What’s New in Pop Culture: January 20-26, 2025
Releases this week in TV, Music, Movies & Games
New This Week: Watson debuts on CBS; Teddy Swims drops a new album; Michelle Yeoh returns to Star Trek for Section 31.
TELEVISION
Check out our Best of 2024: Television list for great shows you might have missed last year.
Wednesday 1/22: Prime Target (Apple TV+; Thriller)
In this new series, Leo Woodall (scumbag Jack in The White Lotus Season 2, Netflix’s One Day) plays a genius math student who is targeted by a shadowy conspiracy relating to his potential cybersecurity breakthrough.
Thursday 1/23: The Night Agent (Netflix; Action Thriller)
This spy series was wildly popular when it premiered nearly two years ago, and has already been renewed for a third season before this S2 premiere. Conspiracies! Corruption! Intrigue! You know the drill.
Saturday 1/25: Planet Earth: Asia (BBC America 8pm; Documentary, Nature)
Sir David Attenborough returns for this more geographically specific edition of the Planet Earth series, focusing on the wildlife and biomes found across, around and underneath the massive Asian continent.
Sunday 1/26: Watson (CBS 10pm; Medical/Detective Drama)
This contemporary take on the Sherlock Holmes story sees Morris Chestnut play Dr. John Watson, who returns to Pittsburgh to run a medical clinic in honor of his deceased friend Sherlock Holmes, attempting to solve medical mysteries like actual mysteries.
MUSIC
Check out our Best of 2024 Music list for great albums you may have missed last year.
Friday 1/24: Teddy Swims I’ve Tried Everything Except Therapy Pt. 2 (Soul/Country)
Friday 1/24: Mogwai The Bad Fire (Electronic, Alternative)
Friday 1/24: FKA Twigs Eusexua (Electronic/Alt-Pop)
Friday 1/24: Kane Brown The High Road (Country)
MOVIES
Check out our Best of 2024: Film list for great movies you might have missed in 2024.
Friday 1/24: Flight Risk (Wide; Thriller)
Mark Wahlberg stars as a pilot flying a U.S. Marshal (Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery) escorting a fugitive across the Alaska wilderness. Directed by Mel “Sugar Tits” Gibson.
Friday 1/24: Star Trek: Section 31 (Paramount+; Sci-Fi, Action)
Initially intended to be a series featuring Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh’s character, Emperor Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery, it is now a made-for-TV movie following Georgiou as she works with the Section 31 Black Ops squad on a secret Starfleet mission.
Friday 1/24: Presence (Expanded; Suspense, Drama)
Lucy Liu stars in this film by Steven Soderbergh, about a family that moves into a home and begins to feel that they are not alone.
Friday 1/24: Brave the Dark (Wide; Drama)
Jared Harris (Mad Men, Moriarty in the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies) stars as a teacher who tries to intervene for a student in crisis.
Friday 1/24: Inheritance (Wide; Spy Thriller)
Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) stars as a woman who discovers that her father was secretly a spy, bringing her into the fray of international intrigue. With Rhys Ifans.
GAMES
If you’re looking for new games to play, check out our Best of 2024 Games list.
Thursday 1/23: Synduality: Echo of Ada (PvPvE Shooter; PC, PS5, Xbox S|X)
Pilot mechs as you scavenge a post-apocalyptic world for resources, fighting fellow survivors as well as terrifying alien creatures looking to kill you.
Thursday 1/23: Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles (Action, Adventure; Steam, PS5, Xbox S|X)
This 25-year-old game gets a re-release with quality-of-life improvements and a bunch of new unlockable playable characters, including Jar-Jar Binks. Play as Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Plo Koon and more as they fight through various locales from the Star Wars Universe.
Thursday 1/23: Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist (Metroidvania, Adventure; Steam, PS4/PS5, Switch, Xbox S|X)
A sequel to 2021’s Ender Lilies, this game is set in the future of the same world, as protagonist Lilac must purify homunculi gone rogue to save society.
