Mania’s 2026 line-up highlights a turbulent and risk-taking global television landscape, including shows about gritty outback procedurals, a near-future dystopian Belgian drama, and an offbeat British comedy featuring Michael Palin and some prophetic seers.
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“Anatomy of the Moment”
Image credit: Movistar+ Spain’s troubled democratic transition receives a legal and quasi-procedural treatment Anatomy of a momenta historical drama about the failed 1981 coup that nearly returned Spain’s fledgling democracy to fascism.
The series is directed by Alberto Rodriguez and based on the best-selling novel by Javier Cercas Stealing money It stars Alvaro Morte as Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, one of the main instigators of the coup. The Moviestar+ series is a powerful and timely reminder that democracy often hangs by a thread.
“burden of justice”
Image credit: DR Sales Sweden’s legal system has become a battleground Burden of justicea contemporary drama that blends courtroom tension with the moral angst of a Nordic thriller.
Set inside Stockholm’s elite defense firm Mattson & Markovich—the kind of shop that represents drug lords and wealthy rapists—the series follows a group of lawyers navigating a changing legal landscape where new laws blur the line between fairness and expediency.
Created by Snap Cash and Top dog DR Sales author Jens Lapidus eschews easy answers for a gray world of moral compromise.
“Dear Killer Nannies”
Photo credit: @Leo D’Cossio Colombia Dear Killer Nannieswhich will stream on Disney+ and Hulu and be sold by The Walt Disney Company, revisits the story of drug lord Pablo Escobar from the childhood perspective of his son, who was raised in privilege by a cadre of “nannies” who were actually his father’s hired killers.
Based on the memoirs of Juan Pablo Escobar, who co-created the show with Sebastian Ortega, director of the Netflix show. Marginalthe series reframes a familiar history of violence and crime through a more intimate and disturbing lens.
“dust”
Image credit: Courtesy of Al Ittihad Studios Australia Dust It has a procedural noir engine. When a young woman is discovered naked and bloodied in a Queensland cane field with no memory of what happened to her, Detective Teague Pollard (the film’s Anna Torv) decides to… The last of us and Mind hunter) Attracted, she soon finds something deeper and darker behind the crime, searching for buried trauma from her past.
What sets this Australian thriller apart is its broader exploration of the long-term impact of sexual violence and exploitation in all its forms. It is a co-production between the Australian ABC, the BBC, and the German ZDF. Dust It is sold worldwide by the International Federation.
“Minor Prophets”
Image credit: Olive Production Detectors Writer-director Mackenzie Crook finds magic in everyday life in a new kind of sitcom, a sad laugh-out-loud that’s part workplace comedy, part existential exploration of grief and wonder.
Pierce Quigley plays Michael Sleep, a dysfunctional man. His girlfriend Clea disappeared 7 years ago, on Christmas Eve, and ever since, Michael has been sleepwalking through his job at a large hardware store – his main job apparently being to regale customers with stories of “tartan paint” – and watching his garden grow wild around his silent house, hoping that Clea will somehow come back.
When his eccentric and cognitively confused father, Brian (the wonderful Michael Palin), suggests an impossible and supernatural solution, Michael decides to take the plunge, setting off a series of strange, bizarre and completely unexpected events. This gem of a show, produced by the BBC, is sold by Sphere Abacus worldwide.
“Best immigrant”
Image credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Television Belgium The best immigrant He imagines a near future in which immigration policy has become a spectacle. In the autonomous region of Flanders ruled by a far-right regime, foreign-born residents face eviction – unless they can win a reality competition that offers residency as its prize. imagine Traitors meet Squid game Produced by ICE.
Created by Raoul Grotheuizen and Christina Pope, the show’s dystopian future feels uncomfortably plausible, and its focus on the personal stories of immigrants fighting for their lives makes the stakes feel immediate and real. Premiering on the Belgian Streamz platform, The best immigrant It is sold by Sony Pictures Television worldwide.
“Defects”
Image credit: The Shave Film Germany Disadvantagesproduced by Razor Film and public broadcaster ZDF, takes the workplace comedy into more surreal territory, following a group of underperforming civil servants who are accidentally thrust into a series of escalating misadventures. What begins as a mockery of bureaucratic inertia quickly turns into something much more materialistic and absurd.
Director Arne Feldhausen, known for his most successful German comedies Stromberg and Tatortrainer Monasteryrelies heavily on physical comedy and slapstick to create a Jacques Tati-style critique of modern work culture and institutional dysfunction.
“These sacred promises”
Photo credit: Cristina Rios John Butler’s crime comedy plays like Ryanair’s version of a crime thriller White lotus.
We open on a swimming pool at someone’s villa rental on Tenerife, where the priest’s body floats face down. Think back to the previous week when a group of rice fields descended on the island for a wedding. Everyone, from the glamorous DJ to the apologetic priest who’s been flown in to officiate the party (which will end up in the pool) has a dark secret.
A biting social comedy set within a convenient crime setting to reveal a dark underbelly of deception, hypocrisy and betrayal. The RTE series is sold worldwide by Banijay Right.
“unfiltered”
Image credit: Vertigo Films Spain Unfiltered is a kinder, gentler look at digital identity and adolescence, following three teens navigating the blurred lines between online personas and their real-world selves. The series pays special attention to Charlie, a transgender boy beginning his transition, who turns to digital tools to reshape his appearance — with consequences when those identities collide.
Amaya Izquierdo’s drama is remarkably measured and balanced in how it depicts Generation Z’s relationship with digital spaces, presenting technology as simultaneously liberating and harmful. The result is a nuanced portrait of self-discovery and coming of age in an era in which the search for authenticity is shaped as much by screens and online performance as by the IRL experience. Catalan broadcaster 3CAT produced the show and is handling worldwide sales.
“Variola Vera”
Image source: © Lukasz Bäck Poland variola vera Reconstructs the story of the 1963 smallpox outbreak in Wroclaw through a mixture of medical drama and espionage thriller. As the city goes into lockdown to contain the virus, multiple points of view converge: an intelligence officer returning from a secret mission, doctors fighting the spread of the virus, and a journalist searching for answers.
The series, directed by Koba Chikaj, is distinguished by its visual approach, which combines genres and genres Gripe’s official work combines archival footage with dramatization and avant-garde art techniques to transform a straightforward historical piece into a more complex reinterpretation of the historical crisis through a contemporary lens. It is produced and sold worldwide by Polish public broadcaster TVP.
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