5 good streaming shows to watch on Christmas Eve

Our list of good streaming shows to watch on Christmas Eve wouldn’t be complete without For All Mankind.

You might have already noticed this from the shows listed so far:  With the 2019 releases of Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus, there are now even more good streaming shows to watch than ever before.

While Netflix and Hulu continue to get some of the biggest promotion, there’s a very good chance the streaming giants could be in for a major fight. These newer platforms continue to release quality content.

That brings us to one of the most puzzling things to come out of the Apple TV Plus launch: the relative lack of promotion for For All Mankind, at least when compared with other offerings like The Morning Show.

For All Mankind is easily one of the best new streaming shows and dramas overall. The series explores what kinds of changes to the American landscape might have occurred if we had lost the race to put a man on the moon.

And every little change is compelling, especially when juxtaposed with how expertly new societal progress is mixed with what we actually know about the 1960s and 1970s.

The first major breakthrough that comes, and which is the building block for quite a lot of the series’ drama, is NASA’s much-earlier inclusion of female astronauts. But as one might expect, the road for those women and their male counterparts is far from smooth.

The series explores everything from the expected feminist bent, to the toll being isolated in space can take on one’s mental health, to how gay and lesbian Americans are often left out when discussing the concept of “equal rights,” to consequences for a certain war criminal who (in real life) was often able to bury his Nazi past—even with the help of the U.S. government.

(And this is where I give you, dear readers, the warning that I did not go into this series with: For All Mankind Season 1, Episode 2 contains some graphic images of those worked to death at Mittelwerk.)

So, yeah. It’s not a Christmas show, and there isn’t really a true “Christmas” episode (although, the holiday certainly plays a backdrop in a couple of scenes if you can spot the decorations). But For All Mankind deserves to be on our list of good streaming shows to watch on Christmas Eve—or any day, really.

Give yourself the gift of great TV this holiday season. You know you want to. Which streaming shows do you plan to watch on Christmas Eve? Let us know in the comments!