In her entertaining Mipcom fresh content presentation on Tuesday, Virginia Mouseler, CEO and co-founder of the Geneva-based TV think tank The Wit, put the focus on hit new shows powered by a cast of angry women.
“‘The Squid Game’ inspired our theme for today, which is fiction against domination,” she said. “In our selection, it will be mostly women against the domination of men. The domination of the system.”
Mouseler’s selection of fresh TV began with the BBC’s crime thriller “Vigil,” which revolves around a lesbian cop sent to investigate a murder on a submarine. “The deeper you go, the darker it gets,” runs the tag line.
“What I thought was interesting was the evolution of the female cop character,” she said. “She’s a lesbian and she’s sent to a men’s world and has to deal with her own vulnerability.”
The series is written by Tom Edge (“The Crown”) and was created by World Productions.
Mouseler also put the spotlight on a range of new international fiction, from the Puglia-set mafia drama “Fino All’ultimo Battito” from Rai1, about a love affair between a surgeon and and a mafia boss, to “Walk In,” an adaptation of Australia’s hit web series “Sexy Herpes,” about a dysfunctional sex clinic.
As well as hot international fiction projects, she dug up an impressive number of angry women projects to complete her presentation.
These included French Canada’s “Plan B: Mylène,” which is distributed by KO Distribution, and the Norwegian right-wing conspiracy series “Furia,” which premiered in September.
“Furia” revolves around an angry female cop sent to a remote town to investigate a murder. It is an original drama series created by Gjermund Stenberg Eriksen (“Mammon”) for leading Nordic streamer Nent Group. It’s distributed by Keshet International.
Other angry women shows include the British psychological thriller “Angela Black,” which is a new ITV series about a woman in an abusive relationship.
From Fremantle in The Netherlands, “Deep Shit” follows two women living boring lives who are thrown together on an unplanned criminal adventure. It stars Jennifer Hoffman and Fockeline Ouwerkerk.
Set to premiere in 2022, the French-Belgian production “Lost Luggage,” meanwhile, is distributed by Newen Content. The series revolves around a female detective with her own troubled past. It draws on the terrorist attacks at Brussels airport, and the stories that unfold around the luggage left behind.
The presentation also highlighted the best scripted formats of the year with at least one adaptation. Top of the list was the thriller “Liar” from the U.K., followed by the Israeli thriller series “Kvodo,” and the Australian comedy series “No Activity.”
One production to fall under both the Turkish New Wave, which she highlighted, and the angry women category is “The Usual Suspects,” which premiered in June 2021. Exxen is distributing this series about three mistreated women that decide to get rid of their husbands.
Talpa Distribution meanwhile is handling “Inhale, Exhale,” a crime comedy from The Netherlands that debuted in September. Friendship between very different women is at the heart of this series.