What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

Dancing With the Holidays (ABC, Disney+, Hulu)

Dancing With the Stars has never been hotter than this season, so why not add a special holiday edition? ABC’s first-ever Dancing With the Holidays transforms the ballroom with festive-themed routines and musical performances. Keep the dial on ABC for the 16th Annual CMA Country Christmas, which follows at 9 p.m. and features performances by hosts Lauren Daigle and Jordan Davis and luminaries including Lady A, BeBe Winans and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. 

Watch it: Dancing With the Holidays, Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, Disney+, Hulu

Don't miss this: 17 Merry New Christmas Movies and Specials to Watch in 2025

Christmas in Rockefeller Center (NBC, Peacock)

Recently engaged Reba McEntire, 70, hosts the beloved annual two-hour special featuring star-studded performances and the illumination of the world’s most famous Christmas tree.

Watch it: Christmas in Rockefeller Center, Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock 

Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!

Stranger Things, Season 5, Vol. 1

Kids, they grow up so fast! Netflix’s blockbuster series about a close-knit group of nerdy misfits who get up close and personal with the supernatural remains a nostalgic time capsule from the ’80s (think The Goonies meets The X-Files). The first four episodes of the fifth and final season arrive like an early present under the tree, with the next three episodes airing on Christmas Day.

Watch it: Stranger Things on Netflix

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Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!

Oh. What. Fun. (2025, PG-13)

Is this It’s a Wonderful Life? Is this Home Alone? It’s a little bit of both, as uber-holiday-mom Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer, 67) is left behind on a seasonal family outing. By the time Dad, the kids and grandkids realize she’s missing, Claire is on a new adventure: one that doesn’t involve cooking, cleaning or chaos management for others. As the gang scrambles to find Mom, what holiday (and family) lessons will they all learn? Costars include Denis Leary, 68, Movies for Grownups best supporting actress winner Joan Chen, 64, and Eva Longoria, 50.

Watch it: Oh. What. Fun., Dec. 3 on Prime Video

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

New at the movies this week

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ 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

⭐⭐⭐☆ ☆ Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, PG-13

As my grown son reminded me, I'm a mystery snob. I love the originals — Agatha Christie, P.D. James — and relish the brainteaser of a locked-room mystery. Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in the Knives Out franchise (and a nominee for Movies for Grownups best ensemble award), resembles a-paint-by-numbers version of the whodunit. At the center of the action is Daniel Craig, 57, back again as flamboyant detective Benoit Blanc (Huckleberry Hound Southern accent on full display), but he’s just no Hercule Poirot. The plot follows the murder of a monsignor (Josh Brolin, 57) and suspicions surrounding a young boxer-turned-priest (Josh O’Connor). A community of nosy congregants includes Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington and Glenn Close, 78, riffing off the late Cloris Leachman. It's all an arch romp climaxing with the inevitable gathering of the likely suspects. But, for lovers of the classics, the unfurling mystery is rote: more checkers than chess. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Wake Up Dead Man in theaters

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⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ 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 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 in theaters