been vanquished for good. Just for right now. But given the success of the series, it seems like “It: Welcome to Derry,” like the demonic clown, will be back for more. [TRAILER]

The Great Flood

Friday, December 19, Netflix

Source: Netflix

Netflix’s next international crossover hit could be “The Great Flood,” from Korean writer/director Kim Byung-woo. This is how Netflix describes the new film: “Set on the last day on Earth, the sci-fi disaster film unfolds as a catastrophic flood submerges the world and leaves a handful of survivors stranded in a sinking apartment building.” The film follows An-na (Kim Da-mi), an artificial intelligence researcher, as her son Ja-in (Kwon Eun-seong) as they try to escape the titular flood (brought on by an asteroid smacking into Earth, of course), but soon becomes more complex with the arrival of Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo), “a member of a security team, on a mysterious mission that may hold the key to humanity’s future,” according to Netflix. So what might start out as a very small story about a natural disaster could soon take on a more global context. We cannot wait. [TRAILER]

Breakdown: 1975

Friday, December 19, Netflix

Source: Netflix

The most anticipated film of December, at least when it comes to the person in your life who is super active on Letterboxd, “Breakdown: 1975” is the latest documentary from prolific filmmaker Morgan Neville (“20 Feet from Stardom,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” “Piece by Piece”). This time he is turning his attention to 1975, one of the more iconic years in cinema – the year that gave us “Jaws,” “The Godfather: Part II” and “Young Frankenstein.” The documentary is narrated by none other than Jodie Foster, who would break through the following year in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver.” Expect tons of archival material, clips and new interviews with Albert Brooks, Bill Gates, Ellen Burstyn, Frank Rich, James Risen, James Wolcott, Jefferson Cowie, Joan Tewkesbury, Josh Brolin, Kurt Andersen, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Scorsese, Naomi Fry, Oliver Stone, Patton Oswalt, Peter Bart, Peter Biskind, Rick Perlstein, Sam Wasson, Seth Rogen, Dr. Todd Boyd and Wesley Morris. And remember, after you watch it, to log it on Letterboxd. [TRAILER]

F1

Apple TV

Source: Apple

Apple Films’ “F1” has finally come to Apple TV, after a hugely successful theatrical launch this summer (with $631 million worldwide it made more than “Superman”) and subsequent debut on digital and physical home video (DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD). And if, for some reason, you avoided it until now, then it was very much worth the wait. “F1” was directed by Joseph Kosinski, the man behind “Tron: Legacy” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” produced by his “Top Gun” partner Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Brad Pitt as a washed-up former driver who is recruited by an old pal (Javier Bardem) to shepherd a lowly F1 team to glory. Kosinski and his collaborators got unparalleled access to actual races, thanks to a partnership with the F1 organization (the film was co-produced by legendary racer Lewis Hamilton) and, thanks to a several technological breakthroughs, puts the audience behind the steering wheel with the drivers. It’s absolutely thrilling stuff, deepened by Kosinski’s thematic concerts (about the blurring of man and machine and the possibility for personal redemption at 100 miles-per-hour) and furthered by the stellar work of his collaborators (among them cinematographer Claudio Miranda and composer Hans Zimmer, whose nifty electronic-tinged score is a real highlight). Ready to put the pedal to the metal? [WATCH]

Source: Adult Swim

“My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman”