The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix, Apple TV Plus and More in January – The New York Times

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Looking for a resolution to kick the year off? How about streaming better, not streaming less. Below are our favorite TV series and movies coming to the major services in January, plus a roundup of all the best new titles in all genres. (Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice.)

New to Netflix

‘Sex, Explained’

Starts streaming: Jan. 2

Janelle Monáe narrates this Vox docuseries, which I would not recommend watching with your parents or in public. The series does exactly what its title says — in great detail. Combining graphics, interviews and demonstrative footage and guided by Monáe’s warm, nonjudgmental voice-over, the series offers a thorough education of even the most taboo aspects of its subject matter. The opening episode on sexual fantasies, especially, does not hold back from visualizing its topic in ways we can’t really describe in this paper. As informative as the series is, it’s also funny: Later episodes explore the history of birth control and fertility science, comparing the sperm’s journey with the 1986 film “Labyrinth.”

‘Leslie Jones: Time Machine’

Starts streaming: Jan. 14

Leslie Jones always seems like she’s having the most fun onstage, and this hourlong special is no exception. She looks back at her life decade by decade, comparing, for example, the passage of time in her 30s with the fate of a ripe banana and roasting today’s 20-somethings for marching in protests instead of being joyfully irresponsible. Now in her 50s, she is very funny on what it’s like to be making money and being “white people famous,” as well as the various ways her body is letting her down. At one point she sings Tevin Campbell’s “Can We Talk,” and jumps up and down with what definitely seems like spontaneous joy when the crowd sings it back. The special is also directed by the “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

‘Grace and Frankie’

Starts streaming: Jan. 15

The gals are back for a final season of shenanigans, and fans will be pleased to find that we’re in classic “Grace and Frankie” territory: Businesses get launched, family tensions bubble away, Frankie smokes weed, Grace drinks martinis, and both try to build relationships with men that will rival their love for one another. The chemistry between Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin gets a lot of attention, as it should, but it is also a joy to see Tomlin’s Frankie in a scene with her ex-husband, played by Sam Waterson. Also: The Hanson daughters wear some really excellent suits this season. This is one of the sweetest shows on the air, and I’m so glad it got six seasons.

‘Spinning Out’

Starts streaming: Jan. 1

“Spinning Out” has all the elements of a juicy teen drama (a rich bad-boy jock, terrible parents, awkward sex, kids popping pills), but also — ice skating! Kaya Scodelario anchors this surprisingly dark show as Katerina, a 21-year-old former skating prodigy who fell on the ice and suffered a horrible head injury. Now she has some choices to make: Can she start skating again, this time with a partner, who happens to be the aforementioned jock? Should she move to London with her uninspiring boyfriend? What about her cute co-worker? Then there’s her unstable mom (a scene-stealing January Jones) and precocious teenage sister, who’s the current star of the rink.

Making it as a female skater means being very feminine as well as very athletic, and “Spinning Out” is an unflinching look at the pain (both physical and mental) required to be that kind of beautiful. Self-harm, accidental injury and mental illness are handled sensitively, but this is not a show for younger viewers.

Also arriving:

Jan. 1

“Messiah”

“The Circle”

“Catch Me If You Can”

“City of God”

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

“Free Willy”

“Julie & Julia”

“Kill Bill” Volumes 1 and 2

“Pan’s Labyrinth”

“The Ring”

“The Talented Mr. Ripley”

“True Grit”

“Up in the Air”

Jan. 3

“Anne with an E” Final season

Jan. 8

“Cheer”

Jan. 17

“Sex Education” Season 2

Jan. 21

“Fortune Feimster: Sweet & Salty”

Jan. 24

“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” Season 3

Jan. 31

“BoJack Horseman” Season 6 (Part B)

New to Apple TV Plus

‘Little America’

Starts streaming: Jan. 17

Looking for a tear-jerker? This anthology series is based on the true experiences of immigrants in the United States, and each episode tells a different story of triumph over hardship. It can drift into the saccharine, but “Little America” makes a convincing case that there are many ways of “making it,” with characters’ successes ranging from making a national sports team to having the confidence to do karaoke. The show finds humor in the strangeness of American culture, like the increasingly furious notes passed between people meditating at a silent retreat and a satisfying rant by a Nigerian student new to Oklahoma about the “sickness” of the hamburger in the third episode. Produced by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon (“The Big Sick”) and Alan Yang (“Master of None”), the stories were originally collected by Epic Magazine, and the series has already been renewed for a second season.

New to HBO

‘The Outsider’

Starts streaming: Jan. 12

This tense show opens with an investigation into a child’s murder, in a setup you just know is too straightforward to be true. The evidence against Terry, the local Little League coach (Jason Bateman, who also directs) is stacking up, but “The Outsider” is based on the Stephen King book of the same name. Soon enough, contradictions emerge: Terry seems to have been in two places at once, and the twists keep coming. The hard-nosed cop on the case, played by Ben Mendelsohn, is mourning his own child’s recent death, and his confidence that he understands the world is further shaken as the strange events unfurl. The first two episodes are directed by Bateman, and throughout the camerawork effectively builds tension and a sense that no one (human at least) is really in control.

‘The New Pope’

Starts streaming: Jan. 13

The Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is back with another surreally extravagant imagining of the contemporary Vatican. Our review of his 2017 HBO series “The Young Pope” called it both “beautiful and ridiculous,” qualities that also dominate in “The New Pope.” The young pope (Jude Law) is now in a coma, and so the cardinals install a successor on the papal throne: Sir John Brannox, a haunted and haunting English nobleman played by John Malkovich. Both Law and Malkovich are naked when they make their onscreen debuts, and the opening credits have women twerking in slow motion against a fluorescent cross. But for all this visual excess, the show also grapples with grief, faith and power in some thought-provoking ways.