Merry Christmas and welcome to day one of T3's 12 Days of Streaming. That's right: from Christmas Day through to the Twelfth Night we'll be bringing you the daily must-watch movie comings and goings from the best streaming services. But not specifically the best Christmas movies, simply great films in their own right that you'll want to put on your watchlist.
First up, it's a classic trilogy starring Renee Zellweger, who stunned audiences with her English accent when playing Bridget Jones in the 2001 original, Bridget Jones's Diary, based on the classic novel by Helen Fielding. It's the flick your mum loves, your nan loves, that you secretly love. But it's Bridget Jones's Departure, as the movie is set to leave Netflix on 31 December, before 2024 kicks off.
It's not just the one movie up for the chop either: the full trilogy, meaning sequels Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), will also leave your streaming roster this New Year's Eve. So Hugh Grant and Colin firth fans – and look just how young and fetching the chaps look in the below gallery – best get their fix before 2024 rings in.
The sequels may not have been Oscar-nominated like the original, but Zellweger continues to bring the comedy thick and fast in each. These are movies of an era, British classics that'll make you chuckle, and given that the original Bridget Jones movie is now 22 years old it's the perfect time for either your first watch or an almost nostalgic re-watch.
Reception to each of the movies certainly varied: the original Bridget Jones's Diary landed a respectable 81% Rotten Tomatoes score (with audiences roughly agreeing with the critics), whereas the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason landed a much less reasonable 27% on Rotten Tomatoes (fans largely disagree, though, awarding 60% instead), while the finale Bridget Jones's Baby pulled out the stops with a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 78%. Quite the rollercoaster of emotion.
If you miss your chance then I'm sure we'll see Bridget come back, plus Netflix has stacks of new shows planned for 2024, including 10 of the best Netflix shows you'll want to watch. While there had previously been a lot of talk about cancelling Netflix to save money – especially as the prices went up again again – there's now simply so much on the streaming service that it's almost impossible not to subscribe. And if Bridget isn't your cup of tea, so to speak, then we'll be bringing you plenty more movie greats over the next 11 days in T3's T3's 12 Days of Streaming – so stay tuned!
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Mike is T3's Tech Editor. He's been writing about consumer technology for 15 years and his beat covers phones – of which he's seen hundreds of handsets over the years – laptops, gaming, TV & audio, and more. There's little consumer tech he's not had a hand at trying, and with extensive commissioning and editing experience, he knows the industry inside out. As the former Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint for 10 years where he furthered his knowledge and expertise, whilst writing about literally thousands of products, he's also provided work for publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Metro, and more.
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