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.
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).
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, 1957
10,000 B.C., 2008
Black Sheep, 1996
Branson, HBO Original Docuseries Premiere (HBO)
Burn After Reading, 2008
Can’t Hardly Wait, 1998
Cheech & Chong’s Nice Dreams, 1981 (HBO)
Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers, 1984 (HBO)
Cheech & Chong’s Things Are Tough All Over, 1982
The Children Act, 2017 (HBO)
De Palma, 2015 (HBO)
First Reformed, 2017 (HBO)
Friends with Benefits, 2011
Gossip Girl, Max Original Season 2 Premiere
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, 2008 (HBO)
The Murdochs: Empire of Influence
Gone 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, 2022
Hook, 1991
Into the Forest, 2015 (HBO)
Krisha, 2015 (HBO)
The Maze Runner, 2014 (HBO)
My Fellow Americans, 1996 (HBO)
Paradise (Paraíso), Max Original Season 2 Premiere
The Purge: Anarchy, 2014
Redemption, 2013 (HBO)
Reindeer Games, 2000 (Director’s Cut) (HBO)
The Sea of Trees, 2015 (HBO)
Sesame Street’s The Nutcracker, Max Original Special Premiere
Small Town Crime, 2017 (HBO)
Sort Of, Max Original Season 2 Premiere
Step Up All In, 2014 (HBO)
Step Up Revolution, 2012 (HBO)
Stomp the Yard, 2007
Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, 2010
Street Kings, 2008 (HBO)
The Tomorrow Man, 2019 (HBO)
Trumbo, 2015 (HBO)
Two Can Play That Game, 2001
Urban Cowboy, 1980
¡Viva Maestro!, 2022
Win Win, 2011 (HBO)
Arriving Dec. 2
Blippi Wonders, Season 2B
Hank Zipzer’s Christmas Catastrophe, 2016
Lellobee City Farm, Season 2
Arriving Dec. 4
Under The Stars (Sous les étoiles), Max Original Premiere
Arriving Dec. 5
His Dark Materials, Season 3 Premiere (HBO)
Arriving Dec. 6
Amsterdam, 2022 (HBO)
Batwheels Holiday Special: Holidays on Ice
Bugs Bunny Builders Holiday Special: Looneyburg Lights
Sesame Street Mecha Builders Holiday Special: Yip Yip Tree Tree / The Snowman Scarecrow, Season 1
Unveiled: Surviving La Luz del Mundo, HBO Original Docuseries Premiere (HBO)
Arriving Dec. 8
Doom Patrol, Max Original Season 4 Premiere
South Side, Max Original Season 3 Premiere
Arriving Dec. 9
Silos Baking Competition: Holiday Edition, Special
Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, 2018 (HBO)
Arriving Dec. 10
Atsuko Okatsuka: The Intruder, HBO Original Premiere (HBO)
Arriving Dec. 12
Adult Swim Yule Log
Arriving Dec. 13
The Banshees Of Inisherin, 2022 (HBO)
Meet the Batwheels: The Best Present in the World, Season 1
Arriving Dec. 14
Selling the Hamptons
Serving the Hamptons
Queen of Versailles Reigns Again
Trixie Motel
Arriving Dec. 15
Jugada Peligrosa (El Patrón del Balón, Goles Limpios Dinero Sucio), Max Original Premiere
Arriving Dec. 16
Martin: The Reunion Special, 2022
Ranch to Table, Season 3
Arriving Dec. 22
I Hate Suzie, Max Original Season 2 Premiere
The Head, Max Original Season 2 Premiere
Arriving Dec. 23
Family Dinner, Season 3
Arriving Dec. 27
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., 2015 (HBO)
Arriving Dec. 30
The Established Home, Season 2
This 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, 1999
A Kind Of Murder, 2016 (HBO)
A Perfect Planet, 2021
A 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 II
Blue Planet: Seas of Life
Bringing Out The Dead, 1999 (HBO)
Chaplin, 1992
Collision 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)
Dynasties
Extraction, 2015 (HBO)
Frozen Planet
Fast & Furious 6, 2013 (HBO)
Harlem Nights, 1989
Head Office, 1985 (HBO)
Highlander, 1986 (HBO)
Joyful Noise, 2012
Life,1999
Life Story, 1987
Little Monsters, 1989 (HBO)
Losing Isaiah, 1995 (HBO)
Monster’s Ball, 2001 (Unrated)
Nature’s Great Events
Odd Jobs, 1986 (HBO)
Omen IV: The Awakening, 1991 (HBO)
Ouija, 2014
Planet Earth
Planet Earth II
Real Steel, 2011
Ricochet, 1991 (HBO)
Rocket Science, 2007 (HBO)
Romancing The Stone, 1984
Sabotage, 2014 (HBO)
Serengeti
Serengeti II
Seven Worlds, One Planet
Space 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, 1965
The Hitcher, 1986 (HBO)
The Hunt, 2020
The Jewel Of The Nile, 1985
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003 HBO
The Mating Game
The 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