Welcome back to the end of the week! We hope you’re still well fed and if you’re exploring options for your home theater with this weeks discounts, you’re probably considering a future movie night! Here are some spotlights for the near future of entertainment:

“Santa Inc.“… I’m not even sure I want to promote this. After “Sausage Party” (this is the same production team… and Seth Rogen is Santa) and “Happytime Murders,” this takes the same stab at claymation, and feels like if ‘Robot Chicken’ forgot the soul of wit:

To me, there’s something bothersome about the story being a parody in which someone tries to “rebrand” Christmas while touching on social issues, like they’re ironically suggesting that addressing these social issues is the joke. Anyway, it’s a series directed by Harry Chaskin and produced by Lionsgate Television and Point Grey Pictures and HBO Max will release eight episodes streaming on December 2nd, 2021.

“Mother/Android,” on the other hand, looks awesome. A high-concept sci-fi premise that’s all too familiar but with visuals that feel inspired to the point of originality:

Written and directed by Mattson Tomlin, and produced by Bill Block, Rafi Crohn, Adam Kassan, Charles Miller, Matt Reeves, and Mattson Tomlin, (this trailer and crew really wants you to know it shares producers/ a screenwriter with ‘The Batman’) Hulu will debut Tomlin’s Mother/Android streaming on December 17th, 2021.

“Shattered,” stars Lilly Krug and Cameron Monaghan with Frank Grillo and John Malkovich. Despite investing editing in the trailer escalating threats of death and torture (RED BAND, by the way, avoid if sensitive to violence/gore), I’m not sure how this will turn out, but for those of you who are interested:

Directed by Luis Prieto and written by David Loughery (not David Lowery), Lionsgate will release this in select US theaters and on VOD January 14th, 2022.