If you ever wanted an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time, then you are probably overjoyed–or annoyed and mortified that “they” are somehow “ruining your childhood”–for the sequel to a certain classic 1982 Christmas movie. We are mildly excited; however, none of our editors chose it as their pick of the day. What did we pick? Well, you know how this works… scroll on down to the next part of this here feature.

KATHERINE’S PICK:
Fleischman is in Trouble [Hulu]
Only on Hulu but via FX, this drama series stars Jesse Eisenberg as an aloof doctor whose wife (Claire Danes!) is possibly missing. This miniseries is adapted from Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s best-selling novel of the same name.

BRAD’S PICK:
1899 [Netflix]
This period piece has in interesting premise: immigrants on a ship traveling from London to New York run into a ghost ship on their way. Where did it come from? What happened to it? You will just have to watch it find out. Given that it is from the creators of cult hit Dark it should be a wild twisting ride.

JASON’S PICK:
Dead to Me [Netflix]
If you love shows where you just wish bad things would stop happening to your primary characters, well this Netflix show is made for you. Steve’s body has been found, and the unlikely BFF team of Jen & Judy (Christina Applegate & Linda Cardellini) are struggling in their own neurotic way to stay a step ahead of the detectives determined to solve this increasingly twisted case. I’m both excited to watch and dreading the third season.

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

• Last year Home Alone decided to add a chapter on streaming. It wasn’t great, but that does not mean that bringing back Christmas classics of long ago is always ill-fated. A Christmas Story Christmas on HBO Max adds a chapter to the 1982 movie about young Ralphie whose only wish was a Red Ryder BB Gun. It even digs up an adult Peter Billingsly who reprises his role as Ralphie, the once awkward 10-year-old now a similarly awkward 50, again just trying to make it through the holidays. Rumor has it that Scholar Jason looked a lot like Billingsly as a child (who also played Messy Marvin) and that maaaaay be why it’s not his pick. Life comes at you fast!
• If you like your holiday rom-coms to star Andy Garcia and Freddie Prinze, Jr., well, first, that’s a very specific ask, but good news for you: Christmas with You has both those actors and debuts on Netflix today.
• We’re not sure how we feel about Stephen Colbert bringing together actors to play a round of the new hipster traditon pickleball (does it have rounds? isn’t it also hipster to be dismissively detatched in parenthetical offhand comments? ugh). Thankfully, the team assembled for this odd CBS special Pickled include some Screen Scholar favorites like Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Max Greenfield, Luis Guzman, and Daniel Dae Kim.

• In addition to featuring the best KRS-One on BDP’s By All Means Necessary impression since Malcolm X’s photograph 20 years earlier, Gangs of London promises a shocking death that will upend the central Dumani crime family to start season two. That’s tonight on AMC+.
• It’s such a busy day that we almost forgot to talk up the return of an underrated HBO Max coming of age series with the provocative title. The Sex Lives of College Girls comes back for its second season today.
• Here’s another thing we’re burying deep within the wells of our also-ran section becuse it’s such a busy day, yet we’re also really excited about. The Netflix documentary Pepsi, Where’s My Jet tells the crazy story of a man who saw an ad for the soft drink that humorously offered a jet for a seemingly impossible number of Pepsi points and decided he was going to game the system to get the jet. It looks fantastic, so don’t let the fact that we have it as the third item under the second big image of this section lead you to believe we don’t recommend it.

• While we thank the soldiers of the military for their service, there is something seriously wrong with how the military itself treats them as we have the second prestige streaming docu-series about the murder of a cadet. I Am Vanessa Guillen exposes the story of a 20-year-old latina soldier who was assaulted and killed by another story at Fort Hood in 2020, with the Army covering up the crime that would become a rallying cry for those abused while serving the country.
• Netflix’s Santa Camp is about a New Hampshire facility that does exactly what the movie’s title says it does. The documentary explores what happens when new arrivals–including a Black man, a trans man and a man with ALS–apply making people question their preconceived notion of what Santa should look like… please no one let Megyn Kelly know because none of us really want to know what her “take” on this is, nor do we care.
• We’re still going with the intriguing content for this random Wednesday as Carla Gugino and Jeffrey Dean “Negan” Morgan star in Leopard Skin, a new Peacock series about the aftermath of a heist gone wrong (since they rarely make TV shows about heists that follow the rules).
• And we end up, as we often do, in the LHV (the Lifetime-Hallmark Vortex) where our featured item is on Lifetime and of course it’s yuletide fare as Sweet Navidad about a meet-cute at a Puerto Rican bakery–hits the airwaves tonight. And that’s where we end our round-up. After one more sentence, a teacher will start to speak… (well, if you hit play)