What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!

The Great British Baking Show: Holidays, Season 8

As if The Great British Baking Show weren’t cozy enough, its annual holiday-themed special is the ultimate comfort watch. Prue Leith, 85, and Paul Hollywood, 59, will judge returning contestants and special guests vying to whip up the ultimate seasonal confections. Grab a cup of tea and settle in.

Watch it: The Great British Baking Show: Holidays, Nov. 20 on Netflix

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Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!

Kathleen Madigan: The Family Thread

In her new one-hour stand-up special, comic Kathleen Madigan, 60, tackles a wide range of subjects, from Midwest pioneers and her aging parents to the issues that come with owning four cats. She even recalls launching a fantasy football league for her preteen nieces and nephews “so they can learn to gamble properly.” Lighten your holiday prep with this grownup-friendly batch of laughs. 

Watch it: Kathleen Madigan: The Family Thread, Nov. 21 on Prime Video

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New at the movies this week

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ Rental Family, PG-13

This small movie with a big heart delivers another Oscar-bait role for AARP Movies for Grownups Best Actor winner Brendan Fraser, 56. When Fraser’s character Phillip, a lonely, sad-eyed American actor living in Tokyo, gets a casting call, the gig has a strange twist: It’s to play real-life parts for a company called Rental Family. Phillip gets his start pretending to be a mourner at a stranger’s funeral; he excels. Next, the company hires him to play the father of a young girl, the groom to a closeted gay bride and a reporter chronicling the achievements of a famous actor whose memory is fading. Gradually, the line between false emotions and real ones blur, and Fraser — with every nuanced flicker of an eyebrow — shows us a man beginning to feel deeply again. Sentimental and sweet, Rental Family showcases a portrayal of a man discovering who he really is and what matters most through empathy. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Rental Family, Nov. 21 in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ Wicked: For Good , PG

If Cynthia Erivo dominated last year’s Wicked with her dynamic portrayal of the green-skinned outcast witch Elphaba (and her powerhouse vocals on “Defying Gravity”), the second half of the Broadway hit belongs to Ariana Grande, whose good-witch Glinda vacillates between the power-hungry, corrupt rulers of Oz (Jeff Goldblum, 73, and Michelle Yeoh, 63) and the ties she still feels toward her old school pal. There are fewer big songs in this adaptation of the stage show’s Act 2, and sometimes the story feels stretched. But director Jon M. Chu creates a rich visual portrait of Oz, full of fantastical creatures and eye-popping vistas, and deepens this alternate version of the classic yarn with genuine emotions. —Thom Geier

Watch it: Wicked: For Good, Nov. 21 in theaters

Also catch up with...

⭐⭐⭐ ☆  ☆ Jay Kelly, R

Loneliness and the long-distance A-lister — Jay Kelly is a star vehicle built to further burnish the legacy of George Clooney, 64, as a serious actor. The dramedy by director Noah Baumbach, 56, investigates the authenticity, and lack thereof, of a big movie star crossing 60. With a life achievement tribute scheduled in his honor in Tuscany, Kelly begins to look back at the sum of his life on-screen and off. Played by Clooney in an “I’m sorry I’m so charismatic” vein that also recalls the melancholy land baron and father of two daughters that won him a 2012 Oscar nomination for The Descendants, Kelly suddenly realizes that what he’s missed in terms of family and friends while pursuing his acting ambitions may be greater than his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. AARP Movies for Grownups Career Achievement winner Adam Sandler, 59, plays his dutifully stressed manager with admirable naturalism. The ensemble cast also includes Stacy Keach, 84, as Kelly’s father, and Baumbach’s partner, writer-director Greta Gerwig (Barbie), as Sandler’s spouse. There’s a crush of talent here but less wisdom than a trip to the corner guru. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Jay Kelly, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, PG-13

This crowd-pleasing, magician-filled caper — the third in a franchise that's been dormant for nearly a decade — goes down easy, a nonstop puzzle movie with plenty of action and a side of humor. This time, three rising Brooklyn magicians (Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt) add young chops to the semiretired Horsemen illusionists led by Jesse Eisenberg, still snarky after all these years. Among those returning are Morgan Freeman, 88, Woody Harrelson, 64, and Isla Fisher. After the gaggle overcome their generational antagonisms, the magicians must recover the big-as-a-rock Heard Diamond and expose an international money-laundering scheme. Absolutely delightful as a villainous diamond heiress is Rosamund Pike with a wicked South African accent and a twinkle in her jaded eye. It's fun. It’s inventive. It's star-packed. And the good guys win, unmistakably pointing to a franchise revival. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Now Your See Me: Now You Don’t, in theaters

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