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“Yellowjackets” (Showtime/Sky Wow)
It’s the fall of 1996 when a plane crashes over the mountains of Ontario. On board are the “Yellowjackets” – a successful high school team – on their way to the national soccer championship. Instead of fighting for the title, the girls now have to fight for survival by any means necessary. 19 months of cannibalism, mysterious rituals and worst of all: bitter teenage rivalry and their secrets.
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The story of “Yellowjackets” is told on two time levels. Once: right after the plane crash in 1996, then: in the present. 25 years later, the survivors of the plane crash are already busy with other things – starting families and trying to let the past rest. Which is of course not so easy – especially when one of the survivors mysteriously dies and all the other postcards receive a strange symbol…
The sophisticated genre mix of “Yellowjackets” with elements of horror, mystery, coming-of-age and survival is perfect for watching campfire series together with friends and has been nominated for Emmys in several categories – including for the great cast (Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey). A second season is coming this year!
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“Pachinko: A Simple Life” (AppleTV+)
“Pachinko” refers to a Japanese game of chance – similar to pinball. And that also becomes a metaphor for life itself in the series. In the first episode we meet Kim Sunja, a young girl in Korea during the Japanese occupation in 1915. In the course of the episodes, Sunja gets older, becomes illegitimate and is forced to settle down went to Japan and lived there in exile, she started a family and lived through tragic and happy moments with her until old age in 1989…
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Pachinko – A Simple Life | Official Trailer | AppleTV+
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“Pachinko” is a fairly classic family epic with a wonderfully stoic protagonist – about displacement, the search for a home, the trauma of this loss and how a family in the land of their former enemies stands proud against decades of oppression.
The series creator Soo Hugh (“The Terror”) has adapted the novel with a keen sense for emotional moments and makes these emotions vivid in both words and pictures. “Pachinko” is poetic and cathartic. One of the best and most beautiful series of the year.
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“Severance” (AppleTV+)
Balancing work and private life is a challenge? Not for main character Mark (Adam Scott). He underwent brain surgery and has since had one consciousness as a working person and one in his free time. Like two different people. This works wonderfully for Mark and his colleagues, who also opted for this procedure, until his team gets a new addition: Helly (Britt Lower) doesn’t want to get used to the fact that once she’s in the office, she has nothing more to say knows her private life – what hobbies she has or what the color of her mother’s eyes is. It comes as it must: The work personas of Mark, Helly and others rebel.
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Severance – Official Trailer | AppleTV+
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The office world of “Severance” is peculiar: wind noise in closed rooms, unpleasant light and a ceiling that hangs too low. This whimsical world is brilliantly staged, thought out down to the last detail – director Ben Stiller and writer Dan Erickson did a great job. The series exposes the unreasonable demands of the working world, is creepy, moving and aesthetic. Real series art.
A second season has been confirmed for a long time, anything else would also be cheeky, because “Severance” doesn’t even pretend that the first season would end anything.
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“Under The Banner of Heaven – Murder for God” (FX/Hulu/Disney+)
When Allan Lafferty (Billy Howle) found his young wife Brenda (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and their baby Erika dead in a pool of blood at home in their neat suburban home in 1984, it was clear to the police: Allan was the prime suspect. Especially when it turns out that he is at odds with his faith and has broken off contact with his family. A sin for the faithful Latter Day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah – and also for the investigating detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield). But Allan is not the culprit. But two of his brothers. Detective Pyre must find out why – against the rules of his own faith.
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MURDER FOR GOD – Teaser Trailer | Disney+
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“Under The Banner of Heaven” is also the title of a true crime book by Jon Krakauer. The author not only rolls up the mysterious murder within the respected Lafferty family. But also the often bizarre history of the Mormons and their fundamentalist groups. The series does its own thing and detaches itself from the book template to show in a multi-layered crime story how people radicalize themselves so much that they go to extremes blinded by hate, self-righteousness and ideological glorification. Even the first episode is storytelling at a masterful level. Soon to be seen in Germany at Disney+ Star.
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“Oh Hell” (MagentaTV)
Helene Sternberg is 24 years old and muddles through like this: she tells her father that she would study law. She tells her friend she has a nonprofit startup — and a new boyfriend. None of this is true. Why does Helene claim that? Because it would be nice if In general, it works a little differently than all the others.
The “OH HELL” series is like an alternative to constant self-optimization. Of course, Helene – as soon as she ventures out of her dream world for a moment – quickly reaches the limits of what we all know as our everyday life. It is not a blueprint for a successful life, but an impulse to look at things differently. Not for efficiency, more for feeling. And the cast around the main actress Mala Emde transports this with great timing. For example in the romance between Helene and cello teacher Oskar (Edin Hasanovic).
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Oh hell | Trailers | from now on only at MagentaTV
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“Oh Hell” is a whimsical and visually very appealing coming-of-age series, as you could see it mainly from the USA or the UK – with the series team around Johannes Boss (“Deadlines”) it’s obviously also in Germany. At MagentaTV. And a second season is already certain, although MagentaTV wants to withdraw from its own productions.
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