With the start of a new year comes a chance for new beginnings and January at Netflix is no exception. The streaming service has a multitude of new originals premiering this month, including genre-bending comedy, first-timer Dutch contributions, and high-profile offerings. Happy New Year, everyone!
To kick off the new year, check out these Netflix original offerings for January!
Messiah: Season 1 – January 1
If you’re looking to start out your year with a little controversy, the provocative political thriller Messiah is the perfect place to get it. The series follows a cult-like Messianic leader whose work threatens to destroy whatever delicate balance of peace remains in the Middle East. As tensions run high, a CIA agent (Michelle Monaghan) works to understand his intentions and what kind of threat he poses to international security.
Understandably, some are concerned about the series perpetuating anti-Islamic sentiment. A handful of others have already initiated a change.org petition calling for the boycott of the series, calling this show that no one has even seen yet “evil and anti-Islamic propaganda.” Well, all I can say is that I usually wait to actually see something before I review it. Messiah creator Michael Petroni admits that the series is designed to be provocative, “But provocative isn’t offensive.”
Anne with an E: Season 3 – January 3
This popular Canadian production is going into it’s third and final season as Anne turns 16 and begins the investigation into her origins and parentage. Season three is meant to become much more a coming of age story as the younger characters begin to have a more adult view of the world and come to discover their place in it. Ever a socially-progressive series, the rise of a new generation will bring with it more opportunities to cause their elders to question old ideologies and prejudices, especially with the introduction of the Mi’kmaq tribe this season.
Everyone’s world view will be challenged as Anne and her friends begin the road to adulthood. And that means a little bit of romance too, as the awkward and irrepressible Anne pursues an attraction Gilbert as he pursues his new dream of becoming a doctor. Big changes are afoot for the classic Lucy Maud Montgomery characters, and in a series that has somehow been criticized both for being too sweet and too bleak, it’s hard to know what to expect from season three.
Dracula: Season 1 – January 4
From the writing team that brought us the worldwide sensation that was Sherlock comes another reimagining of a literary classic. Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss put our dreams of another season of Sherlock aside to bring us a luscious gothic retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The series stars Danish actor Claes Bang as the Count himself with a diverse cast of co-stars alongside him.
The show is the result of a series of idle brainstorming sessions between Moffat and Gatiss, the two just throwing ideas back and worth for fun until they realized how good it sounded. The origin story, along with the creators’ pedigree, is enough to get me on board. I definitely want to see something that these guys just made up for fun in their free time. And what’s more, these two have the perfect artistic sensibility to make this show wickedly funny, sensuously dark, and deliciously juicy – everything a good gothic horror needs.
Medical Police: Season 1 – January 10
Speaking of pedigree, this genre-bending comedy comes from the team behind critical and cult favorite Children’s Hospital. That means David Wain, Rob Corddry, Krister Johnson, and Jonathan Stern got together with basically the same cast and made a medical mystery romance adventure crime series. Medical Police follows doctors played by Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel as they uncover the mystery behind a potential epidemic after they’re recruited as secret government agents. They’re cops! And doctors! At the same time!
Given this group’s comedic chops, I have no doubt that this series is going to be wild, innovative, absurd, and deeply funny. Co-stars Rob Corddry, Sarayu Blue, Malin Akerman, Ken Marino, and Lake Bell round out the cast, along with appearances by Craig Robinson, Jason Schwartzman, and Fred Melamed. These guys also have access to some big-name actors and comedians, so it’s possible we might see some more familiar faces pop up along the way. Just think about everyone who was in Wet Hot American Summer and you already have a pretty big list of possibilities.
AJ and the Queen: Season 1 – January 10
This American odyssey dramedy comes from creators RuPaul and Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) as a down-on-her-luck drag queen (RuPaul) takes an RV on a cross-country tour and reluctantly brings a young orphaned stowaway along for the ride. While the trailer presents a picture of something warm, funny, quirky, and dramatic, this road movie-style series is a touching journey of acceptance and self-discovery. The quirky touches of Americana and shades of personal tragedy remind me of a flashier, more urban Hedwig and the Angry Inch with more of a focus on comedy one-liners.
While the series does look a little cheesy and on-the-nose, what would a series about drag queens be without a good helping of camp beside it? Plus, I love RuPaul. While I’ve never been an active follower of his career, he’s always been a presence at the periphery of my life. As a kid, I distinctly remember watching his VH1 talk show and credit him with my introduction to queer culture. Growing up in a rural community in a household that simply never addressed the existence of alternative sexualities, RuPaul played a huge part in garnering acceptance and challenging heteronormative attitudes. I love that this cultural icon continues to share is life, art, and love with the world.
Ares: Season 1 – January 17
Netflix’s first Dutch original series comes in strong with an unsettling psychological twist and cultish overtones. At first glance, Ares looks like one of those hokey CW type shows about a secret society of witches – think Legacies or Netflix’s The Order. But whereas those have a supernatural element and a sort of juvenile tone, the monsters in Ares are all too human and with a long, dark history. The series centers around a pair of students, best friends Rosa and Jacob, who join an influential secret society.
The society promises wealth and power to its members, but they soon learn that the order has a horrifying secret. Whether that secret is supernatural in nature or not is uncertain, but it seems like it must have some sort of satanic connections. Based on the trailer, this series is going to be deeply creepy, closer in tone to the psychological horror of Rosemary’s Baby than to the childish angst of Twilight.
Sex Education: Season 2 – January 17
The breakout hit of last year is back for another eight episodes as Otis (Asa Butterfield) and his friends struggle with new urges and relationships in this quirky coming of age comedy. The main cast of season one will return for season two, including Gillian Anderson as Jean, Otis’s boundary-breaking sex therapist mother. Season one saw Otis and cool-girl Maeve start their own underground sex therapy business at school, which brings with it more than a little drama and controversy.
The end of season one saw Otis and Ola begin a relationship just as Maeve realizes her feelings for Otis and breaks it off with her own boyfriend. Even stranger is the fact that Otis’s mom Jean and Ola’s dad Jakob started dating, making for a possible future in which Otis could be dating his own step-sister. Along with that and other drama, a few new characters will be added to the mix as Sami Outalbali, George Robinson, and Chinenye Ezeudu join the cast for season two. One of the biggest questions, of course, is whether Otis and Maeve will get together, but executive producer Laurie Nunn is predictably coy about the possibility. We’ll just have to wait and see.
The Ghost Bride: Season 1 – January 23
The Ghost Bride is an odd Malaysian drama about a woman who receives an offer to marry the recently deceased son of a wealthy family. I should also mention that this is a supernatural drama and not some kind of strange offbeat comedy, in case you were thinking she was supposed to marry an actual corpse. Set in the 1890s, the series is a lavish period drama mixed with whimsical fantasy and gothic horror.
Something about the tone of the trailer also reminded me of those cozy mysteries sometimes produced in Britain where the deadly stakes are downplayed and replaced with frivolity, humor, and musical interludes. I’m not really sure what to make of the tone of the series, except that it seems somehow cohesive, despite its varied elements. It manages to look playfully fantastical, richly romantic, and deliciously creepy in equal measures while giving off the nostalgic feel of some delightful fantasy adventure from the 90s. Honestly, it will have to be watched to be believed.
October Faction: Season 1 – January 23
With no trailer and very little information available, Netflix seems to be keeping October Faction pretty tightly under wraps leading up to the series premiere. October Faction is the highly anticipated adaptation of the IDW comic book series by Steve Niles and Damien Worm. The story follows monster-hunting husband and wife team Deloris and Fred Allen who return to their hometown following the death of Fred’s father. The couple quickly discovers that there is something foul afoot and that their small town isn’t as idyllic as they first thought.
As they battle dark forces and uncover mysteries, they must also keep their true identities hidden from their teenage children as they adjust to their new lives. Tamara Taylor and J.C. MacKenzie play Deloris and Fred with Damian Kindler serving as creator and showrunner. Kindler previously wrote for Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis and served as executive producer on shows like Sleepy Hollow, Krypton, and Sanctuary, so he has a fine science fiction pedigree behind him. I have no idea what this series is going to end up looking like, but all I can think of when I hear monster-fighting families is Supernatural.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Season 3 – January 24
Netflix’s dark retelling of Sabrina the Teenage Witch is running strong and returns for season three with a fourth season already underway. While there are still no plans for the fan-coveted Riverdale crossover (alas!), season three will see Sabrina and her friends head to the underworld to save her boyfriend from the clutches of Hell. As season two closed out, Sabrina’s boyfriend bravely sacrificed himself to become the bodily prison of the Dark Lord in order to avoid the apocalypse.
Now he’s in Hell and keeping the devil under wraps, so it’s up to Sabrina to bring him home. Kiernan Shipka returns as Sabrina, along with co-stars Ross Lynch (Harvey), Michelle Gomez (Madame Satan), Miranda Otto (Zelda), Lucy Davis (Hilda), and Chance Perdomo (Ambrose), with Gavin Leatherwood (Nick Scratch) and Lachlan Watson (Theo) officially promoted to series regulars. If these amazing production photos are any indication, season three is going to be tons of fun.
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The Stranger: Season 1 – January 30
The Stranger (not to be confused with the Orson Welles film of the same name which is currently available to stream on Netflix) is an adaptation of Harlan Coben’s twisted crime thriller of the same name and comes from the same team behind Coben’s Netflix limited series Safe (starring Michael C. Hall). Coben calls The Stranger “one of my most challenging novels — and definitely the most twisted.” The series stars Richard Armitage (NBC’s Hannibal) as a man who seems to have the perfect life until a stranger comes into it and reveals a secret that unravels everything.
Then when his wife mysteriously disappears, he must uncover an intricate web of lies in order to find her and the truth. Along with Armitage, who lends a soft-spoken and smoldering intensity to proceedings a la Harrison Ford in Frantic, the series boasts stars Siobhan Finneran (Happy Valley), Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp), Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous), Shaun Dooley (Gentleman Jack), Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Dervla Kirwan (White Dragon), Kadiff Kirwan (Black Mirror), Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta).
BoJack Horseman: Season 6, Part 2 – January 31
After six seasons of painful reflection, personal trauma, substance abuse, self-discovery, failed relationships, betrayed trust, denial, birth, death, and redemption, the hilariously absurd and deeply heartbreaking BoJack Horseman is coming to an end. For a seemingly frivolous animated series in which anthropomorphic animals and humans co-exist as equals in a lightly fictionalized version of Hollywood, the cartoon tackled a lot of painfully relatable human experiences in a deeply poignant way.
For all it’s implausibility and slapstick comedy, BoJack Horseman raised a mirror to our own human frailties, showed us all our self-doubt and existential dread, our feelings of worthlessness and shame; all the things we hide that make us feel so painfully alone and showed us that we weren’t the only ones.
Along with wrestling personal demons, the series made time to address issues of feminism and gender parity, sexual orientation and asexuality, sexual harassment, artistic integrity, divorce, substance abuse, motherhood, child abuse and neglect, domestic abuse, and depression and anxiety. Gliding along behind all that is a scathing satire of show business and fame that is as wickedly funny and richly detailed as anything happening in the foreground of the show. As Netflix systematically cancels many of its long-running favorites to make way for a slew of new originals, BoJack Horseman will be missed more than most.
Which Netflix series will you be watching this January? Be sure to tell us in the comment section below!