The Pitt to Severance: 11 of the best TV shows to watch this January

From a new medical show starring ER's Noah Wyle to the return of Apple TV+'s dystopian workplace drama, these are the shows to stream this month.

The characters in Harlan Coben's novels are beset by all sorts of problems, usually murder and dark secrets from the past. But their troubles have become a happy success for Netflix, which has turned several Coben books into reliable hit series, including Fool Me Once and Stay Close. In the latest, Rosalind Eleazar (Slow Horses) plays Detective Kat Donovan, whose fiancé, Josh (Ashley Walters from Top Boy) disappeared one day, leaving behind an empty wardrobe and no clue to his whereabouts. Years later, pursuing a different missing persons case, Kat spots Josh's photo on a dating app, and sets out to find the truth. It seems he was up to no good. Although Corben's 2014 book was set in New York, the screen version is set in the UK and was shot in Manchester. Richard Armitage and Lenny Henry co-star.

Missing You premieres 1 January on Netflix internationally

Colin Firth plays the real-life Dr Jim Swire in this potent, fact-based drama about the 1988 disaster in which a bomb exploded on a plane heading from London to New York, killing 270 people when it fell over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. Swire, whose daughter was among the victims, becomes the spokesman for a group trying to find the truth behind the tragedy. The series begins shortly before the flight takes off, but focuses on the aftermath, as Swire spends years relentlessly searching for answers, even visiting Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Eventually, he uses tactics and forms opinions that distance him from the families he set out to represent. The real Swire remains controversial today, refusing to accept the guilty verdict that sent a Libyan intelligence officer to prison for the bombing. Whatever position viewers take on those events, Firth makes Swire's grief real and emotionally wrenching.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth premieres 2 January on Sky in the UK and Peacock in the US

Set in 1857, this Western follows several characters as they head across the US wilderness, and weaves together personal drama, action and culture clashes. Betty Gilpin plays Sara, who is driving her young son in a covered wagon, hoping to meet up with her husband. The man she does meet is Taylor Kitsch as Isaac, who helps her along the journey. The story features soldiers, settlers, Indigenous Americans (a consultant advised on the accuracy of language and costumes) and the Mormon leader Brigham Young (Kim Coates), who has an army of his own. The series – written by Mark L Smith, co-writer of The Revenant, and directed by Peter Berg (Painkiller) – takes the violence of the Old West seriously. Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham), the leader of a fort where the travellers stop, warns them they are facing death from the mountain snows, grizzlies and wolves. And an Indigenous woman asks a white man, "Why do you people have so much hunger to kill?"

American Primeval premieres 9 January on Netflix internationally

This medical drama could have been called ER meets 24. Noah Wyle, whose career took off when he played young Dr John Carter on ER, stars as Dr Michael (known as Robby) Robinavitch, the chief attendant in the trauma section of a Pittsburgh hospital. Each of the show's 15 episodes takes place over a single hour of his day-long 15-hour shift, like Kiefer Sutherland in 24 but without the terror threats. Instead, Robby grapples with medical emergencies, staffing problems and the memory of a mentor's death from Covid during the pandemic. The off-screen drama might match what's on screen. The show is produced by John Wells, who also worked on ER. He and Wyle had discussed an ER sequel featuring an older Dr Carter, but never agreed to terms with the estate of Michael Crichton, that show's creator. Now Crichton's widow is suing, saying that The Pitt simply changed the main character's name and location. Warner Brothers, the studio behind The Pitt, says it is a new and different medical show. The litigation is ongoing. Maybe it could inspire a new legal series? 

The Pitt premieres 9 January on Max in the US

Series created by Dick Wolf – including the behemoths Law and Order, and Law and Order: SVU – are known for being straightforward. But this police show from his production company comes with visual gimmickry, including bodycam and dashcam points of view, along with hand-held cameras. The essence is still true to the formula of a police procedural. Traci Harmon (Troian Bellisario, Pretty Little Liars) is a veteran cop in Long Beach, California, and Alex Diaz (Brandon Larracuente, The Good Doctor) is her rookie partner. Lori Loughlin appears as a police lieutenant, and Eriq La Salle, who also directs several episodes, is a sergeant. Wolf is an executive producer of the show (created by his son, Elliot Wolf, and Tim Walsh), his first streaming series. "Everything old is new again," he told Deadline, pointing to the fact that half-hour programs were once a staple of network television. At that length, he points out, On Call is now perfectly suited to streaming, bingeable in three hours. "It's television popcorn," he said.

On Call premieres 9 January on Amazon Prime Video internationally

This promising drama was written and directed by the first-rate Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose Shoplifters won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2018. Like many of his films, the story centres on family. Four sisters discover that their aging father has been having an affair, and wrestle with the emotional impact of that knowledge while conspiring to keep it from their mother. The sisters' different lives and personalities don't make things easy. One teaches the art of ikebana, or Japanese flower arranging, another is a librarian, one is a traditional stay-at-home wife, and the youngest and most rebellious is a waitress. The show is a reworking of a 1979 Japanese series and a 2003 film, both based on the novel Like Asura by Kuniko Mukoda. Kore-eda has said, "What makes Kuniko Mukoda's dramas so rich are the superficial poison exchanged in conversation and the love hidden behind those cruel words". The word asura refers to a demigod in Buddhism, and by choosing to keep their father's secret, or not, these sisters wield sort-of-godlike powers.

Asura premieres 9 January on Netflix internationally

The celebration of Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary includes a prime-time extravaganza full of celebrity appearances, coming in February, and this four-part documentary, in which each episode goes behind-the-scenes to explore a single aspect of making the show. The installment called Written By covers a week in the writers' room, following the process from start to showtime. Five Minutes looks at SNL auditions. Another is a deep dive into the classic 2000 sketch More Cowbell, with Will Ferrell as a cowbell player and Christopher Walken as the producer in a recording studio who tells the band as only Walken can, "I gotta have more cowbell". And "The Weird Year" is about the 1985-86 season (see picture above). That might not have been the weirdest year ever, but it was The Return of Lorne, as Lorne Michaels came back as the show's producer after five years away, the only gap in his 45-year tenure (so far). This documentary series might be puffy, and it might be fascinating; both things can be true.

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night premieres 16 January on Peacock in the US  

The first season of this acclaimed, mind-bending series ended on a tantalising cliffhanger when the main characters at the mysterious but certainly nefarious Lumon Industries broke through the barrier separating their work life from their outside lives. A reminder: they chose to have a procedure splitting their memories in two. The office self knows nothing of their personal life, while the outside person is unaware of the cult-like control over their workday in Lumon's Macrodata Research Department. What happens now? Will the so-called Innies even remember the jaw-dropping discoveries about their Outie lives? Adam Scott, Britt Lower, John Turturro and Zach Cherry return as the employees we're rooting for, along with Patricia Arquette as their nemesis, and Gwendoline Christie and Bob Balaban among many added to the cast. And as photos reveal, somehow the Macrodata team visits a snowy location outside the office, keeping the show unpredictable.

Severance premieres 17 January on Apple TV+ internationally

Leo Woodall, who played heartthrob Dexter in One Day and grifter Jack in The White Lotus, takes on another entirely different role in this conspiracy thriller. He plays Edward Brooks, a brilliant mathematician whose research in prime numbers may hold the key to cybersecurity around the world. No surprise that someone, or maybe many dark forces, are determined to stop him. Quintessa Swindell (Master Gardener) plays an agent at the US National Security Agency who is assigned to keep an eye on him. They team up to try to discover who is targeting him, and why playing with numbers is putting his life in danger. The amazing cast includes Stephen Rea, David Morrissey, Martha Plimpton, Harry Lloyd and Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen). If the show is as good as the cast, we can even forgive its punning title.

Prime Target premieres 22 January on Apple TV+ internationally

One of the surprise hits of 2023, this thriller returns for a second go-round, with Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland. He started out last time as a low-level FBI agent answering phones at the White House at night, only to engage in some high-voltage action, outsmarting would-be assassins, uncovering a conspiracy inside the US government, and saving the President's life. Now he has joined the secretive Night Agent force, an under-the-radar government operation taking on problems that traditional counterintelligence can't solve. Luciane Buchanan is still in the cast as Rose, the cybersecurity expert who, in season one, became Peter's love interest and partner in conspiracy-solving. Brittany Snow plays Alice, his partner on his next assignment. And Amanda Warren plays Catherine Weaver, who trains new night agents. Netflix has guarded the precise plot details, but we know that the series was shot in Washington DC, New York and Thailand, so Peter gets to travel. 

The Night Agent premieres 23 January on Netflix internationally

Sterling K Brown, Randall in This is Us, and Dan Fogelman, the creator of that series, reunite here. And although the tone and plot couldn't be more different, this jaw-dropping conspiracy thriller recalls This is Us in the way both shows move back and forth between the present and the past, and because both have pilot episodes ending with a shocker that sets up the rest of the series. Brown plays Xavier Collins, once a Secret Service agent assigned to the President (James Marsden). About the only thing Xavier has in common with Randall is that they are both very smart guys. The White House scenes are in flashback, and the present day takes place in a community that looks so sanitised and stereotypically small-town that the sets might have been borrowed from the pseudo-heaven of The Good Place. There are major twists in every episode, but it's no spoiler to say that the series is intense and compelling, and that Julianne Nicholson, as the most powerful woman on Earth, plays wonderfully against her usual good-hearted, down-to-earth type.

Paradise premieres 28 January on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK

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