December 1stWho is Nate? What is Nate about? And what the hell is going on? All these questions bubble up to the surface but are never quite answered during Natalie Palamidess exhilarating, anarchic show that pushes the limits of comedic expression. Nate is not about leaving an audience satisfied. This is not the staid, familiar, almost always masculine world of observational comedy. Its a show that tingles with the discomfort of performance art whilst still providing the lacerating laughs of a traditional stand-up act.
As powerful as it is ridiculous: Natalie Palamides in Nate A One Man Show. Photograph: Netflix
Palamides plays the titular dudebro dressed in a plaid jacket over his shirtless hairy torso, who sports a yellowing black eye and guzzles a protein shake while surveying the crowd. Nate pieces together his biography with help from the audience; its a story that covers love, relationships and masculinity, but mostly its about consent. Its about the consent between this audience that chose to be around Nate and who participate in the show (or choose not to) and what Nate can elicit from this relationship, and about the trust the audience has in him as the person onstage; together they construct the show. Its an intense, intimate set-up that through its shocking twists and surreal humour manages to ask big questions about sex, gender, gratification and control. As powerful as it is ridiculous, Nate packs a proper punch in the face of comedy.
December 4th
Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz in David Finchers Mank. Photograph: Netflix
Despite its deliciously Dublin-sounding film title, Mank is, sadly, not a Joycean trip through what the capitals citizens find unpleasant but rather a highly stylised story about the screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz. Shot in stark black and white, firmly ensconcing itself in the world of the films of the 1930s and 1940s, David Finchers tribute to the golden age of Hollywood is as portentous and dark as you would expect.
Gary Oldman plays Mankiewicz, who, after years of being a jobbing screenwriter, uncredited and languishing in obscurity, finally seizes upon the chance to create a singular masterpiece, Citizen Kane. This vision is overtaken by the legendary upstart Orson Welles, with Mankiewicz being forever overshadowed. Its a story about the simplicity of the auteur theory and how ego can dazzle; its about the self-destructive nature of success, the allure of corruption and the madness of obsession, something that is a common theme in Finchers films.
Its a film that is steeped in the hierarchical movements of the studio system at that time and the complex relationships between these power players and their political and business counterparts. If a primer is required, viewers could do worse than listen to Karina Longworths masterful podcast You Must Remember This to familiarise themselves with the finer points of the story before diving in.
December 4th
Christian Serratos plays Selena Quintanilla. Photograph: Netflix
More of a pop-culture curio on this side of the Atlantic, known as the singer whose 1997 biopic gave Jennifer Lopez her breakout role, Selena Quintanilla was seen as the queen of Tejano music. The much-loved Mexican-American pop star died tragically in 1995 at the hands of an associate.
Starring Twilights Christian Serratos as Selena, this nine-part series chronicles the singers pre-fame life and how she and her devoted family worked their way into an unforgiving, ruthless music industry. It explores how she created her own niche and went on to become one of the worlds most successful Latin American singers.
December 11th
Meryl Streep and James Corden in The Prom. Photograph: Melinda Sue Gordon/Netflix
Ryan Murphy has a gift for viewers this festive season. Although it depends on how you feel about Meryl Streep and the terminally divisive James Corden whooping it up in a high-school-high-jinks musical-comedy caper, so some might want to keep the receipt handy.
