A year is an awfully long time in streaming television. Just 12 months ago in this newsletter I was spotlighting the likes of Netflix’s Boy Swallows Universe, Binge’s True Detective: Night Country, and Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air. With hindsight, that’s two solid successes and a serious bomb. My point is, it’s quite difficult to pick the series that will stand out in the year ahead. Two years ago in this newsletter, I was cautiously curious about Binge’s video game adaptation The Last of Us. It went on to deliver.
So I don’t have grand predictions to make for 2025’s rosters. There are too many streaming shows being released, and all I can hope for is to pick out as many worthy ones as possible. January is set up nicely because it’s increasingly becoming a month where some services take a risk. Netflix’s Western, American Primeval, which leaves the ground in the then Utah Territory covered in bodies, is going to test audiences, while Apple is finally rewarding patient fans of the brain-bending Severance with a new season.
While the big picture slowly takes shape, please don’t forget to let us know what series you’ve found that slipped by me. Streaming television has changed shape every year it’s been around, but the fundamental need stays the same: we all want to watch the best shows. Let’s do our best in 2025.
Netflix
My top Netflix recommendation is American Primeval (January 9).
Giving off serious Cormac McCarthy vibes, this grim, blood-soaked western paints the forging of modern America as an apocalyptic struggle for survival. Set in 1857, it stars Betty Gilpin (Mrs Davis) as a woman searching for her missing husband on the chaotic frontier, with Taylor Kitsch (The Terminal List) as the guide trying to keep her alive. Combatants include the US Army, Native American tribes, zealot Mormon founders, and sundry killers. The director is Peter Berg, the veteran filmmaker who delivered Painkiller for Netflix in 2023, while the writer is Mark L. Smith, whose credit on the Academy Award-winning The Revenant is a further indicator that this is not chill summer viewing.
Also on Netflix: Philomena Cunk, a British television host so ill-informed that you worry for the sanity of her esteemed guests, is back. Cunk on Life (January 2) finds the star of the 2022 cult hit Cunk on Earth returning to ponder the mysteries of human existence: faith, art, philosophy and the 1980s classic Pump up the Jam. The peerless Diane Morgan returns as Cunk, with creator Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror) finding further world-renowned experts – some of whom know this is satire, and some who definitely don’t – to expose to her daft logic and questionable research. Comprising a single 70-minute episode, it’s a quick watch.
One of my best finds in 2023 was The Makanai, a terrifically intimate and empathetic Japanese series about two young women leaving home to become apprentices in a modern-day geisha house. It was created by the revered filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, a Cannes Film Festival winner in 2018 for the sublime Shoplifters. Kore-eda returns to streaming with Asura (January 9), a family drama set in the 1970s about four sisters who begin to suspect that their ageing father is having an affair. Definitely consider taking a chance on this one.
December Highlights: Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw spilled some blood in the spy thriller Black Doves, One Hundred Years of Solitude brought a literary classic to streaming life, The Madness was a timely political thriller, and Lisa Kudrow was the standout in the black comedy No Good Deed.
Binge
My top Binge recommendation is The Pitt (January 9).
It’s ER meets 24. Each of the 15 episodes in this American emergency room drama depicts a single hour in a demanding day-long shift at the fictional Pittsburgh Medical Trauma Hospital. We’re talking non-stop ambulances, a chaotic waiting room, mordant humour as a coping mechanism, student doctors thrown in at the deep end, and seen-it-all nurses. The ER lineage is made formal by the presence of Noah Wyle, who made his name on the 1990s hit as medical student John Carter, here starring as veteran doctor ‘Robby’ Rabinovitch, who is trying to hold himself together as a stressful day tests his under-resourced team. Bring me my remote and couch snack, stat!
Also on Binge: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) gives a commanding performance as a father driven to obsessive ends after his daughter’s tragic death during a terrorist attack in Lockerbie: A Search for Truth (January 2). Based on historic events, this British drama begins with the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, where a bomb exploded on an American passenger jet while it was flying above Scotland, resulting in 270 deaths. The limited series is adapted from a book written by Dr Jim Swire, a campaigner whose quest for answers about his daughter’s death brought him into conflict with his own government, the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi, and the families of other victims. It’s a fraught, sombre tale, one where the answers are rarely complete or wholly satisfying.
December Highlights: Laid was a deliciously sharp American remake of the Australian black comedy about a woman with a unique boyfriend problem, while How to Make Gravy skilfully expanded Paul Kelly’s Christmas anthem.
Apple TV+
My top Apple TV+ recommendation is Severance (January 17).
Few second seasons have been more eagerly awaited than the return of this acclaimed dystopian workplace drama. Loaded not just with science-fiction concepts brought into cubicle culture, but also a heartfelt reckoning with loss and longing, the mystery of a group of employees at a cult-like corporation who’ve agreed to have chips inserted in their brains, forcing them to lead two separate lives with distinct personalities when they’re working and not working, created more questions than it answered. It’s not quite three years since the first season became the “have you seen?” show of the moment, and all involved have returned: rookie creator Dan Erickson, lead director Ben Stiller, and stars Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Patricia Arquette (High Desert), and John Turturro (The Night Of). The episodes are weekly, so let’s get those theories going.
Also on Apple TV+: Them mathematicians are always adding up the wrong numbers. Prime Target (January 22) is a national security thriller about a maths prodigy, Edward Brook (Leo Woodall, One Day), whose research into prime numbers suggests he might be able to crack any computer in existence. Unsurprisingly, this makes him a target, with NSA agent Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell, Black Adam) charged with keeping him alive. Crazy call, but do you think there could be some romantic attraction? This strikes me as more of a Netflix series, adjacent to The Night Agent, so I will be curious to see if Apple TV+ can pull off a genre piece without their usual drawcard of multiple Hollywood movie stars.
December Highlights: Saoirse Ronan headlined the London under siege World War II drama Blitz, The Secret Lives of Animals was the BBC’s Natural History Unit doing their thing, and Fly Me to the Moon made a case for movie stars and romantic-comedies.
Stan*
My top Stan recommendation is Black Snow (January 1).
Having just finished up a most entertaining enigma in the first season of Dune: Prophecy, Australian actor Travis Fimmel comes back to Earth with a second season of this Australian crime drama. Fimmel is Detective James Cormack, a Queensland police officer who specialises in cold-case investigations and trying to help others instead of saving himself. The new season retains the then-and-now perspectives of the first instalment, with the setting moved from the state’s far north to the Sunshine Coast hinterland as Cormack looks for a young woman who disappeared following her own 21st birthday party in 2003. Watch for Kat Stewart (Five Bedrooms) and Dan Spielman (Stateless) in the new supporting cast.
Also on Stan: Australian writer Kris Mrksa, who made his name here with episodes of The Slap and Janet King, continues to build his profile in Britain, following up Requiem and White House Farm with his latest creation, Protection (January 10). The crime drama features Siobhan Finneran (Happy Valley) as Detective Inspector Liz Nyles, whose assignment running a secrecy-bound witness protection program comes unstuck when a safe house with her latest subject and his family inside is attacked. Added complication: the police officer she’s been having an affair with, who doesn’t work in witness protection, is found unconscious at the crime scene. Expect many repercussions, professional and personal, in a tidy six episodes.
December Highlights: The fifth and final season of Australian comic drama Bump saw the series end on a deeply satisfying note, plus dystopian devotees got a different take on the end of the world in Earth Abides.
Amazon Prime
My top Amazon Prime recommendation is You’re Cordially Invited (January 30).
Comic chemistry is as much an art as a science. Celebs making each other laugh on the red carpet doesn’t mean an audience will do likewise. Sometimes you just have to put two stars together and see what happens. That’s the case with this American wedding comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, where a double booking at a resort leads to an escalating rivalry between the wedding planner sister (Witherspoon) of one bride-to-be, and the father (Ferrell) of the other. Making it work is writer and director Nicholas Stoller, who has runs on the board with Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bad Neighbours and Platonic. He made Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen a grand team, so Witherspoon and Ferrell are in experienced hands.
Also on Amazon Prime: On Call (January 9) is aiming to update the police-on-patrol procedural with this Los Angeles-set drama about a pair of Long Beach Police Department officers sharing a squad car: hard-charging Officer Traci Harmon (Troian Bellisario, Pretty Little Liars) and newly graduated rookie Officer Alex Diaz (Brandon Larracuente, The Good Doctor). Creators Tim Walsh and Elliot Wolf (son of Law & Order creator Dick Wolf) both have procedural backgrounds, but the trailer suggests a more frenetic visual style leaning into handheld camerawork, bodycam and dash-cam footage. Given the history of LA policing, the show will have some intriguing storytelling choices to make.
December Highlights: Keanu Reeves and Arnold Schwarzenegger featured in the voice cast for the video game anthology Secret Level, while Canadian caper The Sticky was a mix of the Coen brothers and maple syrup.
Disney+
My top Disney+ recommendation is High Potential (January 23).
I’ve been so keen to see this new hit American series that I recently tracked down and reviewed the French series it’s based on (High Intellectual Potential on AMC+; it’s well worth a look). In the Los Angeles-set remake, Kaitlin Olson (Hacks) plays Morgan Gillory, a single mother of three and night-shift cleaner at LAPD headquarters who accidentally glances at some crime photos and immediately finds a slew of missed clues, much to the disbelief of the investigating officers. The unconventional Morgan has a problem with authority, but an IQ of 160 – she agrees to work as a consultant, but only if the police help her find someone from her past. She’s Sherlock Holmes in trackie pants, with a new case to crack every episode.
Also on Disney+: If you’ve been missing a show with a handsome but suspect US president since Scandal concluded, Paradise (January 28) is here to scratch your itch. James Marsden (Dead Like Me) plays former US president Cal Bradford (no age issues with this POTUS), whose retirement is overtaken by a shocking scandal. That puts immense pressure on the head of his Secret Service security detail, Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us, American Fiction), who must unravel the underlying conspiracy before he takes the rap for it. Brown is a top-tier talent – he’s long deserved a headline role.
December Highlights: Star Wars rediscovered adventure and child-like wonder with Skeleton Crew, and there was plenty for music fans with the documentaries Beatles ’64 and Elton John: Never Too Late.
Iview
My top iview recommendation is Optics (January 29).
Turns out the Stan comedy Nugget is Dead – A Christmas Story is just the start for The Feed graduates Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst. The acerbic duo, along with The Chaser’s Charles Firth, have also created this six-part comedy about a pair of ambitious 20-something employees at a crisis management PR firm. When the company’s veteran founder dies, Owen and Zerbst’s young guns are unexpectedly put in charge, much to the chagrin of the founder’s son (Firth). The two are soon putting out satirically fuelled fires for celebs, sports stars and CEOs, but they’re also suspicious that they may have been elevated to serve as scapegoats for the firm’s next setback.
December Highlights: Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville set off all kinds of contemporary chaos in the black comedy Douglas is Cancelled.
SBS on Demand
My top SBS on Demand recommendation is Homicide: Life on the Street (January 16).
This is essential television history. Airing on American network television between 1993 and 1999 to average ratings but critical acclaim, Homicide: Life on the Street was one of the most influential television series of the decade. The story of a group of Baltimore homicide detectives, most notably Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as the driven Frank Pembleton, it presaged “prestige” TV and brought to television Baltimore journalist David Simon, whose non-fiction book the show was adapted from. Simon would go on to create The Wire. Until recently Homicide was unavailable for streaming, but now the formatting and music rights have been sorted, allowing a major failing to be rectified. SBS on Demand is platforming all seven seasons – starting with the first three on January 16 – and the concluding movie in the next two months.
December Highlights: A marooned divorced dad and his pregnant daughter tried to get their lives into shape in the terrific British comedy Daddy Issues, plus the game show Jimmy Carr’s I Literally Just Told You.
Other Streamers
My top recommendation for the other streaming services is 7plus’ Ludwig (January 29).
Here’s another engaging take on the case-of-the-week detective mystery. In this British series, which has already been renewed for a second season, David Mitchell (Peep Show) plays John Taylor, a reclusive puzzle maker with terrifyingly awkward social skills. John’s solitary life is upended when his sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin, A Spy Among Friends), tells him that his identical twin brother, senior Cambridge police detective James, has gone missing. Lucy convinces John to impersonate James, so they can find out what was happening in his work, but when John poses as his brother he stumbles into an active murder investigation, and uses his puzzle-based skills to solve it. The accidental copper is soon on call while trying to covertly crack the clues his brother left behind.
Also: AMC+ has one of the best shows you aren’t watching with its sinuous adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire novels. It was the first part of a major investment the streaming service made in the novels of the horror author. AMC+’s next piece is Mayfair Witches (January 5), which returns for a second season after a mixed debut two years ago. Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus) headlines the show as Rowan Fielding, a San Francisco neurosurgeon who discovers that she is heiress to a powerful dynasty of New Orleans witches. Given the source material is from Rice, it’s no surprise that wild supernatural stuff happens non-stop, but the first season didn’t gel. This is the show’s chance to correct course.
December Highlights: Michael Fassbender was a suitably haunted spy in Paramount+’s covert drama The Agency, 7plus gave a second chance to the private eye drama Terriers, while AMC+’s High Intellectual Potential was a droll French crime procedural with an unusual lead detective.
* Nine is the owner of Stan and this masthead.
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