New this week: ‘Saved by the Bell,’ Miley Cyrus, Melissa McCarthy

Movies

⏩ The Christmas movie, that yuletide evergreen, is subtly changing. “Happiest Season,” which premieres Wednesday on Hulu, has many of the genre’s comforting standards — a homecoming trip, family discord, a secretly planned engagement — but it opens the holiday comedy to a fresh cast of characters, and comes away all the more charming for it.

⏩ “Superintelligence,” too, is a studio film uprooted to a streaming service by the pandemic. The Melissa McCarthy comedy, her latest with director-husband Ben Falcone, had been headed to theaters but will instead debut Thursday on HBO Max. In it, an artificial-intelligence supercomputer voiced by James Corden tasks McCarthy’s unemployed character with saving the world.

⏩ Ironically, the week’s top Netflix release is the one that’s been playing in theaters. After two weeks in select cinemas, Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy” begins streaming Tuesday. The adaptation of J.D. Vance’s much-talkedabout 2016 bestseller hasn’t been a hit with critics, but it’s also a kind of regular feature to the season: a big ‘ol helping of awards bait, with a handful of big performances by elite actors (Glenn Close, Amy Adams).

Music

⏩ Miley Cyrus is ready to rock ‘n’ roll on her new album. The pop star recruited some famous rock stars to help on her seventh studio release “Plastic Hearts,” including Stevie Nicks, Billy Idol and Joan Jett. But pop fans shouldn’t worry too much about Miley’s rock sound, the album — out Friday — also features a collaboration with hitmaker Dua Lipa and includes producers like Mark Ronson and Louis Bell.

⏩ Grammy-winning Chicago-based rockers Smashing Pumpkins will release a double album on Friday. “CYR” features 20 tracks produced by founding member and frontman Billy Corgan. The band’s 11th album

also features founding members James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin as well as guitarist Jeff Schroeder.

Television

⏩ If you like “Bones” and “CSI” but just need more French accents, your best bet is the terrific NOVA special “Saving Notre Dame.” The hour-long PBS documentary airing Wednesday shows the incredible lengths architects, engineers and craftspeople have gone to restore the iconic Paris cathedral stricken by 2019’s fire.

⏩ Can you have a “Saved by the Bell” without Screech? Peacock is hoping fans won’t notice that character’s absence when its sequel to the popular TV series brings back

members of the original cast. . In this sequel kicking off Wednesday, Gosselaar is California governor who has a son at Bayside High, Berkeley is a guidance counselor and Lopez is once again A.C. Slater, now a gym teacher. ⏩ It happens all the time: You wake up next to a dead body in a Bangkok hotel. In the case of HBO Max’s adaptation of “The Flight Attendant,” the comedy and darkness work simultaneously. Kaley Cuoco of “The Big Bang Theory” plays an air hostess with a drinking problem whose looney attempts to cover up her part in the death place her in the crosshairs of the FBI. The first three episodes of the limited series premier Thursday, with the first one free now if you’re willing to give HBO Max your email.

Trae Patton / Associated Press Elizabeth Berkley as Jessica Spano, Mario Lopez as A.C. Slater, Tiffani Thiessen as Kelly Kapowski, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack Morris appear in the reboot of “Saved By the Bell.”