Walter Presents Scoops Up New Dramas for PBS Passport

Whoever it was at PBS that first noticed Walter Presents launch a stand-alone streaming service in 2018, a few months before the arrival of PBS Passport, and decided to ask curator and producer Walter Iuzzolino if he'd like to join forces and move his foreign language anthology series to the nascent PBS member-based service should be given an award. While on paper, the idea of filling PBS Passport with non-English language dramas might have seemed like a stretch, it has become a cult favorite here in the States with a devoted fan base. It also supplies multiple monthly shows to viewers, allowing the public broadcaster to have more new streaming offerings than Disney+ and Max on the regular. 

The best part is there are always more shows to bring over, especially since German production studio ZDF realized it could make shows for German TV without worrying how well they do at home, as long as they appeal to UK and US viewers. In the last two years, the German outfit has provided multiple shows per year to Walter Presents on More4 and PBS Passport, and 2025 will be no different. Iuzzolino's outfit announced three shows heading to streaming for the 2024-2025 TV season, including two ZDF miniseries from 2023: the six-part The Shadow (Der Schatten) and the four-episode Suplex (Ikke et Ord). It also nabbed Season 3 of ZDFneo's Nordic Noir The Island (Sløborn), making this acquisition brought to you by the Letter S.

The Shadow, which scored the 2023 Audience Choice Award at the German Seriencamp festival, is a dark mystery with supernatural overtones. The series "follows a female journalist embarking on a new life in Vienna. Once there, she meets a beggar who tells her she is going to kill a man, setting a dark prophecy in motion." It will debut on both More4 and PBS Passport. 

Suplex (Ikke et Ord) is a Danish TV whodunnit that follows events after a competitor is murdered at a wrestling tournament. "In the idyllic small town of Vesterløv, the eagerly awaited wrestling tournament takes a sinister turn when the young talented wrestler Liam is found brutally murdered. As the town's very fabric starts to unravel, respected coach Lars is thrust into a vortex of accusations and conspiracy. But lurking deeper is an even more unsettling truth. Charlotte, Lars' wife, is entangled in a dangerous liaison with the police chief — the man spearheading the murder investigation." It will also stream on More4 and PBS Passport as part of the 2024-2025 offerings.

As for The Island (Sløborn), that hasn't started coming over to PBS Passport as yet, but More4 has streamed two seasons of the show so far under the Walter Presents banner, and the series is expected to eventually make its way across the pond to PBS Passport. A coming-of-age drama that first launched in 2020 and billed as "a pandemic thriller," the series begins as a tale of a deadly virus hitting a small community living on an island in the North Sea. Season 1 was nominated for Best Drama at Berlinale 2020, and both seasons have performed well in the U.K. The first season had eight installments, and Season 2 dropped down to six. Season 3 will also be six episodes.

None of these shows have release dates for streaming in the U.S., but keep watching this space, as our monthly PBS Passport round-ups have the most updated information for the continuing rollout of the Walter Presents series.