5 days ago
25
TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Fallout
Prime Video
Summed up in a sentence A triumphant return for the darkly comic post-apocalyptic thriller of a video game adaptation – now featuring starry guest spots from the likes of Justin Theroux, Kumail Nanjiani and Macaulay Culkin.
What our reviewer said “Season two draws more directly from its gaming source material – notably 2010’s admired Fallout: New Vegas – but remains pleasingly dense with jokes, splatter and slapstick.” Graham Virtue
Further reading Inside Fallout, gaming’s most surprising TV hit
Pick of the rest
Taylor Swift: The End of an Era
Disney+
Summed up in a sentence A behind-the-scenes docuseries on the globe-spanning Eras tour, revealing the impact of having gigs cancelled due to an Islamic State terror plot – and how Swift reached out to the families of the victims of the Southport attack.
What our reviewer said “The footage of girls, especially those the age of the Southport victims, flinging themselves around without a shred of self-consciousness says as much about the point of all this as the Eras masterminds could ever spill.” Laura Snapes
Further reading Author Maggie Nelson on why Taylor Swift is the Sylvia Plath of her generation
You may have missed …
Leonard and Hungry Paul
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence Alex Lawther and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell star in a gentle comedy that quietly celebrates life’s understated pleasures.
What our reviewer said “A series that ambles along in its sleeveless jumper, occasionally looking up at the stars, occasionally down at its slippers, quietly confident that there is nothing in the world as cheering as spending time in the company of good friends.” Sarah Dempster
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
The Six Billion Dollar Man
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Documentary about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the rogue’s gallery of hypocrites and crooks surrounding him.
What our reviewer said “Its most indelible, disquieting images are provided by the CCTV footage of Assange marooned in the embassy. He knows he’s being bugged and understands that he’s trapped and he paces his quarters like a hapless Gene Hackman at the end of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. Whatever he set out to be it almost certainly wasn’t this.” Xan Brooks
Pick of the rest
The Housemaid
In cinemas from Boxing Day
Summed up in a sentence Sydney Sweeney takes the job from hell in a suspense thriller co-starring Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar as her secretive bosses, with director Paul Feig ramping up the sexual tension.
What our reviewer said “We get some tastily over-the-top acting and some huge rewind POV shifts to explain what has really been going on – and, of course, the heady whiff of gaslight as Millie can’t quite be sure she really understands anything that’s happening. Silly it may be, but Feig and his cast deliver it with terrific gusto; this is an innocent holiday treat.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Sydney Sweeney on boxing, weight gain and her flair for controversy
Now streaming
The Great Flood
Netflix
Summed up in a sentence Korean apocalypse movie swerves into sinister sci-fi territory as a mother and child are rescued from a catastrophic flood in Seoul.
What our reviewer said “Director Kim Byung-woo has clearly heavily imbibed from Edge of Tomorrow, Charlie Kaufman’s mental mazes and perhaps also – with mega-tsunamis gathering on the horizon and the presiding maudlin-apocalyptic tone – Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.” Phil Hoad
Sisu: Road to Revenge
On digital platforms now
Summed up in a sentence A terrific sequel as a Finnish hero takes on a Red Army butcher in his Soviet-occupied homeland.
What our reviewer said “You don’t need excessive CGI with practical special effects as potently compelling as star Jorma Tommila’s bloodied, defiant face … Like his protagonist, director Jalmari Helander holds on to the essential, torches the rest, and goes harder and faster for it. His film should raise huge cheers in Kyiv – and, indeed, everywhere else.” Mike McCahill
Books
If you only read one, make it …
William Golding: The Faber Letters
Reviewed by Blake Morrison
Summed up in a sentence Inside the great novelist’s relationship with his editor.
What our reviewer said “Till Faber lit on Lord of the Flies, Golding gave it the tedious title Strangers from Within and for what became The Spire he half-jokingly suggested An Erection at Barchester.”
Further reading First images emerge from new BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies
Pick of the rest
Making Mary Poppins
Reviewed by Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Summed up in a sentence Behind the scenes of a movie favourite.
What our reviewer said “‘Do you know what a nanny is?’ Disney asked the screenwriter brothers. ‘Yeah, a goat, Bob Sherman replied.”
Further reading Elastic limbs, fantastical accents and crackling sexual chemistry: Dick Van Dyke turns 100
The Divided Mind by Edward Bullmore
Reviewed by David Shariatmadari
Summed up in a sentence A brilliant history of psychiatric ideas.
What our reviewer said “Bullmore’s writing has flair and occasional flashes of anarchic humour; this book is both intellectually exciting and highly readable.”
Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Reviewed by Maya Jaggi
Summed up in a sentence An Indigenous Canadian epic of identity and survival.
What our reviewer said “For a non-Ojibwe, to read it is to be immersed in a storytelling aesthetic that is both challenging and innately familiar, in which humans, other animals and plants coexist and communicate on an equal plane.”
You may have missed …
Jeeves Again
Reviewed by Rahul Raina
Summed up in a sentence A collection of new officially sanctioned stories by writers, comedians and celebrity admirers, including Dominic Sandbrook and Roddy Doyle.
What our reviewer said “This new collection will be warmly welcomed by fans who want to keep Wodehouse’s name and reputation burning brightly.”
Albums
For the year’s outstanding releases, explore the Guardian’s best of 2025 music coverage, including its countdown of the year’s best 50 rock and pop albums and songs, as well as the best classical recordings.
