The Pitt to Severance: 11 of the best TV shows to watch this January

From a new medical show starring ER's Noah Wyle to the return of Apple TV+'s dystopian workplace drama, these are the shows to stream this month.

The characters in Harlan Coben's novels are beset by all sorts of problems, usually murder and dark secrets from the past. But their troubles have become a happy success for Netflix, which has turned several Coben books into reliable hit series, including Fool Me Once and Stay Close. In the latest, Rosalind Eleazar (Slow Horses) plays Detective Kat Donovan, whose fiancé, Josh (Ashley Walters from Top Boy) disappeared one day, leaving behind an empty wardrobe and no clue to his whereabouts. Years later, pursuing a different missing persons case, Kat spots Josh's photo on a dating app, and sets out to find the truth. It seems he was up to no good. Although Corben's 2014 book was set in New York, the screen version is set in the UK and was shot in Manchester. Richard Armitage and Lenny Henry co-star.

Missing You premieres 1 January on Netflix internationally

Colin Firth plays the real-life Dr Jim Swire in this potent, fact-based drama about the 1988 disaster in which a bomb exploded on a plane heading from London to New York, killing 270 people when it fell over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. Swire, whose daughter was among the victims, becomes the spokesman for a group trying to find the truth behind the tragedy. The series begins shortly before the flight takes off, but focuses on the aftermath, as Swire spends years relentlessly searching for answers, even visiting Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Eventually, he uses tactics and forms opinions that distance him from the families he set out to represent. The real Swire remains controversial today, refusing to accept the guilty verdict that sent a Libyan intelligence officer to prison for the bombing. Whatever position viewers take on those events, Firth makes Swire's grief real and emotionally wrenching.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth premieres 2 January on Sky in the UK and Peacock in the US

Set in 1857, this Western follows several characters as they head across the US wilderness, and weaves together personal drama, action and culture clashes. Betty Gilpin plays Sara, who is driving her young son in a covered wagon, hoping to meet up with her husband. The man she does meet is Taylor Kitsch as Isaac, who helps her along the journey. The story features soldiers, settlers, Indigenous Americans (a consultant advised on the accuracy of language and costumes) and the Mormon leader Brigham Young (Kim Coates), who has an army of his own. The series – written by Mark L Smith, co-writer of The Revenant, and directed by Peter Berg (Painkiller) – takes the violence of the Old West seriously. Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham), the leader of a fort where the travellers stop, warns them they are facing death from the mountain snows, grizzlies and wolves. And an Indigenous woman asks a white man, "Why do you people have so much hunger to kill">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });