Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is here—and everything else to binge-watch on Netflix Canada this week

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is here—and everything else to binge-watch on Netflix Canada this week

Plus what’s on Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, Prime Video, CBC Gem, Crave and Paramount Plus

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Courtesy of Jason Schmidt/Netflix

There’s a grab bag this week on the streamers, with a little something for everyone. For reality TV fans, the popular dating show Too Hot to Handle is back for a fourth season. For film buffs, there’s Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, a stop-motion animated version of the fable made in the acclaimed director’s trademark fantastical style, and Emancipation, a period drama directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Will Smith as an enslaved man on a quest for freedom. Rom-com lovers should check out Marry Me, J.Lo’s return to the genre, or The Flatshare, a British series about two strangers who shack up in a one-bedroom apartment. Here are our picks for the most notable new titles streaming on Netflix Canada, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, Prime Video, CBC Gem, Crave and Paramount Plus this week.

 

NETFLIX
Too Hot to Handle (Season 4)

By now, the reality dating series Too Hot to Handle is popular enough that contestants have an idea of how to play the game. So, for this fourth season, shot on Turks and Caicos Islands, the producers have decided to switch things up. The premise is still the same—10 single adults live together in a villa, but any sexual contact results in money being incrementally deducted from the $100,000 grand prize. This time, however, the contestants arrive thinking they’ll be filming a new reality show hosted by Mario Lopez—until they find out they’re on THTH, that is. Surprise! December 7

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Academy Award–winner Guillermo del Toro’s latest fantastical flick is a stop-motion animated version of the classic tale about a wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy. The del Toro twist? He sets the fable in fascist Italy during the 1930s. The film is co-directed by acclaimed animator Mark Gustafson, with Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, Finn Wolfhard and Cate Blanchett among the voice cast. December 9

DISNEY PLUS
The Come Up

This reality show follows six ambitious young creatives in New York as they try to pursue their dreams of professional success. They want careers in artistic industries like acting, fashion and photography—but they also want love. Think: The Real World, but very 2022. December 7

APPLE TV PLUS
Emancipation

In his first role since the infamous Oscars slap, Will Smith stars in this Antoine Fuqua–directed historical film about an enslaved Black man in Louisiana who escapes to freedom in the 1860s. It’s based on the true story of a man named Gordon, whose near death at the hands of plantation owners and subsequent escape made headlines around the world. Photographs of the scars on his back were said to have helped motivate the abolitionist movement. December 9

PRIME VIDEO
SAS: Rogue Heroes

After a World War II training exercise goes terribly wrong, officer David Stirling (Connor Swindells) thinks it’s time to try something different. From there, he comes up with a brave but reckless idea: What if he and a team of soldiers went undercover to stir up chaos behind enemy lines? Jack O’Connell, Alfie Allen, Sofia Boutella and Dominic West also star in this series. December 9

Something From Tiffany’s

The holidays are the perfect time to get engaged, which is why Ethan (Kendrick Sampson) decides to buy a special ring for his girlfriend, Vanessa (Shay Mitchell). But their picture-perfect moment is jeopardized when a mix-up results in Gary (Ray Nicholson) accidentally taking the ring home to his girlfriend, Rachel (Zoey Deutch), who is not quite ready to take the next step. December 9

CBC GEM
Avoidance

This British comedy follows newly single Jonathan (Romesh Ranganathan)—a man with no friends, no home, no ambition and major conflict avoidance issues—as he tries to change so that he can set a better example for his son. Easier said than done! Now streaming

CRAVE
His Dark Materials (Season 3)

The third and final season of this fantasy drama is based on The Amber Spyglass, the last novel in Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy. The show centres on Lyra (Dafne Keen), a young girl who can travel to parallel worlds, as she continues her quest to a dark, dangerous place to save the multiverse. Now streaming

Marry Me

Rom-com queen Jennifer Lopez stars in this fun flick as music superstar Kat Valdez, one half of a power couple that includes fellow artist Bastian (Maluma). But, when Kat finds out that Bastian has been cheating on her minutes before the duo were set to exchange vows on stage during a live stream, she pulls divorced high school teacher Charlie (Owen Wilson) out of the crowd to marry instead. December 9

PARAMOUNT PLUS
The Flatshare

Finding an affordable place to live in a big city is hard. So, in this British rom-com adapted from Beth O’Leary’s 2019 novel of the same name, Tiffany (Jessica Brown Findlay), who is fresh off a breakup and needs a cheap place to live, decides to share a one-room apartment in London with total stranger Leon (Anthony Welsh), a night-shift worker. Because of their opposite schedules, the pair—who communicate via Post-it Notes—have decided that Leon gets the flat between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. while Tiffany gets it the rest of the time. They (of course) fall in love. Now streaming