10 Best Foreign Shows on Spectrum on Demand Right Now

Disproving the notion that American animation is only for kids, the latest project from Genndy Tartakovsky (most known for Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack) is an uncompromising action epic that puts most multimillion-dollar live-action blockbusters to shame. Though Tartakovsky has stated that Primal will continue on as an anthology series, the first two seasons tell a surprisingly character-driven story about a caveman and a mother Tyrannosaurus teaming up to survive in the prehistoric wild—with nearly zero dialogue.

It’s a highly entertaining riff on the man vs. nature story that ends up creating a fleshed-out world full of monsters and magic and families destroyed by all this chaos. And this initial set-up only becomes stronger in its second season, as the warmongering nature of man becomes the real threat. It’s all wrapped up in a beautiful technical package that makes a case for traditional (2-D) animation as a vital art form.

The latest addition to the murder mini-series genre is the incredible thriller “The Staircase.” It originally aired in 2004, but the producers took the same director and allowed him to add new episodes in 2018 to complete the story. 

The plot: A famous American novelist’s wife is found dead, and he is accused of killing her. His life comes under scrutiny as everyone asks whether she died in an accident or was murdered. If you liked their other hit, “Making a Murderer,” you will love this. You should also definitely check out “The Keepers” or Netflix’s binge-worthy crime documentary, “Evil Genius.”

This wonderful Italian epic made by HBO was a huge hit in Italy but remains little-known elsewhere. It’s based on four famous books that tell the coming-of-age story of two brilliant girls who grow up in a poor suburb on Naples in the 1950s. It also has scenes from the current time where one of them mysteriously disappears. Amazing production value, acting, and story make this show so easy to get hooked to.

The last time Junji Ito’s work was animated by a Western studio, it wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t match up to the terror of his original stories. Nevertheless, animators persisted, and Production I.G. and Adult Swim’s attempt is a mini-series adaptation of the three volume manga Uzumaki. Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror is a peculiar horror series, one that may not be downright terrifying with its small-town tale, but it’s much scarier than other Western adaptations with its faithfulness to Ito’s black-and-white intricate line work. There’s probably no other way to depict this particular story– after all, it’s all about spirals– but director Hiroshi Nagahama adds dizzying movement and composer Colin Stetson adds eerie extended techniques that match the terror Kirie and Shuichi share as they struggle against the neverending spiral spell that takes over their town.

Making a bucket list at the height of a zombie outbreak seems ridiculous, yet totally reasonable when you’ve spent the last three years overworked and undervalued. In real life, our workforce already feels zombified as higher-ups enslave the working class to high production and insufficient pay, so it’s nice to see Zom 100 exemplify that notion. Zom 100 also immediately captures that essential reminder to “live now,” which has become especially relevant as the Covid-19 pandemic found most people rekindling old hobbies and discovering new ones as death and sickness felt ever near.

Though there isn’t a lot of character-building in episode one, the titular 100-item bucket list promises an eye-opening, personal journey with our protagonist Akira. Thankfully, the opening didn’t shy away from the gore and electrifying tension of the zombie attacks, making this an interesting horror/slice-of-life/coming-of-age/drama to keep an eye on. 

It’s chilly this summer with vengeful spirits, cursed hands and double pupils in the horror-comedy Dark Gathering. Keitarō Gentōga has always attracted ghosts, and despite his fear, he is ready to socialize again after two years. Unlucky for him, his first student as a tutor is Yayoi Hôzuki, his best friend’s cousin obsessed with finding the ghost that stole her mother. Although Yayoi’s obsession with using a reluctant Keitarō is played up for laughs, her moe appearance preserves a level of disturbing (thanks to her double pupils). By episode two, the story still feels shallow, but there’s enough spook to carry you through the heat. 

A man living in the countryside, going through a fairly mundane but happy life, until his violent past comes back to take it away… It’s a familiar story, one that studios keep returning to time and time again. Newcomer studio E&H Production has taken this story for Ninja Kamui, but with Jujutsu Kaisen’s director Sunghoo Park at the helm, the trope isn’t used for a safe bet– instead, it’s a great choice to showcase what the studio can offer. The action sequences feature his signature flair, with stunning detail, excellent choreography and point-of-view shots that place the viewer in the fight themselves. That being said, it’s also Park’s first time on an original work that isn’t an adaptation, or inspired by an already existing franchise. The show still needs to build up its world and the emotional stakes around Joe Higan, but so far, Ninja Kamui is a pretty decent introduction to Park’s new studio.

When teens are superheroes, it can be tough to balance the regular teen drama along with saving the city (or maybe the world), but it’s a fairly common premise for a teen show. Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir may take some familiar super teen tropes, like the secret identities, awesome suit-up moments, and cool powers, but unlike most shows, the enemies they fight are teens just like them, trying to deal with regular teen problems… except they’ve been given power and bad influence from Hawk Moth, an overdramatic supervillain that somehow keeps up-to-date to the latest drama in Marinette and Adrien’s Parisian high school. Playing with new powers and switching up the tropes, Miraculous is a fun gem of a kid’s show, one that pays genuine attention to kid’s issues, even if they solve it with the most ludicrous of powers and catchiest of songs.

The idea behind the accident itself, the reason this story exists, is hard to wrap your head around because it borders on silly—how do you get a missing girl from that? The way it’s filmed doesn’t help either, as for the most part, you can’t tell if the bouncy house is just tipping over or what. The show sells itself as really serious and melodramatic, and I’m sure it is, but the execution really gets in the way. There are other things to be infuriated about, as well, like the unnatural expository dialogue, and the jumping timelines in the first episode that seem like they didn’t even trust that they could hold your attention with the main storyline. And maybe their instincts were right.