German TV

Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest global TV shows will air in the UK

Just one new acquisition this week – The Alienist (US: TNT; UK: Netflix) – of which I’ve just reviewed the first episode. That’ll be available in its totality on Netflix here in the UK from April 19.

There’s also been a secret acquisition by Amazon of season 2 of Baron Noir (France: Canal+). Why do I say secret? Because firstly it didn’t tell anyone and secondly it’s deploying a secret new airing strategy. What is this secret new strategy? Well, you know the way it makes available the latest episode of a new US TV show the day after it airs in the US? Same thing here, even though it’s French. In fact, the first two episodes are already available.

Okay, so not that secret really.

Premiere dates

Damnation (US: USA; UK: Netflix)
Premiere date:  Thursday, February 1st

Billed as “as an epic saga of the secret history of the 1930s American heartland, chronicling the mythic conflict and bloody struggle between big money and the downtrodden, God and greed, charlatans and prophets,” Damnation sees firebrand faux preacher Killian Scott and his smarter, more literate wife Sarah Jones stirring up a proletariat uprising against capitalism. Trouble is, professional strike-breaker Logan Marshall-Green is on his tail, and he’s willing to do what it takes to stop the revolution before it starts.

An intriguing, failed experiment and a window onto a generally unobserved time and place that still has a lot going for it in many areas. But it got cancelled this week so season 1’s your lot.

Episode reviews: 1

Tatort (The Mind of a Murderer/Inspector Falke) (Germany: Das Erste; UK: All4)
Premiere date: Friday, February 2nd

As I mentioned earlier this week, Germany’s long-running Tatort krimi series is actually made up of several different strands supplied by different parts of Germany. Walter Presents has already given us two of these strands as Cenk Batu (‘Team Hamburg’ from 2008 to 2012) and Nick’s Law (‘Team Hamburg’ from 2013 to 2016), but up next are The Mind of a Murderer (‘Team Dortmund’) and Inspector Falke (the new ‘Team Hamburg’).

Maltese: Il romanzo del commissario (Maltese: The Mafia Detective) (Italy: RAI; UK: Channel 4)
Premiere date: Sunday, February 4th, 10pm

Set in the 70s, Maltese sees police detective Kim Rossi Stuart return to Sicily for the wedding of a childhood friend and gets caught up in a murder case which sees him waging war against the mafia in a desperate effort to unravel the truth. Rike Schmid co-stars.

Everything Sucks! (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, February 16th

Set in Boring, Oregon (that’s a real place, BTW) in 1996, Everything Sucks! is a coming of age story that revolves around the High School’s A/V Club and Drama Club – two groups of nerdy-edgy outsiders, who join forces to make a movie.

Seven Seconds (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, February 23rd

After a white cop accidentally hits and critically injures a black teenager, a northeastern US city explodes with racial tensions, an attempted cover-up and its aftermath, and the trial of the century.

Stars Regina King, who seems to be the queen of anthology series these days.