BRIGHT
Fri 22 Dec
Netflix
Set in an alternate present-day, here’s a fresh spin on the once-tired buddy cop formula. This action-thriller directed by David Ayer follows two cops from very different backgrounds Ward is a human, played by Will Smith, and Jakoby, played by Joel Edgerton, is an orc. They set out on patrol, but it’s a night which’ll ultimately alter the future as their world knows it. Battling both personal differences and an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a thought-to-be forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything. Set to be Netflix’s first blockbuster, this powerful film explores a large number of important themes against a gritty urban backdrop.
DR WHO
Mon 25 Dec
BBC One
As traditional a Christmas event as The Queen’s speech, disappointment or having to spend time with a weird relative Dr Who gets another festive outing. Peter Capaldi enjoys one last hurrah, before passing his sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS Haynes manual to Jodie Whittaker. Doctors #1 & #12 are seemingly stranded on a forbidding snowy landscape, refusing to face regeneration. A British army captain, seemingly destined to die in the First World War, is taken from the trenches to play his part in the timelord’s story. The Twelfth Doctor must face his past to decide his future. Then he’ll realise the resilience of humanity, discovering hope in his darkest frozen moment. It’s the end of an era.
THE GRAND TOUR
Fri 8 Dec
Amazon Prime
Cars! Glamourous international travel! Unrequited homo-erotic lust! Screeching tyres! Men in badly-fitting denim shouting numbers at you! Yes indeed, the planet’s greatest car show is back for Season Two, and it’s already looking awesome. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May reprise their roles as a trio of midlife crisis sufferers who have unusual adventures, drive the latest cars, and engage in a perpetual competition to establish the best endowed. More fun than a Fiat Panda, more outrageous than a Skoda Octavia and sexier than a Subaru BRZ, it’s finally back for some four-wheeled silliness. So, grab those string-backed driving gloves and your grey blouson jacket, and let’s get motoring!
THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
Early 2017
Amazon Prime
Based on Philip K. Dick’s award-winning (and somewhat baffling) novel, this show wonders what life would be like if the Allies had lost WWII. With an expanding set of alternate realities, The Man In The High Castle is as brilliant as it is bewildering. The triumphant Third Reich are still struggling to contain the flow of propaganda films which show them losing the war, as well as keeping an uneasy peace with the Japanese Empire. Another conflict seems perilously close, but that won’t stop each major player in this exceptional science fiction show from following their own agendas. This is the first season with new showrunner Eric Overmyer, and it’s set to be even more thought-provoking, ambitious and compelling.
