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Here’s your streaming guide for Thanksgiving weekend
Plus: Holiday movie round-up, "Bob's Burgers" Thanksgiving playlist, and a Netflix special with Sabrina Carpenter.
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Welcome to The Queue — the pilot episode.
I’m Kevin Slane, the entertainment and culture writer at Boston.com, and I’ve got a lot of thoughts about movies and television.
I wrote my first movie review when I was 10 years old — a handwritten rave for Jake Gyllenhaal’s “October Sky” published exclusively on my parents’ fridge.
In the intervening years, I moved on to writing viewer recommendations for my college newspaper, then Boston.com, and starting today, this newsletter.
The Queue will be a twice-monthly newsletter, which gives you a full two weeks to dive into these streaming recommendations. With the exception of this initial send, The Queue will go out on Fridays to help you plan your weekend streaming.
Today, I’m focusing on Thanksgiving and holiday streaming options. But going forward, I want to hear what you’re interested in. Send me an email at [email protected] with your suggestions.
Holiday movies are like a cottage industry
Numerous channels and streaming services follow the Hallmark Channel formula of pumping out cheaply-made films with interchangeable titles like “How to Fall in Love by Christmas,” “Christmas Under the Lights,” and “Christmas with a Handsome Prince who Owns a Sensible Seaside Irish Chalet.”
Earlier this month, I published a guide to the 100+ new holiday movies for 2024 to help separate the wheat from the chaff.
I picked one movie from each major service to highlight, but for all you Christmas movie completionists, the full schedule is there for your perusal. And if you’ve seen any of them, feel free to leave me a review.
If holiday TV specials are more your thing, I have some important information: For the first time in more than 50 years, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” will *not* be airing on CBS.
Instead, NBC has the rights to the Rankin and Bass specials. At least they’re still being broadcast on television — unlike “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which Apple has made available only to Apple TV+ subscribers.
If you want to know exactly where and when to watch your favorite holiday specials — including the 48 hours non-subscribers can watch the Peanuts special — check out my full guide to holiday TV specials.
For those happy to break with tradition, there are also a handful of new streaming holiday specials hosted by some of your favorite celebrities.
Netflix has a special with Sabrina Carpenter (Dec. 6), while Prime Video has a puppet-filled special from comedian Jeff Dunham. Speaking of puppets, Max has six different Sesame Street holiday specials in its library.
Check out the full list of 2024 holiday streaming specials.
Play or Skip
For some, the month of November is an additional month to consume holiday content. But I like to leave space in the calendar for Thanksgiving-specific entertainment.
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PLAY: “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” (1987), about a grumpy marketing exec (Steve Martin) trying to get home to his family for Thanksgiving with the help of a kindhearted but profoundly annoying traveling salesman (John Candy) is my annual post-turkey film of choice. (Paramount+ or Pluto TV)
PLAY: “Bob’s Burgers” (2011-present) is the sitcom that most consistently celebrates the spirit of Thanksgiving. Hulu has harnessed that spirit, creating a Thanksgiving episode playlist full of Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) whispering sweet nothings to his turkey, Linda loading up on wine, and the Belcher children finding new and exciting ways to complicate the festivities. (Hulu)
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PLAY: For those who prefer their holiday entertainment with a twist, Newton native Eli Roth’s slasher flick “Thanksgiving” (2023) is a gory tale set in Plymouth about a killer dressed as a pilgrim punishing greedy shoppers after a Black Friday tragedy. (Netflix)
SKIP: Unless you’re an Apple TV+ subscriber, you’ve already missed the 48-hour window that makes “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (1973) free to non-subscribers. Watch it if you’re able, but don’t reward Apple with your credit card info for taking a special that was free for everyone for almost 50 years and locking it away in their content vault. (Apple TV+)
Queue & A
In a 2021 interview, Chris Evans discussed being in awe of a fellow student a couple grades ahead of him at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, saying, “He was a little bit of a celebrity in my mind.”
Which award-winning actor was Evans referring to?
Hint: Along with growing up in Lincoln, this actor was in the 2012 movie “Lincoln.”
The first person to send the right answer to [email protected] gets a custom streaming recommendation!
End Credits
That’s a wrap on the opening edition of The Queue. If you’re a fan, please consider recommending this newsletter to your friends.
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PS: If you come across a great movie or TV show, send me an email. I’m always looking for things to queue, and your recommendation could appear in a future edition of the newsletter.
Until next time, good stream hunting, everyone!
— Kevin
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