As a television critic, I don’t have time for decision fatigue when it comes to streaming. If I finish watching something, I always have at least three more options on my shortlist. But it’s a real issue, especially with the growing amount of choice you’re faced with every time you pick up the remote.

However, I still believe in the value of a good recommendation, which is where this monthly preview comes in. We have a promising month – and year – ahead of us. Let’s get to it.

Jon Bernthal as Detective Jack Harper and Tessa Thompson as Anna in His & Hers.

Netflix

My top Netflix recommendation is His & Hers (January 8).

Expect some thorny exchanges in this contemporary mystery, which asks just what we truly know about the person we’re supposedly closest to. Jon Bernthal (The Bear) and Tessa Thompson (Annihilation) star as Jack and Anna, a police detective and a television reporter who are married but separated. When a high-profile murder occurs, both are assigned to the case, forcing them into uncomfortable proximity and a mutual suspicion that the other was involved. It’s an American series, developed by the British filmmaker William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth), and if the leads have chemistry, it should be charged.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in The Rip.

Also on Netflix: Best friends and Good Will Hunting graduates Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reunite on screen for The Rip (January 16). Written and directed by Joe Carnahan (The Grey), the action-thriller has the duo playing Miami police officers whose kick-in-the-door squad unexpectedly finds a fortune in drug trade cash and starts to melt down as temptation and outside threats kick in. Right back to 2002’s Narc, Carnahan has excelled at depicting compromised cops, and the supporting cast is filled out with first-rate actors such as Steven Yeun (Beef) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another).

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The Agatha Christie mystery-industrial complex kicks off the year with the three-part period thriller Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (January 15). The perennially popular author’s 1929 novel has been adapted by Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch, Doctor Who). A suspicious death at a large country estate is the starting point for a wide-ranging investigation that pinballs between Superintendent Battle (Martin Freeman, Sherlock) and determined amateur detective Lady Bundle Brent (Mia McKenna-Bruce, Vampire Academy). Prominent among the posh suspects is Lady Caterham (Helena Bonham Carter, Nolly), while the menacing clockwork tone of the trailer is quite Knives Out.

December highlights: Stranger Things went full blockbuster for its final season, Last Samurai Standing reinvented 19th-century Japan, Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson couldn’t revive the western in The Abandons, but Brockmire was a fun back-catalogue addition.

Haley Lu Richardson (left) and Emilia Clarke in Ponies.

Binge

My top Binge recommendation is Ponies (January 16).

In espionage parlance, a PONY is a person of no interest. That’s the KGB designation Bea (Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson, The White Lotus) live under in 1977 Moscow, where their husbands are undercover CIA agents at the American embassy, but they casually wander the city. When the men disappear on a covert mission, the women have to spring into action to get some Cold War answers, galvanising a comic-thriller in which they discover just as much about their capabilities as they do the schemes of their Soviet hosts.

George Mason as Brenden Abbott in Run.

Also on Binge: How do you best depict a headline-making criminal from a previous era? That’s the question Run (January 1) grapples with in recreating the life and crimes of Brenden Abbott, the charismatic Perth armed robber who hit about 50 banks across the country in the 1980s and 1990s, punctuated by a pair of audacious escapes from high-security jails. With George Mason (The Survivors) as Abbott and Keiynan Lonsdale (Swift Street) as his dogged police pursuer, this six-part series digs into Abbott’s psychology, relationships and willingness to traumatise others for his next payday.

December highlights: Forty years after Amadeus swept the Academy Awards, a sharp new take made classical music and deadly jealousy contemporary.

Rebecca Hall and Evan Peters in The Beauty.

Disney+

My top Disney+ recommendation is The Beauty (January 22).

The latest Substance-friendly concoction from American Horror Story and All’s Fair creator Ryan Murphy is this beautiful-people-go-body-horror comic book adaptation about a mysterious drug that transforms recipients into physical perfection, only for the world’s supermodels to start dying in particularly gruesome ways. Pursuing answers across Europe are a pair of FBI agents, Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters, Dahmer) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall, The Town), a cosmetics mogul (Ashton Kutcher, The Ranch) and a deformed assassin (Anthony Ramos, Twisters). There’s a chance this could be the best show releasing in January, but it will almost certainly be the wildest.

Yahya Adbul-Mateen II in Wonder Man.

Also on Disney+: Is Marvel embracing meta-commentary? Wonder Man (January 28) is a superhero satire about a struggling Hollywood actor, Simon Williams (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II, Aquaman), desperate to win a role in Wonder Man, a remake of an old comic book blockbuster. But when Simon starts to develop genuine superpowers, the process is derailed and the real superheroes get annoyed. Co-creator Deston Daniel Cretton has previously made a genuinely good Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and for added dissonance Ben Kingsley returns as Trevor Slattery, a repentant actor who has popped up previously in Marvel fare such as Iron Man 3.

December highlights: Genuinely heartfelt and informative, Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip To Remember showed the Australian star – and his father – in unexpected ways.

Peter Claffey in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

HBO Max

My top HBO Max recommendation is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (January 19).

A recurring theme this month is ageing franchises trying something offbeat with their latest offering. I like it! In this case, it’s the fantasy realm premiered by Game of Thrones. The 2010s blockbuster has already been followed by one lacklustre prequel, House of the Dragon, so the latest off-shoot from the writings of George R.R. Martin is a succinct adventure in the kingdom of Westeros. While the familiar house names feature – Targaryen! Baratheon! – the focus is a naive young knight, Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), who is ignored by all bar his chirpy young squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). More humour, a genuine sense of place, and no wartime plotting. It’s a welcome change of pace.

Noah Wyle, Irene Choi and Fiona Dourif in The Pitt.

Also on HBO Max: Paging, Dr Robby! Virtually a year to the day since it debuted to considerable acclaim, The Pitt (January 9) returns. The medical drama, which documents a single gruelling shift in a Pittsburgh hospital’s emergency ward hour by hour per episode, was one of 2025’s breakthrough hits, updating ER for the 21st century and introducing the hospital procedural to a new audience. The new instalment unfolds 10 months after the first, on a hectic Fourth of July weekend, and brings back the main cast, starting with Noah Wyle as Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the department’s harried senior attending physician. One officially revealed season two plot line? A seriously ill baby.

December highlights: There’s good reason why the gay romance Heated Rivalry left the internet in a frenzy, Common Side Effects was the animated conspiracy thriller you didn’t know was essential viewing, and The Family McMullen updated a 1990s cornerstone.

Khisraw Jones-Shukoor and Brooke Satchwell in Dear Life.  

Stan*

My top Stan recommendation is Dear Life (January 1).

Brooke Satchwell has been a regular on Australian screens for 30 years – she debuted on Neighbours as a teenager in 1996 – and she marks that anniversary with a career-best performance in this sharp-edged comic-drama about grief, redemption, and acceptance. Barely functional after the senseless death of her doctor fiance in an emergency room incident, Lillian (Satchwell) discovers her partner was an organ donor, and the recipients whose lives were saved are starting to pass on their gratitude. The humour is tough, and the pain unrelenting, in a series created by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope, whose extensive credits include Upper Middle Bogan and Little Lunch.

December highlights: Will Forte and D’arcy Carden were tops together as American siblings getting into way too much Sydney trouble in the comedy Sunny Nights.

Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager.

Amazon Prime Video

My top Amazon Prime Video recommendation is The Night Manager (January 11).

The year 2016 was a lifetime ago in streaming era terms, but some things don’t change: a British spy thriller with a handsome leading man (Tom Hiddleston) and an impeccable literary heritage (John le Carre) is always going to attract an audience. So a decade on, we’re getting a second season (with the third commissioned) of The Night Manager, in which Marvel star Hiddleston returns as the reluctant MI6 operative Jonathan Pine. The focus is once again on the illegal international arms trade, but the setting moves from the Middle East to Colombia. Another familiar face is Olivia Colman (The Favourite), who returns as Pine’s dedicated, if not entirely trustworthy, supervisor, Angela Burr.

Also on Amazon Prime Video: Another Game of Thrones star headlining a new series this month is Sophie Turner, with the one-time Sansa Stark starring in the heist thriller Steal (January 21). The six-episode British production is set at the London offices of a British pension fund’s investment arm, which are taken over by a gang of armed thieves who start issuing detailed transaction instructions to clerks and best friends Zara (Turner) and Luke (Archie Madekwe). The pair have to stay alive as the police circle and figure out what their captors’ plan is. If there’s a Die Hard echo to it, then fingers crossed the show has a villain as memorable as Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber.

December highlights: Season two of Fallout kept the post-apocalyptic weirdness at 10 and added a mutant buddy comedy.

Idris Elba in Hijack.

Apple TV

My top Apple TV recommendation is Hijack (January 14).

It really is a case of planes, trains and (potentially) automobiles for this white-knuckle hijacking thriller. In season one, corporate fixer Sam Nelson (Idris Elba, The Wire) was on a Dubai to London flight taken over by armed skyjackers with many demands. This time, Sam’s on a train in Berlin’s underground rail system, where once again the passengers become hostages to unknown intruders. Can lightning strike twice? Creators and cliffhanger specialists George Kay and Jim Field Smith have returned alongside Elba, and, crucially, they’ve avoided the Speed 2 curse. There’s not a boat in sight.

Jason Segel and Harrison Ford in Shrinking.

Also on Apple TV: Does Shrinking (January 28) need to course-correct? The first season of this frisky comic-drama about a barely functioning psychiatrist, Jimmy Laird (co-creator Jason Segel, How I Met Your Mother), and his take-no-prisoners mentor, Paul Rhoades (Harrison Ford, pick your iconic role), had a finely balanced understanding of just how tricky it is to truly help those closest to us. The second season was delightful, but a touch too tidy – Ted Lasso’s thumb was on the scales. Hopefully, the third instalment can get back to the trademark Californian angst and illuminating banter that lets the leads truly shine.

December highlights: The conclusion of science-fiction puzzle box Pluribus demanded new questions to answer, plus the gorgeous nature documentary series Born To Be Wild.

Lila McGuire in Goolagong.

ABC iview

My top ABC iview recommendation is Goolagong (January 4).

A ground-breaking Australian tennis player and Indigenous public figure, who won her first grand slam tournament while still a teenager, Evonne Goolagong lived a headline life throughout her stellar career in the 1970s. But there’s obviously a gap between what the public saw then and what the Wiradjuri woman actually experienced. Bridging it is this biographical drama, made with the input of Goolagong and her husband, Roger Cawley. Lila McGuire (The Twelve) plays the teenage prodigy, who has to not only take on the world’s best but find her own place in it. Wayne Blair (The Sapphires) directs, with Marton Csokas (The Equaliser) as Goolagong’s demanding coach, Vic Edwards, and Felix Mallard (Ginny & Georgia) as Cawley.

December highlights: A pair of distinct but equally valuable Australian documentaries in But Also John Clarke and Girls Can’t Surf.

Katherine Kelly in In Flight.

SBS On Demand

My top SBS On Demand recommendation is In Flight (January 8).

Not to get too Frontline, but it really is every parent’s nightmare: your son gets accused of murder while visiting Bulgaria and is locked up in a hellish prison where the odds of survival are slim. That’s the situation facing flight attendant Jo Conran (Katherine Kelly, Happy Valley) in this British crime thriller. No sooner is her son incarcerated, than the menacing Cormac Kelleher (Stuart Martin, Crime) is promising to keep him safe, as long as Jo starts smuggling drug shipments into Britain via her job. It’s a grim bargain, but one the compromised mother has to find a way out of.

December highlights: The Count of Monte Cristo told a famous tale with traditional flourishes, while music documentary ABBA and Elvis in the Outback was something new.

Tallulah Evans in Girl Taken.

Other streamers

My top recommendation for the other streaming services is Paramount+’s Girl Taken (January 8).

A taut psychological thriller about what you truly can and can’t escape from, Hollie Overton’s 2016 novel Baby Doll is the source material for this six-part British drama. A quiet English town is upended when a local school teacher, Rick Hansen (Alfie Allen, Game of Thrones), secretly abducts a teenage student, but when Lily (Tallulah Evans) escapes, she and her mother, Eve (Jill Halfpenny, The Long Shadow), struggle to make sense of who they are and what Rick’s intentions still might be. There’s a little of Room, some Silence of the Lambs, and Allen delivering creepy monologues.

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Also: Gabrielle Creevy is on my list of young talent to keep an eye on. The Welsh actress was acidic comic relief in Netflix’s Black Doves and then carved out a compelling voice in Binge’s period drama Amadeus. Now she’s starring in BritBox’s The Guest (January 22) as Ria, a casual cleaner barely making ends meet as inequality bites down hard. That starts to change when Ria is unexpectedly hired by businesswoman Fran (Eve Myles, Hijack), but what begins with fair wages and inspirational speeches starts to feel controlling as makeovers and menacing commands come to the fore in this British drama.

December highlights: The sad, unexpected after-life of a two-decades-old current affairs segment proved deeply illuminating in Paramount+’s documentary Predators, plus a new home for a 2000s classic with Deadwood on 7Plus.

* Stan is owned by Nine, which also owns this masthead.

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