NHL Winter Classic, Sportsnet+
Cam Fowler of the St. Louis Blues scores a goal during the first period against the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2024 NHL Winter Classic.Michael Reaves/Netflix
Hockey fans have been looking forward to the annual Winter Classic since its first iteration in 2008, back when the snowy outdoor matchup used to take place on New Year’s Day. The tradition changed last year when the hockey staple shifted to New Year’s Eve to avoid College Football Playoff competition. This year, the event shifts again to Jan. 2, as last year’s Stanley Cup winners, the Florida Panthers, take on the New York Rangers. The teams will pay homage to history with special retro jerseys while making new history. This event marks the inaugural outdoor NHL game in Florida and the southernmost outdoor matchup in the league’s history. The lack of snow and cold may feel unusual as the teams skate around the manufactured ice at LoanDepot Park (typically home to baseball’s Miami Marlins), but hey, good hockey is good hockey. And with both teams kicking off the new season with less than stellar starts, that’s all fans can hope for.
Run Away, Netflix
A scene from Run Away.Netflix/Supplied
Author Harlan Coben’s impressive multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix continues this week with the anticipated New Year’s Day launch of Run Away, a limited-series adaptation of his 2019 fan-favourite novel of the same name. The eight-episode offering stars James Nesbitt as a desperate father searching for his runaway daughter. Ruth Jones plays the private investigator helping him, until he becomes entangled in a murder case. Minnie Driver, Alfred Enoch and Ellie de Lange also star in the strong cast. It’s another twist-filled take that fits in with similar Coben offerings on the streamer, such as Missing You and Fool Me Once. This time, expect plenty of family dynamics to come into play with strong themes of blood ties and how far people will go to keep secrets within their clans.
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story, Netflix
The dark side of gaming and social media continues to emerge in the documentary space, with horrific stories of individuals such as wellness blogger Belle Gibson faking terminal brain cancer or “Tinder Swindler” Simon Leviev defrauding women of millions of dollars. There’s a special kind of terror that comes from stories involving children though, and this doc is no exception. The film hails from true-crime director Skye Borgman, who points the camera at convicted former Utah counsellor Jodi Hildebrandt and parenting influencer Ruby Franke. Together, these women physically and emotionally abused children, and spread their own brand of “mental fitness” to unsuspecting people. That all blew up in 2023, when Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped to a neighbour’s house. This film follows that story, and explores how these two women were able to spread their messages for so long.
Quest for the Lost Vikings, Super Channel
A still from Quest for the Lost Vikings.Super Channel/Supplied
Vikings have been frequently popularized in pop culture thanks to TV series such as Vikings and the prequel follow-up, Vikings: Valhalla. But, although those projects entertained, they were dramatized iterations of real-life stories. Viewers who are interested in a more historical take of the famous voyagers and the lands they explored should check out this Canadian documentary in the new year. It follows David Collette and Johann Sigurdson, members of the world-famous Explorer’s Club, as they uncover their Viking heritages. Using their connections and years of experience, the duo seek the truth about what could be an inconvenient piece of history and reveal whether the Vikings made it further inland in the Americas than what has been previously documented. How did the Vikings exist on these lands, what are the missing pieces, and where are the uncovered artifacts that tell a deeper story about these people? This project aims to find out.
It: Welcome to Derry (Crave)
A scene from It: Welcome to Derry.Crave/Supplied
With Stranger Things wrapping for good this week, viewers may feel a nostalgic TV void. If that’s the case head over to Crave, where Pennywise the Clown (and all of the other dark It iterations) continue to haunt children. Although the series takes place in 1962 and not the 1980s, there have been a lot of comparisons between the two projects. How could there not be, given that they both revolve around awkward teens and a U.S. government separately trying to destroy a monster? Of course, Stranger Things was also inspired in part by Stephen King’s original story, so comparisons were inevitable. Take note that Welcome to Derry is a darker show that isn’t afraid to kill off main characters before the end, but with the entire first season now streaming it could be the perfect binge to kick of the new year.