There’s plenty of hot new and established entertainment on the small screen this month to keep the winter chill at bay. Returning favourites abound: after fourteen seasons led by the great Brenda Blethyn, we got the bittersweet final episode of Vera (BritBox, Jan. 7). Still, we can take comfort in a fifth feel-good season of All Creatures Great and Small (PBS, Jan. 12), which follows the gentle misadventures of a veterinary surgeon in 1940s Yorkshire Dales. Plus, the wait is over for a second season of 2022’s inventive sci-tech workplace thriller Severance (Jan. 17 on AppleTV+). As well, several great new scripted series’ make their debuts this month, and these are our picks for which to watch first.
Saint-Pierre
Exiled to the French territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland cop Fitz (Allan Hawco, 47) gets in the way of deputy chief Archaumbault (French actor Joséphine Jobert, 39, Death in Paradise). It’s a classic mismatched partner-in-crime setup: their different approaches to policing complement one another to form an effective – if unlikely – crime-solving pair. The weekly procedural is light and diverting and the setting taps into what British crime series have known for years: viewers love a change of scenery with a strong sense of place.
Where to Watch: Streaming now on CBC and CBC Gem (10 episodes)
Lockerbie
Shortly after take-off on December 22 1988, a bomb exploded on Pan Am flight 103 while over the quiet town of Lockerbie, Scotland – killing all 259 people on board and a further 11 on the ground. Academy Award winner Colin Firth, 64, plays indefatigable grieving father Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora is among the victims. This limited series is based on the true story of his decades spent pursuing truth and justice for both victims and (as Swire believes, falsely) a convicted terrorist in the face of geopolitical machinations and oil deals, through Wikileaks and the Arab Spring. (Even now Swire, at 89, is still pressuring the British government to release full documentation around the tragedy.) The first gripping episode sets up what’s at stake in the aftermath through a powerful recreation of the crash and human devastation. Catherine McCormack (52) delivers a towering performance as Swire’s grieving wife.
Where to Watch: Streaming now on Showcase (5 episodes)
Doc
Canadian Molly Parker takes the lead in this new Fox series that’s as much a character study as a weekly medical procedural (an English version of hit Italian series Doc Nelle Tue Mani). Known for her tenure as Deadwood’s Alma, the 52-year-old plays another character who gets a second chance. Here she’s a prickly physician who loses the memories of the past eight years of her life after a brain injury and has the opportunity to re-evaluate her choices and reset her life – all the while solving medical problems. It’s filmed in and around Toronto, subbing for Minneapolis.
Where to Watch: Streaming now on Global and StackTV (10 episodes)
American Primeval
GLOW’s Betty Gilpin, 38, and B.C.-born Taylor Kitsch (43, Friday Night Lights) unite in this gritty 19th century saga by FNL creator Peter Berg. The series follows a woman (Gilpin) and her son attempting to outrun their past and make a new start on the frontier. Set in 1857 Utah Territory, in the brutal Utah war, it’s largely free of jingoism and sentimental history that tinges many westerns. Instead it probes violent, authentic truths of how the American West was formed through clashes (like the Mountain Meadows Massacre) between the Shoshone and Ute tribes, the U.S. Army and the church of Latter-Day Saints. Watch for Canadian Kim Coates — 66, Sons of Anarchy — as Mormon leader Brigham Young.
Where to Watch: Streaming on Netflix starting Jan. 9 (6 episodes)
The Darkness
Based on the Nordic Noir bestseller by Ragnar Jónasson, Academy Award nominee Lena Olin, 69, stars as Hulda, a troubled DI who refuses to confront the recent trauma in her life. As she’s forced into early retirement, she takes on one final case: the death of a Russian asylum-seeker, found in unusual circumstances near Reykjavik. With Douglas Henshall of Shetland, (59) and Olafus Olafsson (Somebody Somewhere) in supporting roles, it’s a slow burn crime investigation stunningly filmed on location in Iceland and helmed by eminent Swedish director Lasse Hallström, 78 (Chocolat) – who happens to be Olin’s husband.
Where to Watch: Streaming now on Showcase and StackTV (6 episodes)
The Pitt
ER star Noah Wyle, 53, scrubs back in for this new Max hospital drama from ER and The West Wing executive producer John Wells. The title is the nickname for the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center emergency department and it ratchets up the tension with a twist. The high concept of 24 – where every episode is an hour in a dramatic day – is applied to medical crises, while also offering commentary on the challenges facing frontline healthcare workers in America.
Where to Watch: Streaming on Crave starting Jan. 9 (15 episodes)
Captivated
Downton Abbey’s affable chauffeur-turned-estate manager Tom Branson (Allen Leech, 43) plays against type in the North American exclusive of this new British thriller four-parter. (It was known as Too Good to be True in the UK, where it was one of 2024’s most-watched series). His character is a mysterious business tycoon who offers struggling office cleaner and single mother Racher (Kara Tointon, 41) an easy but lucrative full-time gig – but is harbouring dark secrets and may have ulterior motives.
Where to Watch: Streaming on BritBox starting Jan. 22 (4 episodes)
Paradise
This is our most hotly-anticipated winter watch. For one thing: the brooding political thriller re-teams This is Us creator Dan Fogelman with the series multiple Emmy-winner (and American Fiction Oscar nominee) Sterling K. Brown, 48. For another: it follows the investigation of a security detail, led by Brown, that was protecting past president Cal Bradford (James Marsden, 51), who has been found murdered. The timeline shifts back and forth as it reconstructs the case, following threads and suspects and the machinations of political operatives like Julianne Nicholson (53, Mare of Easttown). It’s just the immersive distraction we’ll all need come late January.
Where to Watch: Streaming on Disney+ starting Jan. 28 (8 episodes)
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