Blood
In this psychological thriller set in rural Ireland, adult Cat (Carolina Main) returns to her childhood home following her mother’s death from a fall at the bottom of the garden. The simmering tension of this family saga deepens when Cat begins to suspect her father (Adrian Dunbar) is involved. ’s women characters as feeling ‘real, well wrought and fully fleshed out’, with the show’s creator Sophie Petzal never forgetting ‘to find the humour in the smaller moments’.
Deep State
Season 1 of this espionage drama follows ex-spy Max Easton (played by Mark Strong, who also stars in Temple, another of 2019’s best) forced out of retirement by the chief of MI6 to carry out a very personal mission in Beirut. Back home in France, where he’s settled with a new young family, his wife Anna (Lynn Renee) has cause to suspect he’s not the man she thought he was. Digging into his past reveals information that puts her and their children in grave danger. In an Australian connection, four episodes of season 1 were directed by Robert Connolly. Joe Dempsie and Karima McAdams co-star.
Walton Goggins joins the cast in season 2 as operative Nathan Miller. This time, the setting is Mali, Africa, and when four US Special Forces operatives and their translator are supposedly killed in an ambush, delaying a procurement deal in Washington, Miller is torn between his family and his duty. Deep State is .
Harlots
With an impressive cast of stars, including Samantha Morton, Lesley Manville and Liv Tyler, this female-centric drama is set in cosmopolitan 18-century London, and centres on the heady and highly competitive world of the city’s most valuable commercial activity – sex. All three seasons of this are now at SBS On Demand.
Letterkenny
The rural Ontario town of Letterkenny is our setting in this series chockful of oddballs. Co-creators Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney have grouped their characters into three ‘gangs’: the not-so-brainy hockey players, the meth-smoking skids and the close-knit hicks. Lead hick Wayne (Keeso) consistently emerges victorious in organised punch-ups that ensure everyone knows who’s the toughest bloke in town. The wordsmithing is a fun challenge to work out, the turns of phrase most certainly unique.
Temple
In this UK remake of Norwegian series Valkyrien Mark Strong plays Daniel Milton, a successful surgeon who, along with the young and lonely Lee (Daniel Mays), runs a top-secret clinic beneath London’s Temple tube station. There, he treats those who can’t or won’t seek legitimate healthcare: criminals, illegal immigrants, misfits; their clientele becomes increasingly unpredictable. Game of Thrones’ Carice Van Houten plays Anna, a medical researcher who’s unwittingly drawn into the business. In the vein of Mary Kills People and Trust Me, the Temple centres on the good doctor (and that bass-heavy voice of his) juggling the illegal operation and a fraught personal life.
Shrill
stars Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live, Girls) as Annie, an overweight young woman who wants to change her life – but not her body – unlike everyone else around her, it seems. Annie is determined to fire up her career in journalism while juggling a demoralising boyfriend, the illness of her beloved father, and the dismissive attitude of her perfectionist boss. UK comedian Lolly Adefope co-stars as the best friend we all want. Season 1 airs in full on Saturday 18 January in the lead-up to the arrival of season 2, fast-tracked from the US, airing in full on SBS VICELAND on Saturday 25 January.
Butterfly
Three-part English series Butterfly deals with the sensitive issue of 11-year-old Max who wants to transition to a girl known as Maxine. Separated parents Stephen (Emmett J Scanlan) and Vicky (Anna Friel) are challenged like never before, and are divided in their response to Max’s desire. Bullying and self-harm are also dealt with in this ground-breaking series.
Back To Life
Miri Matteson (played by the show’s creator, Daisy Haggard) has just been released from 18 years in prison. She’s returns to live with her parents Caroline (Geraldine James) and Oscar (Richard Durden) whose own unexpected dramas soon unfold. Miri’s neighbourhood seems benign at first, but her neighbours quickly end up in her life bringing emotional challenges, and she discovers a mysterious out-of-towner seems to be following her. Miri tries hard to move on, but the residents are determined to remind her of her past, making the laugh-out-loud moments even more welcome in this .
Years and Years
Starring Emma Thompson, this audacious drama follows an ordinary Manchester family and catapults them from life in 2019 through to 2034. The Britain of this drama is rocked by political, economic and technological advances while the family experiences what they hope for and fear in the future. Audiences have found Russell T. Davies’ show .
On Becoming A God In Central Florida
Kirsten Dunst shines in this dark comedy as Krystal Stubbs, a minimum-wage water park employee. She lies, schemes and cons her way up the ranks of the cultish pyramid scheme, FAM, that drove her family to ruin. In this creepy view of suburban America, .
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