What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

Password Holiday Special (NBC, Peacock)

Keke Palmer hosts a holiday special of the classic celebrity word-game show starring Jimmy Fallon, 51, competing against Glee alum and Tony winner Jonathan Groff. 

Watch it: Password Holiday Special, 10 p.m. ET Dec. 8 on NBC, next day on Peacock

Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!

The Abandons , Season 1

The always welcome Gillian Anderson, 57, and Lena Headey, 52, head up the cast of this intriguing Western drama series about a pair of very different iron-willed matriarchs in the Washington Territory circa 1854. Anderson plays the head of the Van Ness clan, a dynasty of wealth and power; Headey is her opposite, the leader of an impoverished group of orphans and outsiders. Naturally, the two are on a collision course from the get-go in a saga involving passion, betrayal, greed and secrets.

Watch it: The Abandons, Dec. 4 on Netflix

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Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!

Oh. What. Fun. (2025, PG-13)

Imagine if Mrs. Claus went on strike. Every holiday season, Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer, 67) goes overboard with the most decked-out halls, perfectly frosted cookies and best-wrapped presents. But this year, frustrated by her distracted husband (Denis Leary, 68) and self-absorbed grown kids (Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz and Dominic Sessa), she decides to take a break. By the time her family belatedly realizes her absence, can Christmas — and the spirit of togetherness — be saved? Joan Chen, 64, is part of the all-star cast.

Watch it: Oh. What. Fun. on Prime Video

Don’t miss this: The Best Things Coming to Prime Video this Month

New at the movies this week

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ Fackham Hall , R

For those who believe Downton Abbey and its progeny were already veering toward self-satire via nostalgia with a spritz of ahistorical political correctness, here comes the full-on satire they craved. Fackham Hall, pronounced “f*** ‘em all,” stars the redoubtable Damian Lewis, 54. Best known as Henry VIII in TV’s historical saga Wolf Hall, he’s perfectly cast as clueless patriarch Lord Davenport. Having, alas, buried four sons, the aristocrat intends to marry off one of his daughters to keep the roof of his sagging ancestral pile over his family's heads. Enter the egregious first cousin Archibald (Harry Potter’s Draco Malfoy, Tom Felton), eager to marry one of his two beautiful but reluctant relatives. There are twists, turns and ridiculous faux pas in a congenially entertaining riff on the series’ more ridiculous aspects, delivered without spite but with love and a wink. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Fackham Hall, Dec. 5 in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ Merrily We Roll Along , PG-13

Stephen Sondheim's musical Merrily We Roll Along, a notorious flop that closed on Broadway in 1981 after just 16 performances, burnished its reputation with an acclaimed 2023 Broadway revival that has now been faithfully preserved on film. Director Sonia Freeman, 60, makes sense of the story’s backward structure, which follows three aspiring artists from the bitter dissolution of their friendship in 1976 to their wide-eyed mutual ambition on a Manhattan rooftop in 1957. The show gets a boost from career-defining performances by Tony winners Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez. Groff exploits his inherent likability to take the edge off a wunderkind composer who becomes a womanizing Hollywood sellout — a performance that works even better in close-ups of his expressive face. Some of the camerawork and edits can be clunky, and the audience reactions distracting, but musical theater fans will relish the chance to see a near-perfect production of this Sondheim gem. —Thom Geier

Watch it: Merrily We Roll Along, Dec. 5 in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ Rosemead , R

This bighearted yet unsentimental mother-son story takes its name from its setting, a suburban enclave east of Los Angeles with an Asian majority population. The immigrant widow Irene (Lucy Liu, 56) is a small-business owner, running a copy shop in a strip mall. She has bigger dreams, and makes sacrifices, for her high-school-age son, Joe (a terrific Lawrence Shou). But, in this based-on-a-true-story family drama, Joe’s early indications of mental illness and obsession with school shootings derail Irene’s vision of the future and drive her to previously unthinkable actions. Liu, in a challenging, unvarnished part far from her more polished characters in Charlie’s Angels or TV’s Elementary, does some of her best work, making a large impact on a smaller canvas. Her subtle performance is not to be missed while, among Oscar handicappers, there’s buzz that she might just snag that fifth slot among the best actress nominees. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Rosemead, Dec. 5 in theaters

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⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ Hamnet , PG-13

One major challenge of historical fiction is connecting with a contemporary audience. Hamnet does that brilliantly without CGI bells and whistles or a soundtrack that telegraphs sentiment. Adapted from the 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell, 53, the simple story is drawn from real events and imagined emotions: Young, unknown playwright William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) meets and marries his future wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley). When their young son, Hamnet, falls ill and dies, tragedy strikes, and the loss threatens to crack their marriage. He channels his grief into a play (Hamlet); she withdraws emotionally. With sensational Irish actors Buckley and Mescal and a dynamic script, the message here is that tragedy can be transmuted into art and touch theaters full of strangers as well as the individuals directly involved. That adds up to Hamnet being bound for the Oscar short list — and nominated for a Movies for Grownups best film award. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Hamnet in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ The Secret Agent, R

In this vibrant, unsparing political thriller, Wagner Moura, 49, stars as Marcelo, a tech expert in disco-era Brazil who’s on the run from the military regime (during Carnival, no less). With a price on his head, Marcelo seeks to take custody of his young son and flee the country, but he’s blocked at every turn. Full of unexpected twists, the story exposes the sacrifice of free speech and individual rights to a despotic government in cahoots with the police. Moura, best known in the U.S. for playing Pablo Escobar in TV’s Narcos, has already won the best actor award at Cannes for his immersive performance; in a just world, he should be among the nominees for an Oscar this year. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: The Secret Agent in theaters