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The five best international series on Showmax this October

01/10/2021

The five best international series on Showmax this OctoberFrom Succession' to season 2 of Love Island UK' here are the five best international series on Showmax this October:

by Erene Roux

01-10-2021

in SA TV and Film

Image: Supplied

From new seasons of Succession, The L Word: Generation Q and Love Island USA to the first seasons of Resident Alien & Chucky, here are the five best international series on Showmax this October:

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SUCCESSION S3 | First on Showmax | Mondays from 18 October 2021

Succession, winner of Best Drama at both the Emmys and Golden Globes in 2020, follows four very rich siblings behaving very badly while trying to win their father's approval and control of his company, a global media and entertainment empire.

Jeremy Strong won the 2020 Best Actor Emmy as Kendall Roy, while Brian Cox won the 2020 Best Actor Golden Globe as his father, Logan. Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin, as Kendall's siblings, and Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun and James Cromwell, as his extended family, also earned Emmy nominations.

In Season 3, that already impressive cast is adding Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Pianist) and Emmy winner Alexander Skarsg rd (Big Little Lies, True Blood), not to mention Black Reel winner Sanaa Lathan (The Affair, Love & Basketball), Emmy nominee Hope Davis (Your Honor, Captain America: Civil War) and singer Jihae (Mortal Engines).

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Ambushed by Kendall at the end of Season 2, Logan begins Season 3 in a perilous position, scrambling to secure familial, political, and financial alliances. Tensions rise as a bitter corporate battle threatens to turn into a family civil war.

The Hollywood Reporter calls Succession one of television's best dramas, a searing, funny and painfully true look at wealth, power and family.

If you've been without internet for the last few years, you can catch up on Succession S1-2 here.

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RESIDENT ALIEN S1 | First on Showmax | Binge now

Based on the Dark Horse comic, Syfy's Resident Alien is a murder mystery sci-fi dramedy that follows Harry, an alien played by Alan Tudyk (Rogue One, Firefly) who crash lands on Earth and passes himself off as a human small-town doctor.

Arriving with a secret mission to kill all humans, Harry starts off living a simple life but things get a bit rocky when he's roped into solving a local murder and realises he needs to assimilate to his new world. As he does so, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: Are human beings worth saving? and Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?

Resident Alien has an 8.2/10 rating on IMDb, who picked it as one of three innovative shows the Emmys missed , calling it one of the funniest shows about destroying the entire human race. The series also has a 94% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Los Angeles Times writing, We are in Spielberg country here Tudyk is in fine form as an alien in ill-fitting human clothing, getting the hang of laughter and sex I smiled, I laughed, I cared.

THE L WORD: GENERATION Q S2 | First on Showmax | Binge from 14 October

In this sequel to the ground-breaking, Emmy-nominated 2004-2009 series, Golden Globe nominee Jennifer Beals (Flashdance), Kate Moennig (Ray Donovan, Grown-ish) and Leisha Hailey (CSI) reprise their original roles alongside a new generation of diverse, self-possessed LGBTQIA+ characters as they take on love, heartbreak, sex, setbacks and success in L.A.

The first season was up for a 2020 Queerty for Best TV Series and a 2020 GLAAD Media Award, with a 81% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus says Generation Q has style and charm to spare and announces a new phase for The L Word that will please new and old fans alike. Slate calls it a glossy, bighearted show that's less soapy than the original series but delivers enough secrets, sex, and secret sex to keep the stakes high.

Emmy winner Rosie O'Donnell (SMILF), four-time Teen Choice nominee Donald Faison (Scrubs), Oscar nominee Griffin Dunne (House of Lies, This is Us) and Vanessa Williams (Candyman) guest star this season.

CHUCKY S1 | First on Showmax | Binge episodes 1-3 from 27 October, weekly episodes thereafter

A vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, throwing an idyllic American town into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begins to expose the town's hypocrisies and secrets in the brand-new series Chucky, which picks up after the events of the seventh film in the horror franchise, Cult of Chucky.

Created by Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominee Don Mancini (Bride of Chucky, Child's Play), the series stars Oscar nominee Brad Dourif (The Lord of the Rings' Wormtongue and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's Billy Bibbit) as the voice of serial-killer-possessed Good Guy doll Chucky, with child actor Zackary Arthur (Transparent) as Jake Wheeler.

Oscar nominee Jennifer Tilly (Bullets over Broadway, Bound) returns as Tiffany Valentine, and Saturn Award nominee Alex Vincent (Child's Play) reprises his role as Chucky's archnemesis, Andy Barclay, with Christine Elise (BH90210) returning as Andy's foster sister, Kyle. Also look out for Dourif's daughter and genre marvel Fiona Dourif (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Stand, The Blacklist, The Purge) returning as Nica Pierce.

LOVE ISLAND USA S2 | First on Showmax | Binge now

Following a delay due to the pandemic, the second season of Love Island USA was moved from Fiji to The Cromwell, a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. With strict quarantine measures in place, for the 31 islanders the isolation is real as they couple and re-couple under the watchful eye of host Arielle Vandenberg over 40 days in a bid to win the $100,000 prize.

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