Creamerie
The English-language 2021 sci-fi dramedy Creamerie follows the lives of three dairy farm workers in a New Zealand community eight years after a virus seemingly wiped out every man on the planet.
The community is ruled by the Wellness organisation, which also coordinates repopulation through a lottery system and using sperm saved from before the pandemic. Rebellious Alex (Ally Xue), grieving widow Jaime (JJ Fong) and naive Pip (Perlina Lau) are shocked one night when they discover Bobby (Jay Ryan), a man, still very much alive, on the farm. His arrival makes them question their loyalties and whether they should hand Bobby over to Wellness or protect him.
Safe Harbour
While on a yachting trip in Indonesia, the lives of Ryan (Ewen Leslie) and his friends are forever changed when they come across a boat packed with asylum seekers, in the Australian thriller Safe Harbour. They agree to tow the stricken vessel to safety, but during the night the rope is severed and they’re unable to find the boat again.
At first, the friends think it was one of the refugees who did it, but years later they’re forced to question that view, especially after Ryan meets one of the survivors, Ismail (Hazem Shammas).
Safe Harbour was a huge hit at the time of its 2018 release, winning an International Emmy for Best TV Movie or Miniseries, while Shammas scored a Logie for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor.
4 Walls
Each episode of the South African anthology series 4 Walls focuses on a different guest staying in the same room at a rundown hotel.
The Afrikaans-language show made in 2020 runs the gamut of genres from dark comedy and sci-fi to thriller and supernatural horror. Apart from Room 7 itself, the other regular character is vaguely sinister maid Marcelina (Lida Botha). She plays a part in each story, whether it’s hiding young lovers from angry fathers or assisting an ageing assassin in a mission to shoot his grandson’s killer.
Hungry Ghosts
Viewers wanting a scary good time should check out 2020 Aussie miniseries Hungry Ghosts, about an evil spirit causing havoc on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival in Melbourne.
As the entity grows more powerful, several families linked by the Vietnam War are visited by apparitions, some with good intentions and others with more murderous agendas.
It’s up to May Le (Catherine Văn-Davies) to use her new-found powers to stop the ghost before it causes more mayhem. At its heart, the most dangerous ghosts confronting the characters in this English and Vietnamese-language series aren’t the milky-eyed terrors jump-scaring anyone they can find. Rather, it’s the ghosts of past traumas and betrayals. Described as “unconventional and fascinating… mystery, thriller, romance and drama all at once”, Hungry Ghosts is a compelling drama.
Atlanta
Musician and actor Donald Glover (Community) stars as Earn Marks. While languishing at a job he’s over-qualified for yet no good at, he discovers his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) is up-and-coming rap star, Paper Boi. Earn is determined to better his life through managing Alfred’s career. Every step of the way, though, such issues as race, poverty and status, and navigating relationships and parenthood, face and challenge the men. Glover’s creation is one of a kind.
Start here:
The Head
A small team in an Antarctic research station meet with horrific fates not long after the sun sets at the start of a six-month winter. The following spring, seven bodies are found by the relieving team led by its commander Johan Berg (Alexander Willaume), but three people remain unaccounted for, including his wife Annika (Laura Bach).
Berg and his team are determined to solve the mystery of the massacre and find Annika to learn whether she’s another victim or, worse still, the killer.
The Head – a Spanish/Japanese co-production from 2020 featuring English, Danish and Swedish-language dialogue – is a claustrophobic thriller that will delight murder mystery devotees as well as fans of John Carpenter’s The Thing.
La Fortuna
Stanley Tucci stars in the Spanish-American action series La Fortuna as Frank Wild, a treasure hunter who finds treasure worth US$500 million in a sunken Spanish galleon. Standing in his way of recovering the fortune is an inexperienced young Spanish diplomat, Alex Ventura (Álvaro Mel), who puts together a legal team to challenge Wild’s claims to ownership. But to succeed in court, he’ll have to overcome political inertia, corruption and the ruthless ways of modern-day pirate Wild.
Two languages – Spanish and English – are used in the 2021 series, which was made by award-winning director Alejandro Amenábar, best known for helming 2001 film The Others.
The Long Call
In the 2021 British crime drama The Long Call, the discovery of a body on a beach in Devon sets off a murder investigation that leads troubled DI Matthew Venn (Ben Aldridge) back to the religious cult that expelled him when he was a teenager.
While he has suspicions about its manipulative leader Dennis (Martin Shaw), there are plenty of other murder suspects, too. Meanwhile, Matthew must contend with the recent death of his father and ongoing hostility from his estranged mother and cult member Dorothy (Juliet Stevenson).
The English-language miniseries, adapted from Ann Cleeves’ novel, showcases the beautiful scenery of the Devon coastline.
The Act
This true crime drama really shows that fact is stranger than fiction. You may have noticed in crime series lately characters having something called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, if you google it the story this series is based on is top of the search list. A shocking 2015 crime, it enacts what happens when daughter Gypsy (Joey King) attempts to escape the toxic relationship she has with her overprotective mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Gypsy’s quest for independence opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, which ultimately leads to murder. Patricia Arquette won the Primetime Emmy for her performance as Dee Dee Blanchard.
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