Is it just me or is that an apocalypse on the horizon?

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This article was published 02/12/2023 (1032 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wondering what’s worth checking out on your TV or streaming apps? Frustrated trying to find out what’s playing where? Your pain is our pain, so welcome to a new biweekly feature offering five new TV series, seasons, specials or movies worth checking out over the next couple of weeks. In this edition, two of the five are apocalyptic, which we are not taking as a sign. Nope.

1. Obliterated (new series premièred Thursday, Nov. 30, on Netflix)

OK, Las Vegas being wiped off the map doesn’t technically count as an apocalypse unless you’re way too invested in gambling or Cirque de Soleil, but let’s allow it just this once. The makers of the ridiculously popular martial arts comedy series Cobra Kai return with this comic thriller about an (ahem) elite special forces unit.

“Who has one thumb and just saved Las Vegas,” Hagerty (C. Thomas Howell) gloats in the trailer before his entire gang hits the strip to celebrate … only to discover the first nuclear bomb was a fake and the remaining five-kiloton nuclear device is as real as the team members’ hangovers! It’s impossible to resist quoting the show’s own press kit: “If 24 and The Hangover hooked up and had a baby, it’d be Obliterated.” Or overstated. We shall see!

2. The Shepherd (short film premièred Friday, Dec. 1, on Disney+)

While I have not (yet) read the paper version of Frederick Forsyth’s classic tale, I long kept a standing date with “Fireside Al” Maitland’s reading of The Shepherd every Christmas Eve on CBC Radio’s As It Happens.

It’s a spooky tale of a young RAF pilot who runs into desperate trouble flying home over the North Sea on Christmas Eve. When all seems lost, an ancient plane sidles up and its pilot guides him to a miraculous safe landing, flying off with barely a nod. And then the real story is revealed.

The movie version is a tidy 38 minutes in length and, judging by the trailer, at least a gorgeous interpretation. Merry Christmas! And if you’d also like to listen to Fireside Al’s 31 1/2-minute recitation, we’ve got that for you right here: wfp.to/60N.

3. Archie (series premières Thursday, Dec. 7, on Britbox)

Based in part on actress Dyan Cannon’s 2011 memoir, Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant, this four-parter follows Archibald Alexander Leach from sad, threadbare beginnings onto the world stage as one of the most famous movie stars of all time.

It’s also about Leach’s best performance, to hear him tell it in the trailer: “Cary Grant is a character. But he’s very careful about how he’s perceived.” Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, The Great) is stunning and unrecognizable as the elder version. Scenes with Grant’s North by Northwest director, Alfred Hitchcock (Ian McNeice), and Charade co-star Audrey Hepburn (Stella Stocker) promise an ambitious attempt at this beloved figure’s origin story.

4. Leave the World Behind (movie premières Dec. 8 on Netflix after limited theatrical release)

My mom never watched TV without the TV Guide in hand, not just because it was the Bible, but because she used it to hide her eyes during the scariest scenes in the inevitable creature features she loved/hated.

I expect to resort to my version of that — stabbing the fast-forward button — during the film adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s novel about two city families at a vacation home in the country when things start looking vaguely but persistently end-of-the-worldish. Stars in the movie version include Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon and Mahershala Ali.

How will a movie capture the silky subtle terror created in the novel by the characters’ paranoid, racist and classist interior monologues? The trailer looks more War of the Worlds than Gaslight but, really, there’s only one way to find out.

5. Reacher (Season 2 premières Saturday, Dec. 15, on Prime Video)

Alan Ritchson is back as Jack Reacher, still trying to get away from it all. But trouble just keeps tracking him down. In this season, based on Bad Luck and Trouble, the 11th book in Lee Child’s novel series, Reacher receives a coded call for help from old pals of his Army Special Investigators team, or at least the ones who are not yet brutally murdered in a mysterious, ruthless plot. The trailer leads us to fear more scenes of torture and mayhem than are usually tolerable, but the first season was great, so onward!

Broadcast dates subject to change. Questions, comments to denise.duguay@winnipegfreepress.com.