We’re just hours away from the fourth season finale of The Traitors dropping, but fans of the franchise fearful of suffering withdrawal pains, fret not: Peacock has more traitorous content ready to go. In addition to a reunion special dropping tonight, the streamer is also gifting us Yanks season four of Traitors UK, which wrapped its run on the BBC last month with record ratings. All 12 episodes of the Claudia Winkleman-hosted version of the Studio Lambert format will drop on Peacock early Thursday morning (5 a.m. ET, to be precise), allowing faithful viewers to binge-watch the whole season right after the U.S. edition wraps up (or right before if you’ve got Thursday off and nothing else to do).
Unlike Peacock’s take on the format, the main version of Traitors UK features a cast of non-celebrities playing the game rather than a collection of reality stars and other pop culture notables. (The BBC did launch a spin-off with celebrities last fall, and that version has been streaming on Peacock since November.) In addition, NBC has already announced its own all-civilians take on Traitors that’s expected to air on the network (and stream on Peacock) this fall. Now all we need is for Alan Cumming and Winkleman to cross-over on to each other’s versions of the show, or at least swap costume designers for an episode.
Jack Hughes’ overtime goal, which gave the United States its first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980, drew an average audience of 26 million viewers on NBC and Peacock in the U.S., according to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings and Adobe Analytics digital data.
Team USA’s 2-1 overtime victory over Canada on Sunday averaged 18.6 million live viewers (8:15-11 a.m. EST) on NBC and Peacock. The total rose to 20.7 million with encores on USA Network on Sunday afternoon and NBC late Sunday night.
According to Nielsen, it is the most-watched sporting event on record in U.S. history with a start time before 9 a.m. Eastern time.
It is NBC’s second-most-watched hockey game. Canada’s OT win over the U.S. in the gold medal game at the 2010 Vancouver Games averaged 27.6 million. That game had a 3:15 p.m. EST puck drop.
The North American audience when Hughes scored the golden goal was nearly 35 million. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Monday that 8.7 million were watching in Canada during overtime.
The Milan-Cortina Olympics averaged 23.5 million viewers in the United States, making them the most-watched Winter Games since 2014 and drawing a 96% larger audience than the 2022 Beijing Games.
NBCUniversal said the average includes combined audiences on NBC, Peacock, CNBC, USA Network and other digital platforms. It covered the live afternoon (2-5 p.m. EST) and prime-time (8-11 p.m. EST/PST) windows.
The gold medal game in women’s hockey on Feb. 19 — when Team USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime — averaged 5.3 million on USA Network and Peacock. The audience peaked at 7.7 million during Megan Keller’s golden goal.
Michael Rapaport, who recently appeared in Season 4 of ‘The Traitors,’ will headline three shows at Valley Forge Casino on Friday and Saturday. The actor initially aligned himself with Donna Kelce, and went viral for eating pasta.
The 2026 Winter Olympics are taking place in Italy this year, with all the action taking place in Milan and the Alpine city of Cortina. This year marks the fourth time Italy has hosted the Winter Games; most recently, Turin hosted in 2006. Of the 16 sports that will be featured at the Winter Olympics, there will be 15 returning favorites, including figure skating, Alpine skiing, curling, ice hockey, speedskating, snowboarding, freestyle skiing and ski jumping, and one entirely new sport, snow mountaineering. (Will it be as big a hit as the 2024 Summer Games’ new addition, breaking? It remains to be seen.)
Live coverage of every event at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will be available to stream on Peacock — though thanks to the time difference between Italy and the U.S., to watch many of the events live, you’ll have to wake up (or stay up) until 2AM or 3AM ET. Primetime replays and select live coverage will air on NBC. The games officially kick off with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6, 2026.
Here’s what else you need to know about watching the 2026 Winter Olympics.
How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics
Dates: Feb. 6 – Feb. 22
TV channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
When are the 2026 Winter Olympics?
The Winter Olympics officially begin with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6, although some events will start as early as Feb. 4). The Milano Cortina 2026 games will run through Feb. 22. The closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics will take place in the Arena di Verona on Feb. 22.
Where are the Winter Olympics this year?
The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Northern Italy, primarily in Milan and also the Alpine mountain resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, where events like bobsled, skeleton, alpine skiing, curling, para snowboard, and more will take place.
What channel are the Olympics on?
The 2026 Winter Olympics will air on NBC and stream live on Peacock.
How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics without cable
For $11/month, an ad-supported Peacock subscription lets you stream live sports and events airing on NBC, including the 2026 Winter Olympics, Super Bowl LX and more. Plus, you’ll get access to thousands of hours of shows and movies, including beloved sitcoms such as Parks and Recreationand The Office, every Bravo show and much more.
For $17 monthly you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
When is the Winter Olympics opening ceremony?
The Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony will be held on Feb. 6, 2026. Due to the time difference, the ceremony will kick off around 2PM ET/11AM PT.
Winter Olympics time difference
This year’s Olympic Games are in Italy, which is 6 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time. Meaning that some events will start bright and early for U.S. viewers, and live coverage will likely wrap up around 4PM ET each day. NBC will have primetime replays of the biggest moments each night.
Hockey (bronze medal games) – 1PM (Peacock – Live)
Friday, Feb. 20
Biathlon mass start – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating final medals – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating gala – 1PM (Peacock – Live)
Saturday, Feb. 21
Men’s hockey gold medal game – 12PM (Peacock – Live)
Women’s hockey gold medal game – 3PM (Peacock – Live)
Men’s hockey gold medal game – 8PM (NBC – Primetime)
Sunday, Feb. 22 – closing ceremony
Cross-country skiing final event – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
closing ceremony – 2PM (Peacock – Live)
closing ceremony – 8PM (NBC – Primetime)
More ways to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics on NBC
While Peacock is the best way to watch the Winter Olympics, there are other options if you restrict yourself to the NBC broadcasts. As our guide to the best live TV streaming services to cut cable notes, both YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV are excellent options, but you’ll want to skip Fubo until and unless the service resolves its contract dispute with Comcast, as NBC channels remain unavailable for now.
The 2026 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks will air on NBC this Sunday, Feb. 8. The Big Game will also stream live on Peacock. If you no longer subscribe to cable, don’t have access to NBC over the air and aren’t currently signed up for Peacock, there are still ways to watch Super Bowl LX — and Bad Bunny’s history-making Super Bowl Halftime Show — for free. Here’s how to tune in.
How to watch Super Bowl LX free:
Date: Sunday, Feb. 8
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Location: Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
TV channel: NBC, Telemundo
Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, NFL+ and more
2026 Super Bowl game channel
Super Bowl LX will air on NBC. A Spanish-language broadcast is available on Telemundo.
In addition to hosting NBC’s Super Bowl broadcast, DirecTV’s Entertainment tier gets you access to loads of channels where you can tune in to college and pro sports throughout the year, including ESPN, TNT, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS Sports Network, and, depending on where you live, local affiliates for ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.
Whichever package you choose, you’ll get unlimited Cloud DVR storage and access to ESPN Unlimited.
DirecTV’s Entertainment tier package is $89.99/month. But you can currently try all this out for free for 5 days. If you’re interested in trying out a live-TV streaming service for football, but aren’t ready to commit, we recommend starting with DirecTV.
Peacock is the streaming home of the 2026 Super Bowl.
While a regular Peacock subscription begins at $10.99 a month for a Premium Plan and goes up to $16.99 for the ad-free Premium Plus plan, you can get an ad-supported subscription for free if you’re a Walmart+ subscriber.
Walmart+ members actually get their choice between Paramount+ or Peacock included in their membership at no additional cost. A monthly subscription to Walmart+ costs $12.99, and an annual plan usually costs $98. But you can try the service out totally free. Beyond free Peacock, Walmart+ has additional perks like five free months of Apple Music, discounts on Cinemark movie theater memberships, free shipping and delivery on Walmart purchases, discounts on gas and much more.
Instacart+ subscribers are able to get an annual Peacock Premium plan (a $109.99 value) for free. After a free 14-day trial, Instacart+ plans cost $99/year, meaning you’ll save more on Peacock simply by subscribing to the delivery service, but you’ll get tons of extras, like free grocery and restaurant delivery and a free subscription to the New York Times Cooking app.
What time is the 2026 Super Bowl?
The 2026 Super Bowl kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT on Sunday, Feb. 8. Green Day will be performing a pre-game special starting at 6 p.m. ET.
Who is playing in the Super Bowl?
The AFC champions, the New England Patriots, will play the NFC champions, the Seattle Seahawks.
Where is the 2026 Super Bowl being played?
The 2026 Super Bowl will be held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of the San Francisco 49ers.
Who is performing at the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show?
Bad Bunny is headlining the 2026 Super Bowl halftime performance. You can expect that show to begin after the second quarter, likely between 8-8:30 p.m. ET. Green Day will perform a pre-game show starting at 6 p.m. ET. If you’re tuning in before the game, singer Charlie Puth will perform the National Anthem, Brandi Carlile is scheduled to sing “America the Beautiful,” and Grammy winner Coco Jones will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Fans of Leigh Whannell’s sci-fi flick Upgrade may recall there was a point where it seemed like it’d get a sequel. It got announced, then reworked into a TV series, and then…nothing, not a peep until last year when Whannell said the film would stay a one-and-done. What’s the deal there?
Well according to Tim Walsh, the film’s producer who was tapped to write and showrun the series, the show faced several obstacles before getting canned. As he recently told BloodyDisgusting, he and Whannell sold the project to Peacock back in 2019. Then there was a “tumultuous time” in the world, such as starting his writers room “on the day the world shut down” due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Another roadblock was the Upgrade show’s plot: it would’ve been about four criminals recently implanted with the STEM chip in the hopes of reforming them, similar to A Clockwork Orange. Walsh thinks it’d have been risky to air at a time when shows about the police and criminals were “not popular,” likely referencing protests against police brutality in recent years and discussions of television’s role in sanitizing them. But the biggest killer to the project was above his pay grade—as he tells it, the writers were ready and scripts assembled when a Peacock higher-up was fired. Their eventual replacement then “came in, thought they knew everything, and dropped the project.”
That’s where Walsh’s involvement with the show ended, and he was candid in saying it “still hurts” it didn’t get made, though he’s sure there were attempts to revive it without him. Despite how things shook out, he still wants to team with Whannell again, so maybe someday he’ll get a chance to revive the Upgrade show or craft elements from it onto something else.
The dominance of Bluey underscores how children’s programming, not prestige drama, has become streaming’s most reliable engine. Mario Wurzburger/Getty Images
The 2010s marked the streaming industry’s adolescence. Coupling a creative unshackling with the thrill of unbridled newness left those in the media bubble positively cooing like first-time parents. That would make the streaming boom of 2019-2022 its experimental college years. All that youthful optimism funneled into an unprecedented expansion. Yet since then, streaming has eventfully entered the “real world.” The industry is now a young adult assimilating into the steady nine-to-five routine. Growth is no longer driven by splashy hype. Instead, it is the reliability of habit that wins the day. And the data seems to back that up.
Nielsen recently released its annual top streaming performance lists, meaning we now have yearly leaders from 2020 to 2025. Last year saw a 19 percent uptick in total U.S. streaming minutes compared to 2024. Yet, while streaming time is up, the variety of hits isn’t exactly following suit. Top 10 lists across original streaming series, acquired (licensed) series, and movies remain dominated by the same intellectual properties making multiple appearances.
The overall performances speak loudly to what audiences want in the streaming age and which companies are giving it to them.
Why the same shows keep winning
Just as the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Lakers always seem to be in the playoffs, sitcoms, procedurals and animated kids’ fare consistently rank among the best-performing titles year in and year out. Bluey (1st), Grey’s Anatomy (2nd), NCIS (4th), SpongeBob SquarePants (5th), The Big Bang Theory (8th) and Criminal Minds (10th) were not only among the 10 most-streamed shows overall in 2025, but have made multiple appearances across top “Acquired” and “Overall” TV lists in the last half decade. (No wonder there’s a Bluey movie en route). Just one streaming original series (Stranger Things, 2nd) managed to claw its way onto the overall Top 10.
Most of these shows, and the majority of the “Acquired” TV lists, consist of libraries with hundreds of episodes. (Nielsen’s minutes-viewed metric rewards longer-running series with many episodes). Yes, new action and thrillers thrive on the small screen. But audiences do gravitate toward laundry-folding comfort shows a bit more than cultural daggers. Returning hits capture the largest share of attention, while new hits are more on the periphery of the highest levels.
If your main character is a cop, doctor or cartoon, you just might have an edge.
Netflix leads in existing and new originals
Netflix laid claim to seven of the Top 10 most-streamed originals in 2025 (though 10th place airs on both Netflix and Amazon): Stranger Things (1st), Squid Game (2nd), Wednesday (3rd), Ginny & Georgia (6th), The Night Agent (8th), Love Is Blind (9th), Gabby’s Dollhouse (10th). All of those shows have made multiple appearances in the yearly top 10s.
Even amid the regurgitation of familiarity, Netflix has managed to effectively launch new hits. First seasons (and/or one-season limited series) of Tiger King, Squid Game, Bridgerton, Maid, Wednesday, Dahmer, Inventing Anna, The Night Agent and Fool Me Once all made a Top 10 annual streaming original list in recent years.
Launching new shows proved more difficult last year, and all streamers struggle with original comedy. But even with the issues, Netflix was still responsible for the second most-watched new original drama (The Residence, which was admittedly cancelled), the two most-watched new comedies (Running Point and The Four Seasons) and the two most-watched new unscripted series (Sean Combs: The Reckoning and Million Dollar Secret). (Paramount+’s Landman and Peacock’s Love Island USA are the only Top 10 streaming originals making their first appearances this year).
Netflix is far less dominant in the “Acquired” and “Overall” lists. Its scale typically enables it to debut new shows fairly successfully, but sustaining them for the long term is trickier today.
Prestige doesn’t translate to the top 10 scale
Premium programming may be my bag, but the rest of the country apparently doesn’t agree.
Nielsen began tracking HBO Max in April 2022. Since then, not a single HBO title has made a top annual “Acquired Series” list. Granted, this is a post-Game of Thrones world, and making the “Acquired” list is far more competitive than the others. But still—surprising! HBO Max original The Pitt was the most-watched new original streaming drama in 2025. Appointment viewing furnishes a quality brand and drives regular weekly tune-in. But it’s a different model from the endless drawl of sitcoms and procedurals. It doesn’t automatically boast the same library value.
Then there’s the lack of Warner Bros. film representation. Due to the dominant rewatchability of kids’ films, Nielsen broke out a separate 2025 “General Audience Movie” list for the first time (Seven out of ten films were released between 2024-25). Despite WB’s stellar box office year, the studio’s only films among the Top 10 were the first two Harry Potter films, which were non-exclusive with Peacock. The data shows that fantasy is actually a high-upside genre across both film and TV if made accessible and not bogged down in intricate mythology.
On the flip side of this equation, Amazon Prime Video reaches an impressive 54 percent of U.S. households, according to Greenlight Analytics, where I work as Director of Insights & Content Strategy. The streamer has delivered select breakout shows such as The Boys, Reacher, Fallout,and Red One. But its quiet overall presence suggests viewers enjoy the service but have not yet added it to their regular entertainment routines.
Kids’ entertainment is beyond dominant
As the brilliant kids media analyst Emily Horgan often notes, children’s entertainment remains undervalued relative to its practical contributions. “While many think of the streaming wars as a battle for the buzziest new awards drama or star-studded blockbuster, the real SVOD clashes are fought in the trenches of regular daily usage,” Horgan wrote. “That’s where animated kids’ movies truly shine.”
Bluey has been the top overall title in back-to-back years, while Cocomelon was a mainstay on the charts in the early 2020s. Family-friendly movies and legacy IP have proven to be the algorithm-proof gift that keeps on giving.
Disney has firmly established squatter’s rights in this lane. Of the 70 top annual film slots from 2020-2025 (including Nielsen’s new bifurcated movie lists this year), 34 belong to Disney+. The company manages to land the same films—Moana, Zootopia, Frozen I and II and Encanto—onto multiple lists as does Universal’s Dreamworks and Illumination across Peacock and Netflix to a lesser extent.
Consistent box office returns plus guaranteed streaming viewership anoint kids’ entertainment as the king of all genres today.
Headlines for Hollywood
It’s important to remember that just because a given title doesn’t appear among the 10 most-streamed shows every year doesn’t mean it’s unsuccessful. There are plenty of hits to be found beyond this narrow snapshot.
Prestige, novelty and event programming are helpful brand builders with temporary pop. But familiar recyclability and consistency appear to yield the best results. Comfort viewing and long runways for early breakout hits serve as streaming’s foundation and pillars, respectively, while “new” events struggle with sustainability. In that way, the upper echelons of streaming viewership confirm the industry’s shift into more mundane, expected territory. Welcome to the workforce.
Peacock has officially added one of 2023’s underrated action comedy movies starring legendary actor Jackie Chan to its 2026 movie library. Featuring the Rush Hour star as an old-school stunt performer, Ride On is now finally available to stream on Peacock.
What do we know about Jackie Chan’s Ride On movie?
Ride On was written and directed by Larry Yang. Besides Chan, the movie also starred Kevin Guo, Haocun Liu, Yueting Lang, Andy On, Hang Su, Jing Wu, Shenyang Xiao, Xing Yu, Ailei Yu, Rongguang Yu, Joey Yung, and more. It currently holds an approval rating of 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews.
“After two debt collectors attempt to seize a stunt horse belonging to washed-up stuntman Luo, video of the ensuing confrontation–and the dynamic duo’s narrow acrobatic escape–goes viral on social media,” reads the official synopsis. “Furious at being humiliated online, the debt collectors return to seek revenge, leaving Luo and Red Hare to engage in a series of hilarious, action-packed antics that outdo even the most daring acts from their glory days.”
Executive producers are Ruoqing Fu, Haifeng Li, Yanming Liu, and Hai Yang, with Victoria Hon, Belle Lau, Jerry Li, Yuan Nong, Tianfu Xu, and Huixia Zhang serving as producers. The creative team consists of cinematographer Ming Sun, editor Super Zhang, composer Loudboy, production designer Li Sun, and costume designer Po Yee Wong.
Last year, Chan reprised his role as Mr. Han in Sony Pictures’ Karate Kid: Legends movie, where he was able to star opposite franchise lead Ralph Macchio’s iconic Daniel LaRusso. At the moment, Paramount Pictures is actively trying to develop a Rush Hour 4. Chan, Chris Tucker, and franchise director Brett Ratner are expected to return.
Noah Wyle as Dr. Robby in HBO’s The PittCredit: courtesy HBO Max
Premieres Wednesday:
Beast Games — His recent video that attempted to pit male competitors against female ones was rocked by allegations of malfeasance, including Russian bots posing as legitimate players. So of course Mr. Beast is upping the ante for the second season of his wildly successful streaming show, promising $5 million to the winner of a contest that’s being advertised as “smart versus strong.” I wonder which one he identifies with. (Prime Video)
Marcello Hernández: American Boy — The SNL breakout star takes to the stage in his native Miami for his first stand-up special, which sees him recounting his experiences as a first-generation Cuban American. I don’t want to wish the curse of Pete Davidson on anybody, but I give it two more specials until he’s part of a couple you can actually believe are together. (Netflix)
Unlocked: A Jail Experiment — The docuseries that takes us into an Arizona prison where leniency and trust are the guiding principles returns for an eye-opening second season. If you want to know how it’s going, all of the cast members from Season 1 are back, but now we’re looking in on them at their hideout shack outside a Nevada silver mine. (Netflix)
Premieres Thursday:
Girl Taken — Hollie Overton’s novel Baby Doll is the source material for a six-part miniseries in which a British girl is kidnapped by a highly respected local teacher. This just in: He’s now moved up to eighth in the line of royal succession. (Paramount+)
His & Hers — Tessa Thompson plays a news anchor who tries to solve a murder in her hometown, with Jon Bernthal as a detective who doubts her motives. Well, of course he’s suspicious: Since when did broadcast news people develop an interest in justice all of a sudden? (Netflix)
The Pitt — The hit medical drama is back for a sophomore season that reportedly takes place over the course of an intense 24-hour shift during Fourth of July weekend. “Our job is not to outdo ourselves. Our job is to do ourselves,” series creator R. Scott Gemmill told Deadline. So how long until they move over to Onlyfans? (HBO Max)
The Traitors — Season 4 of the Alan Cumming–hosted competition augments its cast of reality veterans with a diverse group of celebrities from other walks of life, including comic Ron Funches, Olympian Tara Lipinski and NFL mom Donna Kelce. Oh, and also Michael Rapaport, because he thought they were looking for actual traitors. (Peacock)
Premieres Friday:
Coldwater — Andrew Lincoln plays a Londoner who moves to a small town in Scotland for his family’s safety, only to discover the place has perils all its own. For one thing, their lakes are crawling with big eels. (Paramount+)
People We Meet on Vacation — This adaptation of the novel by Emily Henry casts Tom Blyth and Emily Bader as polar opposites who begin to wonder if they might be the perfect mates. Which is the way it always goes in fiction, but if you want to know what happens in real life when opposites find each other, there are always Alex Murdaugh documentaries. (Netflix)
A Thousand Blows Season 2 — One year later, our cast of 1880s East Enders have to pick themselves up out of alcoholism and despair to regain their mastery of the London underworld. As opposed to the London Underground, which you can master just by remembering to get off before Cockfosters. (Netflix)
Premieres Sunday:
The Night Manager — Season 2 finds Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine on a new mission: to take down a Colombian arms dealer. But if he finds out they’re trafficking weed too, he’ll have to cede authority to the United States Defense Department. (Prime Video)
Premieres Tuesday:
Tell Me Lies — As Season 3 begins, coeds Lucy and Stephen have reignited their tumultuous relationship, but the missteps of the past may prove impossible to overcome. Seriously, how much of a past can you have when you’re only in college? At that point, the biggest mistake you’ve made is majoring in English literature instead of marketing. (Hulu)
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Related Stories
Plus a Kate Winslet Christmas tearjerker and a new Ricky Gervais stand-up special
Plus Season 5 of ‘Emily in Paris,’ ‘Breakdown: 1975’ and everything else debuting on streaming
Everything debuting this week for your winter binge-watch
Peacock is set to expand its film lineup with the addition of Ad Astra, the 2019 sci-fi movie drama starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut. Originally released on 2019, the film has since gained wider following. The upcoming streaming release gives audiences another opportunity to revisit underrated film.
Ad Astra finds Peacock streaming release date
Peacock has confirmed that the science-fiction drama Ad Astra will be added to its streaming library at the beginning of 2026. The movie, led by Brad Pitt, is set to arrive on the platform on January 1, 2026, giving subscribers access to the space epic more than six years after its theatrical release (via ComicBook.com).
Directed by James Gray, Ad Astra was released in theaters in 2019 and centers on astronaut Roy McBride, portrayed by Pitt. McBride is assigned to a high-risk mission across the solar system following a series of unexplained energy surges that threaten the earth. The disturbances are believed to be linked to a long-abandoned expedition to Neptune, led decades earlier by Roy’s father, Clifford McBride, who was presumed lost in space.
The cast also includes Ruth Negga as Helen Lantos, Liv Tyler as Eve McBride, and Donald Sutherland as Colonel Thomas Pruitt, among others. Upon release, Ad Astra received generally positive reviews from critics. It holds an 83 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 398 reviews. Audience reception was less favorable, with a 40 percent Popcornmeter score.
Julian Singleton of Cinapse wrote, “It’s an ambitious film that’s wonderfully about how ambition condemns us — and instead encourages us to recognize the beauty that we turn away from in the name of what’s ‘essential.’”
At the box office, Ad Astra earned approximately $50 million in the United States and Canada, with an additional $77 million internationally. According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed a a global total of around $127 million.
Toni Collette (center) in Goodbye JuneCredit: courtesy of Netflix
Premieres Wednesday, Dec. 24:
Goodbye June — Family members gather around the bedside of their dying mother (Helen Mirren) in a film Kate Winslet directed from a script by her son, Joe Anders. Boy, wonder what she thought when he handed her that one. Did it go straight onto the refrigerator, or did she get the hint? (Netflix)
Tom Segura: Teacher — The dudebro comic performs in a special that’s reaching streaming in record time, considering it was filmed in front of a live audience just last month. But that’s how you have to do it if you want to make room for timely routines like “Dems Will Never Cave on the Shutdown.” (Netflix)
Premieres Thursday, Dec. 25:
Christmas Gameday — The options for avoiding your family are copious this year, with Netflix streaming the Cowboys versus the Commanders at 1 p.m. and the Lions versus the Vikings at 4:30, followed by Prime Video getting into the act with the Broncos versus the Chiefs at 8:15. And if that doesn’t do the trick, there’s always a long ride in the country with Christopher Walken.
Premieres Friday, Dec. 26:
Cover Up — Retrace the career of crusading investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who exposed our military’s atrocities in Vietnam and Iraq. Critics have derided his reliance on anonymous sources — in case you were wondering why the film ends with Susie Wiles singing “The Man That Got Away.” (Netflix)
Maya Hawke, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton in Stranger Things: Season 5Credit: courtesy of Netflix
Stranger Things 5 Volume 2 — The run-up to the big series finale on New Year’s Eve consists of three episodes that pick up on Vecna’s threats to use children to transform the world. Which might explain why the leading market on Polymarket for the last month has been “Is Vecna Whitney Houston?” (Netflix)
Premieres Saturday, Dec. 27:
The Copenhagen Test — Old Shang-Chi himself, Simu Liu, plays a Chinese-American intelligence analyst whose brain gets hacked, affording our enemies a ringside seat to his daily experiences. Bet they ask for their money back when they find out about Signal. (Peacock)
Premieres Monday, Dec. 29:
Members Only: Palm Beach — The latest reality opulence fest is set in Florida’s very own Palm Beach County, where common sense and good taste take a back seat to obscene wealth. And remember, these are the people we’re fighting redistricting to hold onto. (Netflix)
Premieres Tuesday, Dec. 30:
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story — There’s already been a Hulu series about Ruby Franke, the parenting expert who was found guilty of horrifically abusing her own children. So now we get a documentary about her professional partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, who is doing time as her accomplice. Franke was brought up on six charges of aggravated child abuse, but Hildebrandt faced only four — I guess because she merely tortured someone else’s offspring. And if that seems unfair to you, you must not have done much of your shopping in physical stores this Christmas. (Netflix)
Ricky Gervais: Mortality — In his latest stand-up special, the gleeful provocateur continues his recent focus on the inevitability of his eventual demise. Just try not to be distracted by the picture-in-picture of a trans woman eating popcorn. (Netflix)
Premieres Wednesday, Dec. 31:
Stranger Things — Numerous Greater Orlando multiplexes are showing this two-hour series finale tonight, but you can just stay home and watch it the old-fashioned way if you don’t want the experience ruined by a bunch of chatty drunks. OK, by a bunch of chatty drunks you don’t know! (Netflix)
Minnie Driver and James Nesbitt in Run AwayCredit: courtesy of Netflix
Premieres Thursday, Jan. 1:
Run Away — And in a reassuring bit of continuity, the new year begins with — what else — a Harlan Coben adaptation. This one focuses on a dad who fights to retrieve his daughter from a shadowy drug underworld. And just in time too, because I hear you can come down with a serious case of TDS in those places. (Netflix)
Orlando’s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.
Related Stories
Plus a Kate Winslet Christmas tearjerker and a new Ricky Gervais stand-up special
Plus Season 5 of ‘Emily in Paris,’ ‘Breakdown: 1975’ and everything else debuting on streaming
Everything debuting this week for your winter binge-watch
Golden Globe nominee Natasha Lyonne has finally opened up about Poker Face‘s Peacock cancellation and not returning as the lead in the mystery comedy’s potential third season. In the show, Lyonne portrayed the role of lie detector Charlie Cale for two seasons, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Why is Natasha Lyonne exiting her lead role in Poker Face?
During a recent interview with THR, Lyonne confirmed that the creative team already knew about Peacock‘s looming cancellation even during the production of Poker Face Season 2. Because of this, she’s glad that she and creator Rian Johnson were able to direct the final episode together.
“We weren’t shocked! Isn’t that funny, how that happens? ‘News to some people,’ is what it should say! ‘New news to just us who haven’t been keyed in on the news as it was unfolding in real time,’” she shared. “I’m so grateful that Rian and I directed a finale last season called “The End of the Road” — that should have been a little clue, folks. We literally threw the car off a cliff! We also threw Root Beer in the shot day of — an improvised cameo by my beloved, tiny baby puppy who is 15 but doesn’t look a day over one, thanks to extensive plastic surgery.”
Lyonne also finally explained the reason why Game of Thrones vet Peter Dinklage will replace her as the lead in the possible Poker Face Season 3. Despite her exit, the Orange Is the New Black alum will remain as an executive producer and is still currently involved in the process of the show trying to find a new home.
“I adore Dinklage. Game of Thrones is obviously one of my favorite shows, but Peter is also one of my favorite people of all time. It’s kind of all good news,” Lyonne revealed. “For me, baby’s gotta direct some movies. I’ve been talking about it long enough. I’m very grateful I got to direct TV and write so much of it. I love what I do very much; I’m so grateful that I get to do it. And the unfortunate thing about a human timeline is that, much like the sand in the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.”
She continued, “I gotta get these movies under my belt, and I’m also excited about my Sky show with Matt Berry, Force & Majeure, a sci-fi retro endeavor. When we’re done talking, I’m going to get back to that writers’ room to finish that finale. We shoot in September.”
Poker Face was created, written, and directed by Rian Johnson in his first-ever TV project, with Tony Tost serving as its showrunner. The latest season featured guest stars Cynthia Erivo, John Mulaney, Simon Rex, Giancarlo Esposito, John Cho, Awkwafina, Method Man, Ego Nwodim, Kumail Nanjiani, Melanie Lynskey, Taylor Schilling, Katie Holmes, Alia Shawkat, and more.
John Cena began his WWE retirement tour back in January, and it’s coming to an end this weekend when the wrestling legend headlines WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event. For the last fight of his career, Cena has been matched up with “The Ring General” Gunther on the night’s fight card, which also features matches between Cody Rhodes and Oba Femi, a tag team match featuring AJ Styles & Dragon Lee vs. Je’Von Evans & Leon Slater, and a women’s matchup between Bayley and Sol Ruca. This show starts at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday and will stream with a subscription to Peacock, or grab a 7-day trial of Peacock through Prime Video and tune in for free.
Here’s a look at how to watch John Cena’s final fight at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event this weekend, including how to stream the entire thing for free.
How to watch WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event:
Date: Dec. 13, 2025
Time: 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
Streaming: Peacock
Where to watch WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event:
The WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event will air live on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025 on Peacock, with fights starting at 8 p.m. ET. You can also tune in to the Saturday Night’s Main Event Countdown pre-show starting at 6 p.m. ET, and the post-show, which immediately follows the event on Peacock.
Who will be at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event?
This weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event will be headlined by John Cena and Gunther. Also on the bill, you can catch matches between Cody Rhodes and Oba Femi, a tag team bout between AJ Styles & Dragon Lee vs. Je’Von Evans & Leon Slater, and a women’s matchup between Bayley and Sol Ruca.
How to watch the WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event:
This weekend’s WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event streams exclusively on Peacock, but there is a way to get it for free, with Prime Video.
Right now, you can grab a free 7-day trial of Peacock Premium Plus if you sign up through Prime Video, so you can watch sports like the WWE, Premier League, and Sunday Night Football, along with original series like All Her Fault and The Traitors, and great Bravo and NBC shows, at no cost. You can cancel after the trial ends, or keep the subscription to Peacock Premium Plus for $16.99/month.
While a regular Peacock subscription begins at $10.99 for a Premium Plan and goes up to $16.99 for the ad-free Premium Plus plan, you can get an ad-supported subscription for free if you’re a Walmart+ subscriber.
Walmart+ members actually get their choice between Paramount+ or Peacock included in their membership at no additional cost. A monthly subscription to Walmart+ costs $12.99, and an annual plan costs $98 and includes additional perks like five free months of Apple Music, discounts on Cinemark movie theater memberships, free shipping and delivery on Walmart purchases, discounts on gas, and much more.
Instacart+ subscribers are able to get an annual Peacock Premium plan (a $109.99 value) for free as part of their plan. After a free 14-day trial, Instacart+ plans cost $99/year, meaning you’ll save more on Peacock simply by subscribing to the delivery service, but you’ll get tons of extras, like free grocery and restaurant delivery, and a free subscription to the NY Times Cooking app, too.
Starting at $11 a month, a Peacock subscription is a great way to stream this weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.
On top of this weekend’s wrestling, you’ll also get access to thousands of hours of shows and movies, including beloved sitcoms such as Parks and Recreation and The Office. For $17 monthly you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
If you’ve wanted to check out The Paper or any other new NBC show on Peacock, you can do so now while spending less thanks to this hack. Walmart, believe it or not, comes into play here: the retailer is offering Walmart+ subscriptions for half off right now, bringing the cost down to $49 for your first year. Thanks to a streaming benefit for subscribers, you can then sign up for Peacock at no extra cost.
Walmart+ subscribers are able to choose between a Peacock Premium or a Paramount+ Essential subscription. Considering Peacock premium would run you $110 for the year on its own, signing up for Walmart+ while this discount is available gets you access to the streaming service for less than half the normal cost.
Walmart
A Walmart+ subscription is 50 percent off for new subscribers.
Just about every major streaming service has raised its prices in the last year, including HBO Max, Disney+, Netflix, Apple TV and YouTube TV, so saving some money on one of them just might be worth the effort. Cord cutting is not nearly as affordable as it used to be, so finding a deal like this is pretty helpful.
Walmart+ itself offers myriad additional benefits like early access to Black Friday deals, free shipping on orders over $35, discounts on gas, free online veterinary care and more. Earlier this year, Walmart+ subscribers got first dibs on the Nintendo Switch 2 at the retailer. You can also use that free shipping to take advantage of Walmart’s drone delivery program in a handful of select cities.
The Carman Family Deaths — The loss of his mother at sea puts the spotlight of suspicion on a young New England man, implicating him in the death of his grandfather years earlier. We have to make do with this documentary for now, because Ryan Murphy hasn’t been able to sign Robert Wagner or Christopher Walken. (Netflix)
Champagne Problems — Yes, we’ve reached that time of year when everybody wants to be the Hallmark Channel, and unrepentantly so. Follow Minka Kelly on business to France, where her mission to close a big deal might lead to love with a hunky local. So it’s like the Katy Perry story, but less embarrassing for everybody. (Netflix)
Premieres Thursday:
High Horse: The Black Cowboy — Jordan Peele traces the true, untold history of Blacks on the prairie in a documentary inspired by his provocative 2022 sci-fi/horror feature, Nope. Meanwhile, Scott Derrickson is insistent Black Phone 2 is really about AT&T’s reliance on the slave trade. (Peacock)
A Man on the Inside — Mary Steenburgen joins her real-life husband, Ted Danson, for Season 2, which sends Charles undercover at a liberal arts college. Careful, guys! Remember what happened the last time somebody named Charlie tried to be a big man on campus. (Netflix)
Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan and Zoe Colletti in The Family Plan 2Credit: courtesy Apple TV
Premieres Friday:
The Family Plan 2 — And here’s another chance to drink deep the reassurance of formula, specifically the tradition of shitty sequels set in Europe. Former assassin Mark Wahlberg faces a moment of truth on the continent, as he’s pursued by a mysterious foe who’s put his family in the crosshairs. You just knew Clark Griswold was going to snap one day if those British drivers didn’t let him merge. (Apple TV)
One Shot With Ed Sheeran — The multiplatinum simp takes to the streets of New York, serenading the locals in an impromptu concert that was filmed in one take. The good news is that since Mamdani got elected, a guy can now get his hand cut off for this. (Netflix)
Train Dreams — Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon and William H. Macy star in a 2025 Sundance hit set amid the railroad expansion of the early 20th century. Not to be outdone, Blumhouse is prepping a quickie horror flick about SunRail disasters. (Netflix)
Premieres Monday:
Bel Air — Senior year proves a serious crossroads for Will (Jabari Banks) as the dramatic reimagining of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air enters its fourth and final season. Will he get into a good HBCU, or does his future lie in smacking presenters on the NAACP Image Awards? (Peacock)
Missing Dead or Alive Season 2 — South Carolina’s finest sheriff’s department is back to solve more cases of people who upped and vanished without a trace. Or, as it’s referred to in politer company, “redistricting.” (Netflix)
Premieres Tuesday:
Is It Cake? Holiday Season 2 — Three returning bakers join three new contestants to compete for a $75,000 prize pot. Coincidentally, an assload of gingerbread is the reward in the upcoming Is It Pot? What Day Is It? (Netflix)
Orlando’s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.
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If you’ve wanted to check out The Paper or any other new NBC show on Peacock, you can do so now while spending less thanks to this hack. Walmart, believe it or not, comes into play here: the retailer is offering Walmart+ subscriptions for half off right now, bringing the cost down to $49 for your first year. Thanks to a streaming benefit for subscribers, you can then sign up for Peacock at no extra cost.
Walmart+ subscribers are able to choose between a Peacock Premium or a Paramount+ Essential subscription. Considering Peacock premium would run you $110 for the year on its own, signing up for Walmart+ while this discount is available gets you access to the streaming service for less than half the normal cost.
Walmart
A Walmart+ subscription is 50 percent off for new subscribers.
Just about every major streaming service has raised its prices in the last year, including HBO Max, Disney+, Netflix, Apple TV and YouTube TV, so saving some money on one of them just might be worth the effort. Cord cutting is not nearly as affordable as it used to be, so finding a deal like this is pretty helpful.
Walmart+ itself offers myriad additional benefits like early access to Black Friday deals, free shipping on orders over $35, discounts on gas, free online veterinary care and more. Earlier this year, Walmart+ subscribers got first dibs on the Nintendo Switch 2 at the retailer. You can also use that free shipping to take advantage of Walmart’s drone delivery program in a handful of select cities.
Peacock’s new TV and movie releases for November 17-23, 2025, include Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme Parks and the film A Thousand and One.
All three episodes of Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme Parks drop on Peacock on November 17, 2025. This series explores the culture and history surrounding Universal Destinations & Experiences.
A Thousand and One arrives on Peacock on November 19, 2025. A.V. Rockwell wrote and helmed this crime drama, which is set against the backdrop of mid-’90s New York City. The story follows Inez (Teyana Taylor), a struggling young woman who keeps switching shelters while living life on her terms. Missing her son, Terry, who has been placed in foster care, she kidnaps him — intending to build a life with him. Years pass, and the pair’s family grows. However, their past soon catches up with them, threatening to expose the secret that has loomed over their lives.
Also releasing this week are all four seasons of The Good Place and all four films of The Expendables franchise.
The Good Place is a fantasy comedy following Eleanor Shellstrop, a dead woman who enters the afterlife and realizes she wasn’t a good person while she was alive. Armed with the knowledge of her horrible behavior during her life, she tries to become a better person in the afterlife while hiding her imperfections.
Meanwhile, The Expendables is an action-thriller film series following a mercenary group who do various high-stakes jobs.
New Peacock releases for November 17-23, 2025
Below are all the new TV shows and movies being added to Peacock from November 17-23, 2025.
Monday, November 17, 2025
BravoCon Tea Time Rewind (State Farm Recap Special) (Peacock Original)
BravoCon Live with Andy Cohen, Season 2 – Premiere (Bravo)
Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme Parks, Season 1 – Premiere, All Episodes, 3 Episodes, 60 min
The Good Place, Season 1-4 (NBC)
The Real Housewives of Potomac After Show, Season 1 – Premiere (Bravo Digital)
Trolls: The Beat Goes On, Season 1-2 (DreamWorks)
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Cold Justice, Season 8 – Premiere, All Episodes (Oxygen)
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Thursday, November 20, 2025
A Different Breed, Season 1 – Premiere, All Episodes (Purina)
The Expendables
The Expendables 2
The Expendables 3
The Expend4bles
Southern Charm, Season 11 – Premiere (Bravo)
Friday, November 21, 2025
BravoCon Live with Andy Cohen, Season 2 – Finale (Bravo)
Being Eddie — Did you know that Shalimar Seiuli, the trans hooker Eddie Murphy was caught with in 1998, died a year later, after falling five stories down the face of her apartment building? Don’t expect to hear that fun factoid in this official retrospective of the legendary comedian’s career. But maybe we’ll get to see “James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party” again. (Netflix)
A Merry Little Ex-Mas — On the cusp of their divorce, Alicia Silverstone and Oliver Hudson have plans to spend one final holiday together. But when his new girlfriend shows up, even that humble aspiration becomes a tall order. See, this is why it’s always better to make a clean break, like the Murdaughs did. (Netflix)
Premieres Thursday:
The Beast in Me — Afflicted by writer’s block since losing her son, an author (Claire Danes) gets interested in life again when a suspected murderer moves in next door. And why shouldn’t she? In the best-case scenario, she could get a whole new novel out of it. Especially if she can figure out how to outsource the adverbs to ChatGPT. (Netflix)
Tiffany Haddish Goes Off — The irrepressible comic actor and some of her childhood buddies take a wacky girls’ trip to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. No Nigeria, though, because a Signal chat they’re all on said some shit is about to go down. (Peacock)
Premieres Friday:
Come See Me in the Good Light — Documentary cameras follow married poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley as they navigate Gibson’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer. This doc won the Festival Film Favorite Award at this year’s Sundance, just five months before Gibson passed away. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame want you to know they could be just as punctual if this country would get off its ass and standardize Daylight Saving Time. (Apple TV)
The Creep Tapes Season 2 — David Dastmalchian is among the guest stars as the found-footage series profiles new victims of the insidious Peachfuzz. Coincidentally, “the insidious peach fuzz” is what Usha has been calling JD ever since he started coming home smelling like Erika Kirk and White Claw. (Shudder and AMC+)
Malice — It’s Saltburn without the whacking off, as a vengeful nanny (Jack Whitehall) plots the destruction of an upper-class British family headed by David Duchovny. Wait a minute, if it’s Fox Mulder we’re talking about, this is probably more like BRIGHTburn. WITH whacking off. (Prime Video )
Nouvelle Vague — Richard Linklater dramatizes the filming of Godard’s Breathless in what Variety called “an enchanting ode to the rapture of cinema.” In their spare time, they all break into Barnes & Noble together and lick the Criterion Collection. (Netflix)
The Seduction — The umpteenth riff on Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a prequel series that has roles for Anamaria Vartolomei, Diane Kruger and Vincent Lacoste. Not to be outdone, Disney+ has placed an eight-episode order for Cruel Intentions Babies. (HBO Max)
Premieres Sunday:
Landman — High-profile cast additions in Season 2 of the Texas big-oil drama include Colm Feore, Andy Garcia and Sam Elliott. Wait a minute, you’re telling me Sam Elliott wasn’t already in this thing? I thought SAG had a rule that you have to hire him if your show is set west of New Orleans and there’s a role for Dennis Weaver with pharyngitis. (Paramount+)
Premieres Monday:
Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme Parks — This glorified ad for the Universal family of parks has now been delayed two times since its promised launch last July. The problem is that they keep having to update it every time somebody snuffs it on Stardust Racers. (Peacock)
The Mighty Nein — While you wait for the fifth and final season of The Legend of Vox Machina, enjoy the same cast of Critical Role principals in this stopgap animated show set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Or you could just visit your local comic shop on whatever day of the week everybody’s mom cleans out the basement. (Prime Video)
Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy — The Tejano sensation’s short but groundbreaking career is recapped in a doc that also won big at year’s Sundance, this one in the category of Archival Storytelling. The runner-up in that category: “The Inspiring Life and Brilliant Future of Andrew Cuomo.” (Netflix)
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All the streaming shows debuting this week on Netflix, Apple TV, Prime Video and the rest
Plus a schlock-doc about the racialized 2023 Ocala shooting and the return of ‘Loot’ on Apple TV
Orlando’s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.
The rich white mommy drama sets its sights on the patriarchy in Sarah Snook’s first live-action TV series since Succession. Photo: PEACOCK
The men in All Her Fault never utter the titular three words. But you know they’re thinking them when a young boy goes missing from a playdate his mother set up (all her fault), when a husband has to rearrange his work schedule because his wife has a meeting (all her fault), and when a teen’s overspending sends her boyfriend into a life of crime (all her fault). These women exist to their partners primarily as an inconvenience, and the Peacock adaptation of Andrea Mara’s novel of the same name hammers home the inequity in their relationships, family dynamics, and workplace over and over again. And yet it doesn’t get monotonous. Rather, All Her Fault gathers fury as it goes, particularly for anyone who would dare dismiss women as the fairer sex. And that “anyone” — well, it’s mostly the guys, because beneath the motherthriller shenanigans, All Her Fault reveals itself to be a misandrist masterpiece.
Created by Megan Gallagher and starring and executive-produced by Sarah Snook in her first live-action TV role since Succession, All Her Fault is compulsively watchable, worthy of the type of binge that carves a dent into your couch cushions. With sprinting momentum, it introduces and amplifies an overlapping series of mysteries that begins with the disappearance of the young son of a very wealthy couple, Marissa (Snook) and Peter Irvine (Jake Lacy). The inciting action is a bit convoluted: Marissa goes to pick up Milo (Duke McCloud) from a playdate, but the woman who answers the door has no idea who Milo is. She is not Jenny, mom of Jacob, who texted Marissa to set up the playdate, nor is she Jenny’s nanny. The phone number that texted Marissa claiming to be Jenny is now out of service, and the real Jenny (Dakota Fanning) says she never sent the text. She’s only hung out with Marissa once. Why would someone use her name to kidnap Milo?
All Her Fault lays out this information at a rapid clip in the premiere, using detectives Alcaras (Michael Peña) and Greco (Johnny Carr) to sort through the details and bring other characters into the mix: Peter’s younger sister, Lia (Abby Elliott), a recovering drug addict with a persecution complex; Peter’s younger brother, Brian (Daniel Monks), who uses a cane and lives in Peter and Marissa’s guest house; and Marissa’s business partner, Colin (Jay Ellis), who steps up to run their wealth-management firm after Marissa’s family life explodes. Each has their own secrets, of course. But All Her Fault’s visceral entertainment value is driven less by the reveals of these characters’ hidden motivations than the unexpected friendship that grows between Marissa and Jenny, who are discouraged by their husbands from communicating after Milo disappears but find in each other not just confidantes but allies.
Marissa and Jenny are very different women with very similar problems. Fanning is in the clipped-and-icy mode she recently perfected in Ripley and The Perfect Couple, all placid smiles and unbroken eye contact, while Snook keeps inventing new ways to manipulate her face into expressions of adrift, devastated distress. (Snook’s eyebrows are so raised at each new revelation they sometimes seem as if they’ll levitate off her face.) The two actresses’ contrasting energies gel when they find common ground in the increasingly curtailed nature of their lives. Even as they meet their professional goals and find joy in raising children, something’s missing. A husband who acts like an adult, perhaps? A scene in which Marissa and Jenny drink wine while hiding in the bathroom during a school fundraiser has that chummy feminine quality that makes their friendship so familiar and this genre such a comfort, even as its ultrarich, ultrawhite characters navigate unrelatable scenarios, like tending to an Olympic-size pool or realizing the nanny’s been lying to you for months. Although Marissa Irvine is a far more conventionally likable character than Succession’s Shiv Roy, it’s fun to see Snook allude to her work as Waystar Royco’s most complicit woman, peppering little “yeah”s and “hey”s at the end of her sentences that transform innocuous lines into conversational challenges. Snook’s talent is playing women who seem like the only thing preventing them from falling apart is their gritted teeth, and Marissa is another well-rounded entry in that canon.
Zoom out on the past year’s mountain of TV, and All Her Fault is one pebble in a cairn of series positioning their female characters against abusive lovers or uniting them against a common enemy. (Bad Sisters, Sirens, The Better Sister, and The Hunting Wives qualify here.) All Her Fault puts its own twist on that formula by dissecting Marissa and Jenny’s comparably frustrating marriages: how both husbands call their wives “amazing” whenever the women make sacrifices the men would never consider making, or how their domestic labor never ends, despite the means to pay for assistance, thanks to their husbands’ talent for removing themselves from things like dinner planning and schedule coordination. All Her Fault allows the two women to lament this normalized condescension and consider whether they’ve shrunk themselves in order to please their small men, then renders their husbands so selfish and negligent viewers can’t help but root for their riotous downfalls. (Jenny’s husband sabotages her meeting with an important client because he can’t figure out how to put their son to bed. Jail.) Once Marissa and Jenny finally confront them, All Her Fault revels in the husbands’ evisceration and their wives’ lack of guilt. “All her fault,” then, takes on another meaning: Marissa and Jenny’s payback is their responsibility, but the surprise of the series is their complete lack of remorse, how brusquely they wash their hands and move on, eyes open and resolve set.
Not all the men in All Her Fault are terrible. Peña does well playing against type as Alcaras, who intuits that Marissa and Jenny’s bond is based on more than just the shock of Milo’s disappearance. Of the men who are terrible, Lacy is exceptionally hatable as Peter, a less bro-y spin on his character from The White Lotus. An early scene when Peter asks Marissa why she didn’t double-check any of the details of Milo’s playdate, and Alcaras turns the question around on Peter as Milo’s other parent, has a delicious let-them-fightcharge. But really, the men in All Her Fault are ancillary, little more than obstructions yelling for attention, figures whose fall from grace delivers operatic melodrama before the show settles into a story about the dignity women can find through determining their own identities as individuals, rather than through the magnanimous terms like team or partners used in modern marriage. All Her Fault’s short-term gratification is in those big tell-off scenes, the moments Marissa and Jenny get to rip apart men who refuse to take any ownership over their actions. Its larger contribution to this specific subgenre, though, is the way it elevates and celebrates women who choose to reject the expectations of house-baby-mommy heternormative society. Who could blame them?
