The Trial — Netflix

A slow-burning but dramatically tense and engaging Italian drama centred on the life of a public prosecutor who has to juggle the demands of her domestic existence with those placed upon her after the discovery of the body of a teenage girl in Mantua.

Tjovitjo — Netflix

The award-winning SABC drama is now available to binge on Netflix. Starring Warren Masemola, it’s a gritty and poignant examination of the hardships and hopes of township lives set against the colourful backdrop of pantsula troupes and their determination to dance and express themselves in the face of adversity.

Insecure (Season 4) — Showmax

Issa Rae’s comic misadventures as a young, black creative millennial in Donald Trump’s America continue. The jokes are still delivered fast and sharp, and while there’s a more sombre and slightly down-turned tone to this season, the show continues to be one of the smartest and funniest in the series universe.

The Innocence Files — Netflix

The inequities of the American criminal justice system may not show any signs of changing in the near future, but they continue to provide a steady source for the production of series that highlight deep flaws and prejudices, which have led to so much injustice against ordinary people in the name of supposed objective justice.

This hard-hitting and depressing series unravels several cases of wrongful arrest and conviction, and shines a light on flaws in the system that continue to undermine its ability to bring perpetrators to book and scapegoat the poor and marginalised.

Caliphate — Netflix

This Swedish series is a thrilling, dramatically satisfying and complex examination of the relationship between Isis in the Middle East and its reach into Europe.

Told through the eyes of a group of women embroiled in the conflict in Syria, who are brought together through a planned attack on Sweden, it’s a welcome new look at the relatable motivations and on-the-ground realities of those on the front lines of the modern era’s great ideological struggle.