MW Here's what's worth streaming on Netflix, Max, Disney+ and more in January 2025

By Mike Murphy

Apple's 'Severance' and Netflix's 'The Night Agent' return for new seasons, while Max rolls out the throwback hospital drama 'The Pitt'

It'll be a busy start to the new year for streaming viewers, with some big-name shows vying for attention.

Those include the long-awaited return of Apple's "Severance," new seasons of Netflix's espionage thrillers "The Night Agent" and "The Recruit," Peacock's hit reality show "The Traitors" and Max's new throwback medical drama "The Pitt."

The good news for budget-minded consumers is that very few of those new shows scream to be watched right now. With a bit of strategic churning - that is, adding and dropping services month to month - it shouldn't be difficult to keep the streaming budget below $50 this month. Keep in mind that a billing cycle starts when you sign up, not necessarily at the beginning of the month.

Each month, this column offers tips on how to maximize your streaming and your budget - rating the major services as "play," "pause" or "stop," similar to investment analysts' traditional ratings of buy, hold and sell - and picks the best shows to help you make your monthly decisions.

Here's a look at what's coming to the various streaming services in January 2025, and what's really worth the monthly subscription fee:

Netflix ($6.99 a month for standard with ads, $15.49 standard with no ads, $22.99 premium with no ads)

Netflix $(NFLX)$ will start the new year on a sublimely stupid note, with "Cunk on Life" (Jan. 2), a satirical mocumentary from the hilariously deadpan Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) in her quest to discover the meaning of life. It should serve as a welcome sorbet for viewers' brains, cleansing the palate ahead of what's to come in 2025.

The streaming giant will take another big step into live events with the debut of "WWE Raw" (Jan. 6), as the popular pro wrestling show moves to streaming, with new shows every Monday. Last January, Netflix paid about $5 billion for a 10-year exclusive deal for rights to the longtime cable hit as part of its strategic shift toward streaming more live entertainment and sports.

The smash-hit espionage thriller "The Night Agent" (Jan. 23) returns for its second season, with low-level FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) on the run after going AWOL to root out a mole who's threatening national security, while "The Recruit" (Jan. 30) is also back for Season 2, as young CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo of "To All the Boys I've Loved Before") gets pulled into intrigue in South Korea. They're both perfect popcorn shows, light and fun, and exciting enough to binge through pretty quickly, though it's a bit odd that two such similar shows are premiering so close together. Netflix also has Season 6 of the family sitcom "The Upshaws" (Jan. 9), starring Kim Fields, Wanda Sykes and Mike Epps; and Season 2 of "Mo" (Jan. 30), the comedy about a Palestinian refugee (Mohammed Amer) trying to find his place in America.

Netflix also has "Selling the City" (Jan. 3), the latest spinoff of the popular luxury real-estate show, this one featuring New York City property agents; "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl" (Jan. 3), a new family-friendly movie from the animated icons; the standup comedy special "Gabriel Iglesias: Legend of Fluffy" (Jan. 7); the two-part trash-TV docuseries "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action" (Jan. 7); "American Primeval" (Jan. 9), a gritty and violent Western series from writer Mark L. Smith ("The Revenant"), director Peter Berg ("Friday Night Lights") and showrunner Eric Newman ("Narcos"), with Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin starring as settlers confronting brutal frontier life in 1857; and "Back in Action" (Jan. 17), a paint-by-numbers action movie starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz as a couple of former spies who are dragged back into the game.

Meanwhile, all seven seasons of Sutton Foster's charming comedy-drama "Younger" (Jan. 7) are coming to Netflix, along with the first five seasons of the longtime CBS hit "NCIS" (Jan. 23), while all five seasons of the fantasy drama "The Magicians" leaves Jan. 14, along with all eight seasons of the beloved comedy-mystery series "Monk."

Update 12/31: Netflix also just quietly added a handful of recent Warner Bros. movies, including "Dune: Part 2," "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," Kevin Costner's "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1," "The Watchers" and "Godzilla v. Kong: The New Empire."

Don't forget about Season 2 of "Squid Game," which dropped right after Christmas and is just as dark and violent as ever, but with a repetitive and less coherent story. It's an unsatisfying watch, serving more as a bridge to the third and final season, due out sometime in 2025, than a standalone season.

Read more: The second-season curse: Why Round 2 of 'Squid Game' may not be a winner for Netflix

Check out: There have been a slew of London-set spy thrillers of late, but "Black Doves," which dropped in December, may be the most gleefully bingeable. The plot is ridiculous, filled with jaw-dropping action sequences and moments of shocking violence, but brilliant casting elevates the material to another level. It's a deep roster, from steely deep-cover agent/mom Helen (Keira Knightly), to sad triggerman Sam (a scene-stealing Ben Winshaw), to Sarah Lancashire's amoral spymaster Reed, to the charismatic, wisecracking assassin team of Williams & Eleanor (Ella Lily Hyland and Gabrielle Creevy). It's a propulsive, bloody, cat-and-mouse game that leaves a staggering body count, yet somehow manages to also come off as a touching examination of love and friendship. Season 2 has already been greenlit, and can't come soon enough. Also worth a watch is the movie "Kneecap," about a pair off Belfast hoodlums who team up with a high school teacher to form a renegade Irish-language rap group that soars to popularity while drawing the ire of everyone from the police to a dissident faction of the IRA. It's the lightly fictionalized origin story of the real rappers (who play themselves), and the darkly comedic tale of aimless youth growing up in post-Troubles Northern Ireland serves as an oddly appropriate follow-up to Hulu's "Say Nothing."

Play, pause or stop? Play. Through sheer volume, Netflix has mastered the art of offering something for everyone.

Apple TV+ ($9.99 a month)

"Severance" (Jan. 17), Apple's best show - and arguably TV's best series overall since the pandemic - is finally returning for its long-awaited second season. The only problem? It's been three years since Season 1 - have viewers forgotten about it, and its intricate plot points? It might be time for a quick rewatch, as Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, John Turturro, Patricia Arquette and Tramell Tillman return in the surreal, dystopian workplace thriller about employees who have voluntarily elected to have a procedure where memories of their work life are surgically separated from memories of their personal life - to disruptive effect. Expect a group of new coworkers in Season 2, including Alia Shawkat ("Search Party"), Bob Babalan ("Best in Show") and Stefano Carannante ("Hey Joe"), and hopefully some answers to the tantalizing mysteries that were hinted at in Season 1. This should be a must-watch of the highest order.

Apple $(AAPL)$ also has "Prime Target" (Jan. 22), a conspiracy thriller series about a math whiz (Leo Woodall) and the NSA agent (Quintessa Swindell) who is protecting him; and Season 4 of the reliably funny workplace comedy "Mythic Quest" (Jan. 29), as the gang reunites to work on a new videogame, along with a new effort to find work/life balance - both of which will undoubtedly go awry.

There are also new episodes of the compelling sci-fi drama series "Silo" (season finale Jan. 17), which has been renewed for two more seasons.

A Tale of Two Seasons: Apple recently concluded the second seasons of two of its more critically acclaimed shows, "Shrinking" and "Bad Sisters," to mixed results. "Shrinking," the therapy-set comedy starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford, graduated from an uneven first season to a more confident, consistently funny and heartfelt show in Season 2, especially when it let its characters just hang out. Season 2 benefited greatly from additional episodes (12, up from 10 in Season 1), allowing its characters to develop and find the right tone, which typically takes comedies longer to figure out. On the other hand, while it had its moments, "Bad Sisters," the Irish dark comedy starring Sharon Horgan, largely disappointed with its second season, struggling to find a consistent tone and suffering from uneven plotting. After a 10-episode first season, Season 2 had only eight, and it felt like it would have benefited from extra episodes to work out a new story structure (since Season 1 was rooted in a cascading series of botched murder attempts) and flesh out its characters, especially new additions Joe (Peter Claffey), Becka's new love interest, and Houlihan (Thaddea Graham), an overeager young cop, both of whom felt only half baked. The addition of Fiona Shaw as a neighborhood busybody, however, was nearly perfect.

Play, pause or stop? Play. For "Severance" alone. Though you could also catch up with recent shows like "Silo," "Shrinking" and "Pachinko."

Disney+ ($9.99 a month with ads, $15.99 with no ads)

The fun and nostalgic "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" will wrap up its first season, dropping its last two episodes on Jan. 7 and 14. It hasn't been renewed for a second season yet, but its positive reception and virtually limitless story (and monetization) possibilities make a return seem likely.

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January 05, 2025 17:24 ET (22:24 GMT)

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