Netflix's November Slate Runs From Black Doves to FTX

Nov. 25 is a big football day on Netflix, when a war film about college football and a live NFL game land together. Around them sit two returning dramas, a limited series on the FTX collapse and a Korean film fresh from Venice.

Football on Nov. 25

NFL Netflix Gameday: Thanksgiving Eve puts the Packers against the Rams at SoFi Stadium. It is the league's first Thanksgiving Eve matchup. Netflix and the NFL want to make the date a fixture of the TV calendar, and U2 has been hired for the halftime show.

The scripted counterpart is The Mosquito Bowl, directed by Peter Berg. It adapts Buzz Bissinger's 2022 nonfiction book about a game played after Pearl Harbor by four top college football stars who had joined the Marines and were preparing for the invasion of Okinawa. Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis star. Berg, Bissinger, producer Brian Grazer and the band Explosions in the Sky all worked on Friday Night Lights.

Second seasons

Black Doves is back on Nov. 5. In the London spy drama, Keira Knightley's Helen keeps passing her country's secrets to the covert group she serves. Her husband Wallace, played by Andrew Buchan, is getting ready to become Prime Minister. Ben Whishaw and Sarah Lancashire also appear.

The Hunting Wives follows on Nov. 26. Malin Akerman's Margo and Brittany Snow's Sophie begin the new run on bad terms, then old secrets and new enemies push them together again. A third season is already ordered.

The FTX drama and Cunk

The Altruists arrives on Nov. 18 in eight episodes. It covers Sam Bankman-Fried, played by Anthony Boyle, and Caroline Ellison, played by Emmy winner Julia Garner. Its synopsis describes them as young idealists accused of stealing $8 billion. Oscar winner Graham Moore created, wrote and runs it.

A lighter pick is Cunk on Cinema, out Nov. 15. Philomena Cunk spends six episodes on the history of film and its effect on culture, with Diane Morgan in the role and Charlie Brooker as writer.

Festival film and an alien comedy

Possible Love, released Nov. 6, is the new film by Lee Chang-dong, the director of Burning. It took the Silver Lion at Venice this year. It currently holds 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 95 on Metacritic. Its story crosses two married couples, one pair including a laid-off worker, the other a documentary filmmaker, as they film a documentary.

Allen, from director Jeffrey Walker, debuts on Nov. 12. The Australian comedy centres on a man who waits for the alien he met as a child to come back. Ludo Studio, which makes Bluey, produced it.

Older titles joining the library include Bridesmaids, Looper, Whiplash, Air Force One and Resident Evil.

Our View

Netflix is betting on live sport as an event in its own right, and the Thanksgiving Eve game is the clearest test. Among the scripted titles, The Altruists and Possible Love carry the most prestige billing, so their reception is the second thing to check.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter