Ponies, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Rip
Credit: Peacock / HBO / Netflix
Tense police dramas, heart-pounding spy thrillers and a glorious return to The Seven Kingdoms all await your viewing pleasure this January weekend. Winter has come, though this week’s journey to Westeros takes place a century before the Long Night.
The big entertainment industry news of the week is the resignation of Kathleen Kennedy as Lucasfilm boss, which may or may not be good news for Star Wars depending on your opinion of George Lucas’s successor. Then again, as I point out in my piece on the matter, her replacements are hardly fresh faces.
I also have a piece up on what went wrong with Stranger Things, and how a shift toward a Voldemortian “Dark Lord” really sucked the life out of the story.
Finally, HBO released a new trailer and revealed the release date for the third and final season of Euphoria, Zendaya’s big breakout TV show. A lot of shows these days have two or three year gaps between seasons, but this one took a whopping four years to return.
In any case, I’ve scoured the internet for all the best new TV shows and movies streaming this weekend and compiled them in the guide below. As always, if you have any recommendations, or there’s something I missed, shoot me a note and I’ll add it in an update. Send me any tips you have on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Be sure to also check out last weekend’s streaming guide right here.
New TV Shows To Watch This Weekend
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO)
Set a century before the events of Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his small squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) as they adventure about Westeros, going to tourneys and meeting lords and ladies and smallfolk alike. Ser Duncan – aka Dunk – is a hedge knight, landless and penniless, and a genuinely good man. Egg is a bit of a mystery, and I won’t spoil anything here.
The show is adapted from the novellas by George R.R. Martin, who seems to have an excellent working relationship with creator, Ira Parker – unlike the “miserable” one he has with House of the Dragon showrunner, Ryan Condal. I’ll have more to say about that in a separate post. This is one of my most highly-anticipated shows of 2026, and I’ll be reviewing each (rather short) episode weekly here on this blog.
Ponies (Peacock)
Ponies (or “Persons of no interest” in spy-speak) stars Game of Thrones alum, Emilia Clarke, and The White Lotus’s Haley Lu Richardson. The Peacock series is about two secretaries working at the American embassy in Moscow whose husbands die in mysterious circumstances. Twists and turns follow as the two women go down a rabbit hole of conspiracy and murder.
I love that it’s set in 1977 Moscow because that makes me think of other great Cold War spy stories like The Bourne Identity (the novel, in any case), or The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and, of course, the excellent series, The Americans. The show has a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score, though audiences are slightly less impressed, giving it a 74% “Popcornmeter” score.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
I’ve only ever been a casual Star Trek fan (Star Wars was always more my thing, though my patience has certainly been tested over the years) so I haven’t really embroiled myself in the culture wars Trekkies find themselves in, but it’s pretty obvious from the Rotten Tomatoes score that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is another nexus of debate and division.
The series follows the first group of cadets in over a century as they train to be officers. The story is set in the 32nd century, the same timeline that kicked off with the third season of Star Trek: Discovery, after a massive cataclysm wreaked havoc on the Federation of Planets. This is roughly a thousand years after the primary Star Trek timelines. I’ll be honest, the 85% RT critic score surprises me, though it’s possible the 35% audience score is too low. It doesn’t look like my cup of tea, but I’m curious what Star Trek fans think of it so far.
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (Netflix)
Two things I’m almost always game for: An Agatha Christie mystery and anything starring Olivia Bonham Carter. You get both these things in one limited series on Netflix. Seven Dials is a new three-part mystery from Broadchurch creator, Chris Chibnall, and the first series from his new production company, Orchid Pictures. It looks like a fun mystery, though reviews are mixed with a 62% RT score.
Southland – Seasons 1 – 5 (Netflix)
I didn’t watch Southland when it aired, but I binged all five seasons last year in my quest to watch all the great old cop shows I missed. Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Mckenzie, Regina King and many other great actors star in this “day in the life of a cop” style show. It’s not really about an overarching plot. You follow these cops and their relationships with one another as they patrol the streets and get into trouble. It’s great. Not as great as The Wire or The Shield, but genuinely good TV with rich characters and plenty of action interspersed between the drama.
New Movies To Watch This Weekend
The Rip (Netflix)
Joe Carnahan’s The Rip reunites Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in an action-packed cop drama with an 83% RT score (77% audience score) and I’d never even heard of it until I started researching this guide. When a Miami police Captain is murdered, and $20 million is discovered in a derelict stash house, the members of the Tactical Narcotics Team find themselves unsure of who they can trust amid rumors of crooked cops robbing drug houses. The film also stars Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another).
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (In Theaters)
I wasn’t expecting the next 28 Years Later movie to come out so soon. I mean, here’s the timeline for all four films in this franchise:
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- 28 Weeks Later (2007)
- 28 Years Later (2024)
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2025)
Well, I still haven’t seen 28 Years Later because I wanted to rewatch the first two films and I thought I had more time. I guess I’m in for a zombie marathon. The Bone Temple stars Ralph Fiennes, one of the great actors of our time alongside Gary Oldman and Daniel Day Lewis. I’m trying to avoid spoilers about both films, but this one is doing even better than the last, with a 93% RT score – 4 points higher than 28 Years Later. We’ll see what audiences think soon enough.
TV Shows Currently Streaming Weekly
The Pitt – Season 2 (HBO Max)
Noah Wyle reprises his role as Dr. Robbie in HBO Max’s real-time medical drama, The Pitt, which drops new episodes every Friday. I loved the first season and so far I’m loving the second, which is very much like the first, with a whole new roster of patients and problems to solve. This 4th of July shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency room will last until the middle of April, though a part of me hates having to wait.
Fallout — Season 2 (Prime Video)
Kyle MacLachlan and Justin Theroux got a little more screentime in the latest episode of Fallout, which is always a good thing. Things are looking pretty dire for both The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and Lucy (Ella Purnell), however. Between betrayal, Deathclaws and the mysterious Mr. House, I have no idea what to expect, but I’m really loving this New Vegas adventure, even if it is a bit rambling at times.
The Night Manager – Season 2 (Prime Video)
I’ve watched the first three episodes of The Night Manager Season 2 on Prime Video and while it’s certainly not as good as Season 1, it’s very much worth watching. Plenty of twists and turns and one very big reveal at the end of the third episode. Tom Hiddleston is fantastic, as always, and the move to Colombia is a nice change in scenery. Of course it’s not as good as the first season: They don’t have a John le Carré book to go off of this time! A bit of trivia: John le Carré’s real name was David John Moore Cornwell.
The Traitors – Season 4 (Peacock)
I watched the first episode of the new season of The Traitors and . . . I’m not sure this is for me, folks. I have lots of people telling me to break my “no reality TV” rule for this one, but it’s just so ridiculous. I like the concept: Guests at the Scottish castle don’t know who is “loyal” and who is a “traitor” and so a bunch of scheming and deduction and whatnot goes on. Maybe I should start with Season 1? I didn’t think it would matter, but I feel like a stranger watching all these people and only recognizing the host, Alan Cumming, and Michael Rappaport (who has the advantage, or perhaps disadvantage, of always looking guilty of something).
Tehran – Season 3 (Apple TV)
Tehran stars Niv Sultan as agent Tamar Robinyan, a hacker who infiltrates Tehran under a false identity. Hugh Laurie plays South African nuclear inspector, Eric Peterson. The current season has a stellar 100% RT score. I should probably add this to my watchlist because I love spy thrillers and this checks all the boxes (though, obviously, it being about an Israeli agent with Iran as the bad guys will make it controversial in today’s political landscape).
Percy Jackson and the Olympians — Season 2 (Disney+)
For younger audiences and fans of the popular book series, Percy Jackson and The Olympians is going strong on Disney+ where the mythical fantasy series has a 100% RT score. It doesn’t hurt that Season 2 landed just a year after Season 1, something few shows achieve these days (though The Pitt also made this miracle of modern television happen). The finale drops on the 21st.
Landman — Season 2 Finale (Paramount+)
Billy Bob Thornton is always fun to watch, and you get one more episode of Landman’s second season to watch him in before the show’s second season wraps. You’ll have to let me know how it is, as this remains one of the Taylor Sheridan shows I just cannot make myself get into.
Spartacus: House of Ashur — Season 1 (Starz)
A “what if” spinoff of Spartacus that presents an alternate version of events in which Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) survives and becomes “Dominus” and gains control of a gladiator school. I’m tempted to watch the original series, which I never did get around to, but for now it’s a bit lost in my ridiculous backlog.
Be sure to check out last week’s streaming guide right here.
What are you watching these days? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
