Viewing Platforms | Eight series we’re looking forward to

A true crime from Quebec, Xavier Dolan’s first series, comebacks and a few American blockbusters… The platforms’ fall offer promises. Here are eight titles that we are waiting for with great impatience.

Marc-Andre Lemieux
The Press

The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up

Started in 2020, Xavier Dolan’s first TV series should land on Club illico in the coming months. Featuring a five-star cast including Julie Le Breton, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Éric Bruneau and Patrick Hivon, this adaptation of a play by Michel Marc Bouchard tells the story of a thanatologist who returns to her native village 30 years after leaving him to embalm his own mother. At the beginning of the month, on Instagram, Xavier Dolan unveiled the first images of the drama, which will also be presented in France on Canal+. “I can’t wait,” wrote the director and actor. He is not the only one.

Club illico, in the fall

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

To compete with HBO/Crave, which has just launched House of the Dragonthe ante-episode of Game Of ThronesAmazon studios are offering their own series derived from a literary, audiovisual and cultural phenomenon: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Directed by Charlotte Brändström, the ambitious project (a budget of 1.3 billion would be planned to shoot 5 seasons of 10 hours) has as its backdrop the “Second Age”, a historical period of the universe imagined by JRR Tolkien. Released in July, the three-minute trailer thrills fans films by filmmaker Peter Jackson. You can see nomadic hobbits, enslaved elves, epic battles and several disturbing creatures.

Prime Video, September 2

Cocaine, prison & likes: the true story of Isabelle

Directed by Sébastien Trahan, a series specialist true crime (The last flight of Raymond Boulanger, Presumed Innocent – ​​The Michelle Perron Affair), this three-part documentary recounts a news item that fascinated the entire planet in 2016: when two Quebecers, Isabelle Lagacé and Mélina Roberge, got entangled in a cocaine trafficking case during a cruise. Returning to the country after spending several years behind bars in Australia, one of the young women exposes “without taboos her version of the facts”, promise us Urbania and Connect 3 Media, which produce this miniseries in collaboration with Bell Media.

Crave, in December

The flaw

After a lackluster second season, we hope for a return to the top for the work of author Frédéric Ouellet. Directed by Daniel Roby (Louis Cyr: the strongest man in the world, Suspect number one), this new sequel of eight episodes shows how Céline Trudeau (Isabel Richer) chooses to face her past. Indeed, the detective sergeant returns to her native village to unmask the murderer of Véronique Jolicoeur, her cousin and best friend, killed 30 years earlier. New actors join the cast of the detective thriller, including David Boutin, Daniel Parent, Lynda Johnson, Sébastien Ricard, Dorothée Berryman, Gilbert Sicotte, Jade Charbonneau, Didier Lucien and Debbie Lynch-White.

Club illico, November 9

Andor

The Star Wars universe continues to expand. After The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi, a new spin-off series from George Lucas’ epic lands on Disney+. The action ofAndor precedes the events depicted in RogueOne, this film released in 2016. Cut into 12 episodes, the series focuses on the journey of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he tries to find the difference he can make. According to information provided by Disney, this blockbuster will show “the rising rebellion against the Empire”. Actors Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough and Kyle Soller appear in the credits of the sci-fi drama.

Disney+, September 21

Love and Death

This HBO Max miniseries inspires confidence. David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies) produces and signs the texts, Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Vision) and Lily Rabe (The Undoing) dominate the line-up, and Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland) realized. Inspired by a true story straight out of the 1980s, Love and Death tells the story of Candy Montgomery, a Texas housewife and mother of two who brutally murders (using an axe) her best friend after she begins an extramarital affair with her husband. Coincidence: earlier this year, this same news item was the subject of a series on Disney+: candywith Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey.

Craves in the fall

Cabinet of Curiosities

Just in time to celebrate Halloween, Mexican director, screenwriter and producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, The shape of water) offers this anthology series composed of eight episodes with completely different universes. A bit like when Club illico teamed up with the master of Quebec horror to offer Patrick Senécal presents. Recently posted online, the trailer suggests a festival of horror, monsters and hemoglobin. Actors like Rupert Grint (Harry Potter), Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone) and Tim Blake Nelson (watch men) are involved in the project, as are directors Vincenzo Natali (Splice), Guillermo Navarro (Narcos) and Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight).

Netflix, October 25

Without an appointment

Among the returns that will be the first to be offered by the Radio-Canada platform this fall, this is the one we are waiting for with the most impatience. Last fall, we devoured this joyfully transgressive comedy written by Marie-Andrée Labbé (Too) in which Magalie Lépine-Blondeau plays Sarah, a nurse-sexologist who sees patients struggling with all kinds of problems. Directed by Patrice Ouimet, the second season promises to be just as entertaining. We are particularly eager to find the skewer of colorful secondary characters, including Dominique, the boss without filter camped by Isabelle Vincent. We are also curious to see how the author managed the exit of Anne Casabonne, now a budding politician.

ICI Tou.tv Extra, in October