By Mike Murphy
'Stranger Things' finally wraps up on Netflix, 'Fallout' is back with a new season on Amazon and Taylor Swift takes over Disney+
Netflix's &#34;Stranger Things&#34; ends its run in December. From left: Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton and Gaten Matarazzo.
In case it hasn't been said enough, Netflix has won the streaming wars - and December is just further proof of that.
With a lineup this month that overwhelms pretty much every other streaming service combined, budget-conscious consumers can feel confident that they're not missing out on anything, as long as they have Netflix and perhaps one other streamer. (Apple for &#34;Pluribus&#34;? Amazon for &#34;Fallout&#34;? Disney+ for Taylor Swift? We'll leave that part up to you.)
That also makes it easier to save a little money in December with a bit of strategic churning - that is, adding and dropping services month to month - in order to watch the best of the best while keeping your monthly streaming budget less than $50. Keep in mind that a billing cycle starts when you sign up, not necessarily at the beginning of the month. It's always worth watching out for time-sensitive deals and money-saving bundles, too - and you can find plenty of bargains right now with Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts for streaming subscriptions.
Each month, this column offers tips on how to maximize your streaming and your budget - rating the major services as &#34;play,&#34; &#34;pause&#34; or &#34;stop,&#34; similar to investment analysts' traditional ratings of buy, hold and sell - and picks the best shows to help you make your monthly decisions.
Here's a look at what's coming to the various streaming services in December 2025, and what's really worth the monthly subscription fee:
Netflix ($7.99 a month for standard with ads, $17.99 standard with no ads, $24.99 premium with no ads)
It takes a month like this to really appreciate just how much more stuff Netflix (NFLX) is putting out there. While most of its rivals have only a handful of December premieres, Netflix is once again spraying its fire hose, and proving it continues to be the industry's volume leader.
The biggest addition, of course, is the conclusion of the smash hit sci-fi thriller &#34;Stranger Things.&#34; The first four episodes of Season 5 dropped before Thanksgiving, and the next three drop at 8 p.m. Eastern on Christmas Day, with the two-hour series finale coming at 8 p.m. Eastern on New Year's Eve. The latest episodes are, like the later seasons, more bloated, less charming and too reliant on CGI, but there's still a fun story in there at its core, though it can sometimes be hard to find. And almost every episode this season is an hour-plus, so set aside some free time. &#34;It's definitely a long season,&#34; co-star Finn Wolfhard told Collider earlier this year, with some episodes &#34;film-length.&#34; It's unfortunate that the final season seems more of a chore than a holiday treat for loyal viewers, but by this point, &#34;Stranger Things&#34; appears bulletproof, regardless of quality.
Read more: 'Stranger Things' has made at least $1 billion for Netflix already. Now Season 5 could deliver another $200 million.
In non-&#34;Stranger Things&#34; programming, there's &#34;The Abandons&#34; (Dec. 4), a Western series from creator Kurt Sutter (&#34;Sons of Anarchy&#34;) about two very different family matriarchs (Lena Headley and Gillian Anderson) battling for control of land in the 1850s Oregon frontier; Season 5 of the frilly, escapist rom-com &#34;Emily in Paris&#34; (Dec. 18), which will split its time between Paris and Rome, where Emily (Lily Collins) has a new amore; and the Barcelona-set murder-mystery series &#34;City of Shadows&#34; (Dec. 12).
Benoit Blanc is back in the latest of writer-director Rian Johnson's series of mystery movies, &#34;Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery&#34; (Dec. 12), starring Daniel Craig as the Southern gentleman detective, this time investigating a seemingly perfect crime at a small-town church. There's also &#34;Jay Kelly&#34; (Dec. 5), the new movie from director Noah Baumbach starring George Clooney as a handsome actor dealing with fame (such a stretch), and &#34;Goodbye June&#34; (Dec. 24), a tearjerker from director Kate Winslet about a family's farewell to their dying mother, starring Helen Mirren and Toni Colette.
Netflix also has a new installment of &#34;My Next Guest with David Letterman&#34; (Dec. 1), featuring Adam Sandler; the Meghan Markle special &#34;With Love, Meghan - Holiday Celebration&#34; (Dec. 3); Season 2 of the real-estate reality series &#34;Owning Manhattan&#34; (Dec. 5); &#34;Simon Cowell: The Next Act&#34; (Dec. 10), a docuseries as the superproducer searches for the next boy band; Season 2 of the Korean hit cooking competition &#34;Culinary Class Wars&#34; (Dec. 16); the game show &#34;What's in the Box?&#34; (Dec. 17), hosted by Neil Patrick Harris (and hopefully without any severed heads); the live Jake Paul-Anthony Joshua fight from Miami (Dec. 19); the standup-comedy special &#34;Tom Segura: Teacher&#34; (Dec. 24); and &#34;Members Only: Palm Beach&#34; (Dec. 26), a reality series about Florida socialites.
Oh and there's also a pair of Christmas Day NFL games, kicking off with the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Commanders at 1 p.m. Eastern and then the Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
Whew.
Coming and going: Once-popular CW shows &#34;Supernatural,&#34; &#34;The 100&#34; and &#34;Arrow&#34; are leaving (all Dec. 18), along with all seasons of &#34;How I Met Your Mother&#34; (leaving Dec. 3) and &#34;Evil&#34; (leaving Dec. 31). On the flip side, Netflix is adding all seasons of &#34;The West Wing&#34; (Dec. 8) and &#34;The Closer&#34; (Dec. 22).
Binge-worthy? Of course, not all - or even most - of Netflix's shows are must-sees. In fact, it specializes in &#34;mid,&#34; or &#34;gourmet cheeseburger,&#34; TV, shows that look sharp, have a great cast, a killer setup...yet still leave you wanting just a bit more. Recent examples include the Danish crime thriller &#34;The Asset&#34; (which was entirely formulaic, but it's a good formula), the presidential-assassination historical drama &#34;Death By Lightning&#34; (great cast, even better facial hair, but ultimately a bit shallow and rushed), and the psychological thriller &#34;The Beast in Me&#34; (great cast, tense cliffhanger episodes but marred by an eye-rolling ending). The common thread? They're all... fine. Which, like a cheeseburger that's just OK, is a disappointment when you know that they could have been so much better.
Top picks 0f 2025: A quick list of my favorite shows from 2025, in no particular order: &#34;Mo,&#34; &#34;Asura,&#34; &#34;Adolescence,&#34; &#34;Dept. Q,&#34; &#34;Too Much,&#34; &#34;The Eternaut,&#34; &#34;Fisk,&#34; &#34;Nobody Wants This,&#34; &#34;The Diplomat.&#34;
Play, pause or stop? Play. You can easily survive the month on Netflix alone. There's a ton of stuff on the way, and a lot of it looks good.
Apple TV ($12.99 a month)
Apple (AAPL) will finally stream its hit summer blockbuster &#34;F1: The Movie&#34; (Dec. 12), the high-octane racing drama starring Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Damson Idris. It's a decent enough film (cars go zoom-zoom-crash!), though its effects will be diminished a bit on the small screen (just turn up the volume high enough to annoy your neighbors).
The only other premieres are the kids holiday special &#34;The First Snow of Fraggle Rock&#34; (Dec. 5) and &#34;Born to Be Wild&#34; (Dec. 19), a nature docuseries about cute baby animals.
But the real reason to get Apple in December will be new episodes of the captivating dark comedy/sci-fi thriller &#34;Pluribus&#34; (season finale Dec. 26); along with the Maya Rudolph comedy &#34;Loot&#34; (season finale Dec. 10); the Alaska-set action series &#34;The Last Frontier&#34; (season finale Dec. 5); &#34;Down Cemetery Road&#34; (season finale Dec. 10), the British mystery that started strong but oddly veered off the road, becoming an entirely different show; and the Kristen Wiig high-society dramedy &#34;Palm Royale,&#34; which runs through January.
On hold: Apple has yanked the French-language thriller &#34;The Hunt,&#34; which was scheduled to premiere Dec. 3, amid allegations of plagiarism. Reports say major plot points were similar to a novel that was published in 1973, and the show's French production company is investigating. No word on whether the series will ever see the light of day now, which is still the case for &#34;The Savant&#34; - the Jessica Chastain-led thriller about a woman infiltrating online hate groups that was pulled after Charlie Kirk's killing.
Play, pause or stop? Pause and think it over. There's a convincing argument that a subscription is worth the money for &#34;Pluribus,&#34; if nothing else. A slow-burn mystery that's part &#34;Invasion of the Body Snatchers,&#34; part &#34;Last Man on Earth,&#34; the plot of &#34;Pluribus&#34; can go seemingly anywhere at any time, which is what makes it such a thrill to watch, and star Rhea Seehorn (&#34;Better Call Saul&#34;) is giving an Emmy-worthy performance (again).
Top picks of 2025: &#34;Severance,&#34; &#34;The Studio,&#34; &#34;Platonic,&#34; &#34;Slow Horses,&#34; &#34;Pluribus.&#34;
Amazon's Prime Video ($14.99 a month with ads, $8.99 without Prime membership, both +$2.99 to avoid ads)
&#34;Fallout&#34; (Dec. 17), Prime Video's most critically acclaimed current show, returns for its second season. The rare successful adaptation of a popular videogame will see Lucy (Ella Prunell) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) journey across a violent desert wasteland to the postapocalyptic outpost of New Vegas. Season 1 was surprisingly great - a gory but smart, richly developed retro-futuristic reflection of class conflict - and wound up being one of Prime Video's most-watched shows ever. It's well worth checking out.
There are also a pair of original Christmas movies: the documentary &#34;The Merchants of Joy&#34; (Dec. 1), about five New York City families who hustle to sell sidewalk Christmas trees every year, and &#34;Oh What Fun&#34; (Dec. 2), a family comedy starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a frazzled mom who gets &#34;Home Alone&#34;-ed and sets out on her own Christmas adventure. The loaded cast also includes Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz and Denis Leary. Meanwhile, Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox star in &#34;Merv&#34; (Dec. 7), a rom-com movie about a broken-up couple still connected by their dog.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
12-02-25 2238ET

NFLX

<p>In December 2025, Netflix leads the streaming services with the finale of "Stranger Things" and other new releases. Consumers are advised to strategically manage subscriptions to save money, utilizing deals and discounts. Netflix offers a variety of new shows and movies, including "The Abandons," "Emily in Paris," and "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery." The article suggests rating services as "play," "pause," or "stop" to optimize viewing and budget.</p>

- Netflix concludes "Stranger Things" in December, showcasing a strong lineup that reinforces its dominance in the streaming market.  
- The month features various new releases, including "The Abandons," "Emily in Paris," and "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery," while also highlighting strategic subscription management for budget-conscious viewers.  
- Other platforms like Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video offer notable content, including "F1: The Movie" and the return of "Fallout," but Netflix remains the primary choice for viewers seeking extensive options.

Here's what's worth streaming in December 2025 on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and more