Return of the Jedi: the second "Squid Game" and the mammoth Stojanovs
The first adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and the long-awaited sequel to the Korean hit "The Squid Game" await viewers in the first month of winter. In between sorting out the piled up by the end of the year work tasks and making lists of salads for the holiday table - new series of cozy "Mammoths" with Yuri Stoyanov or mystical "Prometheus" with Philip Yankovsky. Fans of sci-fi - new "Star Wars", and to the delight of fans of tru-crime - prequel "Dexter". "Izvestia" tells about the most striking premieres on Russian and foreign streaming in December.
"Squid Game" 18+
Netflix
The most popular series in the history of Netflix, the Korean dystopian thriller "The Squid Game" returns to the air after three years. And we can't fail to mention that expectations for the second season are pretty high. The first one came out in September 2021, topped the Netflix charts in 90 countries and won six Emmy Award statuettes, including for Best Director and Best Actor. Fans of the series have been waiting for a sequel to the survival show, in which 456 people with financial problems competed for a prize of 45.6 billion won.
"Squid Game" director and scriptwriter Hwang Dong-hyuk originally intended to make the series about class and economic inequality in Korea for only one season. However, the series will end on the third, which, unlike the second, will not have to wait as long. According to rumors, the finale of "Squid Game" is scheduled for 2025.
The creators promise that the second season will be darker, more disturbing and sinister, but information about the plot is scant. The main character Song Gi-hoon - the only survivor and, consequently, the winner of the tournament - was planning to reunite with his daughter in the United States, but suddenly decided to find out who was behind the creation of the deadly tournament after all. However, in order to put an end to this game, Sung Gi-hoon will have to go through it again.
Premiere on December 26
"Prometheus" 18 +
"Kinopoisk
Love Aksyonova, Philip Yankovsky, Dmitry Chebotarev and Alexander Alyabiev in the sci-fi thriller "Prometheus" investigate the case of the mysterious disappearance in 1998 of an airplane that flew from Barnaul to Moscow, but after 20 minutes in the air disappeared from radar. No traces of the crash, no other clues - the state authorities just shrug their shoulders. However, more than 20 years later, one of the missing passengers calls his family. True, there is a nuance: the interlocutor at the other end of the wire and remained in 1998.
Premiering December 5.
"Dexter: Original Sin" 18+
Paramount+
Not every major project needs its own prequel, but in the case of "Dexter" it has the right to exist. This time the audience will see how the most famous serial killer and medical examiner on television was born. Some moments from Dexter Morgan's past we've already seen in flashbacks in the original series, while the prequel will focus on what has yet to be told. For example, that Dexter committed his first murder in 1991, when he was 20 years old. And also about how the "code of Harry" - a set of rules invented by the adoptive father of the main character.
The story begins 15 years before the events of "Dexter", where the young killer played by Patrick Gibson. The star of the series "Shadow and Bone" in places really resembles Michael C. Hall, who played Dexter for eight seasons. Hall himself will appear in the prequel as the narrator.
Premiering Dec. 15.
"Mammoths" 16+
Okko
In the summer of 2023, the first episode of the series "Mammoths" still under the authorship of Ivan Sosnin took away from the festival "Pilot" in Ivanovo the prize of audience sympathy. The project still reached the release, but had time to change the director - he became Mikhail Chistov.
Otherwise, everything seems to be the same. Yuri Stoyanov in the role of charming in its old-fashioned grandfather becomes a victim of telephone scammers and transfers them 3.5 million rubles, put aside to buy a new apartment. Meanwhile, the pensioner is living in the apartment of his daughter and granddaughter. And the latter is not particularly happy about the collision of three generations under one roof. The police on the theft report and appeals to help only divorced hands - statistics on the disclosure of cyber fraud is deplorable. That's why the "technological mammoth" is personally challenging crime. His granddaughter helps him in this. First for selfish reasons, and then, as is often the case in such projects, against the background of rapprochement with her grandfather.
Premiering December 9.
"Star Wars: The Support Team" 13+
Disney+.
While Disney is trying to develop a new full-length trilogy about events unfolding in a galaxy far, far away, its streaming service has finally turned into a conveyor belt for producing both fairly mediocre series like "Acolyte" and "Ahsoka," as well as quality neo-Western "The Mandalorean" and the pretend-to-be-real adult political drama "Andor."
"Star Wars: Support Team" so far gravitates more towards the second category. And the cast of creators is impressive - among the directors are John Watts, known for the relatively new trilogy "Spider-Man" with Tom Holland, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who shot the Oscar-winning "Everything Everywhere at Once", the director of "The Legend of the Green Knight" David Lowery and Bryce Dallas Howard, who has already worked on "The Mandalorean" and "The Book of Boba Fett".
The new series is about four young travelers obsessed with stories about Jedi Knights (important - the events of "The Support Team" unfold after the sixth episode of George Lucas' original trilogy). One of them, Wim, accidentally finds something in the woods that he mistakes for a Jedi temple. In reality, it's a spaceship that leaves Wim and his companions lost in space. Next, as per tradition, is an introduction to the charming droid SM-33 and a meeting with future mentor Jod Na Navud. He is, by the way, played by Jude Law. Critics have praised the first two episodes of "The Support Team", where no serious story has yet to follow. But there is a feeling that this series does not need it.
Premiere on December 2
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" 18+
Netflix
The first film adaptation of Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most popular work, which seemed impossible to transfer to screens because of the magical realism that permeates the source material. Directors Laura Mora Ortega and Alex Garcia Lopez decided not to follow the trend of modernizing the story. We are still waiting for the story of the Buendia family, each member of which is destined to suffer from an inborn "vice" - from loneliness.
The series was shot in Colombia in Spanish and with the participation of local actors - this was the condition of the Marquez descendants who own the rights to the novel. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" will stretch for two whole impressive seasons, in the first viewers can already expect 16 episodes, which will be released according to the tradition of streaming immediately on the day of premiere.
Premiere on December 11
"Number One" 18+
KION
Klim Kozinski filmed a series about the relaunch of a cult glossy publication after the forced import substitution, which affected, among other things, the press. In the series, Konstantin Inozemtsev, formerly a successful cynical writer, author of the bestseller "Coma", is offered to save the Idol edition, which is falling apart before the eyes of the audience, and in the present - a lazy, cynical alkie who owes money to everyone and everywhere.
The script of the project was written by Sergei and Dmitry Minaev, who know literally everything about the internal kitchen of the media. The first headed the Russian version of Esquire, and now the magazine "Rules of Life", so the comparison is immediate. However, the creators claim that the prototype of Inozemtsev, played by Yevgeny Tsyganov, was partly Eduard Bagirov. The writer, author of the novels "Gastarbeiter" and "Idealist", as well as a friend of Sergey Minaev himself, passed away in 2023.
Premiering December 1.
"My neighbor is a ghost" 18 +
"Amedyateka".
A sweet and lighthearted paranormal love story for gray December evenings. A young man named Cole moves into a new apartment, trying to start a new life after the death of his father. His neighbor becomes the spirit of a girl from the 1920s named Bea. That one is stuck in limbo because of a magical ring she stole and wore before the accident in which she died. Although Cole is the only one who sees the girl's ghost, spinning a potter's wheel to Elvis Presley's Unchained Melody will not be on this show. Young people build a bond by immersing themselves in each other's cultures, which are separated by 100 years.
Premiering Dec.1.
"Elton John: It's Never Too Late"
Disney+
In the summer of 2023, Elton John played his last concert of a farewell tour spanning five whole years, and the 77-year-old musician shocked fans with the news that he was practically blind. It makes it that much more touching to watch the new documentary "Elton John: It's Never Too Late." It's a first-person account of a career in the music industry that includes the ups, downs and what clearly didn't fit into the timeline of the movie "Rocketman," where Elton John was played by Theron Edgerton.
Premiering Dec. 13.
"Cyberslave" 18+
"Kinopoisk".
Russian animated series that combines Slavic mythology and cyberpunk entourage. The project was announced back in 2018. Cyberslav is a Russian bogatyr, fighting with the evil with the help of modern technology. Yes, in this Ancient Russia there are cybernetic implants, and plasma weapons, and exoskeletons, and nowhere without robots. The director of the project Stas Dmitriev even drew an analogy with "Star Wars". The main character is despised by both people and monsters, since Cyberslave is a half-breed with a demonic paw instead of a hand. However, this does not prevent him from investigating the attack on the Cyberknight and his family, which is what the first season of the new series is dedicated to.
The exact premiere date will be announced later
"The Last Hippocratic Oath" 18+
"Evie"
The premiere of the adventure action movie about a paramedic, who was drawn into the world of crime, originally took place on the channel REN TV. Hippocrates is the name of the main character Peter Kratov, a former military surgeon, who passed military points, who knows what cruelty is, and forgot what fear is. One only pain - sons. They are complete opposites of each other. The youngest, Mircea, got involved with a gang of drug dealers. The older, Victor, works as head of the department for combating drug trafficking and is determined to destroy the criminal group. The brothers hate each other. Hippocrates' task is to reconcile the sons. About how to create a new series, "Izvestia" wrote here.
Premiere on December 1
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
