January is the month streaming services play comfort and spectacle at once. Tom’s Guide calls it a reset button: clean slates, glossy escapism and prestige dramas designed to get people talking again, with awards season creeping closer. Returning favorites and new obsessions land within weeks of each other, and HBO finally brings back Game of Thrones after a year without it.
We picked eight releases from the guides at Tom’s Guide, TVLine, Boston.com and Rotten Tomatoes, in release order. Dates are U.S.
The Pitt Season 2 (HBO Max, Jan. 8): back to the E.R.
Tom’s Guide says the hospital drama returns on Jan. 8 at 9 p.m. ET with Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby and Katherine LaNasa’s Dana Evans, and jumps ahead to Fourth of July weekend, where a cyberattack on a nearby hospital sends a flood of patients to Pittsburgh Trauma Medical. Same real-time, tension-building format, a new holiday-weekend pile-up. (We followed it to the Globes, where it won Best Drama Series.)
The Night Manager Season 2 (Prime Video, Jan. 11)
A decade after the first series, Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine is back under an alias, running quiet MI6 surveillance and pretending the past stayed buried, Tom’s Guide writes. One familiar face drags him back into a new arms-running mess, this time centered on a Colombian power broker played by Diego Calva, with Olivia Colman’s Angela Burr nudging him toward danger. Tom’s Guide’s summary of the past staying buried is blunt:
Spoiler: It doesn’t.
Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Guide
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Paramount+, Jan. 15)
The latest Star Trek series jumps to the 32nd century to follow the first class of cadets in more than a century as they train aboard the USS Athena, with Holly Hunter running the Academy and Stephen Colbert as a digital dean. Tom’s Guide says it skews younger, messier and more emotional, like a teen drama set in space.
The Rip (Netflix, Jan. 16): Damon and Affleck, back on the same side
Joe Carnahan’s Miami cop thriller reunites Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as members of a police unit who discover millions of dollars in an abandoned stash house. Word of the haul spreads, suspicions flare inside the team and outside forces circle. Tom’s Guide is sold after one trailer:
after seeing the first trailer, I’m completely on board with its dark and unexpectedly action-packed vibe.
Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Guide
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max, Jan. 18): Westeros, smaller
HBO’s new Game of Thrones spinoff comes a century before the original and follows the naïve but courageous Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his small squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), through the first of George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, “The Hedge Knight.” It’s a six-episode season. Tom’s Guide’s case for it:
a slice of smaller-scale, on-the-ground drama from George R.R. Martin’s fantasy realm.
Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Guide
The Beauty (FX and Hulu, Jan. 21)
Ryan Murphy and Evan Peters reunite, this time on a sci-fi body-horror series based on a comic by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley. Tom’s Guide says the 11-episode season starts with three episodes on Jan. 21 and sees the world of high fashion turn dark when international supermodels start dying in gruesome ways. Rebecca Hall, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope and Ashton Kutcher are in the cast.
Wonder Man (Disney+, Jan. 27)
Marvel’s next series is, per Disney, a “story about filmmaking and ambition.” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Simon Williams, an aspiring actor with powers of his own, who bonds with Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley), the fake Mandarin from Iron Man 3, while both chase roles in a remake of the superhero movie Wonder Man. It arrives as an eight-episode binge, TVLine says.
Bridgerton Season 4 (Netflix, Jan. 29): Benedict’s Cinderella story
The Regency romance’s spotlight moves to the bohemian second son, Benedict (Luke Thompson), and Julia Quinn’s An Offer from a Gentleman. Tom’s Guide describes a mix of Cinderella and Downton Abbey: Benedict falls for a mysterious Lady in Silver at a masquerade ball, who is secretly a housemaid named Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha). The season runs in two parts, with the second half arriving in February.
Also this month
The Traitors returns for Season 4 on Peacock on Jan. 8, with Alan Cumming back as host, and Industry Season 4 starts on HBO on Jan. 11. Netflix has the Agatha Christie adaptation Seven Dials on Jan. 15 and the Emily Henry romantic comedy People We Meet on Vacation, while Boston.com notes If I Had Legs I’d Kick You arrives on HBO Max on Jan. 30. The awards-season calendar begins with the Golden Globes, and we’ll have the Oscar nominations on Jan. 22.
- Premieres
- *The Pitt* S2 (Jan. 8), *The Night Manager* S2 (Jan. 11), *Starfleet Academy* (Jan. 15), *The Rip* (Jan. 16), *A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms* (Jan. 18), *The Beauty* (Jan. 21), *Wonder Man* (Jan. 27), *Bridgerton* S4 (Jan. 29)
- Awards season
- Golden Globes (Jan. 11) and Oscar nominations (Jan. 22)
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
