Noah Wyle as Dr. Robby in HBO’s The Pitt Credit: courtesy HBO Max

Premieres Wednesday: 

Beast Games — His recent video that attempted to pit male competitors against female ones was rocked by allegations of malfeasance, including Russian bots posing as legitimate players. So of course Mr. Beast is upping the ante for the second season of his wildly successful streaming show, promising $5 million to the winner of a contest that’s being advertised as “smart versus strong.” I wonder which one he identifies with. (Prime Video)

Marcello Hernández: American Boy — The SNL breakout star takes to the stage in his native Miami for his first stand-up special, which sees him recounting his experiences as a first-generation Cuban American. I don’t want to wish the curse of Pete Davidson on anybody, but I give it two more specials until he’s part of a couple you can actually believe are together. (Netflix)

Unlocked: A Jail Experiment — The docuseries that takes us into an Arizona prison where leniency and trust are the guiding principles returns for an eye-opening second season. If you want to know how it’s going, all of the cast members from Season 1 are back, but now we’re looking in on them at their hideout shack outside a Nevada silver mine. (Netflix)

Premieres Thursday: 

Girl Taken — Hollie Overton’s novel Baby Doll is the source material for a six-part miniseries in which a British girl is kidnapped by a highly respected local teacher. This just in: He’s now moved up to eighth in the line of royal succession. (Paramount+) 

His & Hers — Tessa Thompson plays a news anchor who tries to solve a murder in her hometown, with Jon Bernthal as a detective who doubts her motives. Well, of course he’s suspicious: Since when did broadcast news people develop an interest in justice all of a sudden? (Netflix) 

The Pitt — The hit medical drama is back for a sophomore season that reportedly takes place over the course of an intense 24-hour shift during Fourth of July weekend. “Our job is not to outdo ourselves. Our job is to do ourselves,” series creator R. Scott Gemmill told Deadline. So how long until they move over to Onlyfans? (HBO Max)

The Traitors — Season 4 of the Alan Cumming–hosted competition augments its cast of reality veterans with a diverse group of celebrities from other walks of life, including comic Ron Funches, Olympian Tara Lipinski and NFL mom Donna Kelce. Oh, and also Michael Rapaport, because he thought they were looking for actual traitors. (Peacock) 

Premieres Friday: 

Coldwater — Andrew Lincoln plays a Londoner who moves to a small town in Scotland for his family’s safety, only to discover the place has perils all its own. For one thing, their lakes are crawling with big eels. (Paramount+)

People We Meet on Vacation — This adaptation of the novel by Emily Henry casts Tom Blyth and Emily Bader as polar opposites who begin to wonder if they might be the perfect mates. Which is the way it always goes in fiction, but if you want to know what happens in real life when opposites find each other, there are always Alex Murdaugh documentaries. (Netflix)

A Thousand Blows Season 2 — One year later, our cast of 1880s East Enders have to pick themselves up out of alcoholism and despair to regain their mastery of the London underworld. As opposed to the London Underground, which you can master just by remembering to get off before Cockfosters. (Netflix) 

Premieres Sunday:

The Night Manager — Season 2 finds Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine on a new mission: to take down a Colombian arms dealer. But if he finds out they’re trafficking weed too, he’ll have to cede authority to the United States Defense Department. (Prime Video)

Premieres Tuesday:

Tell Me Lies — As Season 3 begins, coeds Lucy and Stephen have reignited their tumultuous relationship, but the missteps of the past may prove impossible to overcome. Seriously, how much of a past can you have when you’re only in college? At that point, the biggest mistake you’ve made is majoring in English literature instead of marketing. (Hulu)

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This article appears in Jan. 7-13, 2026.