New on HBO Now: All the Movies and TV Coming in December

Even HBO is in the giving mood this holiday season: The not-TV network is adding a number of movies and TV for which it’s worth being thankful, from popcorn blockbusters to prestige dramas. Our gift to you, without any further ado, is the breakdown below, detailing all the most notable titles coming to HBO Now this December.

HBO’s marquee film addition is one of 2019’s strangest blockbusters: Pokémon Detective Pikachu, the live-action adaptation of a lesser-known Pokémon spinoff videogame centered on the titular mystery-solving Pikachu, who’s voiced in the film by, of all people, Ryan Reynolds—Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy lead its human cast. One of the best-reviewed videogame movies ever made, Pokémon Detective Pikachu was also one of 2019’s biggest hits at the global box office, and now you can catch it at the Home Box Office. Also worth looking out for is writer-director Alex Ross Perry’s acclaimed rock drama Her Smell (Dec. 30), starring Elisabeth Moss as self-destructive musician Becky Something, a past-her-prime punk-rock superstar forced to reckon with her inner demons. Elsewhere among HBO’s theatrical premieres for the month, we find Seth Rogen/Charlize Theron odd couple rom-com Long Shot (Dec. 7), quietly acclaimed horror sequel Unfriended: Dark Web (Dec. 1), Yara Shahidi-starring YA adaptation The Sun Is Also a Star (Dec. 21) and that Hellboy (Dec. 14) reboot we all collectively hallucinated. And don’t miss HBO’s older films on the way, including The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Bridesmaids (Extended Version), Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Closer, Empire of the Sun and Unfriended, all of which arrive Dec. 1.

There’s a momentous month ahead in the TV department, as well: As the year comes to an end, so do HBO shows new and old, whether wrapping up their seasons or their series. The biggest development on the docket is the end of HBO’s Emmy-winning, acid-tongued tech world satire Silicon Valley, the Season 6 and series finale of which airs Sunday, Dec. 8. Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) and his merry band of Pied Piper code jockeys are bigger than ever, but still stuck in the same old Silicon Valley, the foremost frontier of Machiavellian ruthlessness masked by digital gibberish and phony altruism. Speaking of masks, TV’s best show going—none other than Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen, starring Regina King, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Jeremy Irons and others—wraps its first season on Dec. 15, and may there be many more. The mind-bending adaptation of Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins’ monumental story of masked vigilantes has delivered one hell of a debut season, as evidenced by its near-constant presence on Paste’s TV Power Rankings, and we’ll be sorry to see it end. Other series finales set for December include the conclusion of half-hour limited series dramedy Mrs. Fletcher (Dec. 8), starring Kathryn Hahn as the title character, an empty nester who undergoes a sexual re-awakening after dropping her only son off at college, and the Season 1 finale of His Dark Materials (Dec. 23), the epic series adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy novel trilogy of the same name, starring Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Don’t lose sight of what’s leaving HBO in December, either, though thankfully not much of consequence is on its way out: Films shuffling off the service at the end of the month include Halloween (2018), Night School, Early Man, Boy’s Don’t Cry, The Predator (2018), Funny Games, I, Robot, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sex and the City 2, Holes, Beer Fest, Annie Hall, Shanghai Knights and The 15:17 to Paris, while a handful of flicks exit stage wherever earlier in the month, the earliest being 12 Strong on Dec. 8. If any of those were on your wishlist, unwrap ‘em while you can.

Check out HBO’s complete slate (and sizzle reel) below.

Theatrical Premieres:
Unfriended: Dark Web, 2018 (12/1)
Can You Keep A Secret?, 2019 (12/1)
American Woman, 2018 (12/4)
Long Shot, 2019 (12/7)
Hellboy, 2019 (12/14)
The Sun Is Also a Star, 2019 (12/21)
Pokémon Detective Pikachu, 2019 (12/28)
Her Smell, 2018 (12/30)