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All The Cool Things Coming To Hulu In January 2025

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Ready to greet 2025 with a loud “Meh?”  Hulu’s January offerings will put you in the mood to do so.  Admittedly a couple of the month’s highlights jump easily over the bar set by “Manos: The Hands Of Fate.”  

One such highlight is a docuseries about a young attractive Christian mother who blogs about dying from Stage 3 Lymphoma…and who turned out to be a scammer who went to extreme lengths to fake her illness and pump the suckers for lots of money.  Too bad this podcast adaptation didn’t air in October.  It would have been a pre-presidential object lesson about blindly trusting so-called Christians.

The other January highlight is a Swedish television mini-series based on an actual international incident from the days of the Cold War.  From the title on, the story’s played for laughs, which will offend believers in American exceptionalism.

Aside from those two shows and one or two old movies, viewers should put Hulu’s January offerings in the “if I need background noise while folding the laundry” category.   

Dead Pixels

January 1

American Psycho–Check out Mary Harron’s mix of horror and black comedy before Luca Guadagnino takes his stab at Bret Easton Ellis’ serial killer in a suit novel.  In 1987, investment banker Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) constantly tries to act as if he belongs in affluent circles.  But his jealousy of the superior existence lived by co-worker Paul Allen starts him on a homicidal path where insecurity over business card designs turns out to be the first of several triggers for murder.

John Wick–Maybe they shouldn’t have fridged the beagle puppy…  Mourning titular retired hitman (Keanu Reeves) un-retires as a result of that killing, unearths his arsenal stash, and launches a popular movie franchise as he seeks bloody revenge against the puppy killers and their leader Iosef.  But will Iosef’s dad, mob boss Viggo Tarasov, sit by and let his son get whacked by Wick?.   

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Little Manhattan–Adventurous 10-year-old Manhattanite Gabe explores New York City as a distraction from his parents’ plans to get divorced.  When he gets partnered with the 11-year-old Rosemary in a self-defense class, he begins to notice her as a girl.  This soon leads to Gabe being enamored with both Rosemary and her life.  But their budding romance soon gets turned upside down by several significant events likely to lead to their permanent separation.

The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada–The title character is an undocumented immigrant working in Texas who’s mistakenly shot and killed by Border Patrol agent Mike Norton.  The Border Patrol cop’s attempt to hide Estrada’s corpse by burying it fails when Sheriff Frank Belmont’s people finds and reburies Estrada’s body…but without connecting Norton to the crime.  Local rancher Pete Perkins (director Tommy Lee Jones) learns of Norton’s culpability and forces the killer to dig up Estrada’s body for another burial.  Perkins had been Estrada’s friend, and he’d promised the dead man he’d bury him in Estrada’s hometown of Jimenez if the immigrant died in Texas.  But getting to Jimenez involves crossing the harsh Mexican desert with Norton in tow while trying to evade Border Patrol pursuit.

The Walk–In 1973, Parisian street performer Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) develops a dream of walking a tightrope between New York City’s Twin Towers.  Making that dream a reality requires a lot more than just lots of practice (and even walking between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral).  It involves assembling a team which will eventually include a photographer, a life insurance salesman, and a fellow street performer.  Robert Zemeckis dramatizes this true story. 

Goosebumps: The Vanishing

January 2

The Dark Side Of The ‘90s Season 3–Vice’s docuseries about the 1990s’ untold pop culture history and moments returns with a new batch of episodes.  This time, take a look back at  how special interest group scrutiny nearly prevented “NYPD Blue” from being broadcast, the behind-the-scenes problems facing The Spice Girls, and Scores Strip Club’s effort to shed the Gambino crime family’s “protection.” 

The UnBelievable With Dan Aykroyd Season 1–Dan Aykroyd serves as your guide through history’s mysterious and bizarre inventions, creatures, people, and things.  In this season, see a headless chicken that lives over a year, bazooka Vespas, a slug-eating robot, and tunnels carved by giant sloths.

January 7

Dead Pixels Seasons 1 & 2–Hopefully, this is the original British television version of the series.  Meg, Nicky, and Usman are three reclusive friends who are obsessed with the online fantasy RPG “Kingdom Scrolls.”   The trouble is, when the trio are not online, these misanthropes treat their friends very poorly and try to keep the real world at a distance.  But the last goal may no longer be doable thanks to the presence of irritatingly bad gamer Jase and new gamer Russell.

Stopmotion–Ella Blake is determined to finish by herself her stop-motion animator mother Suzanne’s newest film after the latter suffers a debilitating stroke.  But an encounter with a mysterious young girl leads Ella to discard Suzanne’s project and work on the girl’s story about a young girl lost in the woods.  Yet as time goes on, the girl’s suggestions (e.g. using spoiled steak or the remains of a dead fox) start taking on a sinister tone.  What will get finished first: the film or Ella’s sanity?  

My Penguin Friend

January 8

Fall–Becky has given up climbing and gone into mourning after her husband Dan accidentally dies during a mountain climb.  Before the anniversary of Dan’s death, best friend Hunter invites Becky to get closure by climbing to the 2000 foot top of the decommissioned B-67 TV Tower and scattering Dan’s ashes to the desert winds.  Trouble occurs when the duo accidentally get stranded at the tower top.  Outside help is unavailable for various reasons.  If the vertigo doesn’t get them, the desert heat will.  Now what?

Will Trent Season 3–This adaptation of Karin Slaughter’s book series about the titular Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent sees some status quo changes.  Will and childhood friend Angie’s relationship is definitely toast after the GBI agent reluctantly arrests her.  But new people enter both characters’ lives in the forms of Dr. Seth Mc Dale (Scott Foley, “Scandal”), a hospital head of emergency medicine, and new ADA Marion Alba (Gina Rodriguez, “Jane The Virgin”).  

January 9

Mashle: Magic & Muscles–Superhumanly strong Mash Burnedead does a lot of physical working out because he has a big secret.  Despite living in a world where wielding magic is commonplace, he himself cannot wield magic.  When the authorities discover the teen’s secret, they issue an ultimatum: join the Easton Magic Academy and become a Divine Visionary or face perpetual persecution.  Can the magicless boy somehow surpass the school’s elite and gifted students by relying on his muscles and his wits?

January 10

Goosebumps: The Vanishing–Twins Cece and Devin Brewer are sent to Gravesend, Brooklyn to spend the summer with their divorced dad Anthony (David Schwimmer).  Anthony is a former botany professor who’s obsessed with solving the 30-year-old mysterious disappearance of a quartet of kids, one of whom was his brother.  But when a mysterious symbiotic organism takes control of Anthony and further kids go missing, the twins must stop whatever’s taken over their father and solve the mystery of the disappearances.  Based on the R.L. Stine teen horror series.

January 14         

My Penguin Friend–Retired fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza (Jean Reno) discovers on an Ilha Grande beach a Magellanic penguin near death thanks to its being caught in an oil spill.  The heartbroken fisherman cleans the penguin up and nurses it back to health.  When Dindim (as Joao names the penguin) unexpectedly leaves, Joao figures that’s the last he’ll see of the bird.  But Dindim has bonded with Joao, and what happens next will return happiness to his heart.  Based on a true story.

Whiskey On The Rocks

January 20

Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai–Why is teenage actress Mai Sakurajima dressed as a bunny girl and wandering through a library?  Equally importantly, why does nobody except high school student Sakuta Azusagawa happen to notice Mai?  The answer involves a mysterious disease known as Adolescence Syndrome, one which has infected a number of other girls at the school.

January 21

Rurouni Kenshin Season 1–This new adaptation of Nobuhiro Watsuki’s manga series follows the adventures of Meiji era wandering ronin Himura Kenshin.  The ronin may be a pacifist, but that doesn’t stop him from using his incredible swordsmanship with a reverse-bladed sakabato to help people in trouble.  Kenshin lives with a dark secret: he used to be the deadly political assassin HItokiri Battosai.  The former assassin may have vowed to never again take another life, but more than a few circumstances will seriously put that vow to the test.

Sleep–Hyun-su and Soo-jin may be newlyweds, but any marital bliss soon gets destroyed after Hyun-su starts talking in his sleep.  The husband’s announcement that “Someone’s inside” turns out to be the prelude to his turning into a completely different sleepwalking person with no memory of his previous night’s actions.  Soo-jin soon becomes deeply fearful that Hyun-su may hurt either her or her unborn child while she sleeps.

January 22

Whiskey On The Rocks–The running aground on Sweden’s southern coastal rocks by a Soviet “Whiskey” class nuclear-tipped submarine sparks an international incident.  It’s 1981 during the Cold War, and where the submarine is stuck happens to be a military safety zone.  Can former sheep farmer turned Swedish Prime Minister Thorbjorn Falldin solve this problem without totalitarian alcoholic Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev and former Hollywood actor turned US President Ronald Reagan coming to military blows?  Based on a real-life incident, but told with tongue firmly planted in cheek. 

January 23

Persona5: The Animation–This loose adaptation of the video game of the same name tells the story of high school transfer student Ren Anamiya.  A strange app appears on Ren’s phone the morning before his first day of classes at Tokyo’s Shujin Academy.  Opening the app transports him to the Metaverse, a deadly place where distorted depictions of people’s true personas reside.  Ren, though, survives the Metaverse by awakening his power as a Persona.  He soon convinces others with similar Personas to form the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, a group attempting to save people from being controlled by their more ignoble desires.  

Persona5: The Animation

January 28

Paradise–Will the re-teaming of actor Sterling K. Brown and “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman yield a new weekly thriller?  For the gambling sort, Xavier Collins (Brown) serves as head of security for former President Cal Bradford.  When Collins becomes the prime suspect in the ex-President’s murder, the crime tears apart a wealthy enclave where some of the world’s most powerful individuals live.  And is the psychiatrist with a very exclusive client list (Sarah Shahi) secretly helping Collins…or trying to help burn him?

January 30

The Food That Built America Season 5–It’s a new season of this documentary series about the individuals and families behind iconic American food brands. This season, hear the stories behind SpaghettiOs, Dr. Pepper, and the Tootsie Roll among other well-known foods.

January 31

Rachael Ray’s Meals In Minutes Season 1–Cook Rachael Ray shows how being time-crunched doesn’t have to mean making crap meals.  In these episodes, learn how to make such dishes as a mushroom-lover’s pasta, hamburgers and fries cooked with Mexican spices, and crab nachos plus steak tacos.

Scamanda–This docuseries based on the podcast of the same name finally gets its official release.  Beautiful young Christian mother Amanda Riley shared on her blog her daily struggles with stage 3 lymphoma.  Her accounts were so touching and persuasive that many people gave money to aid her, with one community raising $100,000 for Riley’s cause.  However, an anonymous tip to reporter Nancy Moscatiello would lead to an investigation showing that Riley was a scam artist preying on peoples’ sympathies.

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Peter Wong

Peter Wong

I've been reviewing films for quite a few years now, principally for the online publication Beyond Chron. My search for unique cinematic experiences and genre dips have taken me everywhere from old S.F. Chinatown movie theaters showing first-run Jackie Chan movies to the chilly slopes of Park City. Movies having cat pron instantly ping my radar.