Before you settle down to eat your leftover Christmas chocolate and start flicking through the channels to see what's on actual TV, stop. Us lot here at 12DOVE have got eight things that should be on your, ahem, radar this week. From the Golden Globes to new stuff on Netflix, here's what you should watch out for this week.
1. Star Trek Discovery resumes its incredible first season… and we want answers!
Star Trek Discovery is back after… well, a very short break, actually. It brings with it some big questions raised by the final episode before the mid-season break, such as ‘Where the hell are the crew?’ and ‘Why did Stammets collapse during his final jump?’. The biggest of all, however, is what the hell is going on with Ash Tyler: is he a genuine Starfleet officer or is he - in fact - the Klingon Voq in disguise? It’s the show’s hottest fan theory, and something we should discover (yes, pun intended) soon enough. The repercussions for his relationship with Burnham, who has let down her guard for him, will be seismic if Tyler does turn out to be Voq. Either way, I’m hoping Discovery continues its impressive pace and smart, modern sci-fi narrative throughout the second half of the run. While it has been derided by hardcore Trekkies, the show has done a brilliant job of bringing in a whole new audience, and has thoroughly modernised the franchise for 2018. Nine more episodes sounds like a brilliant start to the year for TV, to me. Andy Hartup
What: Star Trek Discovery season 1 (part 2)
Where: CBS All Access (US) Netflix (UK)
When: Starts January 7 (US) January 8 (UK)
- This amazing Star Trek Discovery theory suggests Tyler isn’t all he seems…
- Star Trek Discovery season 1 episode 9 review
- Star Trek Discovery Easter eggs and secrets
2. Time to mop up the games you’ve missed in the PlayStation Store January Sale
Start the year as you mean to go on: by buying games. The good news is that if the Black Friday/Holiday combo hasn’t wiped you out, PlayStation are having a January sale on the PSN Store to kick off the year. There are slightly different deals on US and UK Stores and, if we’re honest, the UK fares better for once with plenty of big new games reduced - Assassin's Creed Origins for £36.99, for example. However, where the smart buys are involves grabbing all those games you never //quite// got around to before. So in the UK that’s things like Resident Evil 7 or Watch Dogs 2 for £14.99, or Wolfenstein 2 for £24.99. While the US can grab things like Metro: Last Light Redux or Oxenfree for $6.99, or Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and inFamous: Second Son for $9.99. Leon Hurley
What: PS Store January Sale
Where: A PlayStation Store near you (or a PS4)
When: From now until until January 19 (UK), January 9 (US)
- 7 movies that inspired Resident Evil 7
- 8 things I wish I knew before playing Wolfenstein 2
- Watch Dogs 2’s hipster fashion represents privilege in tech bro San Fran
3. Don’t miss The End of the F***ing World on Netflix (because you probably didn’t watch when it first came out)
The end of the world is coming! No, not the actual world (stop gathering up supplies and heading for your bunker) - I’m talking about the dark comedy drama The End of the F***ing World. It’s based on the comic series of the same name by Charles S. Forsman and follows teen outsiders James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden) as they go on a road trip to find Alyssa’s father. If you’ve seen the trailer you probably can’t wait to binge-watch the entire season when it drops on Netflix today, but did you know it actually came out in October 2017 on Channel 4 and All 4? Yeah… me neither. If you’re one of the few people who noticed and watch the eight-part series last year, I tip my hat to you! For everyone else, get yourself to Netflix from today to see the whole series asap. Lauren O’Callaghan
What: The End of the F***ing World
Where: Netflix
When: Now
- The most anticipated upcoming TV shows for 2018
- The 25 best TV shows on Netflix you should binge
- The best brand new TV shows you can watch right now
4. Time to PIVOT your viewing habits because all of Friends just landed on Netflix
Remember The One with Ross’s Tan or The One Where Ross is Fine or even The One with All the Cheesecakes? Well, now you can because all 10 seasons of the 90s hit sitcom just got added to Netflix, meaning you can finally ditch that VHS collection. That means you’ve just got access to every single iconic friends moment ever, including all of Janice’s “Oh My God”, to every time Joey’s ever said “How you doin’?” Whether it all stands up today is another matter entirely. There are definitely some homophobic jokes in there when it comes to Chandler’s personality or Ross’ ex-wife, Monica’s fat shaming and Ross not being okay with his son playing with a doll. But hey, if you remember that it was kind of okay in the ‘90s, you can still enjoy Friends for what it was - in its entirety. Go on, sing the theme tune and do the clap. You know you want to. Sam Loveridge
What: All 10 seasons of Friends
Where: Netflix
When: Now
5. Watch speedrunners do what they do best for a great cause during Awesome Games Done Quick 2018
As anyone who's tuned in will attest, the annual AGDQ event (the start-of-the-year companion to summer's SGDQ) is an immense force of good in gaming, where dozens of speedrunners get to show off their immaculate skills and inventive strategies for beating games as quickly (and/or impressively) as possible. All the while, viewers from around the world tune in for the full-week livestream - scheduled to run nonstop from January 7 to January 14 this year - and collectively donate millions of dollars for charity. As you can see from the AGDQ 2018 schedule, there are some excellent picks lined up this year; I'm personally stoked to see recent games like Resident Evil 7, Star Fox 2, and The End is Nigh get utterly destroyed in no time flat. And this year's grand finale is a doozy: a runthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's main questline in just under 4 hours. We'll soon find out what kinds of spellbinding maneuvers and frame-perfect tricks a time like that requires to even be possible - let's just hope both Link and runner 'atz' have enough stamina to pull it off. Lucas Sullivan
What: A week of nonstop speedruns
Where: GamesDoneQuick Twitch
When: January 7 - January 14
- What is AGDQ and why should you be watching it?
- 13 hardcore challenges invented by players
- Popular games you can beat in 5 minutes or less
6. Prepare for some scares with Insidious: The Last Key
The first Insidious movie - with its menacing as all hell demon - set a high heart rate standard that its sequels failed to match. Word down the dark alleys of the horror community is that The Last Key is a return to form, even if it is, confusingly, a sequel to a prequel. (Does any genre have a more troubled relationship with chronology than horror?) This film focuses on the series' psychic and strongest character, Elise Rainier, returning to her old family home to suss out some new sinister shenanigans. Director duties have fallen to Adam Robitel, who previously directed Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and, more promisingly, The Taking of Deborah Logan, a jagged horror gem. I've got high hopes that some of what made The Taking of Deborah Logan, which also had an older woman at its center, special, will make it to The Last Key too. Namely a twisting story, almost too real performances and an eye for injecting shadows into the most mundane corners of life. Rachel Weber
What: Insidious: The Last Key
Where: In US movie theaters
When: Jan 5
7. Make your predictions for the Golden Globes and be sad if Get Out doesn’t win its (strange) category
If you aren’t already demanding a red carpet wherever you go, what are you waiting for? It’s awards season and things get well and truly started with the Golden Globes on Sunday night. Always an interesting indicator for Oscar successes, the Globes this year have a veritable sea of talent all very much deserving of a shiny gold Earth to call their own. Of everything nominated though, it’ll be most interesting to see if Jordan Peele’s horror Get Out can beat the rest of the Best Comedy/Musical Category to a gong. Regardless of whether it’s truly either of those things, cracking the awards circuit with a horror movie would be a nice start to 2018. In other nominations, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water is sitting with seven nods, making it the most nominated film in the race so expect a few wins for the beautiful monster love story. Louise Blain
What: The Golden Globes
Where: NBC
When: 5pm PT, Jan 7/ 1am GMT, Jan 8
- It's Game of Thrones vs Stranger Things in the Golden Globe nominees list
- All the 2017 Golden Globe winners
- 5 spoiler-free reasons why Get Out is the best horror movie of the year
8. Can the expanded, “more relaxed” X-Files: Season 11 give Scully the send-off she deserves?
Picking straight up where season 10 left off, this next run of The X-Files is going to get a rather different treatment. And a much better one, by the sounds of it. Where the previous revival season had to pack in seven years of recap, a splash of ongoing mythology, a bunch of new stories, and has only six episodes to do all of that in, season 11 has no such worries. It can dive straight in – and it’s going to, the first episode immediately cracking on with Mulder and Scully’s search for their long-lost son, William – and it then has the breathing space to run. The first and last episodes will focus on the series’ bigger mythology, while the other eight – reassuringly – will be standalone, monster-of-the-week affairs. And, in the tradition of The Best X-Files, Glen Morgan and James Wong – the script team behind season four’s brutal Home -have written an apparently very arresting episode, while Darin Morgan has scripted what sounds like another, stand-out comedy episode.
The only big question is how Scully will go out. Gillian Anderson has long stated that this will be her last season, but what does that mean for her character arc? And will the show go on without her? Should it, even? Whatever happens, three words, Chris Carter: Do. Not. Kill. Her. David Houghton
What: The X-Files: Season 11
Where: Fox
When: January 3 – March 7, 2018
