Best new movies and series arriving on NOW in December 2023

Every month, a new slate of titles is added to NOW’s library of films and TV shows—and Lillian Crawford picks the very best among them to watch. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top Picks: TV

Smothered (December 7)

This new romantic comedy series stars Danielle Vitalis as Sammy, a young woman tired of dating apps and immature men hoping to find something serious, and Jon Pointing as Tom who has never been drawn into the world of online dating. The pair meet on a night out, find themselves in a karaoke booth, before one thing leads to another. They decide to have an affair for three weeks on the condition that they then break things off completely. Inevitably a connection forms between them, and all the messiness of real life starts to get involved.

Dickens in Italy with David Harewood (December 19)

While Charles Dickens is primarily associated with England, this documentary hopes to shed light on the author’s interest in Italy and the influence its culture had on his style. David Harewood traces Dickens’s Grand Tour through Italy, visiting Venice, Naples, Genoa, and Rome through the eyes of one of history’s greatest writers. The documentary will be paired with another entitled Dickens: Phantoms and Fictions which delves further into the author’s interests in the supernatural, in his classic ghost stories including A Christmas Carol.

The Unofficial Science of Die Hard (December 23)

Following last year’s excellent documentary exploring real-life implications of the traps laid out by Kevin in Home Alone, Sky revives the format for two new specials exploring the stunts of Die Hard and Indiana Jones. The first is due for a suitably Christmassy release, with Chris Ramsey and Paul Chowdhry joining engineer Zoe Laughlin to explore the rooftop escapes and shattered glass shown in the film and how they would actually play out beyond the safety of the silver screen. The show is also set to ask the most pressing question of all: is Die Hard a Christmas film?

Movies

Genie (December 1)

Returning to the festive season for the first time since writing Love Actually, Richard Curtis has penned a new Christmas romcom for the season. A workaholic dad played by Paapa Essiedu is given the chance to set things right with his family after he finds a magic jewellery box containing a genie (Melissa McCarthy). The film is a remake of Curtis’s own British TV film Bernard and the Genie from 1991 which starred Alan Cumming, who returns for this version of the tale. It’s bound to be a warm festive family treat.

May December (December 8)

One of the most scintillating films of the year, Todd Haynes crafts a thrilling tale of an actress, played by Natalie Portman, who decides to spend time with the real woman she is about to play in a film, played by Julianne Moore. There is a palpable tension between the two women which only grows more twisted as the film progresses, complicated further by Moore’s much younger husband, played by Charles Merton, and their suspicious children. It’s filled with breathtaking twists and turns, with a double acting masterclass from the two leading women.

Polite Society (December 29)

A very welcome break from blockbuster superhero movies is Nida Manzoor’s take on martial arts cinema. Starring Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya as two very different sisters, the film follows the challenges to their relationship as the older sister embarks on a relationship with a man and abandons her ambitions to become an artist. The hilarious comedy is filled with astonishing fight and dance sequences, with a fantastically sinister performance from Nimra Bucha to boot.