5 movies and TV shows to ease you into December

It’s cold outside, you couldn’t resist eating your entire Advent calendar, and you’ve already been disappointed by the latest season season of Tiger King. We get it. But as the nights grow darker and you start thinking of more elaborate excuses about why you can’t make Sharon’s surprise birthday on the other side of town, why not settle down to watch something new?

Here we present you with three movies, a documentary and a TV series to binge in one go. Yes, you might have to leave the house for Resident Evil, but even you can make it to the cinema you lazy arse.

Dan Hudson and James Barr – stars of the A Gay And NonGay Podcast – head to Bloodstock to investigate why lifelong metal fan Dan is so drawn to the community, and if the trope of metalheads being terrifying creatures of the night rings true. Through interviews with Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway, Venom Prison’s Larissa Stupar, Skindred’s Benji Webbe and a makeover courtesy of Evil Scarecrow, very much non-metal fan James is thrown headfirst into our weird and wonderful world, and discovers that beneath the grim façade, they have something of a kinship, and there's much more to the the black T-shirted masses than he realised.

Out now on BBC iPlayer.

Somehow we’ve found ourselves at the seventh live-action Resident Evil movie. But rather than stretch out the gore-splattered franchise so far that you can almost see through it, Welcome To Raccoon City is something of a reboot for the series, drawing from the plots of the first two video games. Set in the late-’90s, it’s that age-old tale of evil corporations, viruses that turn humans into flesh-eating zombies and marauding mutants, and a group of vigilantes, friends and special forces who probably won’t all survive to the end. It’s not high-brow, but if you want blood, you’ve got it.

In cinemas December 3.

The criminally underrated Netflix reboot of Lost In Space has returned for a third and final season. Two years ago we were left on the cosmic cliffhanger of the crew discovering the Fortuna ship, which was thought to be lost to the vastness of space two decades earlier, so there are some big questions to answer. And unlike previous series, we’ve only got eight episodes to contend with, so expect some huge revelations from the off, some teary moments, big special effects and an ending that only makes sense to those with degrees in astrophysics.

Out now on Netflix.

For whatever reason, Netflix are well into Westerns at the moment. From Tom Hanks’ turn as journeyman-cum-journalist in News Of The World to Idris Elba’s horse-riding city-dewellers in Concrete Cowboy, the streaming giant just can’t get enough of cattle rustlin’ and chewing tobacco. In this new rootin’ tootin’ flick, we find Benedict Cumberbatch as the homophobic dickhead Phil Burbank, who takes offence to his brother’s new wife and son, before finding himself on a journey of self-discovery. Definitely not a laugh-a-minute romp.

Out now on Netflix.

No matter which way you look at it, Godzilla is awesome. Even the panned ’90s version with Matthew Broderick and that killer Jamiroquai soundtrack was a bit of fun because IT’S A BIG BASTARD LIZARD STOMPING ON CITIES. Which is just as fun as it sounds. And in this 2019 version – somehow the 35th Godzilla movie – we find the King Of The Monsters inexplicably on the side of the humans, getting into a battle with three-headed evil git King Ghidorah and pterosaur on steroids Rodan. If you want to see giant mythical creatures hammering seven shades out of each other (and who doesn’t?) then get this on the telly.

On Netflix December 3.