By Ishani Nath

Every month, Ishani Nath, pop culture expert, journalist and the most avid tv-watcher I have ever met, is sharing her top picks for new shows, movies and documentaries to stream on Apple TV, Disney Plus, Netflix Canada, Amazon Prime Video, Crave and CBC Gem, plus the one older release she thinks you should check out. Here’s what she’s recommending this month.

New year, new start? I mean, I freaking hope so. It’s been said countless times already, but I’ll say it again: 2020 was an absolute shitshow. Parties? Travel? Good news? Yeah, I don’t know them. But January brings a fresh start, and with the COVID-19 vaccine slowly being distributed across the globe, 2021 also offers a much-needed dose of hope. Before we get there though, there’s a whole lot of staying home that needs to happen—and I don’t know about you, but I am filling those hours with a ton of TV and movies. 

The show I won’t shut up about: "Look, I know you guys haven't seen my show!” That’s what actor Ramy Youssef said during his Golden Globe acceptance speech back in January. (He won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy series for his semi-autobiographical HBO show Ramy.) And honestly, it true. I had heard rumblings about this comedy drama about a first gen Egyptian American navigating his relationship to Islam, his family’s culture and American upbringing, but I hadn’t seen it. 

But I guess the one good thing about the past year is there has been way more time than normal to catch up on shows that we’ve been meaning to watch (See: Last month’s ode to all things Bake Off). For me, that meant finally getting around to watching Ramy on Crave. It’s messy, it’s complicated, it’s funny and it’s truly a representation of the Muslim American experience that I have never seen on TV. Trust, it’s well worth your time. 

Honourable mention: Netflix’s Bridgerton. The first few eps are surprisingly dull, but stay with it. Oh boy does Shonda ever heat things up. 

Since many Canadians are starting out the new year back in lockdown, here are a few other shows and movies to help fill the hours.

Apple TV

Palmer (Premieres January 29)

Former high-school football star Eddie Palmer (Justin Timberlake) went from hometown hero to convicted felon, earning himself twelve years in a state penitentiary. He returns home to Louisiana, where he moves back in with Vivian (June Squibb), the grandmother who raised him. While trying to keep his head down and rebuild a quiet life for himself, Palmer is haunted by memories of his glory days and the suspicious eyes of his small town community. Things become more complicated when Vivian’s hard-living neighbor Shelly (Juno Temple) disappears on a prolonged bender, leaving her precocious and unique 7-year-old son Sam (Ryder Allen), often the target of bullying, in Palmer’s reluctant care. In time, Palmer is drawn into a more hopeful world as he forges a connection with Sam through their shared experience of being made to feel different by those around them. Life improves for Palmer, and a romance develops between him and Sam’s teacher Maggie (Alisha Wainwright). An inspiring and unexpected journey unfolds for the three of them, but soon Palmer’s past threatens to tear apart this new life.

Disney Plus

WandaVision (Premieres January 15)

Starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, WandaVision marks the first series from Marvel Studios streaming exclusively on Disney+. The series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.

Netflix Canada

Bonding, Season 2 (coming soon)

Totally broke and banned from every dungeon in New York City, best friends Tiff and Pete work to rebuild their reputations in the bondage community.

Bling Empire (Premieres January 15)

Bling Empire follows a wildly wealthy group of Asian and Asian American friends (and frenemies) in Los Angeles. While their days and nights are filled with fabulous parties and expensive shopping sprees, don’t let the glitz and glamour fool you. Between running multi-billion dollar businesses and traveling the world, these friends are as good at keeping secrets as they are at spilling them. And there is certainly no shortage of secrets.

The White Tiger (Premieres January 22)

The ambitious driver for a rich Indian family uses his wit and cunning to escape from poverty and become an entrepreneur. Based on the bestselling novel.

Snowpiercer, Season 2 (Premieres January 26)

It’s another season of the post-apocalyptic drama in which Earth has frozen over and the last surviving humans live on a giant train circling the globe. New episodes weekly.

Penguin Bloom (Premieres January 27)

Penguin Bloom tells the true story of Sam Bloom (Academy Award nominated Naomi Watts), a young mother whose world is turned upside down after a near-fatal accident leaves her unable to walk.

Amazon Prime Video

One Night in Miami (premieres January 15)

Set on the night of February 25, 1964, One Night in Miami—Regina King’s feature film directorial debut—follows a young, brash Cassius Clay as he emerges from the Miami Beach Convention Center the new Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World. Against all odds, he defeated Sonny Liston and shocked the sports world. While crowds of people swarm Miami Beach to celebrate the match, Clay—unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws—spends the evening at the Hampton House Motel in Miami's African American Overtown neighborhood celebrating with three of his closest friends: Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown. During this historic evening, these icons, who each were the very representation of the Pre-Black Power Movement and felt the social pressure their cross-over celebrity brought, shared their thoughts with each other about their responsibilities as influencers, standing up, defending their rights and moving the country forward to equality and empowerment for all black people. The next morning, the four men emerge determined to define a new world for themselves and their community.

Flack (premieres January 22)

Created and written by Oliver Lansley, Flack is set in a world of high-stakes public relations and shows the dark underbelly of cleaning up clients’ messes. Anna Paquin plays Robyn—a flack—who’s a sharp and witty publicist and an expert at her craft, but is completely self-sabotaging when it comes to her personal life. Flack is equal parts drama and comedy, reflecting the brutal reality and complexities of our modern and hyper-connected life, where anything can go viral in an instant. With PR serving as the perfect backdrop to explore these challenges, Flack centers on Robyn and her four quick-witted and relentless flackers who must figure out how to make the best of bad situations and somehow manage to get out unscathed.

Crave

Rupaul’s Drag Race, Season 13 (Premieres January 1)

Happy Ru-Year! Worldwide phenomenon Rupaul’s Drag Race returns for Season 13, Friday, Jan. 1 at 9:30 p.m. ET. After winning six Emmy® Awards in 2020, the series secured a place as the most-awarded reality television series in history. The highly anticipated new season brings together 13 fabulous queens, including the series’ first trans man contestant, as they vie for the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar” and a cash prize of $100,000. Rupaul’s Drag Race follows a weekly release schedule, with new episodes dropping Fridays at 9:30 p.m. ET.

The High Note (Premieres January 1)

Set in the dazzling world of the L.A. music scene, The High Note follows the story of Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-Ish), a superstar whose talent and ego have reached unbelievable heights. Maggie (Dakota Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey) is Grace’s overworked personal assistant who is stuck running errands but still aspires to her dream of becoming a music producer. Things come to a head when Grace’s long-time manager (Ice Cube, 21 Jump Street) presents the singer with a choice that could alter the course of her career, and Grace must choose between playing it safe or listening to her heart in a decision that could change her life forever.

The King Of Staten Island (Premieres January 1)

The King of Staten Island Scott (Pete Davidson, Saturday Night Live) who has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He has now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister (Maude Apatow, HBO’s Euphoria) heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother (Oscar®winner Marisa Tomei) and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys – Oscar (Ricky Velez, Master of None), Igor (Moises Arias, Five Feet Apart), and Richie (Lou Wilson, The Guest Book), while secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley, The Morning Show). When his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr, F is for Family), it sets off a chain of events that force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life.

Monkey Beach (Premieres January 6)

An official selection of the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), TIFF Industry Selects and the 2020 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the critically acclaimed homegrown feature Monkey Beach has its Canadian streaming premiere on Crave on Wednesday, Jan. 6. Directed by Loretta S. Todd and based on the novel of the same name by Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach follows a young Indigenous woman who returns to her hometown to face the harrowing visions that have haunted her throughout her life and to claim her ancestral medicine. The film features an all-star cast of Indigenous talent including Grace Dove (The Revenant), Adam Beach (Windtalkers), Nathanial Arcand (FBI: Most Wanted), Joel Oulette (Trickster), Glen Gould (Cold Pursuit), Sera-Lys McArthur (Outlander), Stefany Mathias (Pathfinder), Tina Lameman (Mixed Blessings), Miika Bryce Whiskeyjack (Red Snow), Ta’Kaiya Blaney (Kayak to Klemtu), Zoey Snow and Nick Dangeli.

STARZ’s No Man’s Land (Premieres January 10)

This eight-episode drama series dives into the depths of the Syrian civil war through the eyes of Antoine, a young French man, in search of his estranged, presumed to be dead sister. While unraveling the mystery, piece by piece, Antoine ends up joining forces with a unit of Kurdish female fighters, fierce women and ISIS’ biggest nightmare, and travels with them in ISIS occupied territory. Antoine’s journey crosses paths with adventurers and anarchists, spies and innocent victims, and provides a unique look at the tragic events in Syria and the way they affect the entire world. The series stars Félix Moati (The French Dispatch), Mélanie Thierry (La Douleur), and James Purefoy (Altered Carbon) alongside Souheila Yacoub, Jo Ben Ayed, James Krishna Floyd, Dean Ridge, Julia Faure, François Carbon, and Céline Samie. No Man’s Land follows a weekly release schedule, with new episodes Sundays on Crave with the STARZ add-on.

HBO’s Euphoria Part 2: Jules (Premieres January 24)

The second of two special episodes of the Emmy winning HBO drama series Euphoria debuts Sunday, Jan. 24 at 9 p.m. ET. The special episode directed by Sam Levinson, titled "F*ck Anyone Who's Not A Sea Blob,” follows Jules (Hunter Schafer) over the Christmas holiday as she reflects on the year. Schafer serves as co-executive producer on the second special episode, which she co-wrote with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson.

CBC Gem

In The Long Run, Season 3 (Premieres January 8)

A period comedy created by Idris Elba (Luther, Beasts of No Nation), In The Long Run returns for Season 3 with more heart, humour and poignant drama from the new and familiar faces of The Eastbridge Estate, all underpinned by the series’ multicultural authenticity. Starring Elba and Bill Bailey (Hot Fuzz).

Les Misérables (Premieres January 10)

Love, death, and the struggle for social justice in early 19th-century France feature in this beautifully faithful retelling of one of the world’s most beloved stories. Starring Lily Collins (Emily in Paris), Dominic West (The Affair), David Oyelowo (Selma) and Oscar®-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite), and directed by Tom Shankland (The Missing) from screenwriter Andrew Davies (Sanditon). Two new episodes will be available weekly.

Hijabistas! With Yassmin Abdel-Magied (Premieres January 26)

Engineer, author, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate Yassmin Abdel-Magied introduces viewers to the world of hijabi fashionistas. The series explores the global fashion industry's response to this burgeoning market and meets with Australian Muslim women who are breaking stereotypes in style.