Along with Halloween and the return to standard time come fifteen new shows, seasons, and telefilms from France, Italy, Germany, Norway, and Spain in October.
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, except where noted. Some trailers might not have English subtitles, but you should still be able to get a sense of the story through the combination of the description and visuals.
NATIONAL PREMIERES
Murders at Barlume: Season 2 (I delitti del BarLume) (Italy)
Based on the best-selling novels by Marco Malvaldi, this comedic murder mystery series returns with four new feature length episodes starring Filippo Timi (Vincere) as Massimo Viviani. He’s the owner of Barlume, the local bar in the (fictional) Tuscan coastal town of Pineta, where the four eccentric, septuagenarian regulars — Emo, Pilade, Gino, and Aldo — hang out, comment on everything under the sun, and turn into amateur sleuths when baffling murders occur, usually when the weather gets hot.
The Season 2 opener picks up not long after the Season 1 finale, with Massimo drowning his sorrows in booze and drugs and Detective Fusco (Lucia Mascino, Suburra: Blood on Rome) being replaced by Detective Tassone (Michele Di Mauro, Nero Wolfe). But Fusco hopes to redeem herself by solving the murder of Tiziana’s (Enrica Guidi, Tutto molto bello) coworker.
Subsequent episodes find Massimo being the prime suspect in a man’s murder at a bachelor party, Massimo going missing while Fusco investigates the murder of an old sailor, and Fusco delving into the mystery of a young Ukrainian’s corpse found off the Bay of Pineta.
The new season co-stars Alessandro Benvenuti (Maniaci sentimentali), Atos Davini (La marea silenziosa), Marcello Marziali (Under the Tuscan Sun), Massimo Paganelli, Guglielmo Favilla (The Name of the Rose), and Paolo Cioni (The Last Prosecco), and features Pietro De Silva (Corleone), Stefano Fresi (The Name of the Rose), and Kristina Cepraga (Don Matteo).
Murders at Barlume: Season 2 premieres in the US on Tuesday, October 2, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon US.
Brigitte Macron, un roman français (Brigette Macron, A French Novel) (France)
This documentary examines the background and personality of France’s current first lady, who embodies both tradition and change. Originally from a famous chocolate-making family from Amiens, mother, teacher, and literature enthusiast Brigitte Macron has been at her husband Emmanuel Macron’s side all the way to the presidency and today plays a public role.
Brigitte Macron, un roman français premieres in the US on Wednesday, October 3, at 8:30 PM ET, on TV5Monde USA.
Elite (Élite) (Spain)
The second Spanish Netflix Original series is this thriller set at Las Encinas, the best and most exclusive school in Spain. It is here that the elite send their children to study. It is also where three teens from working class families have been granted scholarships and admittance, after an earthquake destroyed their academy and the local council divided up the students between the different schools in the area.
What the three kids thought was their big break sets up a clash between those who have everything and those who have nothing to lose, creating a perfect storm that ends in the murder of a classmate and puts everyone under suspicion.
The primary cast includes newcomer Omar Ayuso, Miguel Bernardeau (Sabuesos), Mina El Hammani (The State), Itzan Escamilla (Cable Girls), Ester Expósito (Locked Up), Miguel Herrán (Money Heist), Jaime Lorente (Money Heist), Danna Paola (Lady Altagracia), María Pedraza (Money Heist), Arón Piper (The Broken Crown), and Álvaro Rico (Velvet Collection).
Elite, a Netflix Original series, premieres in the US on Friday, October 5, exclusively on Netflix. (You can add it to your queue now.)
Versailles: Season 3 (Final) (France/Canada, in English)
The third and final season of this lavish period drama finds King Louis XIV (George Blagden, Vikings) as ambitious as ever. After winning the war against Holland, he now aims to expand his empire and impose his power on all of Europe. These dreams come with a cost, but the French people are tired of paying taxes and resistance is growing. Meanwhile, a threat looms in the background: the shadow hanging over Louis is a mysterious man in an iron mask.
Guest stars in Season 3 include Jean-Hugues Anglade (Braquo, La Femme Nikita), Dominique Pinon (Delicatessen, Outlander), and Rory Keenan (Striking Out), and Marie Askehave (The Killing), Anthony Flanagan (The Terror), Matthew McNulty (The Musketeers), and Jenny Platt (Coronation Street) join the cast.
Versailles: Season 3 premieres in the US on Saturday, October 6, at 10 PM ET, on Ovation.
Cherif: Season 5 (France)
Abdelhafid Metalsi (Spiral, Spin) returns for ten new episodes of this popular detective drama as Captain Kader Chérif of the Lyon Crime Squad, a role that won him the Best Actor in a French Series award at the 2013 Series Mania Festival. In the new season, Kader and Captain Adeline Briard (Carole Bianic, Second Chance) have finally taken the plunge and begin a new chapter together. But in their private life as at work, they don’t see eye to eye.
Season 5 opens with Adeline being charged with murder and closes with the suspicious death of the man who filed a lawsuit against Chérif for assault. In between are episodes that find Chérif and his colleagues investigating the murders of a teenaged girl, a recent parolee, and a tennis champ, amongst others.
Cherif: Season 5 premieres in the US on Sunday, October 7, at 11 PM ET, on TV5Monde USA. The sixth season will premiere in France in 2019.
Varg Veum: Season 1 (Norway)
Based on the best-selling novels by Gunnar Staalesen, this suspenseful Nordic noir mystery-crime drama series stars Trond Espen Seim (The Legacy, Acquitted, Mammon) as the eponymous former child welfare worker-turned-private investigator.
The feature-length stories in the first season find Varg searching for the missing daughter of a successful female politician; trying to save a wealthy client’s teen daughter from danger; working to prove a woman’s innocence in a murder case; racing against time to stop a serial killer; tracking down an oil drilling company’s missing employee; and attempting to prevent the assassination of a political candidate.
Season 1 co-stars Bjørn Floberg (Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Eagle), Endre Hellestveit (22 July, see below), and Kathrine Fagerland (Valley of Shadows). Guest stars include Trine Wiggen (Struggle for Life), Sølje Bergmann (Hotel Cæsar), Per Kjerstad (Eyewitness), Pia Tjelta (Beck), and Dennis Storhøi (The Heavy Water War).
Varg Veum: Season 1 premieres in the US on Tuesday, October 9, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon US.
22 July (Norway, in English)
Based on the nonfiction book One of Us by Åsne Seierstad, this film tells the true story of the aftermath of Norway’s deadliest terrorist attack. On 22 July 2011, 77 people were killed when a far-right extremist detonated a car bomb in Oslo before carrying out a mass shooting at a Labour Party Youth Camp on Utøya Island. 22 July — a three-part story about the survivors of the attacks, the political leadership of Norway, and the lawyers involved — uses the lens of one survivor’s physical and emotional journey to portray the country’s path to healing and reconciliation.
Written, directed, and produced by Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Paul Greengrass (United 93), 22 July, a Netflix Global Original film, premieres in the US on Wednesday, October 10, exclusively on Netflix. (You can add it to your queue now.)
Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games: Season 2 (Les Petits Meurtres d’Agatha Christie) (France)
Samuel Labarthe (The Forest) returns as Police Commissioner Swan Laurence in the second season of Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games, the colorful, French-ified adaptations of Agatha Christie‘s novels. Set in the 1950s, they co-star Blandine Bellavoir (Maison Close) as ambitious journalist Alice Avril and Elodie Frenck (War and Peace) as Swan’s loyal secretary Marlène. The new season opens with the episode “Pension Vanilos,” which is based on the novel Hickory Dickory Dock.
Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games: Season 2 premieres in the US on Tuesday, October 16, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon US.
Caribbean Thunder (Angeli e diamanti) (Italy)
This four-part comedy-action miniseries follows the adventures of three female members of an Italian police force — Chiara (Vittoria Belvedere, A Case of Conscience), Giorgia (Martina Stella, Tutti pazzi per amore), and Laura (Camilla Ferranti, Amore pensaci tu) — who travel to Puerto Rico in pursuit of Giovanni Rossetti (Michael Reale, The Homicide Squad), the technology and finance expert who masterminded and pulled off the biggest diamond heist in Europe.
Co-starring Giulio Berruti (The Secrets of Borgo Larici), Caribbean Thunder premieres in the US on Tuesday, October 16, at 8:40 PM ET/9:10 PM PT on Eurochannel.
Baron Noir: Season 2 (France)
Spoiler-ish details follow for folks who haven’t seen the first season of this award-winning political drama, which returns with another eight episodes of taut intrigue amongst the movers, shakers, and wannabes of French politics.
In the new season opener, Philippe Rickwaert (Kad Merad, Don’t Worry, I’m Fine) is released from prison and works in the shadows to ensure the victory of Amélie Dorendeu (Anna Mouglalis, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky), the First Secretary of the Socialist Party who is now running for president.
Season 2 co-stars Hugo Becker (A Very Secret Service), Astrid Whettnall (The Missing), Philippe Résimont (A French Village), Pascal Elbé (No Second Chance), and Patrick Rocca (Caïn), and features Patrick Mille (Le viol) and François Morel (À livre ouvert).
Baron Noir: Season 2 premieres in the US on Friday, October 19, exclusively on Walter Presents.
Varg Veum: Season 2 (Norway)
Trond Espen Seim and Bjørn Floberg return as Varg Veum and Inspector Hamre for the second season of this Scandi-noir mystery series, which introduces Lene Nystrøm (Lulu the Bankrobber’s Wife) as Varg’s girlfriend Karin.
Consisting of six feature-length episodes, this season finds Varg confronted with his past when his enemy “The Knife” is released from jail; searching for Karin’s sister, a prostitute who’s disappeared; summoned by Hamre to a hostage drama on a farm outside Bergen; helping a good friend who’s accused of bombing a weapons storage facility; investigating the death of a young asylum seeker; and delving into a case of missing sisters while he’s about to become a father.
Featuring in this season are Nikolaj Lie Kaas (“Department Q” films), Tobias Santelmann (Acquitted), Jakob Oftebro (Hamilton), Alexander Karim (Johan Falk), Vegar Hoel (Occupied), Jon Øigarden (Mammon), Ane Dahl Torp (The Sandhamn Murders), and Mads Ousdal (Codename Hunter).
Varg Veum: Season 2 premieres in the US on Tuesday, October 23, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon US.
Deutschland86 (Germany)
Set three years after the events in the International Emmy® Award-winning Deutschland83, this follow-up season finds the East German leadership, now abandoned by Moscow and desperate for cash, pushing their secret operatives to experiment with global capitalism and save their sinking socialist ship.
Having been banished to Africa for his sins in 1983, Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay, Line of Separation) is now sent back into the field. Dark deals and a dangerous mission lead him to South Africa, Angola, Libya, Paris, West Berlin, and finally back to East Berlin, where he must make an impossible decision. His hero’s journey plays out to a soundtrack of international pop music and against a backdrop of Perestroika, proxy Cold Wars, the struggle to end Apartheid, a year of terror in Western Europe, and the creeping feeling back home in East Germany that the end just might be near.
Returning cast members include Maria Schrader (In Darkness), Sylvester Groth (Inglorious Bastards), Vladimir Burlakov (In the Face of Crime), Ludwig Trepte (4 Blocks), Alexander Beyer (NSU: German History X), Carina Wiese (The Book Thief), and Sonja Gerhardt (Ku’damm 56). Joining the cast are Anke Engelke (Kommissarin Lucas), Fritzi Haberlandt (Babylon Berlin), Lavinia Wilson (Tatort), and Florence Kasumba (Black Panther).
Deutschland 86 premieres in the US on Thursday, October 25, at 12 AM ET, on SundanceTV.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Season 2 (Non uccidere) (Italy)
Miriam Leone (Medici: Masters of Florence) is back as Valeria Ferro, a stubborn, determined, and impetuous detective on the homicide squad in Turin, who doggedly investigates crimes motivated by jealousy, vendettas, and repressed anger.
The new season opens with the murders of a mother and son… and the disappearance of Valeria’s mother, Lucia, who had reappeared in her daughter’s life (in Season 1) after being released early from prison for the murder of Valeria’s father.
(Video is from Season 1)
The series co-stars Matteo Martari (Luisa Spagnoli), Thomas Trabacchi (Anti-Drug Squad), Riccardo Lombardo (Ruggero), Luca Terracciano (Un passo dal cielo), Davide Iacopini (Fog and Crimes), Viola Sartoretto (Soledad), and Gigio Alberti (Human Capital).
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Season 2 premieres in the US on Thursday, October 25, exclusively on Walter Presents.
Luther and Me (Katharina Luther) (Germany)
Set in the 16th century, this telefilm is one of two titles in October that commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. It chronicles the life of Katharina von Bora (Karoline Schuch, Tatort), who, after becoming acquainted with the writings of Martin Luther (Devid Striesow, The Counterfeiters), breaks her vows as a nun and flees her cloistered life in the convent to join Luther’s reform movement in Wittenberg. She ultimately leads a self-determined life as his wife, the mother of his six children, and a key and powerful figure in the Reformation in her own right.
Featuring Max Mauff (The Valley), Hildegard Schroedter (Babylon Berlin), and Ludwig Trepte (1864), Luther and Me premieres in the US on Tuesday, October 30, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon US.
Reformation (Zwischen Himmel und Hölle) (Germany)
As with Luther and Me, this lavish two-part historical drama was produced to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It stars Maximilian Brückner (Line of Separation, Tatort) as Martin Luther, a monk from Wittenberg who became the visionary religious reformer of his time and ultimately changed the world.
The miniseries tracks Luther’s growing anger at the corruption and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in the early 16th century — including his “there is a false church and a real church” speech and the infamous pinning of his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. Despite Luther’s subsequent ex-communication from the Church, his protests led to a new world order in religion: Protestantism.
Co-starring Johannes Klaußner (Homicide Unit Istanbul), Jan Krauter (Deutschland 86), and Joachim Król (Commissario Brunetti), Reformation premieres in the US on Tuesday, October 30, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon US.
NON-PREMIERE TITLES ADDED TO PROGRAMMING SCHEDULES
Les maîtres du vin (Masters of Wine) (France)
Directed by Éric Bacos (Les maîtres du riz, Les maîtres du thé), this documentary centers on the passionate vintners of prestigious winemaking estates in France — the men and women who combine their special skills and the grapes of their vineyards to produce a beverage that is an integral part of France’s cultural and natural heritage.
Les maîtres du vin airs Wednesday, October 10, at 11 AM ET, on TV5Monde USA.
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Did you miss any of the new shows and program additions from previous months? Check the Euro TV Viewing Guide 2018 Archives to find out.
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For details about the October premieres of shows from the UK, Canada, and Ireland, visit The British TV Place. For those about the debuts of programs from Australia and New Zealand, visit The Down Under TV Place.
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