Top 10 new series in January

Make it your new year's resolution to watch these new series when they premiere in January.

New in January 2020

Source: SBS

Twin

Erik and Adam are identical twin brothers, living completely different lives. Laidback Erik prefers surfing over a career. Adam a successful family and businessman. When Erik seeks out his brother for the first time in 15 years to address their estrangement, a quarrel ends with Erik and Adam’s wife, Ingrid, accidentally killing Adam. To avoid getting arrested for murder and save his brother's family, Erik assumes Adam’s identity. Solved, right?! Well, not so much. Little do Erik and Ingrid realise, the biggest challenge is not avoiding getting caught – it’s pretending to be someone you’re not.

Season 1 is available to stream

Continuum

A police procedural set 65 years in the future, Continuum is centred on regular cop who becomes trapped in the present. She is alone in a world that’s familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time; and she has eight of the future's most ruthless criminals, loose in a city that she must protect for the sake of her family, and for the life to which she hopes to return. 

Seasons 1-4 are available as a box set

Valley of the Boom

To understand how the Internet happened, you have to understand the people who came to Silicon Valley in the 1990s. A time of unprecedented tech advances, the game-changing birth of Silicon Valley and, eventually, the 2001 dot-com bust. Now hear the stories of those who were there. Featuring Emmy Award winning actor Bradley Whitford, Steve Zahn and Lemorne Moriss, this hybrid drama/documentary series takes you back to the time before Google and Facebook. To the time of startups and the infamous Netscape vs Microsoft “Browser Wars”.

Valley of the Boom is now streaming

Marry Me Marry My Family

Showcasing amazing stories of cross-cultural weddings in Australia and the importance of family traditions and obligations leading up to a milestone moment, don't miss the second season of this SBS Original. 

Season 2 of  is now streaming at SBS On Demand

Face to Face

Utterly addictive from the outset, the story follows police officer Bjørn Rasmussen (Ulrich Thomsen, The New Pope), as he is sent to a forensic pathology unit to pick up the case of a young woman who has died from apparent suicide. When he arrives, he is horrified to find out that the victim is in fact is his own daughter, Christina. Refusing to accept her untimely death as suicide, and after finding evidence pointing towards murder, a furious and grief stricken Bjorn sets off on a whirlwind journey to discover the truth. 

Season 1 is available to stream

The New Pope

Academy Award nominees John Malkovich and Jude Law star in Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino’s stunning vision for the world of the modern papacy. Pius XIII (Jude Law) is in a coma. After an unpredictable and mysterious time, the Secretary of State Voiello succeeds in the enterprise of having the charming, sophisticated and moderate English aristocrat Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich) placed on the papal throne with the name John Paul III. The new pope seems perfect, but he conceals secrets and a certain fragility. Quickly, he begins to realise that it will not be easy to replace the charismatic Pius XIII who, hanging between life and death, has become a Saint with thousands of faithful followers now idolising him. Meanwhile, the Church is under attack from several scandals that risk irreversibly devastating the hierarchies of the Church, and the key principles of Christianity upon which they are based. As always, nothing is as it originally seems in the Vatican. Good and evil march arm in arm through this historic institution, right up until the final showdown...

The New Pope is now streaming at SBS On Demand (two episodes weekly). Catch up on in readiness 
The New Pope - start here

Dark Matter

A space opera based on the graphic novel of the same name, written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie and published by Dark Horse Comics. The six person crew of a derelict spaceship awakens from stasis in the farthest reaches of space. Their memories wiped clean, they have no recollection of who they are or how they got on board. The mysteries of their respective pasts will take them on a journey to the farthest reaches of colonised space. Hounded by the galactic authorities, their former employers, ruthless corporations, rivals, bounty hunters and former enemies they’ll have only each other to rely upon. All the while time is ticking down on them, because they'll soon learn there is a traitor in their midst, a mole who orchestrated their communal mind wipe. 

Seasons 1-3 are streaming 

The Longest Day in Chang'an

744 A.D., Chang’an, the cosmopolitan heart of the Tang Empire. The remnants of a vanquished Central Asian kingdom have infiltrated the world’s largest city for a planned attack during the Lantern Festival. Meanwhile, the court is fraught with infighting. The ageing Emperor is expected to announce the regency of the Right Chancellor during the festival and retreat to the mountains with his young lover. If the Right Chancellor becomes the regent, the reformist Crown Prince risks being deposed or worse. Intelligence chief Li Bi, a young Taoist priest and ally of the Crown Prince, has only 24 hours to prevent both the attack and the regency. After a botched attempt to capture the infiltrators, Li Bi and his team call in the services of death row prisoner Zhang Xiao Jing, a war veteran, beloved police chief, and murderer of his last direct superior.

Season 1 is now streaming

Shrill

One of the runaway successes of 2019 is back: Annie starts the season on a high. She has faced her demons head on: her mum, her boss, and her troll, and she’s feeling pretty good. She also has her boyfriend Ryan by her side. But the high doesn’t last long. This season Annie is no longer the doormat she once was, but it’s not as easy as she thought to get what she always imagined she wanted. Fast-tracked from the US, Shrill is from executive producers Lorne Michaels and Elizabeth Banks and based on the memoir from Lindy West. In the lead-up to season 2’s launch, SBS VICELAND is repeating all of season one in a Shrill-a-thon on Saturday 18 January, to get you ready for the season two drop. 

Shrill returns to SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand with the entire second season. Catch the entire first season at SBS 
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Start Season 2 here

Save Me

A six-part series written by and starring Lennie James (The Walking Dead). The uniquely British drama introduces an unlikely hero in Nelson ‘Nelly’ Rowe (James) – a man who ‘likes a drink’, who lives with whomever he happens to be sleeping with at the time – often more than one and sometimes more than two. He is the life and soul of his local boozer: a charmer, a chancer, a fighter, a liar and, at his age, a man who should know better. Nelly’s world is turned upside down when he is arrested and accused of kidnapping the 13-year old daughter he barely knew. Jody’s mother, Claire (Suranne Jones), who shared a ‘summer of love’ with Nelly 14 years ago, is convinced of his guilt. So Nelly sets out to clear his name, find the real perpetrator and save his daughter. With the help of his community, Nelly will stop at nothing in his life-changing quest for the truth. It’s a journey that will challenge him to be a better man, and atone for his past mistakes, not least towards Claire. But the further he travels, the more he realises the answers to his quest lie closer to home than he could ever have thought. 

Season 1 will be available to stream from Thursday 30 January at SBS On Demand
Save Me
Source: SBS

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8 min read
Published 24 December 2019 2:27pm
Updated 30 January 2020 11:00am
By Staff writers

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