Wondering what series you can stream on Showmax in December 2023? Don’t stress, I’ve got you covered. There’s something for everyone in the 12th month of the year.
Series You Can Stream on Showmax in December 2023
Poker Face Season 1 – Streaming on Showmax from 11 December 2023
Four-time Emmy nominee Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Orange Is The New Black) is on the case in Poker Face, a Peacock Original mystery from Oscar-nominated creator Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Glass Onion, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi).
Lyonne plays Charlie Cale, a casino worker with an extraordinary ability to detect lies. After a close friend is murdered, she hits the road in her Plymouth Barracuda. At every stop, she encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but investigate and solve.
The all-star cast includes Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Oscar nominees Hong Chau (The Whale), Nick Nolte (Warrior) and Chloë Sevigny (Big Love), Emmy winners Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception), Ellen Barkin (Animal Kingdom), and Cherry Jones (Succession), and Emmy nominees Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order), Ron Perlman (Hellboy) and Judith Light (The Menu, Shining Vale).
Poker Face is the 10th best-reviewed series of 2023 on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 98% critic’s rating, and is up for four Emmys, including Lead Actress (Lyonne) and Guest Actress (Light).
World On Fire Season 2 – Streaming on Showmax from 20 December 2023
Four years after its acclaimed first season (thanks to Covid-19 delays), the World War II series World on Fire is back for a second season.
Starring Jonah Hauer-King (Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid and Laurie Laurence in Little Women), Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, The Crown, Phantom Thread), and an ensemble cast, World on Fire Season 2 is set between 1940 and 1941, taking us from the war-torn streets of Britain and the start of The Blitz in Manchester deep into Nazi Germany, the resistance within occupied France, and the brutal sands of the North African desert, including the Siege of Tobruk and Operation Compass.
Season 2 has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Guardian’s calling it, “totally gripping” and saying, “This hugely ambitious attempt to show the war through the lives of ordinary people has an immaculate grasp of tension and character. To watch is to be fully invested in these peoples’ fate.”
The Winter King Season 1 – Streaming on Showmax from 4 December 2023
Set amid the brutality of the 5th Century in a land of warring factions and tribes, The Winter King follows Arthur Pendragon (BAFTA Scotland nominee Iain De Caestecker, aka Leopold Fitz/The Doctor in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as he evolves from outcast son to legendary warrior, leader and ultimately, legend.
An epic revisionist take on the well-loved Arthurian legends, The Winter King is based on The Warlord Chronicles trilogy by Bernard Cornwell, and has an 82% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As the critics’ consensus says, “Action-packed and sprawling in scope, The Winter King compensates for its lack of fidelity to Bernard Cornwell’s books with sheer entertainment value.”
The cast includes award winner Valene Kane (Gangs of London) as Morgan, Olumide Olorunfemi (Venom: Let There Be Carnage) as Lunette, award winner Tatjana Nardone (Devils, Medici) as Ladwys, Ken Nwosu (Christopher Robin, The Witches, Killing Eve, The Letter for the King) as Sagramor, and award winner Nathaniel Martello-White (Collateral, Deceit, I Hate Suzie) as Merlin, with former Cape Town model Jordan Alexandra (Surprised by Oxford) as Guinevere.
Also look out for Screen Actors’ Guild Award nominee Daniel Ings (The Crown, I Hate Suzie) as Owain, Ellie James (Girl/Haji, I May Destroy You) as Nimue, and Billy Postlethwaite (Silo, 1917) as Cadwys, with Teen Choice nominee Eddie Marsan (The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe) as Uther.
Shining Vale Season 2 – Streaming on Showmax from 4 December 2023
Season 2 of Shining Vale promises a Phelps family reunion like no other. The story picks up four months later, with Pat (Emmy-nominated Scream queen and Friends star Courteney Cox) being released from the psychiatric hospital early and returning home, determined to pick up the pieces of her broken family.
But she quickly finds out her children (Gus Birney from Dickinson and Dylan Gage from PEN15) don’t need her, and her husband Terry (Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear from As Good As It Gets and Little Miss Sunshine) doesn’t remember her – thanks to that little brain injury.
To make matters worse, Pat’s new neighbour looks uncannily like Season 1’s resident spectre, Rosemary (Oscar winner Mira Sorvino from Mighty Aphrodite, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion), and the house is starting to reveal the shocking secrets of its dark past…
Four-time Emmy nominee Judith Light (tick, tick…BOOM!, Transparent, Ugly Betty, and Who’s the Boss?) returns as Pat’s mom, Joan, with Screen Actors’ Guild Award nominee Merrin Dungey (Big Little Lies, Alias) as her editor, Kam. Emmy nominees Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks) and Allison Tolman (Why Women Kill, Fargo) are also among the cast this season.
Shining Vale won the 2022 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Television Series, with nominations for Best Actress and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Cox and Birney respectively. Cox was also named Best Actress in a Comedy at last year’s Women’s Image Network Awards, where the show won Outstanding Comedy Series.
Created by Emmy-nominated writer and executive producer Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters) and Writers Guild of America Award nominee Jeff Astrof (Trial & Error, The New Adventures of Old Christine), Shining Vale is once again helmed by an all-female line-up of directors, with Cox producing.
Blue Lights Season 1 – Streaming on Showmax from 11 December 2023
Set in Belfast in Northern Ireland, Blue Lights follows three rookie police officers who find themselves up against criminal gangs, undercover agents, their own communities and even their own police force as they work to complete the last two months of their probationary period.
Blue Lights has an 89% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with five-star reviews from both The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, with the latter calling the series “well-crafted, fantastically tense, thrilling stuff,” and “one of the best shows of the year”.
The BBC police procedural is led by award nominee Sian Brooke (Guilt, Good Omens) and newcomers Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff, with the likes of Irish Film and Television Award winner Martin McCann (Last Sentinel, The Survivalist), Screen Actors Guild nominee Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones), and award winners Valene Kane (Gangs of London, The Winter King) and Andi Osho (I May Destroy You, The Sandman) co-starring.
How To With John Wilson Season 2 – Streaming on Showmax from 20 December 2023
The third and final season of the zany, hilarious, and widely acclaimed HBO Original docu-comedy series How To With John Wilson follows documentary filmmaker and self-described “anxious New Yorker” John Wilson.
Continuing his heartfelt mission of self-discovery, exploration, and observation, Wilson films the lives of his fellow New Yorkers while attempting to give everyday advice on six new deceptively simple and wildly random topics, from how to find a public restroom to how to work out to how to clean your ears. Obviously.
Nominated for a 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program, How To With John Wilson boasts a consistent 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes across all three seasons, with the Season 3 critics’ consensus saying, “Still subversive but taking on new layers of emotional resonance, John Wilson’s opus demonstrates exactly how to bring a labour of love to a satisfying finish.”
The Guardian calls it “miraculous”, saying, “Every episode of this visual essay is an absolute masterpiece – like nothing else on television… One of the finest shows to come out of the US in years… A complete modern reinvention of the visual essay form, something funny and profound and head-spinningly human, a glimpse of New York City from an angle it’s never been seen before, at grubby street level and round freakish little corners.”
Twende Season 1 – Streaming on Showmax from 1 December 2023
The first Showmax Original 2D animated series, Twende follows a pangolin of the same name, the slowest moving animal in the savannah. Twende’s belief that, ‘Life is about the journey, not the destination’ is constantly at odds with his job as a motorbike taxi driver.
Twende is produced by London-based Braintrust and Johannesburg-based Mind’s Eye Creative, with Greig Cameron (Seal Team, Supa Strikas) as the showrunner and an all-star writing team that includes the likes of Supa Team 4 creator Malenga Mulendema and Kizazi Moto’s Vanessa Kanu. Junior Nyong’o voices Twende.
Twende’s pilot screened in competition at Annecy, the world’s premier animation festival. 2023 has lifted the bar for African animation but as 702 entertainment commentator Yalezo Njuguna says on his All That Yazz podcast, “Twende is genuinely my highlight of things I’ve watched within African animation. It is so funny.”
Spinners – Binge on Showmax from 27 December 2023
After becoming the first African series selected in competition at Canneseries, Spinners revved onto Showmax in November, racing to the most first-day views of any Showmax Original in Afrikaans ever.
This followed a string of accolades, including three awards at Dakar Series, including Best TV Series; standing ovations from sold-out premieres in Cape Town, Cannes, and Paris; and being the opening night screening at MIP Africa. Reviews have been glowing: as The Reel Sauce with Tafadzwa put it, “There is a case to be made that it is the best South African show ever produced.”
Spinners follows Ethan, a 17-year-old driver working for a local gang. Needing to support his younger brother but increasingly disgusted with gang life, Ethan discovers a possible way out via spinning, an extreme motorsport where he can put his driving skills to better use. With a gang war looming, can he turn his life around fast enough?
A co-production between Showmax and CANAL+, Spinners’ cast includes Arendsvlei’s Cantona James and Chelsea Thomas in leading roles, along with Elton Landrew (Recipes for Love & Murder), Dillon Windvogel (Blood & Water), and South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) winner Brendon Daniels (Zulu, Skemerdans, Five Fingers for Marseille). The eight-part series is directed by Jaco Bouwer (SXSW and SAFTA winner Gaia).
“Fasten those seatbelts for an exhilarating ride into the criminal world of the Cape Flats,” says IOL’s Debashine Thangevelo. “I was blown away by the script, cast and the production value… If there is anything you watch this week, make sure it’s this!”
Also look out for Inside Spinners, a 28m documentary that explores the extreme South African motorsport through the eyes of the series’ cast members as well as pioneers of this cultural phenomenon, from Eddie Rasta to Yaseen Damon.
Adulting Season 2 – Streaming on Showmax from 4 December 2023
The boys are back, including Hunk of The Year Feather Award winner Thembinkosi Mthembu (Outlaws, Shaka iLembe, The River) as Bonga, Nhlanhla Kunene (The River, Lavish) as fan-favourite Eric, Thabiso Rammusi (The Suit) as Mpho, and Luthando BU Mthembu (Big Brother Mzansi) as Vuyani, named GQ’s Best Dressed On Screen Personality earlier this year.
This season introduces SAFTA nominees and former Rhythm City castmates Samkelo Ndlovu (Umkhoka: The Curse) and Thembi Seete (Gomora, Zone 14) as Minki and Portia, as well asthe likes of Nomalanga Shozi (Rhythm City, MTV Shuga and the face of BET Africa), Obakeng Kgwedi (Gomora, Kokota) and Gaisang K Noge (Naledi in The Wife).
Adulting’s first season set a new record for the most first-day views on Showmax of any drama series, well ahead of Succession S4, The Last of Us S1 and The White Lotus S2 – the three most-nominated shows overall at the upcoming 75th Emmy Awards.
Adulting is created by Tshedza Pictures’ Phatu Makwarela and Gwydion Beynon (Outlaws, The Republic and The River, which was also nominated for an International Emmy). Gwydion says the 18LSDVN show will keep raising eyebrows in its second season. “Our research into the stuff South African men get up to keeps shocking us…”
Convict Conman – Streaming on Showmax from 6 December 2023
In 2012, Carte Blanche journalist Sasha Wein receives a tip-off to investigate Dawie de Villiers, a Kempton Park photographer and founder of Modelling South Africa. Described in the first episode as “a sophisticated predator” and “the Kempton Park Hugh Hefner”, de Villiers is accused of fraud and of being sexually inappropriate with aspiring models, some below the age of 16.
Nine years later, in 2021, with de Villiers sentenced to life in jail, investigative journalist Jana Marx (Devilsdorp) receives a tip-off to look into Michael O’Connor. He runs a photography publication and is looking to start business and fashion magazines too. It’s during the COVID pandemic, so his staff have never met him – or even seen his face.
O’Connor claims de Villiers is a “good friend” but what else do they have in common? A two-part Showmax Original true-crime series, Convict Conman is produced by IdeaCandy (Devilsdorp, Rosemary’s Hitlist, Steinheist) and marks the documentary series directorial debut of SAFTA-winning editor Nikki Comninos, nominated for three SAFTAs in the past two years for her work on Steinheist, Devilsdorp and Murder in Paris.
Shaka Ilembe – Streaming on Showmax from 4 December 2023
Set in the 1700s, Shaka Ilembe tells the story of the heroic rise of the iconic Zulu king, played as an adult by Lemogang Tsipa (The Republic) and a boy by newcomer Ntando Zondi.
Feather Awards Hunk of the Year Thembinkosi Mthembu is King Dingiswayo, Senzo Radebe was nominated for a Septimius Award as King Senzangakhona, and Wiseman Mncube won Best Actor in a TV Series at the 2023 National Film and TV Awards as King Zwide, with Khabonina Qubeka also nominated there as Best Actress as Queen Ntombazi and Nomzamo Mbatha for Best Supporting Actress as Queen Nandi, the revered mother of Shaka.
Produced by the Oscar-nominated team at Bomb (Yizo Yizo), Shaka ILembe was six years in the making, consulting historians, academics and family descendants, including the late King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu and current monarch King Misuzulu kaZwelithini.
The first episode set a new record as the most-watched drama series on DStv ever, reaching over 3.6m viewers in South Africa alone. The series has already been nominated as Best Series at the National Film and TV Awards and at the Septimius Awards, where it was up against the likes of The Crown. As News24 wrote, “Shaka iLembe reaches for and represents a towering achievement in what’s possible for South African filmmaking.”
Mzansi Magic has already ordered a second season.
Trompoppie Season 1 – Streaming on Showmax from 7 December 2023
When Luna, a talented gymnast, is awarded a bursary to a prestigious private school she could never afford, she is thrust into the cut-throat world of an elite group of drum majorettes, aka “trompoppies”. After a hazing ritual goes badly wrong, trompoppies start turning up dead and the seemingly perfect facade of the community begins to crumble.
Building on her 2023 Silwerskerm Best Actress: Drama nomination as Mart in Dinge van ‘n Kind, Melissa Myburgh stars in Trompoppie as Luna, opposite the likes of SAFTA nominee Marion Holm (Suidooster), Spinners breakout star Cantona James, SAFTA winner Frank Opperman (G.I.L., Nêrens, Noord-Kaap), Fleur du Cap winner Daneel van der Walt (Recipes for Love and Murder), Celeste Loots and Armand Aucamp from One Piece, and 14-year-old newcomer Luca Human (the daughter of beloved Afrikaans actress Margit Meyer-Rödenbeck).
Trompoppie is the first Showmax Original from SAFTA- and Silwerskerm-winning writer and director Etienne Fourie (Stiekyt, Die Windpomp, Tydelike Terminaal). Multi-award winners Homebrew Films (2023 Silwerskerm winner Magda Louw) are producing.
Wura Season 2 – Streaming on Showmax from 4 December 2023
Scarlet Gomez is back as Wura, a role that earned her a Best Actress nomination at the 2023 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, as well as the Scream All Youth Best Actress prize.
Wura is a ruthless gold mine CEO who will stop at nothing to protect her company and those she loves.
YNaija hailed the first season of the Nigerian telenovela as a “masterpiece”, while This Day praised it as “spellbinding” and #wurashowmax went viral on TikTok, with over 39 million views.
Well, there you have it, a list of series that you can stream on Showmax in December 2023. If you don’t have an account yet, sign up HERE.
Watch this space for updates in the Television category on Running Wolf’s Rant.
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