Valeria

Netflix

Valeria (Diana Gómez) seems to have it all figured out, she has a book deal, a great group of friends and is seemingly happily married.

But a closer look at Valeria’s life shows problems with writer’s block and a magnetic spark with a man who’s not her husband.

The Spanish comedy drama follows Valeria struggling to write a debut novel that will impress her editors, which is coupled with pressure from her photographer husband Adrian (Ibrahim Al Shami) to bring in more money and put more time into their relationship.

Valeria’s friends have their own problems, Lola (Silma López) is dating a married man and says she wants to stay unattached, Carmen (Paula Malia) has a crush on her co-worker but is too scared to talk to him and Nerea (Teresa Riott) is working for and living with her overbearing parents but hasn’t come out to them yet.

Together the four of them support each other through the good times and the bad.

The Woods

Netflix

Based on Harlan Coben’s 2007 novel, Polish drama The Woods focuses on prosecutor Paweł (Hubert Miłkowski) who has grown up under a cloud of grief and mystery after his sister Kamilla disappeared in the woods at a high school summer camp 25 years ago.

Kamilla wasn’t the only teenager who disappeared, Monika and Daniel also went missing, but whereas their bodies turned up not long after their disappearance, the bodies of Kamilla and her friend Artur were never found and the case was closed and left unsolved.

Painful memories are dredged up when police question a now adult Paweł about a newly discovered body, which pushes him to finally learn the truth about what happened to his sister.

The series switches back and forth between 1994, when the disappearances occurred, and the present in 2019 to find out what happened that summer.

Babylon Berlin

Sky Atlantic

Set in the gritty underworld of Berlin in the late 1920’s, Babylon Berlin unveils a world of sex, drugs and crime mixed with the glamour of the city’s jazz clubs.

Based on the noir crime novels by Volker Kutscher, the series follows the operations of detective Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch), a war veteran self-medicating with morphine to treat his PTSD and his relentless secretary, flapper and occasional sex worker Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries).

On the outside Berlin seems to be a city of progress and opportunity, but underneath the façade it’s a city struggling with growing extremism and an unstable economy.

Unveiling a world teetering on the brink of collapse, the series introduces a host of characters, from a mobster with a heart, to a Soviet secret police spy, and plenty of other shady characters.

Ekaterina

Amazon Prime

Remembered as one of the most consequential leaders of Russia, Catherine the Great is the country’s longest ruling female leader and the focus of Russian series Ekaterina.

During her reign, Russia was revitalised and became one of the greatest powers in Europe and Asia, ushering in a new golden age of Russia.

Initially known as Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste (Marina Alexandrova), she was chosen to marry Peter III (Aleksandr Yatsenko), the heir and subsequent Emperor of Russia, an unpopular leader who could hardly speak Russian.

Catherine comes to realise that if she wanted any real power, she cannot wait to be given it, she must take it, and a plot to assassinate her husband and assume power begins to form.  

The Adulterer

 All4

A passionate affair leads to jealousy and vengeful lust when photographer Iris (Sylvia Hoeks) and lawyer Willem (Fedja van Huêt) meet and ignite an irresistible attraction in this seductive Dutch thriller.

As sparks fly, the pair give into their instant connection and embark on a passionate affair, which is complicated further by their wealthy and powerful families.

When Willem is called to represent a man accused of murder, unbeknownst to him prosecutor Pepijn van Erkel (Ramsey Nasr) has also been assigned the case and happens to be Iris’ loving husband.

Full of family infighting and sexual tension, Iris and Willem are forced to make tough decisions affecting them and the ones they love.

Breathe

Amazon Prime

Indian crime drama Breathe poses an important question, how far will you go to protect the ones you love?

The series follows two men, Danny (Madhavan Ranganathan), a charming football coach with a young son in need of a lung transplant, and Kabir (Amit Sadh), an alcoholic high-ranking police officer.

When Danny decides that the only way to save his son is to move him up the donor list by killing organ donors, disastrous events are set in motion.

Kabir starts to piece together the seemingly random deaths, linking them to Danny and sending him on a path for justice, no matter the cost.

Cable Girls

Netflix

The much-loved Spanish series Cable Girls follows four women – Lidia (Blanca Suárez), Marga (Nadia de Santiago), Carlota (Ana Fernández) and Angeles (Maggie Civantos) – in 1920s Madrid, who work at a modern telecommunications company.

The series focuses on the hardships the working women face as they try to balance romance, friendship and their quest for equality.

Marga is an innocent young woman from a small village terrified to start a new life in the big city, Carlota is fiery and self-assured but forced to sneak out of her parent’s house just so she can work.

Angeles is forced to give up her job so her husband can be the main breadwinner while she takes on the role of wife and mother, and Lidia's life, who is used to manipulating and stealing to get what she wants, is not what she seems.

Set in the time of the suffragettes, the four women are choosing to be independent at a time when they were expected to be daughters, wives, mothers and nothing else.

Gomorrah

Sky

Based on Roberto Saviano’s book of the same name, Italian crime drama Gomorrah features violence, deception and betrayal as the inside world of Neapolitan crime organisation, the Camorra is uncovered.

Seen through the eyes of Ciro (Marco D'Amore), a member of the Savastano clan and the obedient and self-confident right-hand man of the clan’s godfather, Ciro’s loyalty is tested as he navigates the dangers of the criminal world.

When Ciro decides to ignore tradition and make a ploy to be the next boss of his crime syndicate, the power struggle puts him and his entire family at risk.

A spin-off film L’immortale has also been released, which acts as a prequel and sequel to the third series.

Something in the Rain

Netflix

A carefully nuanced romantic drama, Korean series Something in the Rain shows the beauty of falling in love, from the big grand gestures to the small little touches.

Yoon Jin-a (Son Ye-jin) is a career woman in her mid-30s and recently dumped, she is reunited with her best friend’s younger brother, 20-something animator Seo Jun-hui (Jung Hae-in) who’s back from work abroad.

Jin-ah initially saw Jun-hui as childish and immature, but as they spend more time together she starts to see him in a new light and a love begins to grow between them.

The Hook-up Plan 

Netflix                                                                                                                                                         

The perfect romantic comedy, which expertly balances the line between heartfelt and funny, The Hook-up Plan is French romcom with a twist.

Girl meets boy, girl falls for boy, boy falls for girl but there’s a catch, the boy is a male escort hired by her best friends. 

Living in Paris, Elsa (Zita Hanrot) is struggling to move on from her ex-boyfriend. Desperate to help, her two best friends secretly hire a male escort to help her move on and believe in love again.

However as real feelings grow between the two, the friends scramble to make sure Elsa doesn’t find out the truth, but can their friendship survive all the secrets and lies?