Hugh Laurie’s New Spy Thriller Just Hit #1 Worldwide and Is a Must-Binge This Week

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Greg is a Lead TV Writer & Critic at Screen Rant who also covers Movies and Music. He's published over 2500 articles at SR, including weekly binge guides and dozens of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. He previously worked in Development at ABC Television & Lawrence Bender Productions.

Greg majored in Film Production at Chapman University's Dodge College. Greg also has years of broadcast TV production experience at major networks such as NBC, TNT, and ESPN. He currently lives in Greater Boston.

Hugh Laurie's new role in a critically acclaimed spy thriller series makes this Apple TV show a must-binge this week. The 66-year-old Emmy-nominated actor and former House star makes his first appearance in a streaming series since 2023's All the Light We Cannot See.

Although Laurie is also a star in Prime Video's The Night Manager, a spy thriller led by Tom Hiddleston that just returned for its second season, he stars in a completely different espionage series that is trending #1 worldwide just days after its latest season premiere.

Hugh Laurie stars in Tehran season 3, which has quietly been one of the best spy thriller series available to stream on Apple TV. While it has yet to achieve the universal acclaim of Emmy-winning spy thriller series like Slow Horses, Tehran is still a show worth binge-watching.

The season 3 premiere of Tehran was just released on Apple TV on Friday, January 9, with new episodes set to drop every Friday in January until the season finale arrives in late February. Apple TV has already ordered a fourth season of the spy thriller series, which just recently became the #1 most-watched show worldwide, passing the most-watched Apple TV show ever, Pluribus.

Laurie plays a brand new character named Eric Peterson in Tehran season 3, a nuclear inspector from South Africa who becomes tangled up in the main drama with Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, the lead star of Tehran. Interestingly, Prime Video's acclaimed spy thriller series, The Night Manager, also stars Laurie and made its season debut last weekend. That said, The Night Manager has failed to capture Prime Video's #1 worldwide spot, trailing behind viral hits Fallout and Beast Games.

Tehran Is The Best Spy Thriller To Binge-Watch In January 2026

While The Night Manager made a strong season 2 return with its 3-part premiere on Sunday, January 11, earning a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%, Tehran is arguably the better spy thriller series of the two, especially when it comes to binge-watching. For starters, The Night Manager only consists of 12 episodes between its first two seasons. Meanwhile, Tehran has 16 episodes in its first two seasons, and is set to drop 8 brand new installments over the next several weeks.

While both series have themes and characters entrenched in international espionage, Tehran's plot is a bit more grounded in reality than The Night Manager's, which, by comparison, feels more like an extravagant James Bond film rather than a realistic spy series. Both shows are great, and you should certainly give both series a try, especially if you're a fan of Laurie. If forced to choose only one between the two, Tehran arguably has a slight edge and is more worth your time to binge this week on Apple TV.

Looking for more new and trending streaming options this week? Check out Screen Rant's freshly updated TV binge-watching guides for Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, and Paramount+.