Series to Watch: September 2023

DQ checks out the upcoming schedules to pick 10 new series to watch this September, from a Danish prison drama and an adaptation of a British radio series to a French legal drama and the return of an Australian soap.

Huset (Prisoner)
From: Denmark
Original broadcaster: DR
Producer: DR Drama
Distributor: DR Sales
Starring: Youssef Wayne Hvidtfeldt, David Dencik, Sofie Gråbøl and Charlotte Fich
Launch date: September 1 (DRTV), September 3 (DR1)
Four prison guard colleagues at a dilapidated Danish prison work in an environment that could easily be rough and hostile, yet both they and the powerful inmates they support live in relative harmony by following a rulebook that subverts the official code of conduct. But when the prison is threatened with closure, management demands zero tolerance and launches a campaign that has dire consequences for inmates and guards alike. At the same time, the lives of the four officers outside the prison are found to be full of conflict, loneliness and secrets – which will soon impact those inside and outside the prison’s walls.
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One Night
From: Australia
Original broadcaster: Paramount+
Producers: Easy Tiger and Motive Pictures
Distributor: Fifth Season
Starring: Jodie Whittaker, Nicole da Silva, Yael Stone, Kat Stewart, George Mason, Erroll Shand, Noni Hazlehurst, Tina Bursill, William Zappa, Damien Strouthos and Jillian Nguyen
Launch date: September 1
This show tells the story of three women whose bond was destroyed by events one night 20 years ago. Simone (Nicole da Silva) has harboured secret hopes of becoming a novelist but most of her haphazard attempts have been shoved into her bottom drawer. Now, at the age of 40, she has finally written the one story she could never get out of her mind, and her debut manuscript has become an unexpected overnight success. But it soon becomes apparent that the devastating story the book tells doesn’t exclusively belong to her, and at the heart of Simone’s novel is a tragedy that also happened to Tess (Whittaker) and Hat (Stone), her two childhood best friends.
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The Killing Kind
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Paramount+
Producer:
Starring: Emma Appleton and Colin Morgan
Launch date: September 7
Based on Jane Casey’s novel of the same name, the story follows the past and present relationship between high-flying defence barrister Ingrid Lewis (Appleton) and her client John Webster (Morgan). Ingrid represented Webster in court when he was accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend, eventually winning his case. Things turned personal, with Ingrid finding herself drawn to Webster – but when she wanted to end the relationship, he couldn’t let her go and Ingrid’s world consequently imploded. In the present, just as Ingrid is rebuilding her life, the sudden death of her mentor and friend collides with the unexpected reappearance of Webster, who makes a sensational claim confirming Ingrid’s suspicions that she was the intended target. Fuelled by an obsession to find out the truth and not knowing who to trust, Ingrid’s world threatens to unravel once more.
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Wilderness
From: UK/US
Original broadcaster: Prime Video
Producer: Firebird Pictures
Starring: Jenna Coleman, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ashley Benson and Eric Balfour
Launch date: September 15
Based on BE Jones’s novel and with a title sequence accompanied by Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version), this revenge thriller sees Coleman’s Liv realise her seemingly happy marriage is anything but when she discovers her husband Will (Jackson-Cohen) is having an affair. When they embark on a dream road trip across America, Will sees it as a chance to make amends. But for Liv, it’s a very different prospect — a landscape where accidents happen all the time.
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Mrs Sidhu Investigates
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Acorn TV
Producers: Monumental Television and Absolutely Productions
Starring: Meera Syal, Gurjeet Singh, Craig Parkinson and Maana Agyei-Ampadu
Launch date: September 18
Based on the BBC Radio 4 series of the same name, in which Syal voices the title character, this four-parter stars Syal as a high-end caterer with a taste for crime-fighting. Recently widowed, Mrs Sidhu juggles her new catering business with encouraging her wayward son Tez (Singh) to find his passion, all while serving up justice to those who believe they are above the law. Her forays into sleuthing see her form an unofficial partnership with long-suffering divorcee DCI Burton (Parkinson), who reluctantly accepts that together they’re an unbeatable crime-fighting duo, much to the bemusement of his partner, DS Mint (Agyei-Ampadu).

66-5 (Conviction)
From: France
Original broadcaster: Canal+
Producer: Sortileges Productions
Distributor: StudioCanal
Starring: Alice Isaaz, Naïla Harzoune, Eric Pucheu, Raphael Acloque, Kevin Bago, Melvin Boomer, Rani Bheemuck, Rachid Guellaz, Caroline Baehr, Clarisse Normand and Alain Bouzigues
Launch date: September 18
Created by Anne Landois (Engrenages/Spiral) in collaboration with Audrey Fouche (Osmosis), this legal drama follows Rozane, a young business lawyer with a prestigious Parisian firm, whose life is turned upside down when her husband is accused of rape. Brought back to Bobigny, the suburb where she grew up, Rozane tries to rebuild her career as a criminal lawyer.
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Neighbours
From: Australia
Original broadcasters: Network 10 (Australia), Freevee (UK and North America)
Producer: Fremantle
Distributor: Fremantle
Starring: Stefan Dennis, Alan Fletcher, Ryan Maloney, Jackie Woodburne and more
Launch date: September 18
Fans waved goodbye to Neighbours in 2022 following more than three decades on air, after UK broadcaster Channel 5 decided to end its involvement in the Australian soap that launched the careers of stars such as Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe. But no sooner had the dust settled than Freevee stepped in to pick up the show and ensure viewers could continue to follow the lives, loves and challenges facing the residents of Ramsay Street, in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough.
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Bones of Crows
From: Canada
Original broadcaster: CBC
Producers: Marie Clements Media, Screen Siren Pictures and Grana Productions
Starring: Grace Dove, Phillip Forest Lewitski, Rémy Girard, Gail Maurice, Carla Rae and Summer Testawich
Launch date: September 20
In 2022, feature film Bones of Crows followed Aline Spears (played by Testawich, Dove and Rae at different stages of her life), a Cree woman who survives Canada’s residential school system to continue her family’s generational fight in the face of systemic starvation, racism and sexual abuse. This five-part miniseries expands the story and delves more deeply into Aline and her extended family members to tell a moving, multi-generational Indigenous tale of resilience, survival and the pursuit of justice.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick
From: US
Original broadcaster: Peacock
Other broadcasters: Prime Video (internationally, excluding US, Israel and the Middle East)
Producer: Lionsgate Television
Distributor: Lionsgate
Starring: Mel Gibson, Colin Woodell, Mishel Prada, Ben Robson, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Nhung Kate, Jessica Allain, Ayomide Adegun, Jeremy Bobb and Peter Greene
Launch date: September 22
This three-part event series (also pictured top) explores the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins featured in the John Wick feature films. The story unfolds through the eyes of a young Winston Scott (Woodell), who is dragged into the hellscape of 1970s New York City and must battle demons from his past as he attempts to seize control of the hotel – a sanctuary for the world’s most dangerous criminals.
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While the Men are Away
From: Australia
Original broadcaster: SBS
Producer: Arcadia
Starring: Michela De Rossi, Max McKenna, Phoebe Grainer, Jana Zvedeniuk, Matt Testro, Shaka Cook, Benedict Hardie, Gemma Ward, Sacha Horler and Tara Morice
Launch date: September 27
Set against the backdrop of an irreverent, witty 1940s Australia, this eight-part dramedy is described as often (but not always) wildly inaccurate. With the country at war and a lot of men overseas, While the Men are Away follows Frankie (De Rossi), who’s left in charge of her suffering apple farm after her husband is sent to war (or was he?). She enlists Gwen (McKenna) and Esther (Zvedeniuk), the freshly enlisted and naïve city recruits to the Women’s Land Army, to join her, local Indigenous farmhand Kathleen (Grainer) and certified coward Robert (Testro).
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tagged in: 66-5, Bones of Crows, Conviction, Huset, Mrs Sidhu Investigates, Neighbours, One Night, Prisoner, The Continental: From the World of John Wick, The Killing Kind, While the Men are Away, Wilderness