Screenshot: Doom Patrol/HBO Max
After a year of tumult at Warner Bros. Discovery, we can be thankful for at least one streaming blessing this holiday season: David Zaslav hasn’t kicked Doom Patrol to the curb...yet. Despite a raft of cancellation rumors this past summer, the weird-as-shit series following DC Comics’ weirdest band of anti-heroes will return for a fourth season on Dec. 8—and the door is still open for more zany adventures to come.
If Doom Patrol exists to you only as the show you keep mistaking for The Umbrella Academy, it really is worth watching. It’s crass, over-the-top, and surprisingly touching. If nothing else, it’s one of the best queer-positive, found-family stories on TV that also features Brendan Fraser as a bronzed cyborg. Watch it now before it gets canceled for real and shoved down the streaming memory hole alongside Batgirl.
Doom Patrol Season 4 | Official Trailer | HBO Max
And speaking of shows that were almost canceled, this month also sees the long-awaited return of His Dark Materials (Dec. 5), concluding the TV adaptation of the beloved Philip Pullman YA series. Though it’s a far better take on the books than the big-screen movie, the show never quite lived up to the initial hype. But I’m glad HBO and the BBC managed to scrape together one last batch of episodes, if only to see how they manage to wrestle one of the weirdest and most incendiary kids’ books ever written into something resembling an action-adventure show. (Spoiler alert: The endgame involves a literal attempt to murder God).
His Dark Materials: Season 3 | Official Trailer | HBO
Elsewhere on the streamer, you can watch returning seasons of a few Max Originals that you’ve probably never heard of (because HBO is almost as bad at promoting its niche streaming shows as Netflix). December sees the launch of the second seasons of the Gossip Girl reboot (Dec. 1), the awkward comedy Sort of (Dec. 1), the Spanish-language thriller series Paradise (Dec. 1), the claustrophobic suspense anthology series The Head (Dec. 22), and the Billie Piper vehicle I Hate Suzie (Dec. 22).
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) HBO Max in December, including the streaming premieres of recent theatrical releases Amsterdam (Dec. 6) and The Banshees of Inisherin (Dec. 13). Titles with (HBO) next to them are available on HBO and HBO Max; everything else is exclusive to HBO Max.
What’s coming to HBO Max in December 2022
Arriving Dec. 1
3:10 to Yuma, 195710,000 B.C., 2008Black Sheep, 1996Branson, HBO Original Docuseries Premiere (HBO)Burn After Reading, 2008Can’t Hardly Wait, 1998Cheech & Chong’s Nice Dreams, 1981 (HBO)Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers, 1984 (HBO)Cheech & Chong’s Things Are Tough All Over, 1982The Children Act, 2017 (HBO)De Palma, 2015 (HBO)First Reformed, 2017 (HBO)Friends with Benefits, 2011Gossip Girl, Max Original Season 2 PremiereMadagascar: Escape 2 Africa, 2008 (HBO)The Murdochs: Empire of InfluenceGone Girl, 2014 (HBO)Green Room, 2015 (HBO)Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, 1992 (HBO)Hellraiser IV: Bloodline, 1996 (HBO)Hellraiser V: Inferno, 2000 (HBO)Hellraiser VII: Deader, 2005 (HBO)Hellraiser: Hellseeker, 2002 (HBO)Hellraiser: Hellworld, 2005 (HBO)A Hollywood Christmas, 2022Hook, 1991Into the Forest, 2015 (HBO)Krisha, 2015 (HBO)The Maze Runner, 2014 (HBO)My Fellow Americans, 1996 (HBO)Paradise (Paraíso), Max Original Season 2 PremiereThe Purge: Anarchy, 2014Redemption, 2013 (HBO)Reindeer Games, 2000 (Director’s Cut) (HBO)The Sea of Trees, 2015 (HBO)Sesame Street’s The Nutcracker, Max Original Special PremiereSmall Town Crime, 2017 (HBO)Sort Of, Max Original Season 2 PremiereStep Up All In, 2014 (HBO)Step Up Revolution, 2012 (HBO)Stomp the Yard, 2007Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, 2010Street Kings, 2008 (HBO)The Tomorrow Man, 2019 (HBO)Trumbo, 2015 (HBO)Two Can Play That Game, 2001Urban Cowboy, 1980¡Viva Maestro!, 2022Win Win, 2011 (HBO)Arriving Dec. 2
Blippi Wonders, Season 2BHank Zipzer’s Christmas Catastrophe, 2016Lellobee City Farm, Season 2Arriving Dec. 4
Under The Stars (Sous les étoiles), Max Original PremiereArriving Dec. 5
His Dark Materials, Season 3 Premiere (HBO)Arriving Dec. 6
Amsterdam, 2022 (HBO)Batwheels Holiday Special: Holidays on IceBugs Bunny Builders Holiday Special: Looneyburg LightsSesame Street Mecha Builders Holiday Special: Yip Yip Tree Tree / The Snowman Scarecrow, Season 1Unveiled: Surviving La Luz del Mundo, HBO Original Docuseries Premiere (HBO)Arriving Dec. 8
Doom Patrol, Max Original Season 4 PremiereSouth Side, Max Original Season 3 PremiereArriving Dec. 9
Silos Baking Competition: Holiday Edition, SpecialTeen Titans Go! To The Movies, 2018 (HBO)Arriving Dec. 10
Atsuko Okatsuka: The Intruder, HBO Original Premiere (HBO)Arriving Dec. 12
Arriving Dec. 13
The Banshees Of Inisherin, 2022 (HBO)Meet the Batwheels: The Best Present in the World, Season 1Arriving Dec. 14
Selling the HamptonsServing the HamptonsQueen of Versailles Reigns AgainTrixie MotelArriving Dec. 15
Jugada Peligrosa (El Patrón del Balón, Goles Limpios Dinero Sucio), Max Original PremiereArriving Dec. 16
Martin: The Reunion Special, 2022Ranch to Table, Season 3Arriving Dec. 22
I Hate Suzie, Max Original Season 2 PremiereThe Head, Max Original Season 2 PremiereArriving Dec. 23
Arriving Dec. 27
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., 2015 (HBO)Arriving Dec. 30
The Established Home, Season 2This Place Rules, Original (HBO)What’s leaving HBO Max in December 2022
Leaving Dec. 8
Mortal Kombat, 2021 (HBO)Leaving Dec. 13
Spark: A Space Tail, 2016 (HBO)Leaving Dec. 29
Those Who Wish Me Dead, 2021 (HBO)Leaving Dec. 31
12 Rounds, 2009 (Unrated) (HBO)12 Rounds 2 Reloaded, 2013 (HBO)2 Guns, 2013 (HBO)Africa, 1999A Kind Of Murder, 2016 (HBO)A Perfect Planet, 2021A Simple Plan, 1998 (HBO)Against The Ropes, 2004 (HBO)Arbitrage, 2012 (HBO)Babylon A.D., 2008 (HBO)Baggage Claim, 2013 (HBO)Bend It Like Beckham, 2002 (HBO)Blue Planet IIBlue Planet: Seas of LifeBringing Out The Dead, 1999 (HBO)Chaplin, 1992Collision Course, 1989 (HBO)Damien Omen II, 1978 (HBO)Damsel, 2018 (HBO)Down Periscope, 1996 (HBO)Down With Love, 2003 (HBO)Dr. Dolittle: Tail To The Chief, 2008 (HBO)DynastiesExtraction, 2015 (HBO)Frozen PlanetFast & Furious 6, 2013 (HBO)Harlem Nights, 1989Head Office, 1985 (HBO)Highlander, 1986 (HBO)Joyful Noise, 2012Life,1999Life Story, 1987Little Monsters, 1989 (HBO)Losing Isaiah, 1995 (HBO)Monster’s Ball, 2001 (Unrated)Nature’s Great EventsOdd Jobs, 1986 (HBO)Omen IV: The Awakening, 1991 (HBO)Ouija, 2014Planet EarthPlanet Earth IIReal Steel, 2011Ricochet, 1991 (HBO)Rocket Science, 2007 (HBO)Romancing The Stone, 1984Sabotage, 2014 (HBO)SerengetiSerengeti IISeven Worlds, One PlanetSpace Chimps, 2010 (HBO)Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back, 2010 (HBO)Starter For 10, 2006 (HBO)Sweet Dreams, 1985 (HBO)Switch, 1991 (HBO)That Awkward Moment, 2014 (HBO)The Chosen, 1981 (HBO)The Clearing, 2004 (HBO)The Counselor, 2013 (Extended Version) (HBO)The Final Conflict, 1981 (HBO)The Flight Of The Phoenix, 1965The Hitcher, 1986 (HBO)The Hunt, 2020The Jewel Of The Nile, 1985The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003 HBOThe Mating GameThe Omen, 2006 (HBO)The Order, 2003 (HBO)The World’s End, 2013 (HBO)The X-Files: I Want To Believe, 2008 (Director’s Cut) (HBO)Thor: Tales Of Asgard, 2011 (HBO)Thoroughbreds, 2017 (HBO)Voyagers, 2021
