Not good in alphabetical searches

If you’re old enough to remember Lovejoy, look, it’s Lovejoy! If you’re not, look, what a lovely shirt! Meanwhile, on your television…

Servant

If it’s a creepy new year you’re after, look no further: M Night Shyamalan’s claustrophobic psychological thriller series is returning for a second season. A couple hire a nanny to care for their infant son… but not only is the nanny not all she seems – the baby is actually a realistic doll created to replace the couple’s dead child. S2 / Apple TV+, 15 January

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Finally, the third Bill & Ted film has arrived – a full 29 years after the second one – reuniting Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as the titular time-travelling rockers, tasked with creating a song that will save the world from annihilation. Most excellent… but even Sky subscribers will have to cough up as it’s pay-per-view. Film / Sky Store (£13.99), 9 January

A Discovery of Witches

Fans of witches, vampires, demons and secret occult goings-on have had to wait two long years for this second helping of Sky’s lush drama, but the time looks to have been well-used: A Discovery of Witches has sucked its principal characters into a timewarp, dropping them in Elizabethan London on a mission to track down the biggest witch of all. S2 / Now/Sky, 8 January

Bridgerton

Landing on Christmas Day to be binged on by those who’ve fallen onto the sofa in a turkey-induced fugue state, Netflix’s sumptuous period drama is helmed by Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes and based on Julia Quinn’s novels. Expect intrigue, romance and gossip among the debutantes and grandees of Regency London. S1 / Netflix, 25 December

ZeroZeroZero

The creators of Neapolitan crime saga Gomorrah go global with this ambitious series that follows an international cocaine shipment. Mexican narco-terrorists, corrupt soldiers, Italian mobsters and a white-collar American family all intertwine in a gripping tale that illustrates just how much of a sham the ‘war on drugs’ really is. S1 / Now/Sky, January (date tbc)

Cobra Kai

Who’d have thought a spin-off comedy-drama series featuring characters from The Karate Kid would be so involving? Far more than a lazy exercise in nostalgia for ’80s kids, Cobra Kai brings a smart revisionist perspective to a story we all thought was long over, turning villain Johnny Lawrence into a nuanced underdog protagonist. S3 / Netflix, 8 January

American Gods S3 / Amazon Prime Video, 11 Jan

The TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s cult novel has wandered a troubled path, with successive showrunners departing after each of the first two seasons and cast members quitting (or possibly being fired, depending on who you believe). Yet it’s also one of the best-looking shows ever created, with a punchy visual style that will put even the fanciest OLED to the test. After a two-year wait, the third season is coming, bringing more stories from the vicious war between old pagan gods and upstart modern deities.