New on Netflix Dec 16-22: our streaming expert picks 5 can't-miss movies and shows

It's a big time of the year for Netflix, with lots of its big-budget or award-baiting movies and TV shows set to come out over the next few weeks, and we're going to make sure you don't miss anything that's worth watching.

Each week we look through Netflix's release calendar to see what's on and what you need to catch, and you'll probably recognize a good few things on this week's list from all the adverts the streamer has been releasing for them.

This week, the What to Watch streaming writer (that's me) has selected 5 new releases between Saturday, December 16 and Friday, December 22 that people are sure to be talking about. Make sure you don't miss them!

So let's take a peek at the upcoming week for Netflix.

Trevor Noah: Where Was I

• Type: stand-up comedy | Releases: Tuesday, December 19 | For fans of: stand-up, The Daily Show

We're starting with a stand-up special, with Trevor Noah hopefully bringing us some laughs before the darker and more dramatic picks further into the week.

Where Was I is Noah's fourth stand-up special on Netflix after Afraid of the Dark, Son of Patricia and the award-winning I Wish You Would, with the South African comic and TV host now turning his attention to travel. Noah talks about his recent travels around the world with witty observations about people, cultures and the world we live in.

This is a shorter stand-up at just an hour and eight minutes long.

Maestro

• Type: movie | Releases: Wednesday, December 20 | For fans of: Oscar movies, music, Leonard Bernstein

One of the several Netflix movies getting some Oscar buzz is Maestro, with director/writer/producer/star Bradley Cooper using it to make his most determined awards push yet.

Maestro is a biopic of conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, centered around his relationship with his wife Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (portrayed by Carey Mulligan).

You might know Bernstein through writing the musical West Side Story, and he also did the music for On The Waterfront, Wonderful Town and On The Town, composed lots of classical music, and conducted major orchestras.

Whether or not you're a fan of Bernstein's work, though, this could be one of the big Oscar nominees that everyone will talk about for months to come.

Like Flowers in Sand

• Type: TV show | Releases: Thursday, December 21 | For fans of: Korean dramas, rom-coms

Netflix has been releasing Korean network dramas outside of the country to some success, with recent entry to this list Welcome to Samdal-Ri quickly jumping onto Netflix's global top 10 list for non-English TV after it landed.

Like Flowers in Sand is about Kim Baek-doo, a young man who plays ssireum, a traditional type of wrestling. He's on the verge of quitting when his childhood friend Oh Yoo-kyung comes back into his life. She becomes his manager (and maybe more), and precedes a whole host of quirky characters also entering his life who set it on a new path.

This looks to be a fun, light-hearted and cute watch, and based on precedent, it could do quite well for Netflix.

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire

• Type: movie | Releases: Friday, December 22 | For fans of: sci-fi epics, action, Star Wars

Director Zack Snyder originally pitched Rebel Moon to Disney as a new Star Wars movie, and when rejected, turned it into its own project for Netflix. That probably tells you who this movie is for: it's a sci-fi action epic full of intergalactic intrigue, spaceship fights and mysterious characters.

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (tongue-twister name aside) is about a war on a small farming planet. When the tyrannical galactic seat of Motherworld finds that farmers on the quiet farming moon of Veldt have been supplying crops to rebels, it sets out to destroy the place. A mysterious stranger living there, who wants to defend her new home, assembles a rag-tag team of fighters who'll help her protect the place. This is the first movie in a two-parter.

Netflix has been making a song and dance about Rebel Moon for years now, and it's arguably the streamer's biggest release of 2023. So let's all tune in to see if it's any good or not.

Gyeongseong Creature

• Type: TV show | Releases: Friday, December 22 | For fans of: horror, Guillermo del Toro, Korean shows

Another big-budget much-publicized Netflix original is here, this time a horror show from Korea. Gyeongseong Creature is the final Korean genre show that Netflix is releasing in 2023, though technically the last few episodes will be released in early January.

Gyeongseong Creature is set during the Second World War, when Japan occupied Korea (also the setting of the recent Netflix Korean action show Song of the Bandits). Two young adults in the city find their paths cross... in the creepy Ongseong Hospital, an institution that's shrouded in mystery, with a monster hiding in the shadows.

While Netflix has done a fair amount of publicity about this show, there's a lot of mystery about it too, especially regarding the titular creature. Seven of the ten episodes will land on Friday, but the last three come a week later.