Counterpart starts on STARZPlay today – will you be watching?

Such is the huge amounts of crime drama available now, and on so many different channels and streaming services, occasionally one or two slip through the net.

STARZPlay, which is available via Amazon Prime, has an intriguing new, sci-fi-tinged thriller starting today. Counterpart stars Oscar-winner, JK Simmons, as Howard Silk, a low-level agent whose career is winding down at a Berlin-based United Nations spy agency, unwittingly learns the answer. Upon discovering his organisation is harbouring a secret, that of a gateway to a parallel dimension, Howard becomes immersed in a mysterious world of espionage, intrigue, and government conspiracies. There, the only man Howard can trust is Prime, his almost identical counterpart from a divergent reality.

It’s being tagged as a spy drama, but look at the trailer below… it has assassins and all sorts.

With a cast that includes Stephen Rea, Olivia Williams and Babylon Berlin favourite, Liv Lisa Fries, this might be one to watch.

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Babylon Berlin series three confirmed, plotlines revealed

We ran a story a month or so ago saying that series three of Weimer Republic-era noir, Babylon Berlin, was to start production. Now we have more details.

Deadline reports:

Director-writer trio Tom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten and Achim von Borries are currently working on the scripts for ten new episodes, based on Volker Kutscher’s second Gereon Rath novel The Silent Death. As previously reported, the show’s writing team received German Government development funding last December and the team confirmed plans for a third season when I met them on the festival circuit late last year.

The new season will pick up in the early 1930s when the talkies start conquering the big screen, leaving many by the wayside: producers, cinema owners – and silent film stars. Inspector Gereon Rath encounters the dark side of the industry when one of the big stars is found dead. Emerging talents Volker Bruch (Generation War) and Liv Lisa Fries (The Wave) will renew their roles.

This is rather exciting. We’re wondering whether the budgets will be as lavish in series three, but the fact both Bruch and Fries are back make this one to watch.

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SUMMER BOXSETS: Babylon Berlin (Series 2)

Next in our series of Summer Boxset reviews, we dip into the sprawling, Weimar Republic-era political thriller based on the books by Volker Kutscher.

Review: Babylon Berlin (S1 E1&2/8), Sunday 5th November, Sky Atlantic

NB: SPOILERS INSIDE

Thanks to a mahoosive £36million budget, we’re going to be transported back to 1920s, pre-Hitler Berlin for the next month. This good-looking, eight-part series is set in the years immediately after World War I, and the hype train is in full flow for Babylon Berlin – it was a huge hit in its native Germany and, thanks to its affiliations with the Sky global network, gets an airing here in the UK on Sky Atlantic. I make no bones about it, I love this era (its aesthetics) and am endlessly fascinated by the socio-political context (pre-Nazism, with the Weimar Republic at its lawless, decadent height). But I was looking forward to SS-GB, too, and that turned out to be a huge dud even though it made me swoon. I had every finger crossed that Babylon Berlin would have more substance than style, and that the hype would be justified.