NEW Showmax is relentless with its content, adding series and movies all the time, a person can barely keep up. May this be the least of our problems. The highlights below are just the tip of the iceberg for March. On the original local content side, look out for Tracking Thabo Bester, produced by IdeaCandy (Devilsdorp, Rosemary’s Hitlist, Steinheist), and. directed by Nikki Comninos (Convict Conman).
Thabo Bester was the most searched person in South Africa on Google in 2023, with his co-accused, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, just behind in fourth place, as the whole country obsessed over “Bestermania” and the stormy tale of love, murder, deception and corruption. Daily Maverick named them both “SA Villain of the Year”.
The four-part investigation screens in two halves on 15 and 22 March 2024.
My international series pick of the month is Time. From The Independent: “Created by the legendary screenwriter Jimmy McGovern in 2021, the man responsible for shows like Cracker, The Street and the docudrama Hillsborough, the also excellent first season was set in a fictional men’s prison, starring Sean Bean as a former teacher serving a sentence for drink driving and Stephen Graham as a morally compromised prison officer. It picked up a handful of Baftas but also won plaudits from critics – and from people with first-hand experience of the prison system – for its unsparing portrayal of life behind bars. Now McGovern has shifted his focus to the women’s prison estate.
“Orla (Jodie Whittaker), a single mother to three young children, has been sentenced to six months inside for tampering with her electricity meter (“fiddling the leccy”, as she puts it). This six-month stretch will see her lose her job and her home, with her kids placed in foster care. Orla is one of a trio of women at the heart of the season: the others are Kelsey, a young, pregnant heroin addict played by The Last Of Us and Game Of Thrones actor Bella Ramsey, and Tamara Lawrance’s Abi, who is serving a life sentence for a crime that she is trying to keep secret from her fellow inmates.”
It’s only three episodes, available to binge from today, March 8. Here are more highlights, including The Sixth Commandment, another personal recommendation:
- Resident Alien season three, Tuesdays
Alan Tudyk is back in his Critics Choice Super-nominated role as Harry Vanderspeigle, the no-longer-so-undercover alien posing as a human doctor in the town of Patience.
Resident Alien has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.1 score on IMDb, where it’s currently at #6 on its Most Popular TV charts. As IMDb says, it’s “one of the funniest shows – about destroying the entire human race.”
- The Lovers season one, Mondays
A foul-mouthed supermarket worker (Roisin Gallagher) doesn’t care about anything, including her life, until she begins an unexpected relationship with a self-centred political television broadcaster (Critics Choice nominee Johnny Flynn from Genius and Emma), who already has a seemingly perfect London life and celebrity girlfriend (Alice Eve) .
- Zerozerozero, Wednesdays
ZeroZeroZero traces a shipment of cocaine on its journey through Mexico and across the Atlantic Ocean to the Italian cartel buying it.
The cast includes Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie), BAFTA nominee Dane DeHaan (Oppenheimer), Emmy nominee Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment), award winner Tcheky Karyo (The Missing), and Harold Torres, who was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series for his performance as Manuel Quinteras.
- Infiniti, Mondays
Produced by Empreinte Digitale (Spinners) for CANAL+, Infiniti was nominated for Best Mini-series at the International Emmy Awards. The International Space Station (ISS) has gone silent when a decapitated and waxed body is found on a roof in Kazakhstan. Positive identification leaves no room for doubt: the body belongs to an American astronaut currently on a mission on the ISS. A French astronaut, dismissed from the space programme, and a Kazakh cop, disowned by his ranking hierarchy, set out to solve this mysterious paradox.
- Chicago Med season eight, binge now
Following a fiery season seven finale, Chicago’s most highly skilled medical team is back at Gaffney Chicago Medical Centre. Brace yourself for several major cast shakeups this season that’ll mean saying goodbye to beloved characters – both at the start and end of the season.
Sasha Roiz (9-1-1) joins the cast as ambitious shareholder Jack Dayton, whose arrival could spell trouble for the trauma unit. Also look out for the welcome return of April Sexton (Teen Choice nominee Yaya DaCosta), who we last saw in season six.
- Billions season seven, binge from March 11
In the seventh and final season of the hit drama Billions, alliances are turned on their heads, old wounds are weaponised, loyalties are tested, betrayal takes on epic proportions and enemies become wary friends…
Emmy winner Damian Lewis (A Spy Among Friends, Homeland) returns as fan-favourite Bobby “Axe” Axelrod, opposite Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti and Critics Choice nominees Corey Stoll, Maggie Siff and Asia Kate Dillon.
- Quantum Leap season two, Tuesdays from March 12
One leap can change everything as Dr Ben Song (Raymond Lee from Top Gun: Maverick) continues his thrilling journey through time in the action-packed second season of Quantum Leap.
Peter Gadiot (One Piece, Yellowjackets) and multiple Teen Choice Award nominee Eliza Taylor (The 100’s Clarke Griffin) join the cast this season.
- The Sixth Commandment, binge from March 22
A meeting between an inspiring teacher and a charismatic student sets the stage for one of the most complex criminal cases in recent memory – the gaslighting and deaths of Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall) and Ann Moore-Martin (two-time BAFTA nominees Anne Reid, Sanditon and Last Tango In Halifax) in the Buckinghamshire village of Maids Moreton – and the extraordinary events that unfolded over the following years.
The four-part BBC series has an 89% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Irish Independent calling it, “Not just a great true-crime drama – one of the best of the year in any genre.”
- Colin From Accounts season one, binge from March 25
Colin From Accounts follows Ashley and Gordon, two single-ish, complex humans who are brought together by a car accident and an injured dog. Created by and co-starring real life couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall, the Australian comedy series has an 8.3/10 score on IMDb and a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In its 5/5-star review, Guardian says, “This unfailingly funny, perfectly acted Australian sitcom features a lead that’s neither a hot mess nor a manic pixie dream girl. It’s honest, kind and goes from strength to strength… It is ordinary life with all the good lines jammed closer together… It’s really rather wonderful.”
