Put these four shows on your watchlist

Daisy May Cooper’s mum-on-the-verge-of-a-breakdown returns for a second season of Am I Being Unreasonable? Plus a slick new German medical drama, and other goodies.

Selin Hizli and Daisy May Cooper in Am I Being Unreasonable?

Am I Being Unreasonable?

SBS on Demand from March 5

After two and a half years – an eternity in TV time – Daisy May Cooper’s wine-swigging, Penny Lane coat-wearing mum-on-the-verge-of-a-breakdown, Nic, returns for a second season of Am I Being Unreasonable? It’s even better, and darker, than the first. Cooper, the comedian behind Rain Dogs and This Country, co-wrote the show with her former drama school nemesis, Selin Hizli, who stars as the needy, cash-strapped single mum, Jen. It’s impossible to discuss how things kick off this season without spoiling last season’s big reveal. But the gist: Nic is unravelling after the death of her true love, Alex (David Fynn), who was killed months earlier in an incident involving a duffel coat and a train door. Alex, inconveniently, was also the brother of Nic’s actual husband, Dan (Dustin Demri-Burns, Slow Horses), who seems nice enough but is, in reality, a complete git. The best part of the show, though, is their son, Ollie – played by Lenny Rush, a 15-year-old with the most extraordinary comic timing.

Berlin ER

Apple TV+

Those unfortunate enough to have sat through Netflix’s SAG Awards red carpet coverage might have heard The Pitt – a new medical drama from ER alumni John Wells, R. Scott Gemmill, and Noah Wyle – being spruiked by various celebrities. They are lying through their teeth. That show is, true to its name, the pits. But for those of us who have, say, watched all 21 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy twice over, the need for medical drama is an insatiable beast that must be fed. Enter Berlin ER (or KRANK Berlin in its native country – an objectively cooler title that plays on both the German word for “sick” and the name of Kreuzberg-Neukolln Hospital). Co-created by German director Viktor Jakovleski and British writer Samuel Jefferson – who spent years on the NHS front line to pay for drama school – the show follows Zanna Parker (Haley Louise Jones), the Krank’s fifth ER supervisor in a year. She’s given a typically warm Berlin welcome by a burnt-out staff who have somehow kept the hospital afloat despite a collapsing system. This has all the usual medical drama thrills, but it’s shot really sexily, and with a throbbing techno score – blood and guts by way of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers.

Adolescence

Netflix from March 13

Stephen Graham is one of television’s most reliable actors, and now he’s trying his hand at writing. Adolescence, co-created with Jack Thorne – who wrote some of Graham’s best work (This Is England, The Virtues) as well as 2023’s gut-wrenching Best Interests – is a four-part series in which each episode is filmed in a single continuous shot. It follows 13-year-old Owen (Jamie Miller), who is arrested for the murder of a female classmate. The “twist”, for want of a better word, is that Owen is from a perfectly normal, loving family. This promises to be a frightening show about a terrifying child who is raised with unfettered internet access.

Virdee

Premieres Thursday, March 27 on SBS on Demand

“Happy Valley-esque” has become shorthand for “gritty British cop drama set in the Midlands,” but some of us will fall for it every time. Virdee, Amit Dhand’s adaptation of his novel City of Sinners, isn’t much like Happy Valley at all – it’s heavier on the mood, the violence, and nowhere near as funny. But it’s set in Bradford, so the accents are close enough. Staz Nair (Game of Thrones) plays Harry Virdee, a Sikh cop estranged from his family after marrying Saima (Aysha Kala), a Muslim woman. He’s tasked with finding the missing teenage son of a fellow officer amid an escalating feud between two rival drug gangs. It’s not perfect – some of the dialogue is stodgy – but for those who like a brisk six-episode procedural, it’s got just enough action and heart to keep you hooked.