Eleven new Euro TV series and seasons premiere in the US in May, twelve including the launch of the English language Italian-German production The Name of the Rose.
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. The trailers below, which may or may not have English subtitles, might not be suitable for all audiences; viewer discretion is advised.
NATIONAL PREMIERES
Undercover: Season 1 (Belgium-Netherlands)
Inspired by real-life events, this crime drama revolves around Dutchman Ferry Bouman (Frank Lammers, The Swell), a major global ecstasy producer who lives a charmed life with his wife Danielle (Elise Schaap, Familie Kruys) in their villa on the Dutch-Belgian border. Ferry’s been rather elusive, so the Belgian Federal Police and the Dutch Police join forces to catch him.
Their strategy: install their two best undercover agents — Belgian Bob Lemmens (Tom Waes, New Texas) and Dutch Kim De Rooij (Anna Drijver, Framed) — as a camping couple in a chalet close to the Boumans. Their intention: infiltrate Ferry’s life, win his trust, and plant Bob as a criminal Ferry can do business with. Then shut down Ferry’s drug network.
Costarring in the ten-part first season are Raymond Thiry (Black Widow), Robbie Cleiren (Professor T), Manou Kersting (Cordon), Huub Smit (Riphagen), Kevin Janssens (Salamander), and Kris Cuppens (Hotel Beau Séjour).
Undercover, a Netflix Original series, launches globally (outside France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland) on Friday, May 3, exclusively on Netflix. (You can add it to your queue now.)
D6bels Music Awards (Belgium)
This annual awards show celebrates the musical talents of artists from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Members of the public vote for best female solo artist, best group, best album, and more, while music industry professionals vote for best concert, best musician, and best songwriter, amongst other categories.
This special features 13 performances, including Alice on the Roof, Caballero & JeanJass, Henri PFR, and the evening’s big winner, Angèle!
D6bels Music Awards premieres in the US on Saturday, May 4, at 8 PM ET, on TV5Monde USA.
The Undertaker: Season 5 (Der Bestatter) (Switzerland)
Mike Müller (Rascals on the Road) returns for another season of this hit Swiss German mystery-crime drama series as Luc Conrad, a former senior investigator for the Aargau Police who left the force (after being suspected of murder), took over the funeral home business after his father died, and continues to assist the police on criminal investigations.
Season 5 opens with the discovery of a child’s skeleton inside a small coffin set in front of the Albert Anker painting Funeral of a Child at the Aargauer Kunsthaus. Security camera footage points to the culprit being Tobias Hefti (Ralph Gassmann, Berlin Station), whose baby daughter was kidnapped ten years ago but never found. The police now think Tobias may be a murderer, but what they don’t realize is that this is part of an elaborate set-up by a criminal mastermind.
Also reprising their roles are Barbara Terpoorten (Tatort) as Chief Inspector Anna-Maria Giovanoli; Reto Stalder (Der grosse Sommer) as Fabio Testi, officially a certified undertaker at the start of Season 5; Suly Röthlisberger (Tatort) as longtime funeral home employee Erika Bürgisser; Samuel Streiff (Nowhere) as Detective Reto Dörig; and Martin Ostermeier (Night Rush) as pathologist Dr. Alois Semmelweis. Joining the cast this season are Oliver Bürgin (Die Rosenheim-Cops), Judith Hofmann (The Innocent), Sarah Hostettler (Tatort), and Roeland Wiesnekker (Gotthard).
The Undertaker: Season 5 premieres in the US on Tuesday, May 7, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon.
Miss Friman’s War: Season 4 (Fröken Frimans krig) (Sweden)
Set in 1908, the final season of this historical drama finds Dagmar Friman (Sissela Kyle, The Simple Heist) and her group of activist friends at Svenska Hem taking on the labor movement and arguing for organized trade unions to accept women as members.
Costars include Frida Hallgren (The Inspector and the Sea), Maria Kulle (The Bridge), Sofia Ledarp (Verdict Revised), Lena T Hansson (Beck), Allan Svensson (Maria Wern), Ulla Skoog (Saltön), Gustaf Hammarsten (Midnight Sun), and Kristoffer Berglund (Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves). Electra Hallman (Jordskott), Björn Gustafson (The Simple Heist), Andreas Kundler (The Sandhamn Murders), and the late Johannes Brost (Death of a Pilgrim) join the cast.
Miss Friman’s War: Season 4 premieres in the US on Tuesday, May 14, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon.
The Rain: Season 2 (Denmark)
In the sophomore season of this sci-fi thriller, Simone (Alba August, Below the Surface) and her friends are trapped in the Zone. Yet somehow they must find a cure for the virus Rasmus (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes) is carrying before it kills him — and the rest of humanity. That is, if the other survivors don’t kill them first.
Costarring Mikkel Boe Følsgaard (The Legacy, A Royal Affair), Lukas Løkken (One-Two-Three Now!), Sonny Lindberg (The Legacy), and Jessica Dinnage (The Guilty), The Rain: Season 2, a Netflix Original series, launches globally on Friday, May 17, exclusively on Netflix.
Fabel (Germany)
Based on the best-selling thrillers by Scottish author Craig Russell, the ‘Fabel’ telefilms star Peter Lohmeyer (The Girl King) as Jan Fabel, a homicide detective in Hamburg.
First up is “Murder Is No Fairy Tale” (“Wolfsfährte“), based on the novel Brother Grimm, in which Fabel investigates the case of a dead girl found near the Elbe River with a cryptic message for the police in her hand. Fabel sees the message as both a mystery and a hint that the girl’s homicide could be the beginning of a serial killer’s spree. His suspicions prove to be accurate when a couple is later found murdered with another message for the police — one that Fabel realizes is drawn from the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. But since there seems to be no link between the victims, Fabel and his team are stumped. Meanwhile, the killing continues…
“Murder Is No Fairy Tale” costars Marie-Lou Sellem (Homicide Unit Istanbul), Lisa Maria Potthoff (Shades of Guilt), Hinnerk Schönemann (Marie’s Mind for Murder), Markus Boysen (Dogs of Berlin), and Lars Rudolph (Berlin Station).
Fabel premieres in the US on Tuesday, May 21, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon.
High Seas: Season 1 (Alta Mar) (Spain)
This new mystery series from the producers of Cable Girls and Cocaine Coast is set in the 1940s on a magnificent ocean liner carrying passengers from Spain to Rio de Janeiro. They are in search of a better future; however, one amongst them, whose name does not appear on the manifest, will not find a better anything, owing to being murdered. This crime is but one of the many intrigues and lies that are hidden behind the doors of the ship’s cabins. There will be more deaths. And with them ultimately will come revelations of the secrets surrounding two sisters traveling together.
The eight-episode drama features a large cast that includes Eloy Azorín (Grand Hotel), Ivana Baquero (The Shannara Chronicles), Félix Gómez (14 de abril. La República), Jon Kortajarena (Quantico), Ángela Molina (Velvet), Alejandra Onieva (El secreto de Puente Viejo), and José Sacristán (Morocco: Love in Times of War).
High Seas, a Netflix Original series, launches globally on Friday, May 24, exclusively on Netflix. (You can add it to your queue now.)
Un jour, un destin (One Day, One Destiny) (France)
A special edition of this documentary series focuses on Oscar® nominee and César Awards winner Catherine Deneuve (Indochine, Belle de jour), one of the best known actresses in the world. Despite her celebrity, she continues to be enigmatic, so this special reveals the secrets of a star who threw away the conventions of social class and explores the backstage universe of some of the most emblematic films of her career.
The Un jour, un destin Catherine Deneuve special premieres in the US on Monday, May 27, at 8:30 PM ET, on TV5Monde USA.
Detective Ellen Lucas: Season 1 (Kommissarin Lucas) (Germany)
Set in Regensburg, Bavaria, this mystery-crime drama series stars Ulrike Kriener (Redemption Road) as the eponymous cop, a charming and tough detective chief inspector who investigates crimes with a no-nonsense approach.
Costarring Michael Roll (Lena Lorenz), Tilo Prückner (Tatort), Alexander Lutz (Vienna Crime Squad), Tamara Simunovic (Flemming), and Thure Riefenstein (Johan Falk), Detective Ellen Lucas: Season 1 premieres in the US on Tuesday, May 28, exclusively on MHz Choice and the MHz Choice channel on Amazon.
Black Spot: Season 2 (Zone blanche) (France-Belgium)
Woo hoo! We now have one answer to “Will the next seasons of these Euro TV shows screen in the US?” It is “Yes!” for the riveting French noir mystery drama Black Spot.
In Season 2, Major Laurène Weiss’s (Suliane Brahim, Meurtre en trios actes) remarkable recovery prompts residents of Villefranche to question several things, primary amongst them being the odd circumstances under which she was found and how she managed to survive injuries that would have killed anyone else.
Upon returning to work, Laurène finds Villefranche divided and nature disrupted by the pollution from the new waste storage site, with strange phenomena occurring more often. She also continues to hunt down the mysterious being that abducted her when she was young, convinced that it, whether man or demon, is now threatening Villefranche.
Returning to the series are Hubert Delattre (The Frozen Dead), Laurent Capelluto (The Returned), Samuel Jouy (The Churchmen), Camille Aguilar (Les Secrets), Renaud Rutten (Braquo), Brigitte Sy (Invisibles), and Anne Suarez (Caïn). Marina Hands (Captain Marleau) joins the cast as environmental specialist Delphine Garnier.
Black Spot: Season 2, a Netflix Original series, premieres in the US on, Friday, May 31, exclusively on Netflix. (The new question is whether Netflix will also make Season 1 available for streaming, since it was removed from Prime Video months ago.)
Update: Black Spot: Season 1 began streaming on Netflix on May 31. Season 2 premieres Friday, June 14. Both are on the show’s page on Netflix.
How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) (Germany)
Inspired by real events, this six-part drama follows Moritz (Maximilian Mundt, Nord bei Nordwest), a teenager who decides to win back his girlfriend from the school drug dealer by selling better drugs. To do this, he teams up with his best friend and starts an online drugs business from his bedroom in Leipzi. It turns out to be quite successful, and soon the two are faced with standard business problems like meeting demand and maintaining quality. Mostly, though, they need to not get caught.
Costars include Danilo Kamperidis (Die Pfefferkörner), Lena Klenke (8 Days), Damian Hardung (The Name of the Rose, see below), Leonie Wesselow (Der Kriminalist), Luna Schaller (Oma ist die Beste), and Bjarne Mädel (Crime Scene Cleaner).
How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), a Netflix Original series, launches globally on Friday, May 31, exclusively on Netflix. (You can add it to your queue now.)
OTHER NATIONAL PREMIERES TO CONSIDER
The Name of the Rose (In English) (Italy-Germany)
Based on the global best-selling novel of the same name by Umberto Eco, this historical mystery-thriller limited series stars Emmy® winner John Turturro (The Night Of) as Franciscan friar Brother William of Baskerville. He and the young novice Adso of Melk (Damian Hardung, The Red Band Society) travel to a remote Benedictine abbey to help settle a dispute, but soon after arrival begin investigating a series of mysterious deaths, despite the possibility of invoking the wrath of the powerful inquisitor Bernard Gui (Rupert Everett, An Ideal Husband).
The large international cast includes Peter Davison (Doctor Who), Fabrizio Bentivoglio (Romanzo Siciliano), Greta Scarano (Anti-Mafia Squad), Richard Sammel (A French Village), Stefano Fresi (Murders at Barlume), Roberto Herlitzka (Palermo Connection), Claudio Bigagli (The Teacher), Corrado Invernizzi (Marco Polo), Max Malatesta (Romanzo Criminale), James Cosmo (Game of Thrones), Michael Emerson (Person of Interest), Rinat Khismatouline (Killing Eve), and David Brandon (Medici).
The Name of the Rose premieres in the US on Thursday, May 23, at 10 PM ET, on SundanceTV.
WALTER PRESENTS TITLES TO BE ADDED TO PBS MASTERPIECE ON AMAZON
The following series from Walter Presents will be available for streaming on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel on Amazon on the dates shown below. (All images in this section courtesy of Walter Presents)
Reborn (Le repenti) (France)
Bruno Debrandt (Spiral) stars in this crime thriller as Alexis Marceau, a felon who, after grassing on his friends, enters witness protection and gets a new face along with his new identity as Matthias Leblanc. Six years later, a judge offers to revoke his house arrest if he works undercover at his old company in Dunkirk. It seems simple enough, as no one recognizes him, but Alexis is on a slippery slope back to his old life while the stakes are higher than ever. Reborn will be available for streaming on the PBS Masterpiece channel on Amazon on Friday, May 10.
The Court: Season 2 (Réttur) (Iceland)
The final season of this legal drama finds brilliant attorney Logi Traustason (Magnús Jónsson, Cover Story) starting to remember details of the event that landed him in prison for manslaughter. Meanwhile, Hörður (Víkingur Kristjánsson, Prisoners) gets hot and heavy with an ambitious lawyer and Brynhildur (Jóhanna Vigdís Arnardóttir, Case) experiences multiple tragedies — all while working on their respective cases. The Court: Season 2 will be available for streaming on the PBS Masterpiece channel on Amazon on Friday, May 24.
Rough Justice (Coppers) (Belgium)
Based in part on Flemish author Toni Coppers‘ “Meesters in misdaad” (“Masters in Crime”) novels, this police procedural series stars Hilde De Baerdemaeker (Familie) as Supt. Liese Meerhout, the no-nonsense, rule-breaking, drum-playing head of the federal judicial police’s homicide division in Antwerp. The opener finds Liese searching for the link between two murder victims while receiving mysterious, anonymous emails related to one of her old cases. Rough Justice will be available for streaming on the PBS Masterpiece channel on Amazon on Friday, May 31.
NON-PREMIERE PROGRAMS ADDED TO LINEAR TV SCHEDULES
Professor T (Belgium)
Following viewers’ enthusiastic response to Swedish crime thriller Modus in February, the second series from Walter Presents that will screen on public television is the award-winning, Flemish-language mystery-crime drama Professor T, one of my favorite Euro TV premieres of 2017.
The eponymous character is Jasper Teerlinck (Koen De Bouw, The Team), an eccentric and neurotic criminal psychology professor at Antwerp University who happens to be the best prof Inspector Annelies Donckers (Ella Leyers, 13 Commandments) ever had. Which is why she contacts him for help on a case involving the rape of a student on campus, a crime reminiscent of an attack on one of Annelies’ friends ten years ago. For further details, read this article.
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The series costars Bart Hollanders (Salamander) as Inspector Daan de Winter, Annelies’ partner; Herwig Ilegems (Grenslanders) as Chief Inspector Paul Rabet, their boss; and Tanja Oostvogels (Cordon) as Police Commissioner Christina Flamant.
Professor T begins airing on PBS stations across the US and streaming on PBS Passport starting Thursday, May 2. (Check your local listings for air dates and times.) The series will continue to be available on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.
Lockout (Fuoco amico: Tf45 – Eroe per amore) (Italy)
Raoul Bova (Under the Tuscan Sun) stars in this eight-part action drama as Captain Enea De Santis, one of the most effective soldiers in the Italian army and the leader of Task Force 45, an elite unit within the Italian Special Forces. While leading a mission in Afghanistan, he meets and quickly becomes intimately involved with local beauty Samira (Megan Montaner, Grand Hotel), the daughter of a noted terrorist involved in a recent massacre.
Concurrent with carrying out his official duties for Italy’s peace-keeping operations, Enea also searches for the truth behind his father’s disappearance in the zone. As soon as he starts untangling a conspiracy involving unscrupulous speculators, pharmaceutical companies, terrorists, and corrupt Italian Secret Service agents, he must fight to stay alive while also defending innocent lives.
Co-starring Andrea Sartoretti (Romanzo Criminale), Romina Mondello (The Octopus), Giorgia Sinicorni (Inspector Coliandro), Davide Paganini (Nero Wolfe), and Luca Lionello (Anti-Mafia Squad), Lockout begins airing in the US on Tuesday, May 7, at 10:30 PM ET/ 7:30 PM PT, on Eurochannel.
The Perfect Stranger (La vie en miettes) (France)
In this thriller, the first of two adaptations of Boileau-Narcejac novels on this list, Bruno Debrandt (Caïn) stars as Jonathan Hopkins, an unhappily married man who is considering divorcing his wife of only a few months. Then he learns two things in quick succession: he has inherited a fortune from the father he never knew, and his wife has been in a car accident. Except the person he finds in the hospital bed is another woman (Audrey Fleurot, A French Village), one with identity papers that confirm she is his wife.
Things get even more bizarre for Jonathan, including discovering that everyone in a village in the Vaucluse know him and have been waiting for his arrival. But a visit from his sister-in-law prompts him to suspect that foul play is afoot, now that he’s a millionaire.
Costarring Marie Denarnaud (Couvre-feu) and Christian Rauth (Origins), The Perfect Stranger begins airing Thursday, May 23, at 8:30 PM ET / 9 PM PT, on Eurochannel.
Enticement (La main passe) (France)
The second Boileau-Narcejac adaptation on this list is this psychological thriller starring Bruno Todeschini (Antigone 34) as Arnaud Marescot, a kleptomaniac lawyer who witnesses a murder and takes the weapon. He also falls in love with the killer, Emilie Benoît (Fanny Valette, No Second Chance), and helps to cover up her crime of passion to the police. But Arnaud’s life is turned upside down when he realizes too late that he has become Emilie’s latest target.
Costarring Anne Azoulay (The Bureau), Serge Riaboukine (La Mante), Natalia Dontcheva (Elite Squad), and Oscar® nominee Marie-Christine Barrault (Cousin cousine), Enticement begins airing Thursday, May 30, at 8:30 PM ET / 9 PM PT, on Eurochannel.
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Header photo credits: Detective Ellen Lucas (showing Ulrike Kriener as Ellen Lucas), Fabel (showing Peter Lohmeyer as Jan Fabel), and The Undertaker (showing Mike Müller as Luc Conrad), courtesy of MHz Choice; Alta Mar (photo by Manuel Fernandez-Valdes), Black Spot (showing Suliane Brahim as Laurène Weiss, photo by Nicolas Velter), and Undercover (showing Frank Lammers as Ferry Bouman, photo by Jo Voets) courtesy of Netflix
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Did you miss any of the new shows and program additions from previous days, weeks, or months? Check the Euro TV Viewing Guide 2019 Archives to find out.
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For details about the May 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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