January Survival Kit: the 17 best new TV shows, films and games this month
Winter gloom getting you down? Brighten up your January with this superb supply of freshly-released entertainment
While the existence of the winter blues may be a matter of perspective, one thing is indisputable: January is cold, dark and often wet.
In other words, it’s the perfect time to retreat indoors with some quality entertainment, and thankfully the New Year comes with plenty of New Content, whether your tastes run to movies, TV shows or video games. We’ve picked through the media glut to bring you our picks. So go on, make January fun again.
1) Hibernate with the best new telly…
…on Netflix
Whiplash (available now)
Watching an indie movie about jazz drumming might not sound like the most riveting way to spend an evening, but trust us: Whiplash is no ordinary movie about jazz drumming.
Miles Teller plays a conservatory student determined to become one of the skin-bashing greats. The only problem? He’s never good enough to impress his insanely demanding band conductor, played in Oscar-winning form by J. K. Simmons. Simmons’ abusive monster of an instructor dominates the film right through to the unforgettable final reel. We doubt you’ve ever seen a music movie with so much blood and sweat.
Under the Shadow (7 Jan)
It’s January, and we’re suggesting you subject yourself to more horror? Well, yes, because this nerve-shredding film, set in war-torn Tehran during the 1980s, is one of last year’s best.
After her husband is sent away to serve in the army, an Iranian mother is left to care for their young daughter under the looming threat of missile strikes. When their apartment is hit, events take a turn for the paranormal and leave the pair haunted by a mysterious ‘Djinn’ spirit.
Though some classic horror tropes soon follow, Under the Shadow‘s unusual setting and creaking, groaning building give it an extra bite that’ll shake you out of your January torpor.
A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 Jan)
The beloved children’s novels get the Netflix Original treatment in this brand new series, all eight episodes of which are available from 13 January.
A heavily made-up Neil Patrick Harris stars as antagonist Count Olaf, charged with the care of three orphaned children – but far more interested in securing their inheritance through nefarious means.
If this debut season of ASOUE proves a hit, you can expect further adaptations of other books in the Lemony Snicket series to follow. And with no fewer than 13 at the current count, there’s certainly no shortage of source material.
…on Amazon Prime
The Grand Tour Episode 8 (available now)
The latest instalment of Clarkson and company’s Top Gear-beater is the second part of a two-part special, so you might want to make sure you’re caught up with episode 7 first. In this episode, the ageing boy-men continue on their banter-fuelled beach buggy trek across the Namibian desert, taking on rough roads, river crossing and rhinos.
If you hate this kind of petrolhead laddishness, The Grand Tour isn’t going to change you into a believer – but for anybody looking for some beautifully shot (4K! HDR!) mindless entertainment to grace that new Ultra HD they received from Santa, this fits the bill perfectly.
The Witch (8 Jan)
Again, perhaps not exactly the sort of light and airy fare that the average person might want to help lift the winter blues, but this supernatural tale of New England Puritans encountering something wicked in the woods is a great slice of slow-burning horror to watch on a cold, dark night. Just make sure you close all the wardrobes, cupboards and doors first.
Sneaky Pete (13 Jan)
A brand new drama series produced by and co-starring Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, Sneaky Pete concerns a convict and conman (Giovanni Ribisi) posing as the long lost grandson of an elderly couple.
Predictably, the con doesn’t go off without a hitch, leaving our antihero on dangerous ground with Cranston’s scarily Heisenberg-esque crime boss. Amazon Prime viewers may have already caught the pilot of Sneaky Pete, but from 13 January they’ll be able to get on board with the rest of the first season.
…on Now TV
…on Now TV
Quarry (available now)
What should be a happy return to Memphis after a tour in Vietnam becomes far less pleasant for Mac Conway when the local community shuns him as a result of his involvement in an apparent massacre. Jobless and suffering from PTSD, Mac allows himself to be drawn into the world of contract killing, and so begins a very dark, gritty and tough new TV series that revels in its 1970s Deep South setting.
The entire season is available via Sky Boxsets right now, while Now TV users get new episodes week by week.
10 Cloverfield Lane (available now)
Rumour has it this film originally had no link at all to the monster flick of 2008 and was turned into a pseudo-sequel as a bit of an afterthought. Whatever the truth is it doesn’t really matter, because this is a mighty enjoyable movie in its own right.
John Goodman is immense as the gruff owner of an underground bunker who’s either rescued Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) from some kind of global disaster – or kidnapped her. It’s tense stuff that keeps you guessing right to the end, so the perfect way to take your mind off the grotty weather outside.
Fortitude (26 Jan)
The second season of this big budget, star-studded drama (also shown on Sky Atlantic) promises to be an interesting one.
With the first season ending in dramatic style (and with several inhabitants of the eponymous icy Arctic town dead) but several story threads still untied, Fortitude has bags of potential. And we’re keen to find out how new cast members Dennis Quaid, Parminder Nagra and Michelle “Catlyn Stark” Fairley fit into the whole creepy mess.
2) Brighten your commute with these mobile games…
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic (from £4.49; iOS/Android; out now)
Our winter commute has improved by approximately 67% thanks to the arrival of this mobile version of the classic theme park sim. A mash-up of the first two PC games, it somehow manages to squeeze all of the features and controls from original series into the considerably smaller screen.
This means it can initially feel a bit cramped, but the controls work surprisingly well – and you’ll still need to get that perfect blend of approachable rides and multi-inversion coasters to keep your tiny guests happy.
The Battle of Polytopia (£free, iOS and Android; out now)
Prefer your strategy games to be more Civilisation than RollerCoaster Tycoon? This charming, turn-based adventure is your escape from harsh reality.
Not that it’s a stroll in the Polytopian park – smart exploring tactics are needed to make sure you don’t get your face kicked off, as you attempt to grow your city by persuading local villages to join your tribe.
But it also manages to avoid being too overwhelming, striking the perfect balance between approachability and serving up a good mobile taster of the empire building genre.
3) Hide in the cinema with January’s best films…
Assassin’s Creed (out now)
Ubisoft’s historical-cum-sci-fi open world series gets the full Hollywood treatment, with Michael Fassbender donning the hood of the ancient order of assassins by experiencing the exploits of his 15th Century ancestor via genetic memory. Yes – it’s basically exactly the same plot as in the video games, which is noteworthy in itself given that movie adaptations usually gut everything that people like about the source material.
But is it any good? While audiences appear to be enjoying it in the main, Rotten Tomatoes suggests the huge budget, star-packed cast (it also features Marion Cottilard, Jeremy Irons and Michael K Williams) and faithfulness to its inspiration haven’t made it a winner: at the time of writing it’s just 16 percent fresh…
20 years on from the release of the original, director Danny Boyle returns to the characters with which he made his name. Loosely adapted from Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting sequel, Porno, T2 reunites most of the first film’s cast, including Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald.
The world is a very different place than it was in 1996, of course – and seeing how the characters and their own worlds have changed promises to be one of the film’s most compelling facets. That and the drugs, sex, music and swearing, of course.
Hacksaw Ridge (27 Jan)
Andrew Garfield plays Desmond Doss – a man so patriotic he wants to go to war without a gun (or, to use his own term, as a ‘conscientious co-operator’).
Desmond’s time in boot camp is like a pre-watershed version of Full Metal Jacket, with Vince Vaughan’s drill sergeant more funny than frightening. But once Garfield and his comrades are shipped out to war, things get gory very quickly – the initial assault in Okinawa almost makes the opening of Saving Private Ryan look like Total Wipeout.
This brutality makes Doss’s one-man medical mission seem all the more heroic, even if it is hard to shake the feeling that Gibson is using the medic’s pacifism as a free pass to portray the Japanese soldiers as a subhuman swarm.
4) Console yourself with these games
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PS4/Xbox One/PC; 24 Jan)
A reinvention of sorts, RE7 is the first in Capcom’s long-running survival horror (and later survival horror/action) series to use a first-person view rather than the tried and trusted over-the-shoulder method. And, for anyone with the appropriate hardware, it’s also playable in VR, which promises to be a horribly immersive experience. Without doubt the biggest game release of the month, RE7 is shaping up to be 2017’s most pant-fillingly frightening interactive experience.
For more info, take a look at our hands-on preview. And remember: don’t have nightmares; do sleep well.
Gravity Rush 2 (PS4; 20 Jan)
If you’re a fan of the first Gravity Rush, which debuted on PS Vita and later came to the PS4 in a remastered version, you’ve doubtless been hankering for the release of the sequel, which features the same kind of gravity-manipulating action-adventure gameplay.
The mechanic – you can shift between normal and no gravity at will to move around the 3D game world and battle enemies – sounds devilishly complicated on paper, but if the first game’s anything to go by, you’ll be deftly darting around the beautiful anime-inspired landscapes smashing into bad guys and running up walls in no time.
Yakuza 0 (PS4; 24 Jan)
Despite being huge hits in Japan, the Yakuza series has never been given the proper Western localisation many think it deserves… until now. Yakuza 0 is a story-driven open world brawler that acts as a prequel to the rest of the Tokyo-set series, and having been first released in March 2015 in Japan, it’s finally coming out in Europe and the US on 24 January. So it’s the perfect time for UK PS4 owners to batten down the hatches, load up on snacks and find out what the fuss is all about.
Sam Kieldsen
Contributor 
