The return of popular titles seems to be the theme for this week, as the streaming releases are headlined by the VOD release of sci-fi sequel Predator: Badlands, the long-awaited second season of Tom Hiddleston’s The Night Manager, and the return of Idris Elba-led thriller series Hijack.

SERIES

A Thousand Blows S2

9 January 2026 – Disney+

Stephen Graham had a hell of a 2025 thanks to all the accolades he won for the brilliant drama series Adolescence. With all that hoopla, his other TV series of the year may have slipped by unnoticed… I say this because, I actually forgot to watch it! Oops. I’ll have to catch up soon though because A Thousand Blows is back for a second season! Created by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Locke) and based on true stories, the show follows the exploits of the real life Forty Elephants, an all-female crime syndicate in London’s East End in the 1880s. Led by Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), the Forty Elephants get thrown into a conflict with Henry “Sugar” Goodson (Graham), the self-declared “emperor” of the East End’s illegal bare-knuckle boxing world, after Jamaican immigrant Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and his best friend Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall) come to town with bold ambitions that inadvertently tread on the toes of both sides.

The Night Manager S2

11 January 2026 – Prime Video

At 44 years of age, Tom Hiddleston is too old to play the new James Bond but go back a decade and you would have found a veritable army of fans screaming for the British thespian to take on the role of 007. And a lot of that enthusiasm came from his Golden Globe-winning turn in The Night Manager. Adapted from genre master John le Carré’s 1993 spy novel of the same name by writer David Farr and director Susanne Bier, 2016’s The Night Manager was an eight-episode spy thriller series that followed Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier turned night manager at a luxury hotel in Cairo, who is recruited by MI6 to spy on frequent guest/arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). And it was incredible. The show racked up awards and nominations and was basically a standout audition for why Hiddleston needed to play the most famous spy in the world. And then it went away. Rumours abounded of a revival but there was nothing concrete. Until suddenly, out of the blue in 2024, it was announced that Amazon had ordered a second season. Again, there was much silence until a trailer finally dropped at the end of last year, and now the show is actually here! According to the official blurb, “Season 2 returns with Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), now living as Alex Goodwin, thinking he’s buried his past. Then one night, a chance sighting of an old mercenary prompts a call to action and leads Pine to a violent encounter with a new player: Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva).”

Hijack S2

14 January 2026 – Apple TV+

Speaking of British actors that people wanted to play James Bond… Idris Elba had all our nerves on edge for 2024’s Hijack. As events played out in real-time, the seven-part thriller miniseries ratcheted up the tension to unbearable levels as Elba’s Sam Nelson found himself in the middle of a hijacking of a flight from Dubai to London. Using his skills as a corporate negotiator, Sam tried to deescalate the situation only to discover that the hijacking was only one part of a much larger conspiracy. The show was a critical and ratings smash, so it only came as a partial surprise when it was renewed for a second season rather quickly. But seeing as how the first season’s story was completely wrapped up, what else would there be show? Well, it appears that Sam Nelson is just Britian’s unluckiest commuter as season two finds him on a Berlin underground train where he and the rest of the passengers are taken hostage again. If you think that sounds fishy, then don’t worry, you’re not alone, as authorities in the show start asking if Sam is not involved somehow.

The Copenhagen Test

15 January 2026 – Showmax

One of Marvel’s biggest post-Endgame fumbles was not giving us a sequel to the fantastic Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Arguably the best superhero origin film Marvel had done in years, it threw lead Simu Liu into the spotlight and announced him as a super charismatic action lead. Except he then never got to actually show off those skills again (except in the Jennifer Lopez movie Atlas, but the less we speak about that dud the better). The Copenhagen Test is Liu’s first proper new action lead vehicle and has already been a hit with audiences after it debuted on Peacock in the US late last year. Now we get to see what the hype is about ourselves as the sci-fi spy thriller series hits Showmax. Set in the near furture, The Copenhagen Test sees Liu star as Alexander Hale, an intelligence analyst who makes the startling discovery that his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. When the shadowy agency he works for decides to not remove the hack but rather to exploit this development, it forces Alexander to become a double agent. But when your every waking moment is compromised, how do you maintain a perfect performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible while not getting yourself killed?

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials S1

15 January 2026 – Netflix

While his run on Doctor Who is mostly best left forgotten, there’s no doubt that Chris Chibnall knows how to spin a murder mystery given his incredible award-winning work on Broadchurch. But now the showrunner is back in the genre again, but with a very different flavour. Adapted from murder mystery queen Agatha Christie’s 1929 novel The Seven Dials Mystery, Netflix’s Seven Dials is a three-part miniseries that adds some contemporary flavour to a classic whodunnit while keeping the setting in 1920s England. Rising British star Mia McKenna-Bruce leads the cast as determined fledgling sleuth Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent, who finds herself in the right place at the right time during a lavish country house party, when a practical joke appears to go horribly wrong. Murderously wrong, she would say. Now the unlikeliest of detectives must unravel a chilling plot that will change her life. Helena Bonham-Carter and Martin Freeman co-star.

MOVIES

People We Meet on Vacation

9 January 2026 – Netflix

Sticking with literary adaptations, People We Meet on Vacation is the very film adaptation of author Emily Henry’s popular romance novels. Adapted from Henry’s second adult fiction novel (she had four YA novels before this), People We Meet on Vacation follows free-spirited Poppy (Emily Bader) and routine-loving Alex (Tom Blyth), unlikely best friends for a decade despite their glaring differences. Even more unusual about their friendship is that they live in different cities but spend every summer vacation together. It’s a weird situation, but it works for them. That careful balance of their friendship is put to the test though when they begin to question what has been obvious to everyone else: could they actually be the perfect romantic match?

Touch

15 January 2026 – Showmax

Iceland’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscar’s, Touch is an adaptation of Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s best-selling novel of the same name by director Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, Contraband) and Ólafsson himself. Winner of nearly a dozen international awards and a critical darling on the film festival circuit, this romantic drama follows Kristofer, an elderly Icelandic widower, who sets out on an emotional journey to find his first love, a young Japanese woman who disappeared 50 years ago, before his rapidly failing memory deserts him entirely. Bring lots of tissues for this one.

RENTALS/PURCHASES

The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:

Predator: Badlands

Purchase: Apple TV – R200

Rental: Apple TV – R170

With 2022’s Prey, Dan Trachtenberg singlehandedly revived the Predator franchise from the disappointing depths of the Alien vs Predator movies and Shane Black’s painfully messy The Predator. He did this by upending the expectations of what exactly a Predator movie could be by following a young Commanche girl in the 18th century as she has to survive on her own as a deadly alien Predator hunts her with advanced weaponry. With animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers, Trachtenberg switched genres once more to highly entertaining effect, but that wasn’t enough. Returning to live-action feature films, the filmmaker somehow changes gears even more drastically than anything the franchise has ever done before, and again, it works! This time around, one of the traditionally bad “Yautja” warriors has been made into the story’s heroic protagonist instead, as the young Dek finds himself outclassed on the galaxy’s most deadly planet in an effort to prove himself to his ruthless father. When Dek runs into half destroyed android Thia though and reluctantly agrees to help reunite her with her party in exchange for her help to hunt down the planet’s legendary apex predator, it sets Dek off on a very unexpected quest across some of the most hostile environments imaginable. As I mentioned in my 7.5/10 review, Predator: Badlands “may not be as accomplished as its live-action predecessor Prey, but by director Dan Trachtenberg switching creative gears – and bolstered by an infectiously fun turn from Elle Fanning alongside newcomer lead Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi – Predator: Badlands is a hugely entertaining action-adventure romp set against the backdrop of some crazy and beautifully realized alien landscapes.”