Netflix is on a roll with its international programs under the Netflix Original banner, including Euro TV series that are premiering in the next two to eight weeks.
Between 2012 and February 2017, Netflix had committed more than $1.75 billion to past and future European original productions, co-productions, and licensed TV series, films, documentaries, kids shows, and stand-up specials. That’s a tremendous amount of money for hundreds of titles — 90 original productions alone — but the world’s leading Internet television network needs a lot of content to satisfy the viewing preferences of its current 93 million+ subscribers in 190 territories on all seven continents (yes, including Antarctica!) .
As the company continues to add more eyeballs and expand its geographic reach, it is also increasing the number of Euro TV titles under the Netflix Original Series banner. Binge-worthy non-English-language series that are currently available (subbed or dubbed) in both the US and UK include the mystery/crime dramas The Break (La Trêve, Belgium) and Case (Iceland), French comedies Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent) and A Very Secret Service (Au Service de la France), Danish comedy-dramas Rita and Hjørdis, and thrillers No Second Chance (Une Chance de Trop, France) and Nobel (Norway), to name just a few.
[Note that some Netflix Original titles are available in the US but not the UK and vice versa, such as the Spanish drama Merlí (US) and German period drama Ku’damm 56 (UK).]
In the coming weeks and months, Netflix will be bringing several new Netflix Original Euro TV series to our screens, including the following titles:
Beau Séjour (Belgium)
Kato Hoeven (Lynn Van Royen, De Ridder) wakes up one morning at the Hotel Beau Séjour and finds herself covered in blood. The teen has no recollection of how she got here or what happened until she sees her own corpse in the bathtub. Then it dawns on her: She’s been murdered.
Not quite as shocking but still upsetting is Kato’s realization that most people can’t see or hear her. Of those who can, she knows some but not others. The question is why they and no one else can see and communicate with Kato.
Meanwhile, the police are making little progress in her homicide case, so Kato sets out to investigate her own murder and solve the mystery of who killed her and why. And in her search to uncover the truth of what happened to her, she begins to unravel a web of secrets in her seemingly tranquil village community.
This Flemish-language supernatural-mystery series, which won the Prix du Public at Séries Mania 2016, features Johan Van Assche (Cordon), Inge Paulussen (Witse), Kris Cuppens (Spitsbroers), Jan Hammenecker (Witnesses), Katrin Lohmann (Professor T.), Mieke De Groote (Cordon), Barbara Sarafian (The Out-Laws, aka Clan), Reinhilde Decleir (Marsman), Charlotte Timmers (What If?), Joke Emmers (Callboys), Joren Seldeslachts (De Ridder), and Roel Vanderstukken (Familie).
A production of deMENSEN, Beau Séjour is created and written by series directors Nathalie Basteyns (Clan) and Kaat Beels (Jes), along with series co-creators Sanne Nuyens (Connie & Clyde) and Bert Van Dael (Clan), and Benjamin Sprengers (Connie & Clyde).
Beau Séjour, a ten-part Netflix Original Series, premieres Thursday, 16 March 2017, on Netflix in the US, Canada, Nordic countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland. Distribution will expand later to Netflix in Belgium, The Netherlands, France, and Germany.
Las Chicas del Cable (Cable Girls) (Spain)
Madrid, 1928. The national telephone company opens its headquarters in the city centre and hundreds of girls queue up to get a job as a “cable girl” in the only place that represents progress and modernity for women at the time. Four girls, coming from very different backgrounds, start work as operators, and from that day on, they become entangled when jealousy, envy, and betrayal are intertwined with the hunger for success, friendship, and love.
Already confirmed for a second season, Las Chicas del Cable stars Blanca Suárez (El Internado, aka The Boarding School, currently streaming on Netflix US) as Lidia, Nadia de Santiago (Love in Difficult Times, aka Amar en tiempos revueltos) as Marga, Ana Fernández (Cuestión de sexo, aka A Question of Sex) as Carlota, and Maggie Civantos (Locked Up, aka Vis a Vis) as Ángeles.
This first Netflix Original Series produced in Spain comes to us from Bambu Producciones, the production company behind the binge-worthy Spanish period dramas Gran Hotel and Velvet (currently streaming on Netflix US and UK) and contemporary drama Gran Reserva (aka Vintage). Bambu’s Ramón Campos and Teresa Fernandez-Valdes, the series’ executive producers, created and wrote it with Gema Neira, Bambu’s Development Director. Carlos Sedes, who directed episodes of all three of the aforementioned series, also directed this romance drama.
Las Chicas del Cable premieres Friday, 28 April 2017, in all Netflix territories. The first eight of Season 1’s sixteen episodes will be released on this date.
Suburra (Italy)
Suburra, the first Netflix Global Original Series produced in Italy, is a crime thriller based on the novel of the same name by Giancarlo De Cataldo and Carlo Bonini, which itself was inspired by an actual scandal and spawned Suburra the film (currently streaming on Netflix US and UK). The scandal revolved around the criminal battle over Ostia, a seaside town outside of Rome that was being developed as a gambling mecca à la Las Vegas.
Set in Rome during a 20-day period several years before the events of the real-life scandal, Suburra the series follows Church leaders, politicians, members of organized crime and local gangs, and real estate developers as they collide and blur the lines between the legal and the illicit in their quest for power. At the heart of the story are three young men who, despite their different backgrounds, ambitions and passions, must forge alliances in order to achieve what they desire most.
The cast includes Francesco Acquaroli (Don Matteo), Alessandro Borghi (Anti-Drug Squad), Adamo Dionisi (The Dinner), Giacomo Ferrara (Don Matteo), Claudia Gerini (The Passion of the Christ), Filippo Nigro (Romanzo Siciliano), and Eduardo Valdarnini (Pasolini).
Suburra is created by Cattleya, the production company behind the hit series Gomorrah (currently streaming on Netflix US) and Romanzo Criminale, in collaboration with Italian public service broadcaster RAI, which has brought the beloved Inspector Montalbano and Don Matteo series to viewers.
The writing team includes Daniele Cesarano (Romanzo Criminale) and Barbara Petronio (Crime Evidence), along with Ezio Abbate (Squadra Mobile), Fabrizio Bettelli (Tuscan Passion), and Nicola Guaglianone (7 Vite). The series is directed by Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale), Andrea Molaioli (The Girl by the Lake), and Giuseppe Capotondi (Berlin Station).
The premiere date for Suburra has not been set yet, but the program will be shown in all Netflix territories. Stay tuned for details.
Dark (Germany)
The first German Netflix Global Original Series is set in a town in present-day Germany, where the disappearance of two young children exposes the double lives and fractured relationships amongst four families. In a supernatural twist, the story ties back to events in the same town in 1986.
The mystery-family saga stars Louis Hofmann (Land of Mine), Oliver Masucci (4 Blocks), Jördis Triebel (Blochin: Die Lebenden und die Toten, aka Blochin: The Living and the Dead), Maja Schöne (Bukow and König), Sebastian Rudolph (Tatort), Anatole Taubman (Versailles), Mark Waschke (Generation War), Karoline Eichhorn (Marie Brand, aka Marie’s Mind for Murder), Stephan Kampwirth (Tatort), Anne Ratte-Polle (Bukow and König), Andreas Pietschmann (The Team), Lisa Vicari (Hell), Angela Winkler (We Are Fine), and Michael Mendl (Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti), amongst others.
Produced by Wiedemann & Berg, Dark is created by showrunners Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, who collaborated on the multiple award-winning thriller film Who Am I and are executive producing the ten-part series with Quirin Berg (NSU: German History X, currently streaming on Netflix US and UK), Max Wiedemann (4 Blocks), and Justyna Müsch (Who Am I). Odar directs the ten-part series.
Dark will screen in all Netflix territories. Stay tuned for updates about the premiere date.
But wait, there’s more!
Production on Season 2 of Marseille begins Tuesday, 18 April 2017, in Marseille, France. New characters will be introduced in the political drama, including a young woman politician of the far-right French Party. (Might this storyline be based on current events in France? We shall see.)
And there are even more Euro TV series coming to Netflix, including these Netflix Original series:
Bordertown (Sorjonen, Finland) – This twelve-part family drama-meets-police procedural series stars Ville Virtanen (Jorskott) as Detective Inspector Kari Sorjonen, one of the most respected officers at the National Bureau of Investigation in Finland. When his wife barely survives brain cancer, he decides to move his family to a seemingly idyllic small town near the border of Russia to live a quiet, peaceful life. The thing is, he’s immediately thrust into new murder cases in the bordertown, where a serial killer is on the loose and the crimes aren’t just linked to each other but to his family, as well. (The storyline sounds nearly identical, so this is most likely a Finnish remake of the Canadian series Durham County.)
La Catedral del Mar (The Cathedral of the Sea, Spain) – Adapted from the award-winning novel of the same name by Ildefonso Falcones, this historical drama is set in 14th-century Barcelona against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition and the construction of the grand Santa Maria del Mar church. It stars Aitor Luna (Velvet), Pablo Derqui (Ventdelplà), and Michelle Jenner (Isabel), amongst others.
El Ministerio del Tiempo (The Ministry of Time, Spain) – Subscribers in all Netflix territories except Spain will be able to binge-watch this fantasy series after the third season completes its run on Spanish channel La 1 this year. Stories revolve around the Ministry of Time, a secret and autonomous government organization responsible for guarding the Doors of Time to ensure that intruders from other eras don’t get through and change history.
The Same Sky (Der Gleiche Himmel, Germany/Czech Republic) – Set in the divided Berlin of the 1970s, this cold war thriller and family drama centers on Lars Weber (Tom Schilling, Generation War), an ambitious 25-year-old East German officer who is sent to West Berlin as a “Romeo” agent to get information from women working in sensitive positions in the West, including high-ranking British intelligence officer Lauren Faber (Sofia Helin, The Bridge). Read “New & Upcoming TV Series Featured at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival” for further details.
There will be more Euro TV series coming to Netflix, so keep it here for updates.
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