January is often a slow time for the box office, and that may lead more people to go searching for what there is to find on streaming platforms when looking for something new to watch. Luckily, this week offers a lot of options as almost every streaming platform has at least one thing worth checking out. There are new movies, new reality series, new episodes of weekly series, and even the first fully bingable Marvel series.
Echo is just one of the highlights of the strreaming week, as the Marvel series will drop all episodes at once, a first for an MCU series. It will be interesting to see how that impacts the streaming service or viewership of the series. But that's far from the only thing of note to watch this week. Here's a look at some of the highlights on the major streaming services this week.
What's On Netflix
Lift - January 12
F. Gary Gray has been behind some solid action movies including The Italian Job and a Fast & Furious movie, but in Lift Gray will team with Kevin Hart and he’ll leave the stylish cars behind and take to the skies. The new Netflix movie stars Hart as the leader of a team of thieves who get blackmailed by the U.S. government to steal $500 million in gold from a plane mid-flight. The movie so-stars Vincent D’Onofria as a member of Hart’s team and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the government agent running the heist. The Lift trailer makes the movie look like it could be a lot of fun.
The Trust: A Game Of Greed - January 10
If reality TV full of interpersonal drama is your thing, then The Trust: A Game of Greed may be your new favorite series. The premise sees 11 strangers given a share of a quarter million dollars, but that’s just the beginning. While all the players could simply do nothing and go home with their share, we can guess that won’t actually happen, as everybody is tested and tempted to vote people off in order to increase what they take home.
What's On Disney+
Echo - January 9
Echo is a first-of-its-kind series from Marvel Studios in a lot of ways. It’s the first Marvel Studios Spotlight production, a designation that means that, while the show takes place within the MCU, don’t expect its story or characters to have a significant impact on the larger story of Phase 5. This standalone nature is probably a side effect of some of the other ways this one will be different.
It will also be the first new Marvel series to drop all its episodes at once, which will change the way Disney+ subscribers consume this one. More importantly, however, it’s the first Marvel Studios series that will be rated TV-MA. The Echo trailer showed a series that will be a lot more violent than we’re used to seeing. That alone will be worth checking out.
Bluey - January 12
By this week kids are back in school. But for those kids that are a bit too young for school, or just for anybody who loves incredible television, the final 10 episodes of Bluey Season 3 are set to hit Disney+. You don’t need to be a kid, or a parent of one, to appreciate the incredible humor of Bluey. The fact the show is able to put together hilarious, and often touching, stories that resonate with just about anybody is the magic of Bluey. Also, that theme song is incredibly catchy. And worry not, Season 4 of Bluey is on the way.
What's On Hulu
Self Reliance - January 12
The last time that The Lonely Island teamed up with Hulu, we got the excellent, and perfectly timed, time loop comedy Palm Springs. Now the team is behind Self-Reliance. The movie marks the feature film directorial debut of Jake Johson, who also wrote and stars in the movie. It follows Johnson's character, who is recruited to take part in a reality show where people actively try to kill him, but he wins $1 million if he survives for 30 days. Since he can only be killed if alone, it drives our hero to find some unusual friends. Anna Kendrick and Andy Samberg co-star, the latter playing himself.
What's On Max
It’s been four years since the last season of HBO’s hit True Detective, and while the series hasn’t always received stellar reviews, each season has been an event in itself. The new season, subtitled Night Country, is set during the endless night of the Alaskan winter and stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as the detectives tracking down a missing person. The series will debut on HBO but will also be available with a Max subscription the same day so there will be no wait for those who want to keep up with this one every week.
What's On Apple TV+
Criminal Record - January 10
Apple TV+ doesn’t have the quantity of new content that other streaming platforms have, so when it does have something original debuting, it’s worth taking note. Criminal Record stars Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo as a pair of London police detectives. Jumbo plays Detective Sergeant June Lenker, who is investigating the possibility that a man who has been in prison for years may not have committed the crime. Capaldi plays the detective of the original case, who is not in favor of his work being reviewed. The first two episodes of the show hit this week, with future episodes arriving weekly.
What's On Prime Video
Role Play - January 12
If action comedies are your thing there’s going to be something of a battle of them on January 12 the same day that Lift arrives on Netflix, Role Play arrives on Prime Video. Kaley Cuoco plays a wife and mother who happens to be a professional assassin. When her husband, played by David Oyelowo realizes who his wife really is, he tries to help her escape the life, even though that means now everybody is trying to kill her. It looks like a version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith if Mr. Smith had no idea what was going on.
If these new series For a complete look at what’s hitting streaming in January, be sure to check out what’s new on Netflix, as well as everything coming to Disney+ in January 2024.
