Four Things To Watch In December
Your small-screen highlights for the month ahead
The festive season is officially upon us. That means long nights, twinkling trees and Christmas parties spent in front of some peak cosy television. When not bingeing the plethora of delightfully cheesy Christmas films, there are plenty of small screen gems to discover (or rediscover) this month.
December sees the return of three beloved shows. First up is a double whammy of guilty pleasure TV; the second season of the highly addictive, madcap reality show, My Unorthodox Life, and the divisive, compelling and gorgeously charming Emily in Paris, now in its third season. There are also two smart and entertaining new additions to your schedules this month; the darkly funny Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything and the much anticipated TV adaptation of the true cold war drama, A Spy Among Friends, starring Damien Lewis and Guy Pearce.
Here’s our essential watch list for the month ahead:
My Unorthodox Life
A woman escapes an ultra-orthodox community, aged 40, to become one of fashion’s biggest players, a multi-millionaire with a sprawling, dramatic family and a penchant for skirts and heels. The life of Julia Hart is the stuff reality TV dreams are made of and, thanks to the runway success of the first season, we are back for a second slice at the action. We catch up with Hart as she faces a shock divorce from her second husband, as her career begins to free-fall and her family’s antics become bigger, bolder and more binge-worthy. Just in time for the festive season, this is a glitzy bauble of a show, with a surprisingly serious centre of resilience and reinvention.
My Unorthodox Life starts streaming on Netflix on 2 December.
Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything
It has been a hot minute since we have seen a worthy vehicle for the extraordinarily talented Sheridan Smith. Now, the waiting is over. Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything is an acerbic comedy about family and addiction, starring Smith in the titular role, as a woman who decides to get her life together after a disastrous incident at her brother’s wedding. It’s quippy, moving and often poignantly well observed, with a knockout performance from Smith and an impressive cast, including Pauline McLynn and Ardal O’Hanlon.
Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything starts streaming on NowTv in December.
Emily in Paris
Ooo la la, need we say more? Perhaps Netflix’s most curiously divisive show, which charms, irritates and compels in equal measure, Emily in Paris is back for a troisième season. We pick up right where we left off, with Emily forced to choose between cheeky chappie (yes not even the Brits are spared the cliché here) Alfie and her long-time chef crush, Gabriel, her old world in Chicago and a new job with the woman who (in this writer’s humble opinion) steals the show: Sylvie. In an effort to keep all spoilers of this brilliantly silly show to a minimum, all we shall say is what has already been released in the third season trailer: Emily gets a fringe. A bientôt!
Emily in Paris season three starts streaming on Netflix on 21 December.
A Spy Among Friends
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a meaty, atmospheric period drama. Enter A Spy Among Friends, the hotly anticipated cold war drama based on the New York Times best-selling book written by Ben Macintyre. Boasting two megawatt stars in the lead roles; Damien Lewis and Guy Pearce, it tells the true story of Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby, two British spies and lifelong friends – one of whom was the most notorious British defector and Soviet double agent in history. Sink back with a mulled wine and watch Lewis and Pearce chew up the scenery and enjoy a step back into a world of intrigue and scandal.
A Spy Among Friends debuts on ITV and ITVX on 8 December
Written by Marie-Claire Chappet for Harper’s Bazaar UK
Lead Image Courtesy/@emilyinparis on Instagram