The 18 international series that we will see this autumn

BarcelonaThe last quarter of the year is one of the most powerful in terms of series premieres. With some titles still pending announcement, platforms have already shared some of their aces up their sleeves for the coming months. The proposals from streaming services confirm that book adaptations –and if they can be classics, better– continue to be a trend. We review those series that have caught our attention the most.

One of the great TV hopes for the coming months is the translation to the small screen of East of Eden, one of the most iconic titles by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. The person in charge of adapting the novel and turning it into a miniseries is the director and actress Zoe Kazan, who follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, Elia Kazan, who already brought the story to the cinema in 1955 with James Dean as the lead. Steinbeck builds an epic story centered on two American families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, during a period of time that goes from the Civil War to the First World War. Unlike Elia Kazan's version, the miniseries will give more weight to the character of Cathy Ames, the story's true antagonist and defined as a monster. To embody this character, Zoe Kazan has chosen an actress with one of the most rising careers of the moment: the British Florence Pugh. The cast is completed by Christopher Abbot, Mike Faist, and Martha Plimpton.

Another literary and film classic that has a new television version is Carrie, by Stephen King. Is it necessary to make a new adaptation when the film version is considered a horror classic and has iconic scenes like Sissy Spacek covered in blood? We will only know that when we see the miniseries, which has the advantage of having been created by Mike Flanagan, one of the renovators of the genre thanks to fictions like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, both from Netflix. The person in charge of bringing the introverted teenage protagonist to life is Summer H. Howell, who despite her youth –22 years old– already has plenty of experience in horror productions.

After Will Smith played him in the cinema, Muhammad Ali, a boxing icon, will have a biographical miniseries, authorized by his family (his wife, Lonnie Ali, is listed as an executive producer). Prime Video ensures that the involvement of Ali's closest circle will make it possible to explore his figure beyond his defeats and victories in the ring. Jaalen Best, who until now had only played a couple of sporadic characters in series, will have the challenge of playing the boxer.

Netflix sells this miniseries as the Bonnie and Clyde of Gen Z and the crypto universe. Julia Garner (Ozark) and Anthony Boyle (Say Nothing) play the real-life characters of Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried, the couple behind the cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. Their intention was to transform the global financial system but they ended up being accused of stealing 8 billion dollars. The eight-episode miniseries will narrate their rise and fall, as well as the complicated romantic relationship they maintained. The altruists is the latest production to join the trend of telling recent major American scams, such as The dropout (Disney+) and WeCrashed(AppleTV).

One of the series that has been most eagerly awaited, because it has been in preparation since 2022 and began filming in 2023. The actors' strike that year, however, delayed the entire process. Created by Silka Luisa with the approval of Ridley Scott, director of the film adaptation of the story created by Philip K. Dick, the fiction is set in a Los Angeles experiencing a replicant uprising. Michelle Yeoh plays the replicant Olwen, who knows she has few days left to live and has the mission to find a group of missing rebel replicants. The other key figure is Cora, played by Hunter Schafer, from Euphoria, a human who has been running from blade runners for years and who, in order to survive, poses as a replicant. Luisa asserts that, beyond Scott's film and the sequel directed by Denis Villeneuve, her great inspiration has been the original material, the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968).

For Jon Hamm, always remembered for having been Don Draper in Mad Men, things are going quite well in the television sphere. While the series Palm Royale is still active on AppleTV, which this year achieved an Emmy nomination for best drama, in November he will premiere this thriller psychological based on a true story that Hamm already narrated in a podcast. Set in the 70s, the actor gives life to Fred Heckman, a radio reporter who sees his life altered when a man named Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi) kidnaps his mortgage broker. The kidnapper, who has everything prepared to kill the victim, demands to be interviewed by Heckman on the radio, causing the journalist to end up actively involved in the case.

It is surely one of the series that has generated the most expectation and controversy. Harry Potter, a character who is part of the sentimental and literary education of several generations, returns to the screens ready to win over new and old viewers. As in the case of the films, each season will adapt a volume of the saga of the wizard created by J.K. Rowling. Despite being HBO Max's big project, even before its release the series is already surrounded by criticism. On one hand, the first images that have emerged have led to accusations that the production lacks its own soul and is basically a copy of the aesthetics and scenes of the films. On the other, beyond artistic issues, J.K. Rowling's transphobic opinions have caused various voices, such as the actress and creator Abril Zamora, to call for a boycott of the series. Despite all this hotbed of controversy, HBO Max has pulled out all the stops to promote the series, which will premiere on Christmas Day, a date that should guarantee a good number of views. The series will have a version dubbed and subtitled in Catalan, as announced by the Department of Linguistic Policy.

For lovers of legal dramas comes a British proposal with two prominent actors, Sienna Miller and Dominic West. The series, created by George Kay (Hijack), follows the rivalry between two high-level law firms that in the first season handle the divorce of a billionaire couple. As detailed by Kay, each season will focus on a different case and the protagonists will always be the two law firms. For the second installment, which has already been greenlit, the participation of Marisa Tomei and Kelly Macdonald as guest stars has been confirmed.

The great novels of French literature also have television adaptations. Filmin will bring to our screens The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, the story of ambition and desire of Julien Sorel, the son of a village carpenter who gradually climbs within French society. In his attempt to achieve greatness and a good position, he will be torn between two loves. The lead role of this four-episode miniseries is played by Victor Belmondo, grandson of Jean-Paul Belmondo, the great male icon of the Nouvelle Vague. Regarding the female cast, the miniseries features Camille Razat, the Camille from Emily in Paris.

At a time when it is hard to find comedies, comedian Amy Poehler and screenwriter Michael Schur, who made Parks and Recreation together, reunite with a proposal that promises laughs, Dig. The comedy follows a group of four archaeologists and university students who, during an excavation in Greece, locate a strange artifact that is related to an international conspiracy. Besides Poehler, the other well-known name in the series is Hugh Laurie (House), who plays a British professor passionate about archaeology.

Another classic that will pass through the Netflix filter is Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. Starring Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) and Emma Corrin (The Crown), the miniseries has the difficult task of at least living up to the previous versions—the Keira Knightley film and the Colin Firth miniseries—which are very beloved by fans. Netflix's previous attempt to adapt Jane Austen was not particularly successful and the version of Persuasion starring Dakota Johnson infuriated the British author's readers. Perhaps to try to appease the misgivings of the writer's fans, Anne Mensah, Netflix's UK content lead, has assured that the new version ofPride and Prejudicewill be classic. "The new adaptation is really interesting; the twist we are taking consists, curiously, of being traditional," explained Mensah to the magazine Radio Times. "When you are the platform that broadcasts Bridgerton, you need something that fits well alongside it, and our version of Pride and Prejudice represents, in many ways, the best of British production," she added.