The Abandons to Fallout: Nine of the best TV shows to watch this December
From Netflix’s new female-led Western with Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson to the return of post-apocalyptic hit Fallout and the final ever episodes of Stranger Things.
1. The Abandons
On horseback and wearing big hats, Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey play two widowed matriarchs fighting over land and power in the American Old West of 1854. Headey is Fiona Nolan, owner of a cattle ranch and head of a tightly knit chosen family of outcasts. Anderson is the wealthy Constance Van Ness, determined to protect the mining fortune she inherited from her husband, which to her means taking Fiona’s land. Christopher Keyser, the series’ executive producer, has said that “in the middle of murder and revenge and a bit of illicit romance”, the show delves into questions about family, moral choices, and survival. The title tells you that its sympathies lie with Fiona’s family, The Abandons. But Constance’s attitude and Anderson’s delivery are also quite entertaining. When Fiona speaks up for her God-given rights, Constance icily replies: “If I knew I was getting a sermon, I would have worn my Sunday finery.”
The Abandons premieres 4 December on Netflix internationally
2. The War Between the Land and the Sea
Russell T Davies, who so brilliantly reinvigorated Doctor Who in 2023, has created this socially charged sci-fi spinoff as part of the Whoniverse. When the ancient species called Homo Aqua – the aliens formerly known as Sea Devils to Doctor Who fans – rise out of the ocean and engage with humans, they set off a global crisis. Russell Tovey, as Barclay, an agent of UNIT (United Intelligence Task Force) has to try to calm things down. Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Salt, the creature who is the aquatic ambassador to humans, and Jemma Redgrave is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the head of UNIT. “This is a huge, spectacular Christmas treat, with heroes and monsters and battles and romance, in a world on the edge of disaster,” Davies has said. But it also has a message about the dangers of today. “We’re already in a climate war. This just dramatises it,” he said about the threat from the sea.
The War Between the Land and the Sea premieres 7 December on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and in 2026 on Disney+ internationally
3. Little Disasters
Diane Kruger stars in this psychological thriller as Jess, part of a friend group with three other women who met over a decade before, when they were pregnant at the same time. Her life starts to unravel when she takes her small daughter to the hospital where Liz (Jo Joyner), one of those friends, happens to be the doctor on emergency call. When Jess can’t explain how her child’s serious head injury happened, Liz informs social services, and the suspicion and suspense ramps up all around. The show is based on Sarah Vaughan’s bestselling 2020 novel of the same name, about loyalty, betrayal and motherhood, but its true appeal may lie elsewhere. When the series premiered in the UK earlier this year, the Telegraph called it “undeniably bingeable, mainly thanks to the madly luxurious lifestyle on display”.
Little Disasters premieres 11 December on Paramount+ in the US and Canada and is available now on Paramount+ in the UK
4. Taylor Swift: The End of An Era
The tour may be over but the spinoffs keep coming. This six-part documentary goes behind the scenes of The Eras Tour, with a close-up look at Swift rehearsing, planning and chatting with colleagues, family and backup dancers. It features an all-star lineup of guests joining her on and off-stage, including Sabrina Carpenter, Gracie Abrams, Ed Sheeran and Florence Welch, along with her ever-present fiancé, Travis Kelce. On the same day as the series premieres, Disney+ will also add the concert film The Final Show, capturing the last Eras show, in Vancouver in December 2024. That will include the full set of The Tortured Poets Department, the album released after the original Eras Tour film was made in 2023. If the constant supply of material from that tour is any clue, when her wedding finally happens we may never hear the end of it, but then too much Taylor may never be enough for her gazillion fans.
Taylor Swift: The End of An Era premieres 12 December on Disney + internationally
5. Fallout
The first season of this post-apocalyptic series based on the bestselling video game quickly broke viewing records for Prime Video. In this much-anticipated new season, Lucy (Ella Purnell) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) traipse across the wasteland of the Mojave Desert together. She is searching for her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), to bring him to justice for his betrayal, and he is looking for the remnants of his family. “At times they are on this buddy road trip,” Purnell told Empire magazine about their odd-couple journey. “And then other times they’re so much at arms.” The trek takes them towards New Vegas, a location well-known to fans of the game. Justin Theroux joins the series as Robert House, who controls the New Vegas Strip, and Macaulay Culkin plays a mysterious figure that Deadline calls a “crazy genius-type character”. The show’s amazing lineup of actors includes Leslie Uggams and Zach Cherry in the returning cast.
Fallout premieres 17 December on Prime Video internationally
6. Emily in Paris
Some series try to stay fresh by piling on new characters or killing someone off. This one sends its heroine globetrotting. By the end of last season, love and work conveniently merged and left Emily (Lily Collins) in Rome, in a romance with Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini) and heading up that city’s office of the marketing agency she works for, Agence Grateau. She is still based in Rome in this fifth instalment, but also finds herself in equally stunning locations in Paris and Venice. The regular cast members return, including Ashley Park as Emily’s best friend, Mindy, and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as her boss, Sylvie. New characters include Bryan Greenberg as Jake, an American living in Paris, and Minnie Driver as an old friend of Sylvie’s now known as Princess Jane because she married a minor royal from some country or other. Really, Emily never goes anywhere ugly and all her friends are glam and beautiful, which seems pretty much the point of this enduringly popular show.
Emily in Paris premieres 18 December on Netflix internationally
7. Amadeus
The 1984 film Amadeus, in which the composer Antonio Salieri admits to jealously (and fictionally) causing the death of his far more gifted rival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, won the Oscar for best picture and is now considered a classic. But there is a lot to be said for this sumptuous, more expansive adaptation, and especially for Will Sharpe’s savvy performance as Mozart. While Tom Hulce made the film’s character a giggling idiot savant, Sharpe depicts him as a high-spirited, selfish but self-aware artist. Paul Bettany plays Salieri, the role F Murray Abraham had in the film, and Rory Kinnear plays Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. The series looks extravagant as it takes us into the royal court in 18th-Century Vienna, and of course is filled with glorious music. Joe Barton, the top-flight writer of Black Doves and Giri/Haji, has reenvisioned Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play.
Amadeus premieres 21 December on Sky Atlantic and Now in the UK
8. Stranger Things
This is truly the end, they really mean it, but the residents of Hawkins, Indiana and the Upside Down are certainly taking their time about leaving. This fifth and final season begins streaming in late November, three more episodes will arrive on Christmas Day, and the final episode ever will drop on Netflix internationally and also be shown in cinemas in the US and Canada on 31 December. “We do every last remaining thing we wanted to do with the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer and Vecna and the Upside Down,” Matt Duffer, who created the show with his brother, Ross, told Variety. It those names sound like gibberish to you, the good news is you don’t have to care anymore. And if you’re a fan, you can head into 2026 knowing that all your questions have been answered. Matt Duffer emphasized: “This is a complete story. It’s done.” But the Duffer brothers have a spin-off with different characters in the works, so even if evil Vecna is thwarted for good – hmmmm.
Stranger Things series five premieres on 26 November on Netflix internationally, with three more episodes coming on 25 December, then the finale on 31 December
9. The Copenhagen Test
Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) steps out of the Marvel-verse and into this sci-fi spy thriller set in the very near future, as an American intelligence analyst, Alexander Hale. One fine day he discovers that his brain has been hacked. Yes, his brain. Whoever wormed their way in can now access everything Hale sees and hears. He sets out to find the culprits while trying to prevent them from reading his mind, and along the way has to prove that he is not a double agent. Liu has said: “The audience will follow us through this kind of impossible tightrope of this kind of ‘Truman Show’ espionage.” Melissa Barrera and Brian D’Arcy James also star in the series, which has horror-master James Wan, co-creator of the Saw and Insidious film franchises, as an executive producer.
The Copenhagen Test premieres 27 December on Peacock in the US
