Best new movies and TV series on Netflix New Zealand: December 2025
A full list of everything hitting the world’s biggest streaming service, plus our top recommendations.
Each month, loads of new films and TV shows are added to Netflix New Zealand‘s library. Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.
Top Picks: TV
The Abandons: Season 1 (December 4)
If Yellowstone or one of its mopey prequel series had simply cast the iconic Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey as its scowling Stetson-topped frontierswoman, I would’ve been onboard a long time ago. Set in 1850s Washington, this period drama is another of those angsty, epic, dust-burnished tales of succession and betrayal.
Our gals are both playing widowed matriarchs, one a ‘have’ and the other a ‘have-not’—their steeliness will be tested in a lawless Old West landscape. Showrunner Kurt Sutter apparently drew inspiration from the historical origins of the American Mafia, so it’ll be fascinating to see how this western context feeds into that.
Emily in Paris: Season 5 (December 18)
Emily not in Paris? Okay, why don’t they just rename the show Girl in A Place?! In season four, Lily Collins’ perky expat made romantic and professional links beyond Paris—moving into a Roman apartment to open her agency’s new office, and exploring the spark between herself and Italian Stallion Marcello.
By now you certainly know whether or not this flirty, frothy, fashion-filled show is your bag or not: no jaunt across a European border or two is likely to convert streaming skeptics. Everyone else, get dressed to the nines and let the ultimate marketing maven girlboss power fantasy whisk you away wheeeeee!
Top Picks: Movies + Specials
Jay Kelly (December 5)
Hollywood sure loves making movies about Hollywood, and there may be no other actor who lives up to the town’s classy Golden Age perception of itself than George Clooney. In this bittersweet comedy from director Noah Baumbach, the silver fox pretty much plays himself, palling around European film festivals with his manager and best bud Adam Sandler. Nice work if you can get it!
Suitably for a movie about the lifestyles of the rich and the famous, reviews have suggested Jay Kelly is a light and breezy watch, with some critics finding it to be a tad navel-gazing. If you’ve got stars in your eyes (or a lifelong crush on Clooney), it shouldn’t strike you as too indulgent.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (December 12)
This isn’t the first Christmas season where we’ve been treated to a new adventure with Daniel Craig’s Southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc. Director Rian Johnson won’t be busy making his other murder mystery project Poker Face any longer (cancelled! Tragically!), so here’s the third entry in his feature-length whodunnit saga. You don’t necessarily need to check out the other two to start sleuthin’, though.
The lineup of suspects is as stacked as one would hope, with Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright, Kerry Washington and Mila Kunis gathered for a London-set murder. And early feedback suggests it might be the strongest entry to the Knives Out world yet, apparently feeling slightly darker and deeper in tone.
Goodbye June (December 24)
Nope, we’re not done with star-studded casts just yet. Helen Mirren, Toni Collette, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough and many more great British talents will appear in this heartfelt holiday movie. Guess who else is in it? Kate Winslet, who also directs and adapts her son’s screenplay, inspired by the loss of her own dear mum.
If she’s anywhere near as skilled a filmmaker as she is a performer, Winslet could really serve up a Santa stocking full of tears this season, chronicling a family as they struggle to say farewell to their matriarch. If you’re away from family (especially your mum or grandma) this Christmas, be well prepared for a weepy watch.
All titles arriving on Netflix New Zealand in December
December 1
All the Empty Rooms
CoComelon Lane: Season 6
Love Actually
Love is Blind: Italy
My Next Guest with David Letterman and Adam Sandler
A Moody Christmas: Season 1
The Moodys: Season 1
Troll 2
December 2
The Holiday
Matt Rife: Unwrapped – A Christmas Crowd Work Special
Top Gun
December 3
My Secret Santa
Stranded with my Mother-in-Law: Season 3
With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration
December 4
The Abandons
The Believers: Season 2
I Wish You Had Told Me
Lali: Time to Step Up
December 5
Jay Kelly
Love and Wine
The Making of Jay Kelly
The New Yorker at 100
The Night My Dad Saved Christmas 2
Owning Manhattan: Season 2
The Price of Confession
December 6
Christmess
December 7
Dr Seuss’ The Lorax
Pro Bono
December 8
Elmo and Mark Rober’s Merry Giftmas
December 9
Badly in Love
Bloody Coast: Season 2
Masala Kids, a Rhythm Within
December 10
The Accident: Season 2
Record of Ragnarok: Season 3
Simon Cowell: The Next Act
December 11
The Fakeknapping
Had I Not Seen the Sun: Part 2
Lost in the Spotlight
Man Vs Baby
The Town
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft: Season 2
December 12
City of Shadows
Home for Christmas: Season 3
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
December 14
Robby Hoffman: Wake Up
December 15
The Creature Cases: Chapter 6
December 16
Culinary Class Wars: Season 2
December 17
The Manny: Season 3
Murder in Monaco
What’s in the Box?
December 18
10DANCE
Emily in Paris: Season 5
Sunshine: Season 1
December 19
Breakdown: 1975
The Great Flood
A Time for Bravery
You, Always
December 20
Jake Vs Joshua: Judgment Day
December 21
Life After Fighting
December 22
Elway
Sicily Express
December 23
King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch: Season 3
December 24
Tom Segura: Teacher
December 25
Goodbye June
Us
December 26
Boxing Gameday: Cowboys vs Commanders
Boxing Gameday: Lions vs Vikings
Cashero
Cover-Up
Members Only: Palm Beach
Stranger Things 5: Volume 2
December 27
Yellowstone: Season 3
December 30
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story
Ricky Gervais: Mortality
December 31
Jurassic World
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Rick and Morty: Seasons 1-8
See also
* Best new movies and TV series Stan
* Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime
* Best new movies and TV series on Disney+
* All new streaming movies & series
