Bad Banks
Paula Beer stars as young hot-shot investment banker Jana Liekam in this German series from creator Oliver Kienle. When she’s fired for showing up the son of the company director in an important meeting, Jana’s unexpectedly rescued by her former boss, Christelle Leblanc (Désirée Nosbusch). Landing her a job at the competition, under charismatic leader Gabriel Fenger (Barry Atsma), Jana quickly proves herself, leading Leblanc to call on her to return the favour. Jana’s about to learn some hard lessons about trusting people.
Exit
Based on shocking true stories from the exclusive world of Oslo’s high finance, this Norwegian drama follows four friends who seem to have it all. The men are driven by narcissism and getting whatever and whoever they want. At their private party pad, they escape the boredom of their lives with hedonism and reckless partying.
From successful writer/director Øystein Karlsen (Dag, One Night), the series boasts an award-winning cast from the stage and screen, many of whom will be familiar to SBS viewers, including Simon J. Berger (Conspiracy of Silence), Pål Sverre Hagen (Valkyrien), Tobias Santelmann (The Last Kingdom), Jon Øigarden (Mammon), Ine Marie Wilmann ( now at SBS On Demand) and Agnes Kittelsen (Happy, Happy).
Instinctive Desires
This erotic thriller centres on über successful young businessman Marco Mur (Mario Casas). Juggling multimillion dollar deals, disagreements with his company’s co-founder and securing the wellbeing of his disabled brother, Marco has a lot on his plate. Rather than form real relationships with women, he visits a private club for intimate encounters where everyone wears masks to maintain anonymity. But the more he tries to hide his private anxiety-fuelled world, the more the world seeks him out. How long can he keep hiding what’s going on inside?
Riviera
Julia Stiles plays Georgina, a woman whose life of luxury is torn apart when her billionaire husband (Anthony LaPaglia) is killed suddenly, and she suspects, not accidentally. This thriller is intoxicating not just for its glamorous setting, but also for its cast of characters, including Lena Olin, Dimitri Leonidas and Adrian Lester. Who is shady? Who can Georgina trust? picks up where the explosive season 1 left off.
Moscow Noir
The Bridge’s Adam Pålsson stars as ambitious Swedish investment banker, Tom Blixen, in this Wild East thriller set in 1999 Moscow. To help his friend Fredrik (Christopher Wagelin) who’s in deep financial trouble, Blixen agrees to take a risky deal that goes horribly wrong, landing him in real danger amid the unsavoury types that populate the city’s underworld. Blixen is in deep, not knowing who he can trust, as people show up dead all around him. Swedish writers Camilla Grebe and Paul Leander-Engström’s book is the basis of the series, and they’re also on the writing team here.
The Young Pope/The New Pope
Oscar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (Youth, The Great Beauty) is behind these two shows that are sequential seasons, albeit carrying slightly different names. ( to form a trilogy. We’ll keep you posted!)
Season 1 of this drama is cloistered behind the walls of the Vatican centring on Jude Law as the young pope. Despite his relative youth Pope Pius XIII is far from broad-minded, favouring deep privacy and conservatism. By the end of the season, he ends up in a coma. Season 2 brings in the new pope in the formidable form of John Malkovich. Pope John Paul III causes a major stir, willing as he is to open up the Vatican and engage with the people – a very different stance to his ailing predecessor. But what happens when they end up with two popes at the helm?
The Young Pope:
The New Pope:
Blinded
Fans of Scandi thrillers will love Blinded. Like Norway’s Exit, Sweden’s Blinded is set in the world of high finance, and pits together young journalist Bea Farkas (Julia Ragnarsson) and bank director Peder Rooth (Matias Varela). As part of her investigation into how it’s possible for Scandinavia’s most profitable specialised bank to be posting extremely low credit losses, Bea is questioning Peder. Complicating matters, the pair tangle themselves up in a highly unprofessional and extra-marital affair. When Bea receives an anonymous tip that Peder is hiding something, the stakes are suddenly raised very high. Bad Banks meets Succession, Blinded is also one for fans of The Typist and The Lawyer.
