Lisa Kudrow makes the best offer in Netflix’s real estate black comedy

With the success of Binge’s The Last of Us and Amazon Prime’s Fallout, video game adaptations are having a moment – gameplay actually can translate into a scripted series. It should be the ideal lead-in to this animation anthology, where each of the 15 episodes uses a famous video game as the inspiration for a story set within that franchise’s realm, but Secret Level is a deeply mixed collection that feels more like a homage than a fresh perspective.

Creator Tim Miller, who directed the first Deadpool movie and, more importantly, oversees the successful Netflix anthology Love, Death & Robots, is the natural choice for this project, but too few of the animation studio and writer pairings he’s assigned stack up. Too often an episode’s visuals ape the style of the game that inspired them, or they duplicate the source’s mechanics. There is a surplus of futuristic fighting and dying.

Keanu Reeves capably voices a mech pilot in Armoured Core: Asset Management, but the fairytale-like story of New World: The Once and Future King, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as thwarted monarch becalmed in time, is the rare engaging story that covers a great deal of ground in its 15 minutes. The welcome, if gore-laden, surprise? Pac-Man: Circle, which transcends its source material and is all the better for it.

NFL on Boxing Day
Netflix

The most popular sport in America, the National Football League delivers burgeoning multibillion-dollar rights deals. Amazon already has a weekly game, but now Netflix has secured a foothold. On Boxing Day it has reigning champions the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Pittsburgh Steelers at 5am, followed by the Houston Texans hosting the Baltimore Ravens at 8.30am. Netflix, which had embarrassing issues with the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul boxing stream, has to establish its live credentials. It’s certainly not sparing any expense in its coverage. The halftime entertainment in Houston is a performance by Beyonce.

Nutcrackers
Disney+

Ben Stiller has spent more time behind the camera than in front of it in recent years, serving as the lead director on Apple TV+’s brain-bending masterpiece Severance (new season January 17!). Unfortunately his return to top billing is this stunted Christmas comedy, where he plays a driven Chicago businessman suddenly forced to care for the orphaned children of his sister. Grieving and comic chaos are an odd mix, especially when you can see where the story is heading. That said, the four real-life Kicklighter brothers playing Stiller’s nephews are natural screen talents.

The Secret Lives of Animals
Apple TV+

Produced with typical care and intimate access by the BBC’s celebrated Natural History Unit, each of the 10 episodes of this animal world documentary series has a theme summed up by the episode’s title. There’s Leaving Home, Protecting Yourself, Finding a Partner and more. The practical effect is that the narrative can skip from one highlight to the next, with the narration from Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville providing the necessary links. It’s a lush, family-friendly nature documentary, warmly watchable, with the years of preparation and filming readily apparent.

Universal Basic Guys
Stan

With the enduring success of The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy, America’s Fox network has long been committed to animated comedies. The mythic mayhem of Krapopolis is the best of their recent launches, but this doofus diversion struggles to shine. Brothers Mark and Hank Hoagies are Jersey factory workers who are put on a universal basic income program when their jobs are replaced by robots. Their pockets are full, but their days – and often brains – are empty. There’s some affection behind the pair’s mishaps, but the episodes remain worryingly slight.