Weekly Entertainment Recap: Week of December 11th, 2023

Doctor Who: The Giggle (Disney+): Jumping right to what is probably going to end up being the most controversial part of the episode, the Bi-generation process seems like an interesting one-time alteration to the regeneration rules to set up a soft reboot of the series. As the episode outlines briefly, in the time since the show came back in the mid-2000s, The Doctor has gone through quite a bit between the Time War, the Flux, the Timeless Child, and other life-changing traumas. Splitting off a version of The Doctor who can deal with all that as a physical version of a healthy compartmentalization of trauma will allow the show to move in a new and fresh direction, independent of the years and years of built-up and sometimes contradictory canon while still having it matter somewhat. Ncuti Gatwa is charismatic and it will be interesting to see him handle his first solo outing as The Doctor this Christmas.

The Santa Clauses Season 2 Episode 6 (Disney+): The decision to have Magnus Antas give up and turn good with the real spirit of Christmas is an interesting idea, it just would have been nice if this was articulated as an option at any point in the previous five episodes. The fact that headed into the finale, the only thing telegraphed to the audience about how this situation could be handled was that Sandra would turn him back into the nutcracker is a disservice to the entire plot. Considering nothing really happened to change him besides Scott saying “You’re not that bad because you saw what I couldn’t about my son.” It could lead to him recurring as a bad guy. That said, this season does fall into a little bit of the Star Wars prequels issue where the bad guy does have concerns that are motivating them to do what they do but those are cast aside to quickly resolve the plot which is just bad writing.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever (Streaming Service): Everyone’s favorite sociopath in modern mid-grade fiction returns with the third animated adaptation of a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book on Disney+. This time, Greg has to keep himself well-behaved so he can get a new video game console but, considering who he is, this very quickly falls apart leading to an uncharacteristic moment of selflessness from Greg. It is as fun as the previous two entries and is a worthwhile watch at only an hour long.

This Week In Theaters:

Wonka: Timothee Chalamet stars as Willy Wonka in this musical prequel to the classic film from 1971. The film also stars Hugh Grant, Olivia Coleman, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Matt Lucas, Keegan-Michael Key, and Calah Lane.

Last Week At The Box Office:

The Boy and the Heron: $10.4 Million

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: $9.4 Million

Godzilla Minus One: $8.3 Million

Trolls Band Together: $6.2 Million

Wish: $5.3 Million