In this year of social-distancing, with fewer movies being released in theaters, people have become dependent on Netflix. The streaming service has broken records for viewing time, subscribers, and many other metrics, while also contributing numerous new names to the cultural imagination, from Tiger King to The Queen’s Gambit to, in a more negative way, Cuties.

In December, Netflix will finish off the year with many more new shows and movies, including the last performance by a beloved actor who passed away earlier this year. Here are some highlights of what’s coming to Netflix in December of 2020: 

• Mank (Dec. 4) Director David Fincher’s first new film in six years, which is seen as an Oscar contender, stars Gary Oldman as Joseph Mankiewicz, the screenwriter of “Citizen Kane,” and covers his adventures in Hollywood, between the 1930s and 1950s. The film is shot in beautiful black and white and was adapted from a screenplay by Fincher’s father, Jack. 

• Selena: The Series (Dec. 4) The story of the late Tejano singer Selena was already told in the 1997 movie Selena, which starred Jennifer Lopez. Now, it gets the limited series treatment, with Christian Serratos playing the title role. All nine episodes debut on the fourth.

• Big Mouth (Dec. 4) The comedic cartoon series, about a bunch of animated characters going through puberty, will return for its fourth season, with a cast still led by Nick Kroll, John Mulaney and Jessi Klein.

• The Big Show Show: Christmas (Dec. 9) The Netflix family comedy, starring professional wrestler Paul “The Big Show” Wight, may have been canceled after one season earlier this year, but it will wrap up in December with a Christmas special. 

• The Prom (Dec. 11)  Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix project is a musical movie, based on a Broadway show, about a group of stage stars who go to bat for an Indiana high school student who wants to take her girlfriend as her prom date. Meryl Streep, James Corden, Keegan-Michael Key and Andrew Rannels are among the cast. 

• A California Christmas (Dec. 14) In this Hallmark-style Christmas romantic comedy, “a wealthy charmer poses as a ranch hand to get a hardworking farmer to sell her family's land before Christmas.” The film stars married couple Josh and Lorynn Swickard. 

• The Ripper (Dec. 16) Netflix’s latest true crime docuseries looks back at the murders carried out in the late 1970s by the Yorkshire Ripper. 

• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Dec. 18) This drama, directed by Broadway legend George C. Wolfe, is an adaptation of August Wilson’s play and has been long-awaited all year long. But the film took on added poignancy when star Chadwick Boseman passed away in August, making Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom his final performance.

• The Midnight Sky (Dec. 23.) George Clooney stars in a movie he also directed, a post-apocalyptic science fiction epic about a ban at the Arctic trying to stop a crew of astronauts from returning to Earth.

   

• Bridgerton (Dec. 25) Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and other popular network shows, jumped to Netflix for a lucrative deal a couple of years ago, and this is her first Netflix series, a Downton Abbey-like costume drama that is arriving as a Christmas Day binge. 

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for the National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters