Amid the glut of content on Amazon Prime Video, it’s often hard to know where to start. That’s where we come in. To make life easier, Every month, we’re curating a list of the best new shows and films streaming on the platform, so you know what to skip and what you’ll (most likely) enjoy.
While Amazon Studio’s Saltburn is one of the most viral films of the moment, becoming the unexpected de facto Christmas film of 2023, birthing a million memes soundtracked by Sophie Ellis Bextor, January has just as much to offer.
From the psychological thriller Foe starring Academy Award nominees Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal to the latest TV series from The Farewell director Lulu Wang about a close-knit community of expats in Hong Kong, we’ve rounded up all the best shows and films streaming in January 2024. So if you're in search of your next binge, these are the ones you should have on your radar.
The best new shows and films to watch on Prime Video in January 2024
‘Freelance’
Release date: 1 January 2024
No one does action hero quite as well as John Cena. In Freelance, the wrestler turned actor plays an ex-special forces operative who has taken a job to provide security for a journalist interviewing a dictator, but when a military coup breaks out in the middle of the interview, they’re forced to escape into the jungle.
‘Foe’
Release date: 5 January 2024
Based on author Iain Reid’s bestselling novel of the same name, Foe is a psychological thriller set in the near future and stars Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal as a married couple who live on a remote farm. Their life together is upended when they are visited by a stranger.
‘The Marsh King’s Daughter’
Release date: 15 January 2024
In this action thriller, Daisy Ridley plays a woman with a seemingly ordinary life, hiding a dark and dangerous secret. Her estranged father is Ben Mendelsohn’s The Marsh King, a man who kept her mother and captive in the wilderness for years. But having escaped from prison and convinced he’s coming for her daughter, she takes to the wilderness to confront him herself.
‘Hazbin Hotel’
Release date: 19 January 2024
Cult film studio A24 continues to venture into the realm of TV shows. After Euphoria and The Curse, the studio is debuting the adult animated musical series Hazbin Hotel. Charlie is the princess of Hell with a seemingly impossible goal of rehabilitating demons to peacefully reduce overpopulation in her kingdom.
‘Expats’
Release date: 26 January 2024
Expats is the series that everyone’s looking forward to this month. The first thing that The Farewell’s Lulu Wang has directed since her Golden Globe-winning film premiered in 2019, Expats is about the complicated lives of three expatriated women living in Hong Kong, and stars Nicole Kidman.
Previous Prime Video recommendations
‘Candy Cane Lane’
Release date: 1 December 2023
Eddie Murphy stars in this Christmas comedy adventure about a man on a mission to win his neighbourhood’s annual Christmas home-decoration contest. But after Chris (Murphy) inadvertently makes a pact with an elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell), she casts a spell that brings the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ to life. We’re expecting to see lots of birds invading the town, as Chris sets out to break the spell.
‘Role Play’
Release date: 1 December 2023
In this action-packed thriller, young married couple Emma (Kaley Cuoco) and Dave (David Oyelowo)’s lives are turned upside down when Bob (Bill Nighy) exposes Emma as an international assassin. Having put her family’s lives at risk, Emma goes on a mission to protect her family at all costs. It’s a fun flick that would have been on cinema screens in the years before streaming.
‘Merry Little Batman’
Release date: 8 December 2023
Batman’s son Damian takes centre stage in animated caper Merry Little Batman. After Batman is called away to the Justice League, the Joker finds an opportunity to take Christmas from Gotham City. Vowing to save his home, Damian steps up to try and save Christmas, becoming a superhero, just like his dad.
‘Your Christmas Or Mine 2’
Release date: 8 December 2023
In the sequel to the posh-guy-meets-working-class-girl Christmas romp Your Christmas Or Mine, James (Asa Butterfield)’s father Lord Humphrey (Alex Jennings) invites James’s girlfriend Hayley (Cora Kirk) and her family to join them for Christmas in a luxury ski resort in the French Alps. Except when Hayley’s dad Geoff (Daniel Mays) insists on handling his family’s side of the booking, the two families end up at each others accommodation. Chaos ensues.
‘Upload’, season 3
Release date: 20 October 2023
Sci-fi comedy Upload makes a return to Prime Video for its third season. Things kick off where Upload season two ended, with Nathan being downloaded back into a physical body in the real world. But mayhem ensues as a back-up Nathan is created and returned to the Lakeview resort. With two Nathans running around, it all gets a little messy.
‘The Other Zoey’
Release date: 20 October 2023
This teen romantic comedy is a nice easy watch. Computer nerd Zoey, who is very happy being single, has her life turned upside down when Zach, the school’s football star, gets amnesia and mistakes Zoey for his girlfriend. She lets him believe it, but just as she’s about to tell him the truth, everything goes a little topsy-turvy when Zoey meets Zach’s cousin Miles, with whom she has a lot in common. You can see where this is headed.
‘Silver Dollar Road’
Release date: 20 October 2023
For something a little more thought-provoking, we have the documentary Silver Dollar Road. Directed by Academy-Award Nominee Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), it’s based on the 2019 ProPublica article, which highlighted how the American legal system could be exploited to prevent Black land ownership. The documentary follows Mamie Reels Ellison and her niece Kim Renee Duhon, as they try to defend their ancestors’ land, as well as the lives of brothers and uncles Melvin and Licurtis, who were wrongfully imprisoned for eight years.
‘The Burial’
Release date: 13 October 2023
In courtroom drama The Burial, Jamie Foxx plays a slick personal injury lawyer who finds himself in over his head when he’s recruited for a contract case. Described as “glossy and appealing” in The Independent’s review of the film, our writer said: “This story is a classic David vs Goliath one, in which a Biloxi funeral home owner (Tommy Lee Jones as Jeremiah O’Keefe) goes up against billionaire Raymond Loewen (Bill Camp).” The Burial is loosely based on a true story, which was chronicled by Jonathan Harr in The New Yorker in 1999.
‘The Greatest Show Never Made’
Release date: 11 October 2023
This compelling three-part documentary tells the wild story of how six people got duped into giving up their life for a year to be on a new reality TV show, where they’d been tasked to collectively make a million pounds within 12 months. The reality show, which never existed, saw hundreds of people apply. Twenty years later, the people caught up in this misadventure are still searching for answers, trying to understand how it changed their lives. This is seriously fascinating TV.
‘Gen V’
Release date: 28 September 2023
Set in the world of The Boys (aka, the violent, gritty superhero show for people who hate superheroes), Gen V follows young “supes” through their university years, training to become the next Homelander. Taking place between the end of season three of The Boys and the upcoming fourth season, we see the supes learn they were given their powers, rather than being born with them. Events revolve around Marie Moreau, who, in the opening few moments, faces a similarly shocking tragedy as Hughie from The Boys. As with its parent show, expect lots of violence, sex and drugs. But it’s also college, so there’s double the amount.
Though you won’t need to have seen any of The Boys to watch or understand Gen V, it’s more enjoyable if you have. The first three episodes of Gen V started streaming on 28 September, with subsequent episodes airing right through October and into November.
‘After Everything’
Release date: 3 October 2023
The fifth and final After film is finally streaming here in the UK. Exclusively available on Amazon Prime Video, After Everything is the only film in the franchise not to have source material to follow, so there are a lot of surprises for fans who didn’t get to watch the film on the big screen. Picking up where the fourth film ended, After Everything follows Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) as he struggles with writer’s block and moving on after his split with Tessa (Josephine Langford). Resolute in his quest to win her back, Hardin books a ticket to Lisbon, Portugal, where he hopes to reconnect.
‘Totally Killer’
Release date: 6 October 2023
Amazon’s ready to get you in the mood for spooky season with the horror comedy film Totally Killer, starring Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Kiernan Shipka, who knows all about starring in campy horror shows. It’s a spoof on teen-slashers that takes place 35 years after the murder of three teenagers. The so-called “Sweet Sixteen Killer” returns on Halloween night to kill Shipka’s character Jamie, but on the run after coming face to face with the murderer, she accidentally travels back to 1987 (when the murders first took place) to take down the killer with her then-teenage mum. Will she succeed or get stuck in the past?
‘Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe’
Release date: 6 October 2023
This docuseries about the Twin Flames Universe is wild. If you’ve not heard of Twin Flames before, it’s a “spiritual community” (read: internet cult) that vows to match you with your perfect soulmate. Sounds great, right? Desperately Seeking Soulmate sees journalist Alice Hines follow community members (who pay thousands of dollars for the promise of finding their ultimate lover) and their obsession with founders Jeff and Shaleia Divine. Featuring real-life testimony from former Twin Flames Universe members, as well as relatives of members still involved, this docuseries recounts the Twin Flames Universe’s story from the very beginning.
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