This month, HBO brings to US audiences six wildly different dramas from its international divisions to keep you busy over the holidays. Now is a great time to check out something new, as, unless you're a big fan of Lifetime's annual lineup of cheesy Christmas movies, December is traditionally a slow month for television. Sure, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are keeping the TV pipeline open, but that's mainly because there is no off position for the streaming content switch. And one of the ways streaming services keep fresh programming on tap for insatiable viewers, or just those looking to watch something with a different cultural perspective, is to bring in shows directly from international markets, without changing the content or messing around with expensive remakes.For HBO subscribers who aren't afraid of subtitles, the premium channel is making full seasons of these international programs available to stream on services like HBO Go and HBO Now in December. That means six brand-new programs your friends probably have never heard of from HBO Europe, HBO Asia, and HBO Latin America, and a chance to broaden your horizons while you whittle away the shortened days during the upcoming holidays. Check out the line-up of HBO International shows below:
Wasteland
Perhaps the most striking of the six international series is Wasteland (Pustina), a dark, eight-episode miniseries from Czech Republic that takes the steady melancholy of the Scandinavian crime drama format and finds a way to make it even gloomier. The setting of the series is as bleak as its title, something made clear as the opening credits make use of some striking imagery that depicts the environmental and economic impact a mining company has on a small community. But while Wasteland makes a statement with its setting, the struggles of a small Czech village and a gigantic mining operation take a backseat to the suspicious disappearance of a young woman named MÃÅa, who happens to be the daughter of Hana Sikorova, the village's mayor and biggest detractor of the mining concern's aggressive efforts to relocate the village's inhabitants.
As an added degree of difficulty, Wasteland also focuses on the young men of a reform school, and the question of whether or not one or more of them have anything to do with MÃÅa's disappearance. The first hour alone throws several aspects of the young girl's disappearance into question, offering at least three potential red herrings, but more interestingly, it begins to show how the threads of this once tight-knit community have begun to unravel. It's the ideal drama for anyone looking to be riveted by a strong mystery, but still wants to be fully immersed in the complex lives of characters caught up in an increasingly twisty drama. And since it's just an eight-episode miniseries, Wasteland makes for a no-strings-attached watch for those struggling to keep up with Peak TV.
The Pact
This series from Poland follows Piotr Grodecki, an investigative journalist, who uncovers massive corporate fraud, only to find that his reporting has huge ramifications for not only him and his family, but the entire government as well. The Pact is a taut conspiracy thriller that blends political intrigue with corporate malfeasance that, not surprisingly, feels particularly incisive at the moment. But while it sounds like the series is a Polish version of The Wire season 5, the show actually functions more like a blend of All the President's Men and Homeland, as the deeper Piotr gets into uncovering the identities of the people behind the conspiracy he's investigating, the more likely it seems he, too, has been manipulated.
Told over the course of two, six-episode seasons, The Pact makes for binge-worthy viewing for those looking to add a little international, political intrigue to their TV watching. The series also makes for a nice change of pace for those looking for a conspiracy thriller, but want to see someone other than another special agent who plays by their own rules as the lead character.
The Teenage Psychic
The first of the two programs from HBO Asia, The Teenage Psychic earns high marks for having the most direct title of all the new international shows premiering this month. Though it might be a bit of a harder sell for some, The Teenage Psychic is exactly as what it claims to be: a story about a teenage psychic. The adolescent medium in this case is Xiao Zhen, a high school student who has the uncanny ability to talk to the dead. She also has a crush on her classmate Ah Le, who helps Xiao Zhen learn to control her gift and discover her true purpose.
Unlike the other shows premiering this month, The Teenage Psychic falls much more in the YA category and is also much more episodic than any of the series from HBO Europe. In fact, the show would make a perfect binge-watch for those who've seen every episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer a dozen times, are really into Riverdale, or simply can't wait for The CW's own teenage medium Sabrina to hit TV.
At just six episodes for its first season, The Teenage Psychic won't be too much of an investment time-wise, and given the younger-skewing demographic it's shooting for, it could be a welcome distraction from the heavier content of its European counterparts.
Halfworlds
By far the weirdest and perhaps most convoluted of the new international shows, Halfworlds is a genre series that delves into the mythological underworld of demons known as Demit who walk among mortals in Jakarta. A blend of action and fantasy, Halfworlds tells a complicated story of several warring clans of those descended from these mythological creatures, the members of which are denoted by the different tattoos that communicate their allegiance and their special abilities.
Told through the eyes of Sarah, a young street artist, Halfworlds earns points for taking its story deadly serious, and for the lengths to which it goes in order to make its intricate narrative a little more palatable for those being introduced to the mythology for the first time. The first episode features a lengthy animated sequence that explains the backstory and underlying plot to the show. Additionally, the series mixes martial arts and horror in a way that's not too dissimilar from the likes of Blade and the Underworld franchise. Plus, at just 30 minutes an episode, Halfworlds makes for a dark trip through an elaborate mythology that won't eat up all of your precious time.
La Vida Secreta de las Parejas
Sex and conspiracy set La Vida Secreta de Las Parejas apart from the rest of HBO's international crowd. The series from Brazil follows Sofia Prado, a therapist and sexologist, as she helps couples deal with relationship woes and intimacy issues. Soon, however, Sofia finds herself embroiled in matters well beyond the bedroom and the average couple's romantic woes, when a banker's shady dealings threaten to spill over and expose corruption within the government.
If you watched Neftlix's Gypsy with Naomi Watts and felt it could use a little more conspiratorial intrigue that runs up the chains of government, then La Vida Secreta de las Parejas might be for you. The first season plays out a bit more like your average US show, with twelve, one-hour episodes following Sofia's narrative, so it's a bit more of a commitment for a single season than most of the other shows, but the twisty tale could be worth it for those searching for a little steamier.
El Hipnotizador
Based on an Argentinian graphic novel, El Hipnotizador follows hypnotist Natalio Arenas, as he embarks on a journey to help others uncover their lost memories, while also searching for a way to come to terms with his own dark secret and undo what was done to him by another hypnotist that left Natalio an isolated insomniac. The series has a lot going for it, thanks to the popularity of the graphic novel it's adapted from, and certainly due to its stylish production design, which lends the series a sense of magical realism heightened by the lush visuals.
For those in search of something that's more than a little outside of the norm, El Hipnotizador will likely be what they're looking for. HBO is streaming both eight-episode seasons of the series, so you can feel free to binge to your heart's content.
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All series are available on HBO Go, HBO Now, and HBO On Demand.