24 Meets The Boys in Netflix Action Comedy Obliterated

Looking for your next binge-watch, or just need to fill an hour? Welcome to Your Weekly Watch List, our curated collection of the best shows on television. Here's what to watch from Sunday, November 26 through Saturday, December 2.

The team behind Cobra Kai transitions into more adult fare this week with Netflix's Obliterated, an R-rated action comedy about an elite (and dysfunctional) military unit. Elsewhere, Hulu adapts Charles Dickens' The Artful Dodger for the small screen, Baz Luhrmann reimagines his 2008 film Australia as a six-episode limited series, and Love Like a K-Drama explores whether fictional romance translates to the real world.

Faraway Downs

Sunday, Hulu (Full Season)

15 years after Australia flopped at the box office, director Baz Luhrmann takes another crack at his love letter to his home country. Faraway Downs, a six-chapter limited series, includes an hour of new footage depicting the sweeping love story of an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman), who travels to Australia to force her husband to sell his cattle station, Faraway Downs, and the cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) hired to transport her there. While the relationship between Kidman and Jackman's characters drives the film, Luhrmann's expanded take focuses more on the story of Nullah (Brandon Walters), an Indigenous child who is taken away from his family due to government policies now referred to as the Stolen Generations.

Faraway Downs also boasts an entirely different ending, one that Luhrmann has said "speaks more directly to the primary theme of the movie." As such, Hulu's limited series offers something for everyone, regardless of whether they're a longtime fan of the director's work (and really, who isn't?) or entirely unfamiliar with the World War II-era drama.

Love Like a K-Drama

Tuesday, Netflix

Does life really imitate art? What about the other way around? Those questions power Netflix's new dating show Love Like a K-Drama, in which four Korean actors and four Japanese actresses pair up in hopes of landing lead roles in romantic short films. Those who form authentic connections in the real world have a better chance of translating those feelings onto the screen (at least, that's the premise; some are better actors than others) which will in turn open up additional opportunities in the K-drama space moving forward. Thus, the personal and professional are intimately linked, creating all sorts of drama in the group's shared apartment as the cast jockeys to develop advantageous partnerships and navigate their jealousies.

Like Hulu's bizarre Love in Fairhope, Love Like a K-Drama skirts the line between artifice and reality, but in this case, Netflix is upfront about it. "This show is an experiment to see what happens when you mix love and acting," explains host Yuko Fueki, a Japanese actress who's popular in South Korea. Whether that experiment is successful remains to be seen — episodes drop in batches every Tuesday through December 26 — but for now, the series stands as an interesting look at all that goes into making K-dramas, both on- and off-camera.

The Artful Dodger

Wednesday, Hulu (Full Season)

If Great Expectations took Charles Dickens' classic work in a gritty direction, Disney's latest adaptation, The Artful Dodger, opts for a lighter touch. A spin-off featuring characters from Oliver Twist, the eight-episode limited series stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen's Gambit) as an older version of the Artful Dodger, the skilled pickpocket who became Oliver's closest friend. 15 years after the events of the novel, Dickens' prince of thieves — now known as Jack Dawkins — has moved to Australia and settled into a career as a talented surgeon, but when his former mentor Fagin (David Thewlis) resurfaces, he's reluctantly lured back into a life of crime.

Further complicating matters is Dawkins' burgeoning relationship with the Governor's daughter Lady Belle (Maia Mitchell), who bucks gender norms by resolving to become the colony's first female surgeon. Brodie-Sangster and Mitchell prove excellent scene partners and their chemistry is apparent from their first meeting, but The Artful Dodger's real heart lies in the relationship between Dawkins and Fagin. Despite their complicated history and constant bickering, Brodie-Sangster and Thewlis bring a warmth to their interactions, lending the period piece a vibrancy that does Dickens' source material justice.

Obliterated

Thursday, Netflix (Full Season)
*Our must-watch pick of the week

Netflix's new action comedy combines the graphic violence and irreverent humor of The Boys with a 24-style storyline about a group of highly-trained operatives who have just a few hours to save the world. When an elite special forces team — led by CIA agent Ava Winters (Shelley Hennig) and Navy SEAL Chad McKnight (Nick Zano) — thwarts a terrorist attack on Las Vegas, they go into party mode and celebrate their victory with a drug-and-alcohol-fueled bender (with some sex thrown in, for good measure).

Halfway through the night, however, they discover that they've been played by the Russian arms dealer they just put behind bars, Ivan Koslov (Costa Ronin), who's prepared to wipe the city off the map unless they let him go by 9:00 AM. With the clock ticking, the American heroes must overcome their intoxication and various personal issues to find the bomb, lest Las Vegas and its citizens be, well, obliterated.

While creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald (who previously collaborated on Cobra Kai) lean into the inherent comedy of watching the agents foil Koslov's plot while incredibly drunk and high, the early-morning deadline gives Obliterated a sense of urgency that carries it through its more ridiculous moments. Add in a love triangle and a terrorist organization with internal conflict of its own and you have a fast-paced thriller that refuses to take itself too seriously, despite the life-or-death situation at its center.

If You Have...

An Hour

Bookie Series Premiere: Thursday, Max
Colin From Accounts Season 1 Finale: Thursday, Paramount+
The Kardashians Season 4 Finale: Thursday, Hulu
The Great British Baking Show Collection 11 Finale: Friday, Netflix
Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder: Saturday, Disney+

An Evening

Slow Horses Season 3 Premiere: Wednesday, Apple TV+
91st Annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center and Christmas at Graceland: Wednesday, 8:00 PM ET on NBC and Peacock
The Golden Bachelor Season 1 Finale: Thursday, 8:00 PM ET on ABC
Virgin River Season 5, Part 2 (Holiday Episodes): Thursday, Netflix
Saturday Night Live: Emma Stone/Noah Kahan: Saturday, 11:30 PM ET on NBC and Peacock

A Full Day

Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife: Wednesday, Netflix
Paris in Love Season 2: Thursday, Peacock

Up Next

Blood Coast: Wednesday, December 6 on Netflix
My Life With the Walter Boys: Thursday, December 7 on Netflix
Culprits: Friday, December 8 on Hulu
Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie: Friday, December 8 on Peacock

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.