Best new shows & films – quick links
AMC+, Shudder, Acorn TV: shows & films
The Holiday – 12 January (Acorn TV & AMC+)
Series. Policewoman Kate (Jill Halfpenny) heads off on an idyllic family holiday to Malta with her husband Sean, teenage daughter Lucy, and her young son Daniel. She is joined by her old university friends Rowan and Jenny, along with their husbands and their cool singleton friend Izzy.
What starts out as a holiday of a lifetime soon turns into a nightmare. A dark secret rears its head, and fears of betrayal soon start to surface. Kate needs to take control of the holiday before things turn completely rotten.
Netflix: shows & films
The Boyfriend Season 2 – 13 January
Get your skates on, Japan’s first-ever same-sex dating show is back with a fresh batch of 10 young men looking for love. In snowy Hokkaido, new friendships and romances unfold as the boys navigate first love, unrequited crushes, and feelings left on ice.
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials – 15 January
Limited Series. It’s never not a good time for a new Agatha Christie adaptation, right? Streaming from January, Netflix has enlisted Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall (Doctor Who) to pen this three-part series inspired by the Queen of Crime’s 1929 novel The Seven Dials Mystery.
When a lavish country house party ends in murder, a witty young aristocrat sets out to solve the mystery in this adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel.
Starring Mia McKenna-Bruce, Edward Bluemel, Martin Freeman, Helena Bonham Carter, Iain Glen, Hughie O’Donnell, Nyasha Hatendi, Alex Macqueen, Nabhaan Rizwan and Corey Mylchreest. Watch the trailer.
Love Through a Prism – 15 January
Series. Premiering exclusively on Netflix, this new Japanese animated series is created by Yoko Kamio (Boys Over Flowers) and follows a young Japanese woman who enrols in a famous art school in early-1900s London, only to be surprised when rivalry with a gifted classmate becomes romance.
Starring Atsumi Tanezaki, Koki Uchiyama and Yuki Kaji. Watch the trailer.
The Rip – 16 January
Film. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck team back up in this brand new crime thriller from writer-director Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin’ Aces). When a team of Miami cops discovers millions in cash inside a rundown stash house, trust frays as everything (and everyone) is called into question.
Starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Scott Adkins, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Nestor Carbonell and Lina Esco. Watch the trailer.
Prime Video: shows & films
Molly Mae: Behind It All Season 2 Part 2 – 16 January
Series. Molly-Mae: Behind It All returns to Prime Video on 16 January with the second instalment of Season 2. Episodes four to six will continue to follow Molly-Mae Hague as she navigates life in the spotlight, offering an intimate look behind the scenes of her world.
Stan: shows & films
Accused Season 2 – 15 January
Series. This crime anthology series puts us on the journey of the defendant. Each episode opens in a courtroom on the accused, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or any other events leading up to the trial.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie – 17 January
Film (2016). Edina and Patsy hide out in the south of France, on the run from the police and media after accidentally knocking Kate Moss into the River Thames. Starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley.
HBO Max: shows & films
Industry Season 4 – 12 January
Series. The critically acclaimed HBO Original drama series returns for its fourth season. Now at the top of their game and living the lives they once chased as Pierpoint graduates, Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) are thrust into a high-stakes, globetrotting cat-and-mouse chase when a headline-grabbing fintech disruptor hits the London scene.
As Yasmin becomes entangled with its charismatic founder Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) and Harper is drawn into the orbit of enigmatic executive Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella), the pressure of money, power, and ambition pushes their complicated friendship into dangerous new territory.
BritBox: shows & films
Call the Midwife Season 15 – 13 January
Series. The much-loved period drama returns with its latest season, bringing viewers back to Nonnatus House in 1971. As the resident nurses and nuns navigate life-and-death medical emergencies with their trademark compassion and courage, the Women’s Liberation movement begins to ripple through their community, and some of the ladies are inspired to take a bold stand of their own. This season tackles a wide range of gripping cases, from premature births and tuberculosis to kidney cancer and slavery.
Starring Jenny Agutter (The Avengers), Linda Bassett (Lark Rise to Candleford), Judy Parfitt (Up the Women), Helen George (Dark Matters), Laura Main (Doctors), Stephen McGann (Casualty), Cliff Parisi (EastEnders), Annabelle Apsion (The Halcyon) and Georgie Glen (Hetty Feather).
The Last Station – 16 January
Film (2009). This moving historical drama chronicles the turbulent final months of Leo Tolstoy’s life, finding the celebrated Russian writer caught between his ideals, his devoted followers, and the fierce love of his wife, Sofya.
Starring Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti, Anne-Marie Duff, Kerry Condon and James McAvoy.
ABC iview: shows & films
The Great Art Fraud – 12 January
Documentary series (2025). Lies, forgeries, manipulation – and fraud worth $86 million. This two-part BBC doco uncovers how Inigo Philbrick deceived the super-rich of the art world and ended up going from paradise to prison.
Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz – 12 January
Documentary (2025). In this new documentary for BBC Two, historian Simon Schama poresents the most personal and unflinching film of his career, confronting the Holocaust as not just a Nazi obsession, but as a European-wide crime of complicity.
The Weekly Season 12 – from 14 January
Series. Charlie Pickering is ready for 2026 as The Weekly returns to take a satirical stab at the news of the week. Look out for a new episode each week.
SBS on Demand: shows & films
The Gone Season 2 – 15 January
Series. This dark and intense Irish mystery drama returns for a gripping second season. Fresh off solving the case of a missing Irish couple, Detective Theo Richter (Richard Flood) is set to leave New Zealand for Ireland when he learns that journalist Aileen Ryan (Carolyn Bracken) has vanished.
Joining forces once again with Māori detective Diana Huia (Acushla-Tara Kupe), Theo dives into a frantic search for Aileen. The pair soon find themselves ensnared in a deadly game with the Goatman, the elusive killer behind the Mountain Murders.
After terrorising the town nearly two decades ago, he has returned and is now more dangerous than ever. Aileen’s disappearance appears linked to her investigation into the town’s infamous Mountain Murders.
Disney+: shows & films
Tell Me Lies Season 3 – 13 January
Series. The third season of this romantic drama follows Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White) as they’ve rekindled their tumultuous romance, just in time for spring semester at Baird College.
While they promise things will be different this time, past indiscretions hinder their best intentions, and Lucy finds herself embroiled in a controversy she wants nothing to do with. Meanwhile, the disastrous repercussions from the previous year also force Lucy and Stephen’s friends to face their own destructive behaviours. As scandalous secrets fester around campus, vicious consequences threaten Lucy and everyone in her circle.
Pole to Pole with Will Smith – 14 January
Series. Inspired by his late mentor to explore life’s big questions, Will Smith throws himself into incredible challenges for 100 days: skiing to the South Pole, catching a giant anaconda, milking a venomous tarantula, climbing mountains, and diving under the ice of the North Pole. He will venture from pole to pole in the company of scientists, explorers and local experts.
Hey A.J.! – 14 January
Children’s Series. This brand-new, high-energy animated series is based on the Hey, A.J. books by the former Super Bowl Champion and children’s book author, Martellus Bennett. The show follows A.J., a curious and extremely imaginative 7-year-old girl. Whether imagining a long car drive is an exciting rocket ride or turning a grocery store line into a dance party, A.J. uses her big imagination to make any situation more fun and exciting.
Binge: shows & films
Ponies Season 1 – 16 January
Series. An eight-part Cold War spy thriller inspired by the tense world of 1970s Moscow. Two ponies – persons of no interest – serve as embassy secretaries until their husbands are mysteriously killed. Thrust into covert service, they become CIA operatives to uncover a sprawling conspiracy. Starring Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus).
Animal Control Season 4 – 16 January
Series. The hit workplace comedy returns with even more animal mayhem. Follow Seattle’s most unpredictable animal control team as they juggle bizarre rescues, workplace dynamics and personal challenges – all while trying to keep the city’s critters (and themselves) under control. Season four kicks off with a special double-episode premiere.
Scared of the Dark Season 1 – 16 January
Series. A high-stakes British celebrity reality series where eight famous faces brave eight days and nights in complete darkness, filmed in a specially constructed bunker. Contestants can opt out at any moment by declaring, ‘I’m scared of the dark’.
