Best international series to stream on Showmax this September
+ 1st seasons of A Gentleman in Moscow, Fantasmas & It's A Sin; new Industry & Fire Country
Week 1: 2-8 September
INDUSTRY S3 | First On Showmax | Mondays until 14 October
Currently at #10 on IMDb’s Most Popular TV chart globally, Industry S3 is one of Rotten Tomatoes’ Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2024, drawing Succession comparisons from them as “HBO’s other whip-smart and acid-tongued drama that’s really a comedy.”
New cast members this season include Emmy nominees Kit Harington (Jon Snow in Game of Thrones) and Sarah Goldberg (Sally Reed in Barry) as the CEO of a green tech energy company and a portfolio manager respectively.
An insider’s view of high finance, Industry follows a group of young bankers as they forge their identities within the pressure cooker environment and sex and drug fueled blitz of international bank Pierpoint & Co’s London office.
In Season 3, Pierpoint looks to the future and takes a big bet on ethical investing. Yasmin (Marisa Abela), Robert (Harry Lawtey), and Eric (Ken Leung) find themselves front and center dealing with Lumi, a green tech energy company led by Sir Henry Muck (Harington).
Since leaving Pierpoint, Harper (Myha’la) is eager to get back into the addictive thrill of finance and finds an unlikely partner in FutureDawn portfolio manager Petra Koenig (Goldberg).
Season 3 has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with RogerEbert.com hailing Industry as “one of the best shows of the decade” and this season’s second episode as “one of the most thrilling hours of television this year.”
THE SYMPATHIZER S1 | Mondays at 21:00 until 23 September
Metacritic’s tenth best-reviewed series this year, The Sympathizer follows a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and into his new life as a refugee in Los Angeles, where he learns that his spying days aren't over.
Hoa Xuande (Cowboy Bebop) leads a largely Vietnamese cast, with Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. earning an Emmy nomination for his multiple roles here. The supporting cast includes Golden Globe winners Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Grey’s Anatomy) and David Duchovny (The X Files, Californication), as well as John Cho (from the Harold & Kumarand Star Trek franchises).
Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the HBO/A24 co-production has an 88% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Time Magazine says it’s, “ambitious, brilliant television,” and Rolling Stone calls it “wickedly funny [and] deeply moving,” saying, “The Sympathizer turns a bestseller adaptation into a TV tour de force.”
The Sympathizer is co-created by Cannes winners Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) and Don McKellar (Last Night), with Chan-wook, Oscar nominee Fernando Meirelles (City of God) and triple BAFTA winner Marc Munden (Utopia) each directing episodes.
BEL-AIR S3 | First on Showmax | Mondays until 9 September
Bel-Air successfully reimagines the beloved sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a drama, with last season nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at both the 2024 Black Reel and Image Awards, with Jabari Banks up for Best Actor at both as Will.
Set in modern-day Los Angeles, the Peacock Original tracks Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air. As these two worlds collide, Will reckons with the power of second chances while navigating the conflicts, emotions, and biases of a world far different from the only one he’s ever known.
In Season 3, Will makes an exciting pivot – and finds a partner in Carlton, who’s desperate for a fresh start.
Adrian Holmes is back in his Image Award-nominated role as Uncle Phil, as is Nigerian-American actor Olly Sholotan as Carlton.
Bel-Air is once again executive produced by Oscar winner Will Smith and Morgan Cooper, whose viral fan trailer inspired the show’s reimagining as a drama.
HOUSE OF GODS | Tuesdays until 3 September
House of Gods follows the lives of an ambitious Iraqi Australian family grappling with newfound power and privilege when their charismatic patriarch is elected Head Cleric of their local mosque.
As Sheikh Mohammad, Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha won Best Actor at Series Mania in France earlier this year. Award-winning Australian actor, screen-writer and series co-creator Osamah Sami co-stars as Isa, alongside an all Arab-Australian support cast.
The drama series takes us behind the walls of the imam’s family and the community he leads as he rolls out his vision of a modern Islam. But as his grand ambitions become a reality, those closest to him begin to question whether he is acting solely for the greater good or if he is intoxicated by power. A tale of faith, family, secrets and lies, the six-episode series explores the great personal cost of ambition.
“Australia’s House Of Gods started out as The Sopranos in a mosque, channelled Succession and ended up in a category all of its own,” Deadline headlined.
GIRLS ON THE BUS S1 | Stream from 8:30pm every Wednesday from 4 September
The Girls On The Bus puts us on the campaign trail with four female journalists, who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates. Along the way, they find friendship, love, and a scandal that could take down not just the presidency but the entire US democracy.
The HBO series stars Critics Choice Super Award nominees Melissa Benoist (The CW’s Supergirl) and Carla Gugino (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Haunting of Hill House) alongside Christina Elmore (Insecure) and Natasha Behnam (American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules).
The Girls On The Bus is created by Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries) and New York Times political reporter Amy Chozick, whose memoir Chasing Hillary inspired the series.
THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ | Wednesdays until 2 October
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the bestselling novel by Heather Morris, inspired by the real-life love story of Jewish Holocaust survivors Lali and Gita Sokolov.
Arriving in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, Lali (Jonah Hauer-King from The Little Mermaid and World on Fire) meets Gita (Anna Próchniak) while tattooing her prisoner number on her arm. Under the constant guard of volatile Nazi SS officers, Lali and Gita fall in love and become determined to keep each other alive.
60 years later, the recently widowed Lali (Oscar nominee Harvey Keitel from The Piano and The Grand Budapest Hotel), now in his 80s, meets novice writer Heather Morris (Emmy nominee Melanie Lynskey from Yellowjackets) and finds the courage to share his story about falling in love in the most horrific of places.
Among Rotten Tomatoes’ Most Anticipated TV Shows Of 2024, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz puts the dichotomy of the human spirit on full display,” says Variety, “showing the possibility of love and the unimaginable monstrosity that hatred can bring.”
Double Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve have been nominated for two Emmys for their score.
FANTASMAS S1 | First On Showmax | Binge from Friday, 6 September
In Fantasmas, writer, director, and comedian Julio Torres spins a fantastical six-part tale of when he lost a gold oyster earring. In his search to find the precious object, he meets a series of offbeat characters in introspective, often eerie, and always comedic vignettes set against the backdrop of a dreamy, alternate version of New York City. A kaleidoscope of colour and surrealism, Fantasmas weaves together stories of people looking for meaning, purpose, and connection in an increasingly isolating world.
Fantasmas is at #4 on Metacritic’s list of the Best TV Shows This Year and #9 on Rotten Tomatoes list of the Best TV Shows of 2024 (so far), with a 93% critics’ rating.
In a rare 5/5-star review, The Guardian called Fantasmas, “a fantastically creative and theatrical little diamond,“ and an “outstandingly whimsical new series [that] threatens to tear up television’s rules,” saying, “this wildly creative comedy is a beacon of hope for TV’s future.”
The cast is led by Torres (already a multiple-Emmy nominee for his work on Saturday Night Live, and creator of Problemista and the Peabody Award-winning Los Espookys), along with his Los Espookys collaborators Martine Gutierrez and Ana Fabrega, Emmy nominee Ikechukwu Ufomadu (Judas and the Black Messiah, Inspector Ike, Ziwe), and Jaboukie Young-White (Rap Sh!t, Only Murders in the Building). Fantasmas also boasts a jaw-dropping line-up of guest stars, including Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Dano, Rosie Perez, Steve Buscemi, Tilda Swinton, and Oscar winner Emma Stone, who also exec produced.
RANDOM ACTS OF FLYNESS S2 | Binge from Friday, 6 September
The Peabody Award-winning Random Acts of Flyness returns for its second season, subtitled The Parable of the Pirate and the King.
The second season follows Terence (creator Terence Nance) and Najja (Alicia Pilgrim), a couple working towards healing generational wounds and reintroducing themselves to the ways of their ancestors.
Produced by A24 and Anonymous Content, Season 2 was up for three Black Reel Awards this year, for its Cinematography, Editing and Production Design.
Random Acts of Flyness boasts a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Slate describing Season 1 as “an experimental trip into blackness fly enough to post up in a modern-art museum.”
Nance heads a directorial team that includes Grammy-winning Nigerian-British artist Jenn Nkiru and Berlin- and Sundance-winning Ghanaian filmmaker Nuotama Bodomo, with Tribeca-winning Ghanaian-American Nana Mensah (Queen of Glory) and Sundance winner Mariama Diallo (Hair Wolf) among the series’ writers.
Week 2: 9-15 September
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW | Stream from 8:30pm on Mondays from 9 September
An adaptation of Amor Towles’ best-selling novel, A Gentleman In Moscow follows Count Alexander Rostov, played by Emmy and Critics Choice Award-winner Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars franchise, Fargo, Trainspotting), who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past has placed him on the wrong side of history.
Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in a grand Moscow hotel and threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.
A Gentleman In Moscow is at #23 among the Best TV Shows of 2024 (so far) on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a 92% critics’ rating.
The cast includes Critics Choice nominee Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Ahsoka, Scott Pilgrim’s Ramona Flowers) and BAFTA nominees Johnny Harris (Without Sin), Leah Harvey (Foundation) and Lucian Msamati (Gangs of London, His Dark Materials).
IT’S A SIN | First On Showmax | Binge from 11 September
It’s a Sin charts the joy and heartbreak of a group of friends in 1980s London. With their lives tested as they come of age in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic and a society that is largely intolerant of their sexual orientation, they're determined to live and love more fiercely than ever.
The five-part mini-series was Channel 4's biggest drama launch ever and became the most binged new series on the channel, racking up 18.9 million viewers. It also prompted a record-breaking three-fold rise in HIV tests ordered in the UK following its broadcast during National HIV Testing Week.
Named the #1 Show of the year by the likes of The Guardian, Empire Magazine, and Radio Times, It’s a Sin holds a 97% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, an 8.6/10 score on IMDb, and 91% on Metacritic, where was the fourth best-reviewed show of the year overall.
BAFTA-winning, Emmy-nominated series creator and writer Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk, A Very English Scandal, Years and Years, Nolly) was named TV’s most influential person of the year by The Radio Times, with the show’s star, Years & Years lead singer Olly Alexander, taking second place on the TV Top 100 and co-star Lydia West at #7. Also look out for appearances from the likes of Stephen Fry, Keeley Hawes, and Neil Patrick Harris.
It’s a Sin was up for Best Limited Series and Best Actor in a Limited Series (for Alexander) at the Critics Choice Awards, and won Outstanding Limited Series at the GLAAD Media Awards and a Dorian Award for Best LGBTQ TV Show. It was also the most nominated show at the 68th BAFTA awards, winning Best Director for Emmy nominee Peter Hoar (The Last of Us).
Empire Magazine called It’s a Sin “a full-on cultural phenomenon”; Time Magazine described it as “deeply humane, richly observed, frequently funny and fully devastating”; and Slant Magazine praised the series for “reorienting shame and blame from those who died to those who couldn't be bothered.” The Daily Beast declared it “the year’s best show” with “some of the best acting on TV,” saying, “Yes, it is the most devastating piece of television I watched this year… But [also] perhaps the most joyous.”
Week 3: 16-22 September
COBRA: CYBERWAR | Binge from Monday, 16 September
When a suspected Kremlin operation on British soil causes collateral casualties, Prime Minister Robert Sutherland (Emmy nominee Robert Carlyle from The Full Monty and Trainspotting) must once again convene the team of experts, crisis contingency planners and senior politicians known as COBRA.
As COBRA grapples with simultaneous disasters, they begin to fear they may be witnessing the opening moves of a wider game for which none of them are prepared.
Look out for the likes of Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones, Blue Lights), Victoria Hamilton (The Crown), and David Haig (Florence Foster Jenkins).
COBRA has already been renewed for a third season.
THE PENGUIN S1 | Stream from 8:30pm on Thursdays from 19 September
Continuing the epic crime saga that began with 2022’s Oscar-nominated blockbuster The Batman, The Penguin stars Oscar nominee Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka The Penguin), who makes a play for the reins of Gotham’s crime world.
The eight-episode HBO series also stars Critics Choice Super Award winner Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs, Made for Love, Fargo), Rhenzy Feliz (Runaways), Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse, The Flight Attendant), Emmy nominee Michael Kelly (House of Cards, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan), Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption, John Wick 4), Black Reel winner Carmen Ejogo (Your Honor, Selma), and BAFTA nominee Mark Strong (Shazam!, 1917, Kingsman: The Secret Service).
The Penguin is created and showrun by Lauren LeFranc (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), directed by Emmy nominee Craig Zobel (The Hunt, Mare of Easttown), and exec produced by Matt Reeves, who directed The Batman.
ELSBETH S1 | Binge from Friday, 20 September
At #16 on Rotten Tomatoes’ Best TV Shows Of 2024 (So Far) with a 94% critics rating, Elsbeth sees Carrie Preston reprising her Emmy-winning role from The Good Wife and The Good Fight as Elsbeth Tascioni, an unconventional attorney who ends up working as a de facto detective.
“A gem of a series, Elsbeth embraces a bold blend of comedy and drama centering on a beautifully off-kilter protagonist, making it a breath of fresh air,” says Variety.
Created by four-time Emmy nominees Michelle King and Robert King, the show’s cast includes the likes of multi-award-winner Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as Captain C.W. Wagner, as well as cameos from everyone from Golden Globe nominee Blair Underwood (L.A. Law) to Emmy winner Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele).
Week 4: 23-29 September
THE EQUALIZER S4| First on Showmax | Binge from Monday, 23 September
Season 4 of The Equalizer comes in hot (literally) with Robyn and her team facing the deadly inferno that left them trapped in last season’s cliffhanger finale.
A reimagining of the 1980s series (which also inspired the Denzel Washington films of the same name), the hit show stars Oscar nominee Queen Latifah (Chicago) as Robyn McCall, a single mom quietly raising her teenage daughter. But to a trusted few, she is "The Equalizer" – an anonymous guardian angel who helps those with nowhere else to turn.
Latifah has been nominated for Best Actress in an Action Series at the Critics Choice Super Awards for the past three years running, with four nominations at the People’s Choice Awards, where the show was up for Drama Show of the Year in 2021.
Already renewed for a fifth season, the series’ cast includes Tory Kittles (True Detective) as Detective Marcus Dante, Critics Choice winner Lorraine Toussaint (Orange Is the New Black) as Aunt Vi, Adam Goldberg (Taken, Saving Private Ryan) as Harry Keshegian, and Liza Lapira (Unbelievable, 21) as Mel Bayani, with Laya Deleon Hayes (aka the voice of Doc McStuffins) as Robyn's daughter Delilah.
FIRE COUNTRY S2 | Binge from Friday, 27 September
Nominated for this year’s Critics Choice Super Award for Best Action Series, Fire Country stars Max Thieriot (SEAL Team, Bates Motel) as Bode Donovan, a young convict who joins an unconventional prison release program in Northern California, where he and other inmates work with elite firefighters to extinguish massive, unpredictable wildfires.
Season 1 was CBS’ most watched new show of the year, so they’ve already ordered Season 3.
Award-winner Kevin Alejandro (Lucifer’s Dan Espinoza) returns as Manny, Jordan Calloway (Black Lightning’s Khalil Payne aka Painkiller) is Jake, Jules Latimer (Rustin) plays Eve, and Billy Burke (9-1-1: Lone Star’s Billy Tyson and The Twilight Saga’s Charlie Swan) is Bode’s dad, Vince, the fire chief. Tye White (American Auto, Greenleaf) joins the cast this season and look out for a guest appearance from Emmy nominee Morena Baccarin (Deadpool, Serenity).
Co-created by Thieriot and Emmy-nominated Grey's Anatomy producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, Fire Country is exec-produced by Oscar nominee and multiple-Emmy-winner Jerry Bruckheimer, who’s given us the hit CSI shows, Top Gun, Bad Boys, Pirates of the Caribbean, and more.
EVERYTHING ON SHOWMAX IN SEPTEMBER:
Showmax has another bumper lineup this September, including:
• Showmax Original legal drama Law, Love and Betrayal
• Showmax Original mystery Die Bloedhonde, fresh from Silwerskerm
• The blockbuster Bob Marley: One Love
• The third best-reviewed film of the year: Laroy, Texas
• 2024 Best Picture Oscar nominee The Holdovers
• Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City
• The Real Housewives of New Jersey S14
• BAFTA-winning documentary Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
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