For all intents and purposes, Acorn TV owns Down Under TV premieres and additions in the US in October, which could be called “Mark Mitchinson Month” on the streaming service.
For updates about shows from Australia and New Zealand added to US linear TV and streaming channels throughout the month, see the Down Under TV Viewing Guide.
Programs and dates are subject to change without prior notice.
Videos below may contain content that is not suitable for everyone.
NATIONAL PREMIERES
Mystery Road: Series 2 (AU)
Set in the Australian Outback, this award-winning mystery-crime drama series finally returns to our screens in October, with Aaron Pedersen (Jack Irish, A Place to Call Home) reprising his signature role as Indigenous detective Jay Swan.
When a body is found in the mangroves of a coastal town in Gideon township, Jay teams up with local constable Fran Davis (Jada Alberts, Wentworth) to investigate the crime. Soon a nearby archaeologist (Sofia Helin, The Bridge) makes a find that could help with the case, but she conceals it out of fear that her dig site will be shut down. Facing obstruction at every turn as the body count rises, Jay must expose the web of corruption plaguing the town.
Costars include Tasia Zalar (The Straits), Tasma Walton (Rake), Callan Mulvey (Rush), Rob Collins (Glitch), Gary Sweet (Janet King), Ursula Yovich (The Code), Ngaire Pigram (The Circuit), and Mark Mitchinson (The Luminaries).
Mystery Road: Series 2, an Acorn TV Original series, premieres in the US on Monday, October 12, with its first two (of six) episodes exclusively on Acorn TV and its digital channels, including Acorn TV on Amazon Channels. New episodes debut weekly on Mondays through November 9.
NON-PREMIERE PROGRAMS BEING ADDED TO STREAMING SERVICES
Mystery Road: Season 1 (AU)
If you haven’t seen the first season of Mystery Road, here’s your chance to catch up (if you don’t have Acorn TV). The story revolves around the police investigation into the mysterious disappearance of two young farmhands in a remote outback town. Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen, The Code) thinks it will be a simple case, but as he and tough local cop Emma James (Judy Davis, My Brilliant Career) dig deeper, their investigation gradually peels away the layers of the town, as Jay’s ability to hunt beneath the surface reveals crimes and miscarriages of justice that stretch far back into the town’s history.
A spinoff of the 2013 film of the same name and the 2016 film Goldstone, the first season of Mystery Road costars Deborah Mailman (Offspring), Colin Friels (Killing Time), and Wayne Blair (Cleverman).
Mystery Road: Season 1 begins streaming as a no-additional-charge title for Amazon Prime members on Prime Video for one month starting Thursday, October 1.
Bloodlines (NZ)
Mark Mitchinson (Straight Forward) stars in this true-crime telefilm as South African Dr. Colin Bouwer, the Head of Psychiatry at Otago Hospital in Dunedin, New Zealand, who, in November 1999, put a murderous plan into action. Over the course of three months, he poisoned his wife, Annette (Nathalie Boltt, Riverdale), with insulin, causing her a slow and painful death witnessed by helpless family members and friends.
Bouwer believed he was clever enough to get away with it, and that medical authorities and police weren’t smart enough to catch him. It was supposed to be the perfect crime. Except Andrew Bowers (Craig Hall, A Place to Call Home, Head High), a young consultant physician, stumbled upon the murder in progress. The dogged pursuit of the truth by Bowers and Detective Brett Roberts (Will Hall, Westside) eventually uncovered the cold-blooded crime committed by an evil man with a Mensa IQ who thought he was smarter than anyone else in New Zealand.
Bloodlines begins streaming Monday, October 5, on Acorn TV and its digital channels, including Acorn TV on Amazon Channels.
The Gulf (NZ)
This six-episode psychological thriller captures the moral disintegration of Detective Jess Savage (Kate Elliott, Wentworth), who investigates crimes in Waiheke Island, New Zealand. After losing her memory in a car crash that killed her husband, Jess is determined to bring the killer to justice. She’s convinced that someone is trying to kill her because of something she uncovered in a recent case, so she begins investigating herself, retracing her steps over the weeks prior.
While her colleagues become increasingly uncooperative, Jess suffers from paranoia and begins fighting an addiction to morphine. As she gets closer to the truth she so desperately seeks, Jess discovers that her world is not so morally black and white.
Costars include Ido Drent (Offspring), Jeffrey Thomas (Spartacus: Gods of the Arena), Mark Mitchinson (Nothing Trivial), Alison Bruce (The Almighty Johnsons), Pana Hema Taylor (The Brokenwood Mysteries), and Timmie Cameron (Shortland Street).
The Gulf begins streaming Monday, October 5, on Acorn TV and its digital channels, including Acorn TV on Amazon Channels.
How to Murder Your Wife (NZ)
In this true-crime dramedy TV movie, Simon O’Connor (Heavenly Creatures) stars as Alfred Benning, a seemingly mild-mannered animal welfare inspector who prowled around for feral cats and stray dogs in 1970s Wellington before becoming an infamous murderer. In 1977, 65-year-old Alf decided that life was too short to spend the rest of it with his overbearing wife, Elizabeth (Geraldine Brophy, King Kong), so he decided to murder her.
Costarring Mark Mitchinson as Mike Bungay (the QC in the biopic series Dear Murderer), How to Murder Your Wife begins streaming Monday, October 26, on Acorn TV and its digital channels, including Acorn TV on Amazon Channels.
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Did you miss any of the new shows from previous days, weeks, or months? Check the Down Under TV Viewing Guide and Archives to find out.
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For details about the October premieres of shows from the UK, Canada, and Ireland, visit The British TV Place. For those about the debuts of original-language, English-subtitled programs from Europe, visit The Euro TV Place.
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