15 international series to watch during the holiday season – The Hollywood Reporter

The closing action of a modern Italian mafia classic, a look at Jewish life in 1950s Turkey and a few Korean films to help you and your loved ones. you are suffering because of a case Squid fishing game Withdrawal.

As has been done in recent years, The Hollywood Reporter searched far and wide for international shows to cram into your downtime this holiday season.

GOMORRAH

With the fifth and final season of this popular Italian mafia drama set to premiere in early 2022, now is the time to catch up on the show which critics have compared favorably with. Wire, Sopranos and Break. But while those shows occasionally feature an exemplary member of law enforcement or a criminal with an honorable code of conduct, Gomorrah focuses entirely on the unsavory gangsters running the Neapolitan criminal organization known as the Camorra. Epic in scope and non-stop authentic (most of the dialogue is in Neapolitan, meaning even most Italian viewers need subtitles to watch), Gomorrah hit the system like a strong shot of espresso. (Stream on: HBO Max)

CLUB

Featured on Netflix’s new list of Turkish originals, Club is part family drama, part crime mystery, part history lesson and part dive into a world – the multiracial, cosmopolitan society of 1950s Istanbul – never before seen on TV. . Gökce Bahadir plays Matilda, a member of the Sephardic Jewish community in Turkey, who is released from prison for a murder she committed as a teenager. Struggling to reconnect with her estranged daughter, she begins working at a new nightclub, breaking the city’s taboo. An intoxicating fusion of genres, cultures and languages ​​(including Ladino, the historical language of Sephardic Judaism), Club is the perfect gateway drug to Turkish television.
(Stream on: Netflix)

DR. BRAIN

Netflix’s resounding success is about to come with Squid fishing game, Apple’s Korean premiere series is similarly highly conceptual and delves into the genre of horror-driven storytelling. The plot shows the famous Dr. Brain, a neuroscientist with autism (due to ParasitesLee Sun-kyun), who invented a machine that can synchronize brain waves, allowing the recipient to absorb the memory of a deceased donor. Struggling to deal with the death of his young son, and already baffled by the world of emotions, Dr. Brain tries his invention for himself, devising a FrankensteinA noir horror story in which Dr. Brain is both a scientist and a monster.
(Stream on: AppleTV+)

KAMIKAZE

HBO Max knocked it out of the park with its first original Danish series: a drama about Julie, a wealthy, privileged 18-year-old Instagram influencer whose life is torn apart. devastated when her family died in a plane crash. It’s the next big thing that Marie Reuther plays Julie with painful intensity, brimming with life in a story that leans towards extremes, but still manages to be a thoughtful personal exploration.
(Stream on: HBO Max)

DP

Another socially known Korean series from Netflix, DP. focus on the country’s system of compulsory military service. South Korean men had to do at least 18 months of military service between the ages of 18 and 28, enduring Spartan living conditions, poor wages, and frequent violence. Jung Hae-in plays a soldier tasked with finding and returning deserted soldiers (the show title’s DP stands for “Deserter Pursuit”). While the action sequences can be over-the-top and the emotional scenes interspersed with romance, the film, adapted from the popular Korean webtoon, is a candid and realistic look at problematic military culture. subject of the country.
(Stream on: Netflix)

WE KIDS FROM BAHNHOF ZOO

This series follows the groundbreaking and truly horrifying memoir of Christiane F., a heroin-addicted teenager in 1980s West Berlin, whose story was the basis for Uli’s 1981 classic Edel, We Children from Bahnhof Zoo expands the story in the journey of Christiane’s companions. Fused with period styles and musical cues spanning the last 30 years – David Bowie incorporates scores of Santigold and De La Soul – the series delivers a high level of fascination before addiction and abuse. used to bring the whole thing down.
(Stream on: Amazon Prime)

MORALE

Fans of harsh criminal procedures should check out this French series, which wrapped up eight, 15-year seasons this year. Some have called the show a French one Law & Order, but a more suitable comparison is Wire, as the two central cops of the show, Gilou and Laure (Thierry Godard and Caroline Proust) bend and break the rules to catch the bad guys. What Wire did for Baltimore, Spiral made for Paris, taking viewers beyond the touristy postcards to the city’s working-class neighborhoods and their residents, who often find themselves at the bottom of the criminal justice system .
(Stream on Choice MHz)

MY NAME

With an investment of $500 million this year in original Korean TV content – a number that is certain to grow in 2022 thanks to the global success of Squid fishing game – Netflix already has a series of series available from this country. One of the best movies of the new season is this martial arts crime drama about Ji-Woo (Han So-hee), a bullied high school student who becomes a vengeful angel after his trafficker father Her drug dealer was shot dead right in front of her eyes. Get a page from No religion franchise (adapted by Martin Scorsese as The departed), Ji-Woo joins her father’s crime syndicate only to be placed in the ranks of the local police. Working as an undercover agent, she hopes to find out the truth about her father’s death. The main draw of the series, however, is its general kicking, with its phenomenal action sequences and Han So-hee’s almighty performance like a boiling cauldron in unbridled rage.
(Stream on: Netflix)

NO MI CULPA FUE MI: MEXICO

A poignant look at the feminist crisis in Mexico modeled on some of the hundreds of real-life cases of Mexican women being killed by spouses, male family members, and strangers, this series also focuses on the victims and their loved ones left behind. when it comes to delving into the system that facilitates and supports gender-based violence. Not an easy watch, but a necessary one.
(Streaming on: Hulu)

COUNTRYMEN

Instead of trying to avoid the stereotypes of Islamo-phobe, this Norwegian comedy doubles down to overthrow them. The staging involved a terrorist cell setting up a bomb factory on a picturesque farm in the Norwegian countryside. Their cover story: they are converting a goat farm into a Halal cheese factory. But when the cheese business is successful and they are embraced by the local community, the terrorists will begin to question their career choices.
(Streamed on: Viaplay)

FORBYDELSEN (LIFE)

The original Nordic noir series, the Danish series, which ran for three seasons from 2007 to 2012 launched a genre and created an avid fan base for its deep, slow-paced storytelling. , affects everything from The church is wide arrive True Detective (as well as getting the US remake, Killing, courtesy of AMC.) It also makes a star from Sofie Grabol, who has become a global TV icon for her performance as the persistent, if distant, detective Sarah Lund. sentimental (and in a short time craze for her Nordic knitting). Now that Themes has released all three seasons, US viewers can watch all the fuss happening for the first time.
(Streaming on: Thread)

PARA – WE ARE KING

From famous German crime drama producers 4 blocks tells this coming-of-age story set in the dingy streets of Berlin after four young women develop a brand of girlish feminism, which involves snatching a bag of drugs from a dealer. local agents to earn some “Para” (quick cash) for themselves. The charismatic quartet, played by sparkling newcoms Jeanne Goursaud, Jobel Mokonzi, Soma Pysall and Roxana Samadi, makes this a fascinating timepiece and its depiction of a proud multicultural Berlin Pride is a revelation.
(Stream on: HBO Max)

MALAYERBA

A welcome re-edit to the much-popular image of Colombia as a criminal and coke causing astigmatism, this new series on Spanish-speaking service Pantaya focuses on the world medical marijuana (the series title is popular Colombian slang for “sneer”), follows a trio of startup entrepreneurs determined to profit from the legalization of weed in the country. Less than Narcos and more Add Pause and Catch Fire for dope.
(Streamed on: Pantaya)

GOLDEN LIFE

ONE Sopranos/OzarkA family-style crime drama set in Hungary, this HBO Europe series has been a critically-loved series since its premiere in 2015. The film, which tells about the misdeeds of Attila Miklosi, a successful con man trying to go straight – against the objections of his demanding wife and family, who are accustomed to their nefarious lifestyles of luxury. – ended its third and final season in 2018, making it an ideal game during the holidays.
(Stream on: HBO Max)

SEND MY REPRESENTATIVE!

Francophiles’ favorite insider tip went mainstream during lockdown as audiences watched this comedic gem, a dramatic comedy set at a talented Parisian company, mixes A-list self-parody guest roles of Complementary – Sigourney Weaver, Juliette Binoche, Monica Bellucci and Jean Reno are just some of the names in bold, who gleefully rip off their images in public – with a healthy dose of sincere affection . In the end, however, the agents at ASK seem to be self-serving and self-service, they really care. Now that the show has been extended for a fifth season, with a series in the works, there’s no better time to dive in.
(Stream on: Netflix)