Every Friday, I let you know the latest announcements about when new, imported TV shows will finally be arriving on UK screens
We’ve one acquisition this week and that’s CBS (US)’s forthcoming summer show, Salvation, with episodes set to air on Amazon (UK) four days after they air in the US. “The suspense thriller series follows a tech superstar and an MIT graduate who discover an asteroid will destroy Earth in six months.” So basically a sequel to No Tomorrow?
Anyway, that debuts on CBS on July 12 at 9pm ET/PT, so presumably we’ll be getting episodes starting July 16.
Another show coming to Amazon, this time an Amazon original, is Comrade Detective. This sounds potentially both very daft and very funny, since it features a faux Romanian 80s detective cop drama, all shot in Romania and with Romanian dialogue but dubbed by Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as well as the equally stellar likes of Jenny Slate, Chloë Sevigny, Jake Johnson, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen, Kim Basinger, Mahershala Ali, Tracey Letts, Bobby Cannavale, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, Mark Duplass, Katie Aselton Duplass, Jerrod Carmichael, Bo Burnham and John Early:
In the thick of 1980’s Cold War hysteria, the Romanian government created the country’s most popular and longest-running series, Comrade Detective, a sleek and gritty police show that not only entertained its citizens but also promoted Communist ideals and inspired a deep nationalism. The action-packed and blood-soaked first season finds Detectives Gregor Anghel (Killing Time‘s Florin Piersic Jr) and Iosef Baciu (The Devil Inside‘sCorneliu Ulici) investigating the murder of fellow officer Nikita Ionesco and, in the process, unraveling a subversive plot to destroy their country that is fueled by – what else – but the greatest enemy: Capitalism. Though the beloved show was sadly forgotten about after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it has been rediscovered and digitally remastered now with its main heroes voiced by Tatum and Gordon-Levitt. Comrade Detective is a true portal into a time and place and a powerful reminder of what art can be – and it is now ready to be seen by the modern world on a larger scale than ever before.
Amazon’s releasing that August 4.
Last but not least, we have Netflix’s series adaptation of Spike Lee’s seminal 1986 movie She’s Gotta Have It. Importantly, Lee has not only created and produced the show, he’s directed all 10 episodes. An update of the 1986 film, Brooklyn-based artist Nola Darling, a 20-something struggling to define herself and divide her time amongst her friends, her job and her three lovers: Greer Childs, Jamie Overstreet and Mars Blackmon. Air date is November 23, so you might have to suspend your Doctor Who birthday celebrations.
