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The Afterparty (Apple TV+, from January 28)
If you like your murder mysteries served up with a side-order of pop culture references, then this genredefying new series from Chris Miller and Phil Lord – the men behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street – should hit the spot. Centered on a murder at a high school reunion, each episode explores a different character’s account of the fateful evening in question. Amusingly, it’s all showcased through the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals that are tailored to match the storyteller’s perspective. The stellar ensemble cast includes Dave Franco, Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Zoe Chao, Ben Schwartz, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer and Jamie Demetriou.
The Legend of Vox Machina (Amazon, from January 28)
Matthew Mercer creates and lends his voice to this 12-part adult animated fantasy, the first series of which made it past the drawing board thanks to crowdfunding. It must be good, because Amazon commissioned a second series before the opening titles of episode one had even rolled. Set in Exandria, the world Mercer created for his 2012 personal Dungeons & Dragons campaign that led to the 2015 web series Critical Role (keeping up, everyone?), the first two episodes will follow the seven-member Vox Machina team at D&D Level 7 on their first ‘grown-up’ mission.
In from the Cold (Netflix, from January 28)
Margarita Levieva stars in this thriller series from Adam Glass, which combines whiffs of The Manchurian Candidate and X-Men with dollops of The Long Kiss Goodnight. Levieva plays Jenny, an American single mother whose life is turned upside down during a European holiday with her daughter after the CIA forces her to confront her long-buried past as a Russian spy. As if that wasn’t hassle enough, it turns out Jenny was also the product of a highly classified KGB experiment granting her rather special abilities. After a mysterious string of manic and murderous incidents suggests someone with her exact abilities is targeting innocent people, Jenny is forced out of hiding to stop this villain or risk losing the family and new life she has built.