Hopefully you didn’t stay out too late on New Year’s Eve. By the fluke of the calendar, this year’s New Year’s Day falls in the middle of the week, and we all have to get back to work on January 2. But since you do have a day off right now, Netflix has plenty of programing to keep you busy in the new year.
Just to make things easier for you, we’ve narrowed your options down to the five great Netflix shows to watch on New Year’s Day. Our picks include two action series, a fantastic comedy, a supernatural show, and a historical romantic drama that’s been making audiences swoon for a decade.
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Obliterated
Obliterated only had a short run on Netflix, but it feels like an appropriate choice for New Year’s Day. An elite team led by CIA officer Ava Winters (Shelley Hennig) and Navy SEAL Chad McKnight (Nick Zano) just saved Las Vegas from a terrorist plot to nuke the city. And to celebrate, they all went out to party and get drunk or high out of their minds.
Unfortunately for the team, the party was a little premature. The nuke they disarmed was a dud, and the real nuclear device is still in the hands of the terrorists. If this group can’t sober up fast and get back in the saddle then there’s going to be a big pile of dust in the desert where Las Vegas used to be. Because there are only eight episodes, dedicated binge watchers should be able to power through this show before January 2.
Watch Obliterated on Netflix.
The Night Agent
On January 23, Netflix will drop The Night Agent season 2. So take the opportunity to catch up on the series on New Year’s Day. Gabriel Basso stars as FBI agent Peter Sutherland, a man whose act of heroism seems to earn him a role as a glorified telephone operator for the White House’s Night Action division. And the phone he’s expected to monitor rarely rings.
When Peter finally gets the literal call to action, it comes from Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), a former tech CEO whose aunt and uncle were Night Action agents. Rose doesn’t know what’s going on, but she does have a warning for Peter that there’s a traitor positioned near the president of the United States. And since Peter is the only one Rose can trust, she’ll stay as close to him as possible until they smoke out the traitor.
Watch The Night Agent on Netflix.
A Man on the Inside
On the surface, Charles (Ted Danson) is just a widowed college professor who is starting the next stage of his life by moving into the Pacific View Retirement Community in San Francisco to be with people his own age. However, as the title of the show hints, Charles is A Man on the Inside, and he has a mission.
A private investigator named Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) hired Charles to infiltrate the community because she’s convinced that someone who lives there stole a very valuable necklace. Charles leaps at the chance to play detective; he just doesn’t have the skills to really pull it off. His investigative instincts get him into some tight spots inside the community, and they’re also straining his newfound relationships. Can Charles maintain his newfound friendships if the people living in Pacific View learn why he’s really there?
Watch A Man on the Inside on Netflix.
Evil
Evil is real, and so is Evil the show. The third season of this formerly Paramount+ exclusive show just hit Netflix, and it’s a bigger hit on this streaming service than it ever was on its old home. Think of this series as a theologically charged X-Files. Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) is a skeptic who is hired by the Catholic Church to investigate unexplained and potentially supernatural cases.
She’s joined on these cases by a priest in training, David Acosta (Mike Colter), and a tech expert named Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi), who is an atheist and perhaps even more skeptical than Kristen. The team’s activities capture the attention of Dr. Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson), a man who is communing with demonic powers. Leland and Kristen have a mutual hatred of each other, and that conflict expands in scale as the series plays out.
Watch Evil on Netflix.
Outlander
The second half of Outlander season 7 is currently playing out on Starz, with an eighth and final season to follow in the future. However, Netflix has all six of the previous seasons of this historical romance drama, which has a few sci-fi/fantasy touches. Caitríona Balfe stars as Claire Fraser, a British nurse during World War II who is transported back in time to the 18th century in the Scottish highlands. Despite being married to another man in the future, Claire marries Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) in the past for her own protection.
Over the course of the first season, Claire and Jamie come to truly love each other, and not even centuries of time can keep them apart when Claire figures out how to return to her own time. By the time of the sixth season, Claire and Jamie have a large extended family, and they’re getting increasingly involved with the American rebellion against the British, which tests their loyalties to both family and country.
Watch Outlander on Netflix.
We’ve also rounded up all the best new shows to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, the best shows on Amazon Prime, and the best shows on Disney+ because we take our streaming seriously. Watching while traveling abroad? Use a Netflix VPN to access your country’s catalog from anywhere in the world.