Picture: Vertical
Welcome to your weekend rundown of what’s new on Netflix for January 9th, 2026. It’s been a busy week for new additions, with the streamer dropping 25 new movies and series over the past seven days. Whether you’re looking for a cozy romantic comedy to warm up the winter weekend or an adrenaline-fueled action thriller, the lineup this week is surprisingly strong. We’ve got a highly anticipated Emily Henry adaptation, a return for Kiernan Shipka in a gritty new role, and a beloved crime procedural finally making its Netflix debut. Here’s a look at everything new and what should be on your watchlist.
Some quick housekeeping – we’re still learning of new releases scheduled to drop throughout January 2026, so keep our list bookmarked, and we’ve also begun cataloging all the February 2026 arrivals here. And just in case you missed it, Netflix confirmed over 160 new releases coming up throughout 2026 with its Next on Netflix campaign earlier this week.
OK, what’s new on Netflix and what should you be watching? Here’s our picks!
What to Watch on Netflix This Weekend
People We Meet on Vacation (2026)
Rating: PG-13
Language: English
Genre: Romance
Director: Brett Haley
Cast: Lukas Gage, Sarah Catherine Hook, Tom Blyth
Netflix has been hyping its big new Emily Henry novel adaptation for quite some time, and it seems like it was justified, given the streamer just confirmed two more of the author’s novels are about to get made for the big screen. Before that happens, though, we get to go on an adventure with Poppy and Alex, two polar opposites who decide to give a romantic relationship a go, having vacationed together for years now. Will there be sparks, or will it end their relationship for good?
In our review, we gave the film a 3.5-star rating, calling it a good start for Netflix’s 2026 film slate. We handed the MVP award to Emily Bader who plays Poppy and concluded, “Ironically, or potentially by design, the film feels like all the elements of an actual vacation: the warm inviting locales, the highest of highs, the excitement of new, the joy of spending time with the ones you want to be with, the cold breeze of reality upon return, & the excitement of anticipation knowing you get to do it all again soon,” adding, “One of the better “beach read” romances that should satisfy fans of the genre. Bader & Blyth make a convincing “opposites attract” duo, having the time of their lives. Almost too good for January.”
Prodigal Son (Seasons 1-2)
Number of episodes: 33
Rating: TV-14
Language: English
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Cast: Tom Payne, Lou Diamond Phillips, Halston Sage
Writer: Chris Fedak, Sam Sklaver
Runtime: 44 min
A few new series are worth your time this week, but for us, the debut of Prodigal Son is the most exciting, albeit bittersweet, given that the show was cruelly canceled despite being absolutely fantastic.
Headlined by Tom Payne, the series definitely has elements of what makes The Blacklist compelling. It follows his character, Malcolm Bright, an acclaimed criminal psychologist who uses his unique insight into how killers think to help the NYPD. How did he get his best insights? He’s the son of Dr. Martin Whitly (played by the ever-great Michael Sheen), who is a notorious serial killer.
Running on Fox between 2019 and 2021, this is just the latest Warner Bros. Television series to be picked up following the announcement that they’d be buying the company and its assets late last year.
Stone Cold Fox (2025)
Rating: TV-MA
Language: English
Genre: Action, Thriller
Director: Sophie Tabet
Cast: Norman De Buck, Kiernan Shipka, Kiefer Sutherland
Writer: Julia Roth, Sophie Tabet
Runtime: 86 min
In one of many SVOD debuts for January, Netflix has premiered the action thriller headlined by Kiernan Shipka, who long-term Netflix fans will know for playing Sabryna in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabryna which remains streaming in full after being released over four seasons. This is an incredibly different role for the actress who has been in a myriad of different projects since exiting the Netflix fantasy series.
Released in select theaters in November, the chances are most have missed the film, so let’s fill you in. Shipka stars as Fox, a woman who has to infiltrate a commune to rescue her sister, who is imprisoned there. Heavily inspired by Kill Bill, it won’t be winning any awards, but it’s a fun romp and well worth checking out, especially given its very bite-sized runtime.
Full List of New Releases on Netflix This Week
Note: An expanded list of everything new added to Netflix US this week can be found on our What’s New on Netflix hub page.
13 New Movies Added This Week
- Akhanda 2 (2025) – TV-14 – Telugu
- De De Pyaar De 2 (2025) – TV-14 – Hindi
- Depeche Mode: M (2025) – TV-PG – English
- Dr. Dolittle (1998) – PG-13 – English
- Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) – PG – English
- Good Night, and Good Luck: Live from Broadway (2025) – TV-14 – English
- Marcello Hernández: American Boy (2025) Netflix Original – TV-14 – English
- People We Meet on Vacation (2026) Netflix Original – PG-13 – English
- Silent House (2011) – R – English
- Soul on Fire (2025) – PG – English
- Spookley the Square Pumpkin (2005) – G – English
- Stone Cold Fox (2025) – TV-MA – English
- The Lesson (2023) – R – English
12 New TV Series Added This Week
- 11.22.63 (Limited Series) – TV-MA – English
- Alpha Males (Season 4) – TV-MA – Spanish
- Defying Destiny (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-MA – Spanish
- Good Cop/Bad Cop (Season 1) – TV-14 – English
- HIS & HERS (Limited Series ) Netflix Original – TV-MA – English
- Love Is Blind: Germany (Season 2) Netflix Original – TV-MA – German
- Paparazzi King (Limited Series) Netflix Original – TV-MA – Italian
- Pokémon Horizons: Season 3: Rising Hope (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-Y7 – English
- Prodigal Son (Seasons 1-2) – TV-14 – English
- Raw Weekly Recap (Season 2 – New Episodes Weekly) Netflix Original – TV-PG – English
- The Following (Seasons 1-3) – TV-14 – English
- Unlocked: A Jail Experiment (Season 2) Netflix Original – TV-MA – English
Most Popular Movies on Netflix US This Week
Picture Credit: Netflix
With no big new movie released over the festive period, it’s been the stunning true-crime documentary on Jodi Hildebrandt that’s swept the daily US top 10s this past week, scooping full points. A number of the January 1st arrivals filtered on and off the daily top 10s this week, with Denzel Washington’s Man on Fire from 2004 managing to narrowly beat the Priscilla biopic. That’s good news for Netflix, given that it just revealed its series adaptation of the source material is set for release in 2026.
- Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (80 points)
- Man on Fire (58 points)
- Priscilla (54 points)
- Ford v. Ferrari (42 points)
- Pitch Perfect 2 (38 points)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (34 points)
- Pitch Perfect (32 points)
- KPop Demon Hunters (27 points)
- The Bad Guys (24 points)
- Just Go With It (22 points)
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (10 points)
- Wrath of Man (10 points)
- Soul on Fire (6 points)
- Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (3 points)
Most Popular TV Series on Netflix US This Week
12 Picture Credit: NetflixUnsurprisingly, the new Harlan Coben series has been dominating the daily top 10s, but Stranger Things is still up there following its finale (yes, finale – no episode 9 is coming) on New Year’s. Emily in Paris rounds out the top 3, with the canceled NBC show Found, which found new love on Netflix following its addition last weekend.
- Run Away (76 points)
- Stranger Things (70 points)
- Emily in Paris (45 points)
- Found (43 points)
- Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable… (41 points)
- Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs (30 points)
- Ricky Gervais: Mortality (20 points)
- Raw (18 points)
- Land of Sin (17 points)
- 11.22.63 (16 points)
- The Beast in Me (16 points)
- Marcello Hernández: American Boy (14 points)
- Members Only: Palm Beach (11 points)
- HIS & HERS (10 points)
- Unlocked: A Jail Experiment (9 points)
- Sean Combs: The Reckoning (3 points)
- Tom Segura: Teacher (1 point)
What are you watching on Netflix this week? Let us know in the comments down below.
