This Valentine’s Day month brings fourteen new series to Euro TV fans in the US, but they premiere either before or after February 14.
To see the complete list of Euro TV shows available in the US and UK, see the Euro TV Shows by Language section. Viewers in the US can check the ongoing updates of titles released throughout each month on the Euro TV Viewing Guide page.
All programs listed below are shown in their original language with English subtitles.
NATIONAL PREMIERES
The Money Shot (Xanadu) (France)
Most Euro TV fans are familiar with series in which families are in the crime business, even in the B&B business (Thicker than Water, see below) and the gas/petrol station and roadside motel business (Station Horizon). In this drama, we meet a family in the porn business.
The patriarch of the Valadine clan is Alex (Jean-Baptiste Malartre, Duel), an aging, Hugh Hefner-ish pornographer who has run the Xanadu porn film-making business for more than 40 years. But the business is flailing because the times, they are a-changin’ given the internet- and digital-driven world of today. Alex’s older son, Laurent (Julien Boisselier, Contact), is trying to get him to get with the times, but so far has failed in transforming Xanadu to meet the needs of today’s porn customers.
Meanwhile, Laurent’s marriage to the Anne (Judith Henry, Witnesses) is falling apart; his niece Marine (Solène Rigot, The Tunnel) wants to return to Canada but can’t because her mum Sarah (Nathalie Blanc, Spiral), Alex’s daughter, is skint; Lapo (Swann Arlaud, Deep), the young-Bob-Dylan-looking brother of Laurent and Sarah, is running his own porn video enterprise; and Alex’s much-younger wife, former porn actress Varvara (Nora Arnezeder, Riviera), is arranging a surprise commemorative celebration of the “Queen of Xanadu” and porn icon Elise Jess (Gaia Amaral, Un passo dal cielo), Alex’s ex-wife.
The event starts off well enough, but ends in tragedy.
Featuring Audrey Bastien (The Collection), the late Jean-Louis Foulquier (Dolmen), Mathilde Bisson (Les petits meurtres d’Agatha Christie), Axel Kiener (No Limit), Olivier Chantreau (Elite Squad), and real-life porn star Phil Holliday, The Money Shot premieres in the US on Thursday, February 1, exclusively on Walter Presents and the Walter Presents channel on Amazon.
Real Humans: Season 1 (Äkta människor) (Sweden)
For folks who’ve seen the British show Humans, you’ll be able to watch the original Swedish sci-fi thriller series that it’s based on in a matter of hours.
Real Humans is set in an alternate universe where Sweden looks quite similar to the one we know today. The key difference is the presence of hubots — androids that look nearly human and whose role is to serve their human owners in one or more capacities (ahem). And as with almost anything, the citizenry are divided into two camps: those who have no issue with hubots and those who wish hubots were wiped off the face of the earth.
Falling into the former are people like Hans (Johan Paulsen, Jordskott), who picked up Anita (Lisette Pagler, Gåsmamman), a used model, from the hubot store to help his busy lawyer wife, Inger (Pia Halvorsen, Valkyrien), with housework, minding their three children, and the like. In the latter group are people like Roger (Leif Andrée, Annika Bengtzon), a warehouse manager who resents his staff of hubots for having taken the jobs of humans.
None of them are any the wiser about the trouble that’s brewing. Among the hubot population is a small group whose members have consciousness and free will — including Niska (Eva Rose, Marie Wern), Beatrice (Marie Robertson, The Sandhamn Murders), and Flash (Josephine Alhanko, Irene Huss) — and they’re starting to use these powers, as well as the emotions they’re developing, to fulfill their goal of “living” in the world as humans do…
Featuring Natalie Minnevik (Arne Dahl), Anki Larsson (Inspector Winter), Måns Nathanaelson (Beck), Peter Viitanen (Veni Vidi Vici), Thomas W. Gabrielsson (The Protectors), Johannes Kuhnke (Black Widows), André Sjöberg (Johan Falk), and Andreas Wilson (Kennedy’s Brain), Real Humans: Season 1 premieres in the US on Thursday, February 1, exclusively on Hulu.
Nadia (France)
Barbara Schulz (Vanished by the Lake) stars in this telefilm as Nadia, a mum who has single-handedly raised her son Noé (Thomas Doret, Black Spot) in the suburbs of Paris. An already proud parent, she moves them to the capital city to give Noé his best chance of succeeding after he’s accepted into Henri IV, a prestigious Parisian high school.
But in the process of ensuring that he has everything he needs, she discovers the pleasures of shopping, becomes an addicted shopaholic, and goes heavily into debt.
Featuring César Awards® nominee Arié Elmaleh (L’école pour tous) and Sabila Moussadek (Down by Love), Nadia premieres in the US on Friday, February 2, at 8:30 PM ET/5:30 PM PT, on TV5Monde USA.
(Photo: Thomas Doret as Noé — © Jean-Philippe BALTEL/MURMURES/FTV, courtesy of TV5Monde USA)
FranceKbek: Season 1 (France)
Kbek, as in Québec, the French-speaking province in Canada where Audrey (Marie-Eve Perron, Les Simone) was born and bred. Wanting a new life for herself, she has moved to France and is posing as a Breton in her attempt to hide the fact that she is québécoise — especially from her boss, Christophe (Simon Astier, Kaamelott), who detests anything to do with Quebec.
On the day that Audrey is to make an important presentation to the company’s biggest client, her childhood friend Mélanie (Lily Thibeault, Temps Mort) shows up unexpectedly at the office and unwittingly threatens to reveal her best friend’s double identity…
The series features Jean-Toussaint Bernard (Dead Beautiful), Antoine Gouy (A Very Secret Service), Joséphine Draï (Ma pire angoisse), Raphaël Kahn (Addict), Delphine Baril (Le manoir), Sébastien Lalanne (Hero Corp), Lola Bessis (Picnic at Hanging Rock), and Cédric Chevalme (Frank Riva).
FranceKbek: Season 1 premieres in the US on Sunday, February 4, at 10:30 PM PT/Monday, February 5, at 1:30 AM ET, on TV5Monde USA.
Tatort: Cologne: Season 3 (Germany)
Dietmar Bär and Klaus J. Behrendt reprise their respective roles as Freddy Schenk and Max Ballauf — two of the most popular investigators in the Tatort franchise — for another season of crime-filled episodes set in and around Cologne. Things get messy for the detective duo in these new cases, and it wouldn’t be the first time that innocent people become casualties during their investigations.
Raised within the murder-mystery storylines are various societal issues, including treatment of the deaf and the mentally ill and individuals suffering from PTSD. Guest stars include Erhan Emre (Innocent), Catherine Flemming (Victoria), and Maria Simon (Bukow and König).
Tatort: Cologne: Season 3 premieres in the US and Canada on February 6, exclusively on MHz Choice, as well as the MHz Choice Channel on Amazon US.
La Vie Devant Elles: Season 2 (Life in Front of Them) (France)
The second and final season of this drama series opens three years after the events in Season 1, when three girls — Alma (Stéphane Caillard, Marseille, see below), Solana (Alma Jodorowsky, Blue Is the Warmest Color), and Caroline (Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux, Platane) — met and defended the honor of their fathers at trial, after the men died in a mining explosion.
Fast forward to the spring of 1979. Life in Denain is overshadowed by the steel crisis. Alma, now preparing for her law exams and interning at the office of Maître Marc Duparcq (César Awards® nominee Bruno Todeschini, Son frère) in Lille, returns to help the unions. At a protest by local steelworkers, she runs into Rodolphe (Vladimir Consigny, The Returned), who has set up a pirate radio station supporting the movement, and Fadi (Corentin Fila, A Paris Education), a Moroccan photographer and steelworker who captured on film a policeman shooting at a demonstrator.
Alma takes them to Chambries to develop the photo at the shop now managed by Solana. For Solana and Fadi, it could be love at first sight; for Alma and Rodolphe, they become allies once again — a radical difference from her current relationship with Duparcq, as the two find themselves on opposing sides in a case. And after a year in North Africa, Caroline returns to Denain and reunites with her two friends, just in time to observe the anniversary of their fathers´ deaths.
So begins Season 2, which features Robert Plagnol (The Frozen Dead), Jean-Claude Adelin (Gloria’s Law: The Devil’s Advocate), and César Awards® nominee Jean-Yves Berteloot (Baptême).
La vie devant elles: Season 2 premieres in the US on Thursday, February 8, at 10:30 PM PT/Friday, February 9, at 1:30 AM ET, on TV5Monde USA.
Caïn: Season 5 (France)
Bruno Debrandt (Spiral) is back as Captain Frederic “Fred” Cain, the cynical cop in a wheelchair with a scathing sense of humor and absolutely no sense shame or decency when it comes to using his disability to his advantage.
The fifth season of this popular mystery-crime drama series finds Caïn racing against the clock of a bomb to find the missing wife of a friend of his father and investigating the murders of a psychiatrist, a television news reporter, and a rapist, amongst other crimes.
Series regulars include Julie Delarme as Lt. Lucie Delambre, Frédéric Pellegeay as Cmdr. Jacques Moretti, Smadi Wolfman as Dr. Elizabeth Stunia, and Mourad Boudaoud as Lt. Borel. Delphine Théodore (A French Village) and Jérôme Robart (Nicolas Le Floch) join the cast as a series regulars. And guest stars this season include Martin Lamotte (Nos chers voisins), Grégori Derangère (Blood of the Vine), Mylène Demongeot (36 Quai des Orfèvres), Louis-Emmanuel Blanc (Résistance), and Clémence Thioly (Cherif).
Caïn: Season 5 premieres in the US on Sunday, February 11, at 11 PM ET/ 8 PM PT, on TV5Monde USA.
Thicker than Water: Season 2 (Tjockare än vatten) (Sweden)
The Waldemar family reunites in Åland to open the B&B for one last Christmas, but much has changed since their tumultuous summer. Oskar (Joel Spira, Anno 1790) is alone and miserable, as his wife Liv (Jessica Grabowsky, Midnight Sun) still isn’t back from her travels. Jonna (Aliette Opheim, Black Lake) returns from a disastrous acting gig in London to take charge of the preparations, but her grand vision demands more resources than the siblings can muster. And Lasse’s (Björn Bengtsson, 30 Degrees in February) criminal past catches up with him as a storm bears down on the island, and his decision on this fateful night will have terrible ramifications for the entire clan.
Thicker than Water: Season 2 premieres in the US and Canada on Tuesday, February 13, exclusively on MHz Choice, as well as the MHz Choice Channel on Amazon US.
Les Sources Assassines (The Murderous Sources) (France)
In the spa town of La Bourboule, a man is found dead from arsenic poisoning. His ex-girlfriend, Irène Volkov (Golden Globes® nominee Marthe Keller, Marathon Man), the head doctor of the town’s baths, has a stock of arsenic that could have been used in the murder. Thus, she is the main suspect and taken into custody.
Irène’s estranged daughter, Fanny (Julie De Bona, Killer by the Lake), a captain with the Paris police crime squad, investigates to find the truth and prove her mother’s innocence. However, in doing so, Fanny discovers secrets within her family, including a love affair, commercial interests, and revenge.
Featuring in this made-for-TV movie are Joakim Latzko (Plus belle la vie), Jacques Bonnaffé (The Churchmen), and Alexandre Carrière (Witnesses).
Les sources assassines premieres in the US on Friday, February 16, at 8:30 PM ET/5:30 PM PT, on TV5Monde USA.
La Promesse du Feu (Burning Crimes) (France)
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Mikaël Ollivier, this two part telefilm opens with the first big fire of the season in the Gardiole forest, southwest of Montpellier. In the midst of the inferno, which ravages acres upon acres of scrubland and forest, is a burnt-out car and the charred body of a man at the wheel.
Damien Le Guen (Nicolas Gob, A French Village), the criminal identification technician for the gendarmerie, is the first on the scene. His brother Guillaume (Thomas Jouannet, Contact), a policeman, is also there to investigate. Despite being enemies, they are soon forced to work together to find Tiffany Roche (Flore Bonaventura, Magellan), a young and famous photographer obsessed with fire, who was rescued by Târiq Amraoui (Salim Kechiouche, Blue Is the Warmest Color), a Canadian water-bomber pilot with a shady past.
Soon thereafter, Guillaume is in charge of the investigation into the death of a man found drowned. And there are more corpses to come over the next few days. The cases seem related and the two brothers must collaborate if they are to solve these crimes. Meanwhile, Tiffany, a sleepwalker, doesn’t remember anything of what happened during the fire, even though she captured images of it before Târiq saved her.
Featuring César Awards® nominee Éva Darlan (Une histoire simple) as the brothers’ mother, La promesse du feu premieres in the US with Part 1 on Tuesday, February 20, at 11 PM ET/8 PM PT, and Part 2 at the same time on February 27, on TV5Monde USA.
The Score: Season 1 (Spitsbroers) (Belgium)
Two brothers — Alan (Joren Seldeslachts, Hotel Beau Séjour) and Dennis (Oscar Willems, Cordon), the younger of the two — share one dream: to become a professional football (soccer) player. When the coach for a premiere league football club is in town to scout for new talent, he finds one in the brothers during a local match. Only there’s been a mistake in which of the two was supposed to go to the pro team’s training week.
For the chosen brother, he must first prove himself on the field if he is to realize his dream. But a punch thrown in a burst of anger could end his football career before it even begins. For the brother whose dream of football glory is shattered, there is another painful shock that sends him reeling. As they pursue radically different paths in life, they must also face the consequences of their choices.
Costarring Kris Cuppens (Hotel Beau Séjour), Viv Van Dingenen (Witse), Sien Eggers (The Out-Laws), Louis Talpe (De Ridder), Gökhan Girginol (Hotel Beau Séjour), Lynn Van Royen (The Team), and Ella Leyers (Professor T.), and featuring Marc Lauwrys (Code 37: Sex Crimes), The Score premieres in the US on Thursday, February 22, exclusively on Walter Presents and the Walter Presents channel on Amazon.
Les Fées du Logis (The Fairies of the House) (France)
In this comedy telefilm, Lucile Marquis (Direction générale de la VDM) and Clair Jaz (Doc Martin) star as Françoise Le Bris and Marie-Lou Bissainthe, respectively — friends and housekeepers who have access to information that reveals much about their employers’ private lives. From tax declarations and personal letters, to the contents of the medicine cabinet and overheard bits of telephone conversations, these two women become privy to big and small secrets, sometimes as confidants, but oftentimes as hired help who learn more than their employers would like them to know. And what Françoise and Marie-Lou do with all of this information depends a lot on how well they’re treated…
Featuring César Awards® nominee Claude Gensac (Lulu femme nue), Anne Loiret (Spin), Chick Ortega (Dolmen), and Arielle Sémenoff (No Second Chance), Les fées du logis premieres in the US on Friday, February 23, at 8:30 PM ET/5:30 PM PT, on TV5Monde USA.
Marseille: Season 2 (France)
The new season of the first Netflix Original series in French opens shortly after the events in the Season 1 finale. Journalists are surrounding the hospital where Robert Taro (Oscar® nominee Gérard Depardieu, Cyrano De Bergerac), the incumbent mayor of Marseille, is still in the intensive care unit following a stroke.
As the date of the upcoming elections approaches, Taro’s absence offers his former protégé-turned-political rival, Lucas Barrès (Benoît Magimel, The Piano Teacher), his shot at rising to power… but he is still nine votes short of becoming the new mayor of the city. Negotiations with the all of the different political parties begin, with the extreme right waiting backstage to make its move…
Original cast members Géraldine Pailhas (Young & Beautiful) and Stéphane Caillard (La vie devant elles) return for the second season, and Natacha Régnier (Anomalia) and Vladimir Consigny (The Returned) join the cast.
Marseille: Season 2, a Netflix Original series, premieres in the US and UK on Friday, February 23, exclusively on Netflix.
Anti-Mafia Squad (Squadra antimafia – Palermo oggi) (Italy)
This crime drama is set three years after the capture of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano in The Last Godfather. It opens with a flashback to 1992, when a little girl is saved from sure death by a young female police officer.
Fast forward to 2009. Claudia Mares (Simona Cavallari, Corleone) is now the Deputy Commissioner of the Italian Police in Rome. She’s in Palermo at the request of her former partner, Stefano Lauria (Massimo Poggio, Bulletproof Heart), head of the “Duomo” team that brought down Provenzano. Lauria has information about politicos in the pockets of la Cosa Nostra, but before he can share the details with Mares, he’s killed in front of her.
In taking Lauria’s place as the Duomo team lead, she and the members of the special anti-mafia unit begin to investigate both the murder of their colleague and the kidnapping of a businessman’s son. Meanwhile, there’s a war brewing between mafia bosses Michele Lo Pane (Peppe Lanzetta, Spectre), a Provenzano loyalist, and Giacomo Trapani (Claudio Castrogiovanni, Il restauratore), newly returned to Palermo after being exiled in America since the 1980s.
As for the little girl, Rosalia “Rosy” Abate (Giulia Michelini, Crime Evidence) is a young woman now, about to get married and still on friendly terms with Mares, despite the objections of her brothers, mobsters on the side of Trapani. That’s tricky enough, but the two women’s relationship gets even stickier, as both of them love Ivan Di Meo (Claudio Gioè, La mafia uccide solo d’estate), the cop who heads up the Palermo police’s organized crime squad and is working undercover within the mafia.
The first season features Bruno Torrisi (A Case of Conscience), Antonino Bruschetta (Palermo Connection), Raffaele Vannoli (The Homicide Squad), Marco Leonardi (Questo è il mio paese), and Silvia De Santis (Distretto di polizia).
Anti-Mafia Squad premieres in the US and Canada on Tuesday, February 27, exclusively on MHz Choice, as well as the MHz Choice Channel on Amazon US.
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Collage images courtesy of Hulu (Real Humans), MHz Choice (Anti-Mafia Squad), Netflix (Marseille), TV5Monde USA (FranceKbek), and Walter Presents (The Money Shot, The Score)
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