the tourist series hbo

The Tourist

HBO Max continues stealth drops of some of the best drama mini-series on television. Last year highlights included “The Head” and “ Station Eleven ,” and they start 2022 strongly with the fantastic “The Tourist,” a twisty tale that plays like an Aussie version of “ Fargo .” With sharp dialogue, clever plotting, and career-best work from Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald , this is a great little thriller, a show that constantly keeps you guessing and entertained in equal measure.

The “ Belfast ” and “ Fifty Shades of Grey ” star plays an unnamed man (at least for a while) who is driving through the very remote Australian outback. He stops at a station to use the bathroom, banters with the guy behind the counter, and hits the road again. Looking in the rearview mirror, he sees a truck gaining on him with remarkable speed. The Man twists off the road to avoid it and the trucker follows, revealing through a POV from his cab that this is very intentional—he’s trying to kill this tourist. They race through the desert until The Man’s car crashes. He wakes up in a hospital with no memory of who he is or how he got there.

Enter a small-town officer named Helen Chambers (Macdonald), engaged to an awful man named Ethan ( Greg Larsen ) and thrust into a mystery about who this handsome Irishman is in a hospital bed. When The Man finds a note with a time and a location in his pocket, he heads to a small town called Burnt Ridge, where he meets a woman named Luci ( Shalom Brune-Franklin ) who might know about his past, ends up crossing paths with a sociopath ( Ólafur Darri Ólafsson ) who clearly wants him dead, and gets a phone call from a man who’s been buried underground. And then things get even weirder.

Created by the people behind the excellent “ The Missing ” (which aired stateside on Starz), the writing on “The Tourist” is a metronomic back and forth between reveals and how those reveals propel the narrative in a new direction. Pushing their way through all the chaos are Dornan and Macdonald, both phenomenal. Dornan finds a quirky, unsettled way to play a man who doesn’t know who he is without resorting to the cliché of the lost soul. If anything, he leans into more of a blank slate interpretation of amnesia, playing a guy who’s more open to what comes next because he can’t remember what came before. And Macdonald is charming and so incredibly likable that she becomes the heart of a show that can be cold at times.

Echoes of “ Memento ” and “Fargo” aside, “The Tourist” also has its own quirky personality. Some of those quirks get a bit extreme in late-season episodes in ways I can’t spoil, but the show is never boring. It’s a reminder that the Dornan who was so great in “ The Fall ” is still out there, and I hope it leads him to more bizarre, challenging roles like this one. There’s an argument to be made that there’s an even-better 100-minute movie in this six-episode mini-series, but that’s not the world we’re in right now. A story like this has a better chance to be told in the TV system than the mid-budget film one, and the writers don’t drag their feet or spin their wheels like so many streaming thrillers. They’re constantly moving our hero forward, keeping us uncertain about his past and even his moral center.

Some will argue that “The Tourist” gets too convoluted and I’ll admit that I enjoyed the playful uncertainty of the first half of the season more than the intensity of the second half. Although the show does get deeper in how it unpacks lies we tell ourselves and those we listen to from other people. It turns out that everyone on “The Tourist” has a secret or two, and almost all of them could use a car accident to reset the hole they’ve dug for themselves. 

I’m not sure how intentional it is but the show never stopped reminding me of some of my favorite early Coen films—the noir danger of “ Blood Simple ,” the open roads of “ Raising Arizona ” (and a bearded hunter who seems unkillable), Macdonald’s very Marge Gunderson character—and yet these nods to greats are embedded in a breakneck plot that never slows down enough to distract from its own inspired storytelling. Take the trip.

Whole series screened for review . It premieres on HBO Max on March 3 rd .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Jamie Dornan as The Man
• Danielle Macdonald as Helen Chambers
• Shalom Brune-Franklin as Luci
• Damon Herriman as D.I. Lachlan Rogers
• Alex Dimitriades as Kostas
• Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Billy
• Greg Larsen as Ethan Krum
• Chris Sweeney
• Daniel Nettheim

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'The Tourist' doesn't know who he is — just that someone wants him dead

John Powers

In The Tourist, "The Man" (Jamie Dornan) wakes up in a small town hospital in the Australian outback with no idea who he is or how he got there. HBO hide caption

In The Tourist, "The Man" (Jamie Dornan) wakes up in a small town hospital in the Australian outback with no idea who he is or how he got there.

Ever since the birth of mass communications, our culture has been haunted by the idea of amnesia. In high-class books by the likes of George Orwell or Milan Kundera , forgetting becomes a political metaphor for the erasure of truth. Things are less ambitious in pop entertainments like Memento or the Jason Bourne series . There, memory-loss is less a metaphor than a motor — a gimmick to drive the story forward.

This motor purrs like a Ferrari in The Tourist , a hit BBC series playing on HBO Max. Written by the Williams brothers, Harry and Jack — best known here for The Missing and Baptiste — this funny, suspenseful six-part thriller doesn't merely keep us guessing. It keeps its amnesiac hero guessing, too. He knows even less about his own story than we do.

A bearded, muscled-up Jamie Dornan stars as a T-shirt clad Irishman who gets in a car accident and winds up in a small town hospital in the Australian outback. Known simply as "The Man," he doesn't know who he is or how he got there. But soon after he leaves the hospital, he knows one thing for sure: Somebody wants to kill him.

As he seeks to find out who's after him and why, he's helped by two very different women. Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin) is a waitress who we aren't quite sure what to make of. In contrast, it's easy to trust probationary constable Helen Chambers, played by Danielle Macdonald. Helen's a newbie cop who struggles with her weight and with a fiancé who speaks of her appearance with such passive-aggressive meanness that I kept hoping he'd become one of the show's murder victims.

While The Man's search for his identity is grippingly plotted, the show lets the action breathe. It takes time to enjoy his encounters with a wide range of oddball types, be it a goofy chess-playing pilot, a Greek mobster, the affably nutty woman who offers him lodging, or the enormous, cowboy-hatted hitman who has the self-satisfied theatricality of an escapee from a Tarantino movie. That said, The Man knows he must keep moving to stay alive.

For all The Tourist 's inventiveness — Episode 5 is a trip — it reminds us that even good pop culture is often derivative. The show's opening car crash sequence mimics the Steven Spielberg movie Duel . More importantly, the Williams brothers are pretty clearly doing a Down Under riff on Fargo . Their series offers the same blend of violence and barbed humor, the same mythologizing of bleak, underpopulated places, and the same cavalcade of viciousness and folly that brings out the heroism in an ordinary person.

The show's moral center is Helen, who, in Macdonald's sensational performance, has our sympathy from the get-go. Her work is so scene-stealingly good that I would call this a career-making performance if I hadn't already said this about Macdonald's electric work as an aspiring New Jersey rapper in the indie film Patti Cake$ .

Helen's transparent goodness makes her the perfect counterpoint to The Man, a handsome hunk who's a mystery, even to himself. It's a great role for Dornan, who, earlier in his career, had a slightly synthetic prettiness that made him ideal for creepy characters like the S&M billionaire in Fifty Shades of Grey . Here, he's a bit older, thicker, and rougher. And just as Brad Pitt often seems liberated when his good looks are masked a bit, Dornan gives his best performance as a man who isn't sure whether or not he's the hero of his own life.

Over the course of the six episodes, The Man struggles to learn whether, back before his accident, he was a good guy or a bad guy. And if he had been a villain, does he have to stay one, even after he starts remembering his past? I won't reveal what he discovers, though I feel obligated to say that you won't get a definitive answer this season. You'll have to watch Season 2 of The Tourist , not yet made, which I bet you will be more than happy to do.

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Jamie dornan in hbo max’s ‘the tourist’: tv review.

The actor plays an amnesiac in a deadly race to figure out his identity in this six-hour slice of Australian pulp fiction.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

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Content bloat on cable and streaming is such an apparently incurable epidemic that even shows that play as lean and mean genre exercises are stuck oozing outside of their deserved boundaries — as if once there’s no marketplace for an idea to be conveyed at 90 minutes, might as well just go forever.

Something like Netflix’s True Story , which would have been an arthouse hit as a brisk John Dahl-directed theatrical thriller, instead became an instantly forgotten Netflix series, because that’s how it could get produced. Significantly better on every level, but still in need of a robust trim, is HBO Max ‘s The Tourist . Ideally, this would have been an Outback-set B-movie probably helmed by somebody like Phillip Noyce. Instead, it arrives on streaming as a six-hour drama replete with illogical misdirects, a second half that’s far less engaging than the first and a disappointing assortment of false conclusions.

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Airdate: Thursday, March 3 (HBO Max)

Cast: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

Creators: Harry and Jack Williams

A story like this should be told without an ounce of fat. Yet even with its occasional excesses, The Tourist is a mostly taut, pretension-lite mystery with a vivid setting, a few surprises and a great trio of lead performances from Jamie Dornan , Danielle Macdonald and Shalom Brune-Franklin.

Created by Harry and Jack Williams and directed half by Chris Sweeney and half by Daniel Nettheim, The Tourist begins with what will prove to be its best set-piece, which isn’t always a great idea but in this case serves to get viewers well and truly hooked.

In a remote corner of rural Australia, a man (Dornan) with an Irish accent and no name stops for gas and a bathroom before resuming his drive. Before you can say “Hey, that’s the plot of Duel !” a truck emerges on the horizon, approaches the man’s car and tries to run it off the road. An intense pursuit ensues, all within the first 10 minutes, climaxing in the man waking up in a hospital with complete amnesia. Shot with acrid, epic scope by Ben Wheeler and edited without relief by Emma Oxley, it’s a sequence that is unique despite its familiar elements — one that’s so good that you probably won’t be offended by how little sense it makes once the show puts all of its cards on the table.

The Man doesn’t remember his name, his profession or why he was driving alone in a beat-up car on a stretch of road connecting nowhere to nowhere else, but his presence draws immediate attention. Offering benign curiosity is Probationary Constable Helen Chambers (Macdonald), trying to make a transition to legitimate policing after tiring of menial duties as a traffic cop. Offering more menacing curiosity is Billy Nixon (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), a hulking figure with a bushy beard, a rumbling voice, a questionable American accent and a blood-red cowboy hat. And it’s hard to read the intentions of diner waitress Luci (Brune-Franklin), who may be attracted to The Man because of his resemblance to Jamie Dornan, or else she has ulterior motives.

For the first few episodes, The Tourist is wonderfully spare. A couple of secondary characters pass in and out, but the story is mostly The Man, Helen, Luci and Billy, any one of whom could be a threat to the others. As the Williams brothers open the story up, it invariably becomes less interesting and more reliant on heaping doses of exposition. We meet characters including an odd detective played by Damon Herriman and some unsavory Greek gangsters. All of the characters are in the middle of their own identity crises, and while The Man is the only one who literally doesn’t know who he is, each person here is pondering existential questions about whether people can change; whether that change is a matter of personal choice; and whether it’s as simple as forging a passport or moving to a new country or making up different origin stories involving your mother or father.

From the too-clever-by-half backwards storytelling of Rellik to the structural mendacity of Liar , the Williams brothers are good at high-concept thrillers driven by tricky plot mechanics, and this fits that category more than other Two Brothers Pictures creations like the tormented The Missing . The more gaps in The Man’s story they expose, the more interesting The Tourist is; the more those gaps get filled in, the less interesting the resulting shape of the puzzle feels.

None of the answers is exactly infuriating and some of them play very well in the moment — the fifth episode is a straight-up backstory dump, but the creators find a way to make it amusing — but the more distance you get from the full story, the more you may find that very little holds together. It’s possible to concentrate on the occasional shootouts, a flimsy-but-taut storyline lifted from the Ryan Reynolds movie Buried and one stunning outback vista after another, and still be limitedly bothered by lapses in common sense.

It helps that this is probably the funniest of the Williams brothers thrillers, a reminder that as producers their credits also include the very fine Back to Life and the spectacular Fleabag . If you think the plot strains credulity, so do many of the characters, and there are crackling exchanges of dialogue, silly pieces of flirtation and enough quirky and outsized figures to make it clear that if Duel was the series’ table-setting inspiration, most of what follows is basically Fargo with a greater risk of kangaroos.

Dornan is probably too hunky to be inherently ideal as the Hitchcockian Everyman, but The Man is a savvy encapsulation of Dornan’s varied skills, especially those he’s been showcasing in his projects from the past year-ish. He has compelling chemistry with both Macdonald and Brune-Franklin, he’s generally convincing as a sturdy action lead and he has an underlying menace that lets you wonder if the man that The Man used to be might not be so virtuous. Best of all — and this will not shock the Barb and Star hive — Dornan is an adroit comic performer, whether it’s expressing Irish-accented confusion about a fluffy stuffed koala or any of the bickering that characterizes The Man’s relationships with Helen and Luci. He weathers all of the reveals about his character, up to the finale’s conclusive twists. It’s just a darned good performance in a show that hinges on its lead.

Macdonald is, at some points, nearly a co-lead and the Patti Cake$ star brings nervous humor and the real emotional hook to the story, maintaining the character’s integrity in the face of a sometimes sweet, mostly unappealing engagement to Greg Larsen’s brutally passive-aggressive Ethan. I wish somebody had written more actual traits for Brune-Franklin’s Luci, but the simmering interactions with Dornan keep the show going through its slower parts. Herriman’s guessing-game strangeness and Ólafsson’s garrulous intimidation are responsible for the show’s most Coen Brothers-y elements.

At six hours, The Tourist ‘s focus wavers, but its momentum remains solid; in a spring of self-important ripped-from-headlines TV storytelling, I appreciated its pulpy drive. And that “Shouldn’t this be a couple of hours shorter?” sensation? Well, I guess that’s just a permanent condition.

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HBO Max's 'The Tourist' Is an Intensely-Wild Thriller of Twists and Turns You Cannot Miss (Review)

By Tania Hussain - March 2, 2022 05:42 pm EST

Since first launching last spring, HBO Max has released one of the deeper catalogs among its streaming competitors with programming from the HBO vaults, Warner Brothers, TCM, Criterion, and Studio Ghibli. But as great as the roster is for audiences hungry for movies and shows at their fingertips, it's their Max Originals that are setting up the streamer as a unique and brilliant offering for voracious watchers. The latest series to drop on HBO Max is its intensely gripping six-episode limited series The Tourist , which you cannot miss when it premieres Thursday, March 3. The stylish, dark comedy thriller is one of the best this season as it will keep you guessing until the shocking ending. 

Earning a perfect 100% freshness score on Rotten Tomatoes following its overseas debut this past winter, The Tourist doesn't waste any time with this high-octane series from Two Brothers Pictures' Harry and Jack Williams ( The Missing ). Reminiscent of Joel and Ethan Coen films like  Blood Simple , Raising Arizona ,  Fargo  and  No Country for Old Men , the neo-Western is one of 2022's best new series for audiences and one to revisit because there is so much more to see and discover, especially after watching it.

Starring Jamie Dornan in a role that will make you forget Christian Grey , the HBO Max series kicks off with an intense, nail-biting car chase — well, more like an 18-wheeler truck chasing down a sedan in the barren outback. Keeping you on the edge of your seat from that very moment, The Tourist springs into action after the driver of the sedan (played by Dornan) is flung off the road by an intimidating, sinister whistling truck driver (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) from the Deep South. Waking up in a hospital with no memory of who he is and just a piece of paper in his pocket to retrace his steps, the victim known simply as "The Man" must piece together his past to find out who wants him dead. With the help of the very transparently kind, rookie Constable Helen Chambers — an anxious traffic cop played by Danielle Macdonald — the two embark on a wild journey, including a strange phone call from a man buried underground. Safe to say, things get a lot weirder.

But to share any more details about The Tourist  and all the twists and turns The Man encounters would most definitely spoil the fun and honestly, this show is the most fun audiences might have had in months when it comes to streaming programming. Taking audiences on a legit rollercoaster from the first episode to the very last, the series might spark predictions for watchers amid the series' natural progression. Still, they will not be one bit close to the conclusion. Not to mention, it is very ambiguous and open-ended, so there could very well be a possibility of more to come if the creators and cast are on board.

Written and executive produced by Jack and Harry Williams, the creators have written a ton of thrillers over the years for British TV between The Missing and Baptiste , but The Tourist is one that feels structurally, tonally and cinematically different . Brimming with themes of identity and working out who you are, The Tourist is a very self-assured series that is equally appealing because of its resonance with our daily struggles surrounding individuality. Crafted with a real sense of distinction and accuracy thanks to directors Chris Sweeney and Daniel Nettheim, the show is an impressive piece of TV that plays to both the thriller genre and dark comedy side of writing with authentic and honest dialogue that often borders humorous. There is so much to love with The Tourist , especially through its well-drawn-out and wildly eccentric characters with their quirks and charms. Dornan, who leads the cast, is immaculate in this role and makes great use of his diverse range of acting credits as he plays this broken-down man. He manages to blend every emotion The Man experiences so eloquently through his expressions and words, and you can most definitely feel that through the screen. Starring as a blank-slate guy bordering complexities of confusion, frustration, cynicism, sarcasm, and anger, the performance sits high among his other acclaimed roles, as seen in The Fall or Belfast . Moreover, his acting talent hits a new level of awesome as he balances the character's nuanced tone flawlessly while rising to the more humorous directions the writing calls for versus the bold, contemplative, wide-eyed panic, particularly with the final episode where we see his character at the forefront of a newly discovered life. 

As for Macdonald, the infectiously likable Australian actress has such a delightful on-screen presence as she helps make the darker tones a lot brighter with her genuine warmth. Feeling a lot like a compass for The Man, Macdonald's Helen is no doubt the heart of the show as her kindness is admirable and one that feels real as she looks for a connection amid a very toxic relationship with her fiancé Ethan (Greg Larsen). The newbie cop struggles with her weight and appearance but finds herself in top form while on the job, helping others — especially The Man. With all her quirks and a keen eye for details, Macdonald's portrayal of Helen also has some big Marge Gundersen a la Fargo energy. 

But it's the growing friendship between Helen and The Man that plays beautifully to the show's drama too. Macdonald and Dornan have incredible chemistry and a charm that makes their dynamic really easy to watch and want to see more of. Whereas the Irish actor can play dark and broody, Macdonald is chipper and bubbly with her naiveté, balancing his character's aggravation well. The two are supported most amazingly by Shalom Brune-Franklin, who plays a mysterious waitress eager to help The Man; Ólafur Darri Ólafsson who plays the American — a character reminiscent of Leonard Smalls in Raising Arizona ; and, Damon Herriman of Justified , who plays a detective intrigued by The Man.

The Tourist is a welcome and necessary binge this season, and so much fun. It never slows down nor has a moment in between the six episodes that will have you turning to your phone for the occasional check-in. It is most earnestly and effectively, an edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting thriller that will keep you glued every minute with its twists and turns. The unpredictable, dark comedy is interesting and quirky, and just an overall breath of fresh air as it's produced and performed exceptionally well. Accentuating themes of antiheroes and identity all wrapped into six compelling hours, The Tourist might tread the familiar ground with some Coen brothers sentiments, but it is uniquely a product all its own thanks to Dornan for a massively entertaining ride.

The Tourist  stars Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Alex Dimitriades, Damon Herriman and Genevieve Lemon.  The Tourist  begins streaming Thursday, March 3 on HBO Max . For more on  The   Tourist,  Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald and all your HBO Max programming, stick to PopCulture.com for the latest.

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Review: 'The Tourist' is a ferocious thriller that relentlessly keeps you hanging on

Talk about a binge watch! “The Tourist,” on HBO Max in a blast of six, one-hour episodes, is a ferocious thriller that’s also ferociously funny. Starring Jamie Dornan as an Irishman suffering amnesia in the Australian outback, the series is—to recoin a phrase—must-see TV.

The plot kicks in hard in Episode 1 as Dornan drives down a dusty road with a monster truck on his tail. Waking up battered and bruised in a hospital, he can’t even remember his name. Known only as “The Man” until the end of Episode 2, The Man—like Guy Pearce in “Memento”— must put together the puzzle of his life with crucial pieces missing.

“The Tourist” relentlessly keeps you hanging on. In the book world, they’d call it unputdownable. Each episode of the script by Jack and Harry Williams (“The Missing”) ends in a cliffhanger that whips you into the next episode. Forget about sleep.

It’s clear that Chris Sweeney (who directed episodes one to three) and Daniel Nettheim (who helmed the other half) have seen a lot of Coen brothers movies, especially “Fargo” and “Raising Arizona” with their deliciously deadpan blend of mirth and menace. If you’re going to borrow inspiration, why not swipe from the best.

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And Dornan, free from the cartoonish excess of the “Fifty Shades of Gray” trilogy, carries the whole thing with his starshine and burgeoning talent as an actor in “The Fall” and “Belfast.” Dornan is so good, you’ll follow him anywhere, which is just what “The Tourist” needs.

Dornan finds a perfect partner in Aussie dynamo Danielle Macdonald as Helen Chambers, a traffic cop with ambitions to rise in the ranks. The sweetness of Macdonald’s funny, touching and vital performance brings a nurturing humanity to the evil-doings surrounding her.

Can the diet-obsessed Helen, stuck with a controlling fiancée (Greg Larsen), discover herself by helping The Man recover his memory? Their attraction, repped by a burrito emoji, brings heart to a series that aims to blow the doors off with shocks and exploding violence.

For instance, there’s the dude who keeps calling The Man while buried alive in a secret grave? And why does the detective inspector, played to the hilt by Damon Herriman, seem less reliable than the gangsters and drug dealers who occupy the periphery of the episodes?

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Truly terrifying is the best way to describe Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Billy, the hulking American cowboy who drove The Man off the road and yet keeps comparing everyone he meets to his beloved mother. The scene between Billy and Helen will have you biting your nails to the quick.

And what of Shalom Brune-Franklin (“Line of Duty”) as Luci, the flirt who meets The Man at a diner that explodes minutes after they leave it. Luci volunteers to help The Man chase down his past. Or is she hiding something. Hint: Everyone in “The Tourist” is hiding something.

There’s no way I’ll spoil the fun by telling you who’s hiding what. Packed with high-voltage suspense and twists you don’t see coming, “The Tourist” also poses tangled questions about the nature of identify. You can tell The Man is afraid of what he might learn about himself.

Put yourself in his place, which is exactly what “The Tourist” wants you do. It’s one of the reasons this thrill-a-minute series has the staying power to haunt your dreams. The final episode is open-ended enough to suggest there might be a Season 2. Count me in.

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The Tourist season 2: US release date, cast, plot and more

The Tourist season 2 sees Jamie Dornan return as Elliot as the story comes to Ireland.

Jamie Dornan fans will be delighted that The Tourist season 2 is finally here, with the whole series now available to watch on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Netflix in the US. 

The Tourist season 2 episode 1 The Tourist season 2 episode 2 The Tourist season 2 episode 3 The Tourist season 2 episode 4 The Tourist season 2 episode 5 The Tourist season 2 ending explained The Tourist season 3 ▶ Watch The Tourist season 2 online

With the action switching from Australia's Outback to Ireland, the landscape looks very different from when we last saw Elliot. But whether he's running away from some mysterious pursuers or covered in blood, his situation doesn't seem to have improved too much!  

Teasing the new series, Jamie says: "For the second series we pick up with Elliot in Ireland where he tries to discover his real family and get some answers on who he is. Whilst Elliot is in Ireland, he also gets caught up in all kinds of craziness with people trying to kill him."

He adds: "Family is a big theme in this series. We're dealing with a guy who has no concept of who he is, and you can only imagine how terrifying that is, but little by little there are these kernels of information revealed to him and he starts to piece his history together and his family history. It's not that pretty, but it's vital and it's a big part of our story."

Screenwriters Jack and Harry Williams — whose previous screenwriting hits include The Missing and One of Us — have penned the scripts of the follow-up series.

The Tourist season 1 was a big hit when it launched on BBC One and the iPlayer last January, with 12 million people watching it in the first 30 days it was available online. It then went on to have similar success on HBO for US fans. Here's everything we know about season 2...

The Tourist season 2 release date

The Tourist season 2 premiered on BBC One on Monday 1 January 2024 at 9 pm. The second episode follows on Tuesday 2 January on BBC One at 9 pm. Subsequent episodes air on consecutive Sundays throughout January. The whole series is available now as a box set on BBC iPlayer. 

The Tourist season 1 was broadcast on HBO Max in the United States, but it has moved to Netflix for the second season, with all the episodes available to stream from 29 February 2024. 

The Tourist season 2 plot

The first series started with "The Man" — whose name was revealed to be Elliot — waking up in Australia with total amnesia before he and Constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald) became embroiled in a cat-and-mouse game with mysterious figures chasing them across Australia. 

The new series sees Helen accompanying Elliot back to Ireland as he tries to rediscover his roots, where they soon find themselves dragged into the dangerous whirlwind of his past life. An official synopsis reads...

"After their adventure in the Australian Outback, The Tourist’s epic second series follows Dornan and Macdonald’s characters Elliot and Helen as they travel to Ireland together. 

"In an attempt to rediscover Elliot’s roots following his memory loss, they’re dragged into the dangerous whirlwind of his past life and are confronted by friends and foes both old and new, including Niamh Cassidy (Olwen Fouéré) and the McDonnell family – Donal (Diarmaid Murtagh), Orla (Nessa Matthews), Fergal (Mark McKenna), and Frank (Francis Magee). 

"Detective Ruairi Slater (Conor MacNeill) becomes embroiled in the crossfire between the McDonnells and the Cassidys as the secrets of the family rivalry unravel."

The Tourist season 2 cast

Jamie Dornan ( Fifty Shades of Grey, Belfast ) is back as Elliot, while Australian actress Danielle Macdonald ( Bird Box ) again plays former Constable Helen Chambers.

Joining them for the second series are Conor MacNeill  (Industry, The Fall) , Olwen Fouéré  (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Northman),  Francis Magee  (Justice League, Then You Run) , Mark McKenna  (Sing Street, One of Us is Lying) , Diarmaid Murtagh  (Vikings, Outlander),  and Nessa Matthews  (Neon, HEN) . 

Series two also sees Greg Larsen reprise his role as Ethan Krum.

The Tourist season 2 trailer

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Sean is a Senior Feature writer for TV Times, What's On TV and TV & Satellite Week, who also writes for whattowatch.com. He's been covering the world of TV for over 15 years and in that time he's been lucky enough to interview stars like Ian McKellen, Tom Hardy and Kate Winslet. His favourite shows are  I'm Alan Partridge, The Wire, People Just Do Nothing  and  Succession  and in his spare time he enjoys drinking tea, doing crosswords and watching football. 

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Review: 'The Tourist' is a ferocious thriller that relentlessly keeps you hanging on

Talk about a binge watch!

Talk about a binge watch! “The Tourist,” on HBO Max in a blast of six, one-hour episodes, is a ferocious thriller that’s also ferociously funny. Starring Jamie Dornan as an Irishman suffering amnesia in the Australian outback, the series is—to recoin a phrase—must-see TV.

The plot kicks in hard in Episode 1 as Dornan drives down a dusty road with a monster truck on his tail. Waking up battered and bruised in a hospital, he can’t even remember his name. Known only as “The Man” until the end of Episode 2, The Man—like Guy Pearce in “Memento”— must put together the puzzle of his life with crucial pieces missing.

“The Tourist” relentlessly keeps you hanging on. In the book world, they’d call it unputdownable. Each episode of the script by Jack and Harry Williams (“The Missing”) ends in a cliffhanger that whips you into the next episode. Forget about sleep.

It’s clear that Chris Sweeney (who directed episodes one to three) and Daniel Nettheim (who helmed the other half) have seen a lot of Coen brothers movies, especially “Fargo” and “Raising Arizona” with their deliciously deadpan blend of mirth and menace. If you’re going to borrow inspiration, why not swipe from the best.

MORE: Review: 'Licorice Pizza' one of the best films of the year

And Dornan, free from the cartoonish excess of the “Fifty Shades of Gray” trilogy, carries the whole thing with his starshine and burgeoning talent as an actor in “The Fall” and “Belfast.” Dornan is so good, you’ll follow him anywhere, which is just what “The Tourist” needs.

Dornan finds a perfect partner in Aussie dynamo Danielle Macdonald as Helen Chambers, a traffic cop with ambitions to rise in the ranks. The sweetness of Macdonald’s funny, touching and vital performance brings a nurturing humanity to the evil-doings surrounding her.

Can the diet-obsessed Helen, stuck with a controlling fiancée (Greg Larsen), discover herself by helping The Man recover his memory? Their attraction, repped by a burrito emoji, brings heart to a series that aims to blow the doors off with shocks and exploding violence.

For instance, there’s the dude who keeps calling The Man while buried alive in a secret grave? And why does the detective inspector, played to the hilt by Damon Herriman, seem less reliable than the gangsters and drug dealers who occupy the periphery of the episodes?

MORE: Review: 'The Tender Bar' deals a winning hand

Truly terrifying is the best way to describe Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Billy, the hulking American cowboy who drove The Man off the road and yet keeps comparing everyone he meets to his beloved mother. The scene between Billy and Helen will have you biting your nails to the quick.

And what of Shalom Brune-Franklin (“Line of Duty”) as Luci, the flirt who meets The Man at a diner that explodes minutes after they leave it. Luci volunteers to help The Man chase down his past. Or is she hiding something. Hint: Everyone in “The Tourist” is hiding something.

There’s no way I’ll spoil the fun by telling you who’s hiding what. Packed with high-voltage suspense and twists you don’t see coming, “The Tourist” also poses tangled questions about the nature of identify. You can tell The Man is afraid of what he might learn about himself.

Put yourself in his place, which is exactly what “The Tourist” wants you do. It’s one of the reasons this thrill-a-minute series has the staying power to haunt your dreams. The final episode is open-ended enough to suggest there might be a Season 2. Count me in.

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'The Tourist' Cast and Character Guide: A Recap of Who's Who Before Season 2

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A thought-provoking mystery akin to the likes of Christopher Nolan's Memento , The Tourist hit the BBC back in January 2022, with its critical and public acclaim across the pond soon translating into praise in the US following its debut on HBO Max. A whirlwind adventure that also showcases its gorgeous Australian backdrop, it came as no surprise to many when the series was picked up for a second outing . However, Max shockingly dropped the show from their catalog, with Netflix swooping in and saving the day, providing the upcoming second season with a rightful home. With that in mind, here is a look at some of the incredible cast of characters The Tourist has to offer.

The Tourist

When a man wakes up in the Australian outback with no memory, he must use the few clues he has to discover his identity before his past catches up with him.

• Jamie Dornan

The Man/Elliot Stanley

Known initially only as The Man, The Tourist begins with this mysterious stranger ominously waking up in an Australian hospital with a severe case of amnesia. Although it soon becomes clear his real name is Elliot Stanley, the gripping puzzle surrounding his identity creates the backbone of the show as Stanley's troubled Irish past swiftly begins to catch up with him. As the series continues, Dornan becomes a pensive, steadfast action hero, although, unlike a series such as Reacher , this masculine lead is allowed the time to be vulnerable, thrusting the classic male hero into a progressive 2024 role model. In Season 2, The Man has traveled back to his home country with filming in Dublin beginning in 2023 .

With a screen career that dates back to Sofia Coppola 's Marie Antoinette in 2006, Jamie Dornan 's rise to the top has been swift, with his portrayal of Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades franchise solidifying him as a household name. Among his high-profile career to date, Dornan has starred alongside Cillian Murphy in the World War Two spy thriller Anthropoid , portrayed the spiritual precursor to Ryan Gosling's Ken in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar , and acted opposite Gillian Anderson in the tense crime thriller The Fall . A captivating performer with an eye-catching range, Dornan is merely at the beginning of what looks to be an incredible career with many an iconic role still to come. Dornan discussed his time on the series and more in an interview with Collider's Christina Radish back in 2022.

Danielle McDonald

Helen chambers.

Helen's face is the first The Man sees following his sudden awakening, with that moment cementing her as a crucial component to the enigma's journey. At the bottom of the professional ladder, Helen Chambers will stop at nothing to prove she is an expert law enforcement officer, although sometimes her dedication to her job, and specifically the case involving The Man, puts her livelihood and her marriage in jeopardy, which eventually leads to a surprising and show-stealing romance with The Man.

With a career that has only spanned just over a decade to date, Danielle McDonald has already made a name for herself, with both the public and critics alike regularly praising her impressive range of performances. From her beginning on Glee in 2011 through to American Horror Story , McDonald has delighted on the small screen, but perhaps her film work in the likes of Bird Box and Patti Cake$ showcases the best of her talents. To find out more about the actress and her thoughts on playing Helen Chambers in The Tourist , check out her interview with Collider's Christina Radish .

Victoria Haralabidou

Lena pascal.

Lena's journey in The Tourist 's first season is as unique as they come, first appearing as a vision in the dreams (or nightmares) of The Man. As time goes by, these visions become stronger and more detailed, with the puzzle of Lena's identity slowly being pieced together. By season's end, it becomes clear that Lena marks the darkest secret from The Man's past, with Season 2 likely to involve The Man's attempts at redemption.

A star of both stage and screen, the Russian-born Victoria Haralabidou has impressed immensely across a 25-year-long acting career, with highlights including the likes of Brides , The Secrets She Keeps , and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart . In the near future, Haralabidou will be playing Jacinta Brightface in two episodes of Zombie Therapy .

Shalom Brune-Franklin

Luci miller.

Luci Miller's part in the plot of The Tourist 's first season is critical, with the waitress helping The Man piece together his past in the hope of protecting his future. However, Luci is hiding secrets of her own, with her growing bond with The Man soon seeming to have an ulterior motive. Sadly, Luci's involvement in the story is limited to just the first season, but her influence on the second season's plot shouldn't be underestimated.

A young actress with the world at her feet, Shalom Brune-Franklin , although she has a cameo role in Thor: Ragnarok , is best known for her work on television. Whether it's The Tourist , Doctor Doctor , Bad Mothers , or Line of Duty , Shalom never looks out of place alongside actors twice her age, with her future certainly looking bright.

Greg Larsen

Ethan Krum is the fiancée of Helen Chambers and symbolizes the familial cost of the young policewoman's dedication to her profession. A patient and kind man at heart, and never far from a moment of absurdist comic relief, watching Ethan slowly lose faith in the woman he loves is heartbreaking, with The Tourist 's dedication to showcasing both the mystery at its center and the ripple effects of such a tough task one of its best features. Interestingly, despite Helen and The Man now being a romantic item, Ethan is confirmed to appear in Season 2.

Perhaps the most experienced actor in The Tourist 's talented cast, Greg Larsen is a legendary Australian performer with a back catalog that includes the likes of Hug the Sun , How Not to Behave , and Young Rock .

The second season of The Tourist will officially premiere on February 29 on Netflix , with the trailer available to watch above. All episodes of The Tourist Season 1 are available to stream right now on Netflix.

Watch on Netflix

Screen Rant

The tourist ending explained by jamie dornan.

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LOTR: Rings Of Power Season 3’s Status Reportedly Clarified After Season 2’s Ratings Decline

Ncis: origins trailer introduces a young leroy jethro gibbs with a lot to prove, georgie & mandy's first marriage trailer: young sheldon couple adjusts their lives in the macallister home.

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Tourist .

Jamie Dornan opens up about the shocking ending of The Tourist . Created by Harry and Jack Williams, The Tourist centers on The Man (played by Dornan) who wakes up in a hospital with zero memory of who he is and how he got there. Spending the first of six episodes in a state of utter uncertainty, Dornan’s protagonist is helped along by Helen Chamber (Danielle Macdonald) , and the traffic cop helps The Man uncover the details behind the horrific car crash that led to his amnesia.

By the finale of the Australian-set series, it’s revealed that The Man is a drug smuggler named Elliot. Confronted by Lena Pascal (Victoria Haralabidou), a woman Elliot consistently has visions of, it becomes clear that Elliot’s actions in smuggling heroin inside people’s bodies led to the painful death of two women. It also led to Lena’s disfigurement, all of which she details in a searing monologue that makes plain how awful Elliot was before the crash and why someone would want him dead. This leads Elliot to the same conclusion, too, as he attempts to take his own life.

Related: HBO Max: Every Movie & TV Show Coming In March 2022

Speaking with EW to promote The Tourist , which is currently streaming on HBO Max , Dornan opened up about how difficult it was to film that reveal. The actor admits that it broke him, detailing how uncomfortable and uneasy it made him feel. Dornan’s quote is included below.

“It was crazy, that. So much of this character and this performance for me is, like any performance, you’re trying to stay present, but never more so than when everything is information that you’ve never heard before, particularly if it’s awful information, like that scene. I felt very raw in that moment, I felt very exposed, and vulnerable and kind of awful and terrible about myself. She was doing such beautiful work in front of me and it was having the impact that I felt that it should have. Sometimes you get yourself in a place where you feel so broken that you can’t actually stop crying. [Laughs] I felt a bit like that that day in a good way, I guess. I felt very exposed, very vulnerable. You know, it’s hard stuff to hear, the hardest stuff to hear, so a lot of that luckily was on the page for me in terms of the writing. But, yeah, not an easy day, that.”

Dornan, who goes on to mention that there have been conversations about a possible second season, previously spoke about how The Tourist was his most difficult role because he didn’t know anything about The Man. To go from there, only to learn of the banal evil of this protagonist had to have been as much a punch in the gut for Dornan as it was for the audience. For most of the HBO Max drama, Elliot is positioned as a good guy. Gruff, sure, and certainly flawed, but ultimately the hero of the story alongside Helen. It’s a difficult last-minute switch that Dornan sells perfectly.

Still, even though the reveal leads the audience down a dark path, it ends with hope. It’s heavily implied that Elliot survives his suicide attempt and begins a relationship with Helen. Perhaps, it suggests, in the long-run, that the memory loss provides Elliot with a chance to be a new person. It also opens the door for The Tourist season 2. And maybe, given that many viewers and critics enjoyed the lighter and more experimental aspects of the series, a second outing won’t have quite as bleak a twist.

More: Jamie Dornan Interview: The Tourist

• The Tourist (2024)

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The Tourist

Where to watch.

Watch The Tourist with a subscription on Netflix.

Cast & Crew

Jamie Dornan

Danielle Macdonald

Helen Chambers

Shalom Brune-Franklin

Luci Miller

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

Billy Nixon

Geneviève Lemon

Danny Adcock

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• AV Undercover

Jamie Dornan’s turn in The Tourist will make you forget about Christian Grey

With the belfast star in the driver’s seat, hbo max’s six-part series piles on the twists, turns, and the occasional acid trip.

It takes a big person to admit that they were wrong, which makes it so hard for an actor to shift the established opinion of them within the culture and critical establishment. It seems that HBO’s The Tourist may just do something truly Herculean, and make all the Jamie Dornan naysayers admit he’s actually a pretty good actor.

Not that people were without reason to doubt Dornan’s talents. When he first came to international attention, it was as Christian Grey, a kinky but bland billionaire in the 50 Shades trilog y. Those films were never considered high art, but have aged like warm milk, along with Dornan’s comments that he researched his role as the serial killer in The Fall by stalking unsuspecting women. But credit where it’s due—Dornan now joins the ranks of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and former co-star Dakota Johnson as a person who made interesting choices after their franchise ended and looks to become one of our credible millennial actors. The actor delighted audiences in recent hits like Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar and Belfast .

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This six-episode HBO Max series starts with one of the great tropes of melodramas—total amnesia befalls a handsome stranger after a terrible car crash, leaving him unable to remember so much as his own name. A kindly rookie police officer named Helen (Danielle Macdonald) takes pity on him and hopes to help him recover some, if not all, of his memories. Armed with nothing more than a note with a restaurant name and a time, the man sets out on his quest to figure out who he is and what he is doing in the remote Australian outback. To say much more would spoil much of the fun, and boy, is The Tourist fun. Some of the early twists follow may well-worn paths, but there’s no way to predict the roller-coaster ride ahead.

Macdonald gets to use her native Australian accent to play a character with parallels to Fargo ’s beloved Marge Gunderson, a folksy moral compass whose instincts prove invaluable. But where Marge was a well-respected detective in a loving marriage, Helen can only dream of the same. She is undermined both professionally and personally. One of the most enjoyable supporting characters is her spectacularly awful fiancé Ethan (Greg Larsen), who shames her for eating burgers, complains about her desire for high thread-count sheets, and labels her ambition as “delusions of grandeur” (which he repeatedly mispronounces). Even in a world of abundant brutality, it’s not hard to want a little more of it pointed in Ethan’s direction. It’s a credit to Larsen’s performance that he creates a man so intolerable, it’s worth continuing watching just for Helen’s inevitable realization that she’s far too good for him.

• The Tourist season 2 review: Jamie Dornan's thriller returns with a bang
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Though a good breakup is reason enough to stay engaged, The Tourist also does great cinematic work in its action sequences. We open with the amnesia-causing incident, where Dornan, driving alone in a dusty compact car through the Outback, singing along to Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes,” is pursued by a giant truck. At first, it seems like he’s just come across an asshole driver, but the moment it clicks that this is a many-wheeled high-speed weapon is utterly terrifying. The chase feels more horror film than TV action sequence, a tone that runs throughout the many moments of violence The Tourist puts on screen. Every crunch of bone, severed artery, and choke of breath feels visceral and impressively horrific. Much like Fargo , part of the fun of The Tourist is breaking up humorous moments among sweet local eccentrics with breathtaking cruelty. And those tonal shifts are expertly employed by the supporting cast, particularly Shalom Brune-Franklin, Damon Herriman, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and Alex Dimitriades, who pack all the intrigue of film noir alongside some great humor and convincing derangement.

Twists aside, The Tourist lags in the middle act, but is buoyed by a distinctly adult tone—there’s a gameness to it that makes the scary, horny, and darkly comic elements work well in tandem. Each twist (and they’re deployed every 15 minutes or so) beyond the second episode lands with full weight, particularly in the final episode where Dornan’s acting chops reach their apex.

It’s hard to imagine that The Tourist will have a seismic impact—the era of excellent television is a thankfully crowded one, and little here breaks new ground. But it’s an absolute hoot to travel down the series’ dusty Australian roads, taking in the trippy, almost Lynchian tangents through fractured minds and broken memories. Anti-hero narratives are familiar for a reason, and The Tourist keeps them as compelling as ever; even when it treads familiar territory, it’s never a bore. The paradigm of TV thrillers may not be shifted, but many people’s perceptions of Jamie Dornan will never be the same.

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Who Is in the Cast of 'The Tourist' on HBO Max?

Hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed movie Belfast , Jamie Dornan is back with a brand-new thriller called The Tourist. Four years after he last appeared on the small screen, Dornan has returned to TV as a car-crash victim who wakes up in hospital with amnesia. As he tries to piece who he was before the accident, his character who is named "The Man," realizes he was actually the victim of attempted murder.

Shot and filmed in Australia, the movie features a host of up-and-coming talent from across the globe. Newsweek has everything you need to know about the cast of The Tourist and their characters.

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Meet the Cast of 'The Tourist'

The Man — Jamie Dornan

Jamie Dornan stars as The Man in The Tourist , an amnesiac trying to discover the truth about his past. In a terrifying twist of events along the way, he realizes there is somebody out there who wants him dead but why?

Dornan rose to fame by playing Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey film franchise and Sheriff Graham Humbert in Once Upon a Time.

He is also well known for playing killer Paul Spector in BBC 's The Fall and most recently, he starred as Pa, in Kenneth Branagh's Oscar-nominated film, Belfast, and as Edgar in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

Constable Helen Chambers — Danielle Macdonald

Danielle Macdonald portrays Probationary Constable Helen Chambers in The Tourist.

She is a police officer assigned to The Man's case but quickly finds herself becoming consumed by his mystery and getting to the bottom of who he really is.

Speaking to Newsweek and other outlets about the character Helen, writer Jack Williams shared: "She's very believable, very relatable and you feel very warm. You just want her, this character to realize herself to be a better version of herself and I think Danielle brings that amazing relatability and warmth."

Macdonald, who is Australian but lives in the U.S. gets to use her native accent in the show, which may stun viewers who know Macdonald best as New Jersey rapper in Patti Cake$ and Texas-born Willowdean in Dumplin'.

Her other well-known credits include Bird Box, Unbelievable, and Lady Bird.

Luci Miller — Shalom Brune-Franklin

Actress Shalom Brune-Franklin stars as Luci Miller, who has an unexpected connection to The Man and a very dark past.

Speaking to Newsweek and other outlets about her character, Brune-Franklin said: "She's a waitress. There's a really interesting dynamic going on between the two of them whilst Jamie's character is sort of trying to unveil the truth, she is maybe trying to hide it."

Brune-Franklin is an English-born Australian actress, best known for playing Private Maisie Richards in Our Girl and Aoife in Doctor Doctor.

Most recently, she starred in Season 6 of Line of Duty as Chloe Bishop.

Billy Nixon — Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson stars as Billy Nixon, the truck driver who tries to kill The Man in Episode 1.

Ólafsson is an Icelandic-American actor, best known for playing Andri Ólafsson in Trapped and Skender in Fantastic Beats: The Crimes of Grindelwald .

His other credits include The Missing, The Meg, and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.

Ethan — Greg Larsen

Greg Larsen stars as Helen's intolerable fiancé Ethan in The Tourist.

Ethan and Helen's relationship may seem stable on the surface, but behind closed doors, Helen is starting to find her husband-to-be, intolerable.

Larsen is best known for co-creating and directing the award-winning stage show Fancy Boy .

He is also known for writing and performing on the Australian series Get Krack!n.

Kosta Panigiris — Alex Dimitriades

Australian actor Alex Dimitriades stars as Greek gangster Kosta Panigiris who has tried to keep a respectable distance from his corrupt business.

Dimitriades is best known for his role as Nick Polides in The Heartbreak Kid and Detective Peter Alexiades in The Cry.

Detective Inspector Lachlan Rogers — Damon Herriman

Damon Herriman takes on the role of Detective Inspector Lachlan Rogers, who is sent by the Major Crimes Unit to investigate what happened to The Man.

Herriman is best known for portraying cult leader and the late convicted murderer Charles Manson inboth Mindhunter and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Most recently, he starred as Laver in The Serpent and Martin in The Underground Railroad.

Sergeant Lammon — Kamil Ellis

Australian actor Kamil Ellis plays Sergeant Lammon, a small-town police officer working on The Man's case.

However, when Major Crimes steps in, Lammon is forced to work alongside them and is seriously out of his depth.

Ellis is best known for appearing in the series Cleverman, Nowhere Boys and SeaChange.

The Tourist is streaming on HBO Max now.

About the writer

Molli Mitchell is a Senior SEO TV and Film Newsweek Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on culture and entertainment. She has covered the world of Film and TV extensively from true-crime dramas to reality TV and blockbuster movies. Molli joined Newsweek in 2021 from the Daily Express. She is a graduate of The University of Glasgow. Languages: English.

You can get in touch with Molli by emailing [email protected].

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Summary A British man (Jamie Dornan) tries to figure out why someone tried to drive him off the road in the Australian outback in the thriller series from Harry and Jack Williams. The second season on Netflix is set in Ireland.

Created By : Harry Williams, Jack Williams

The Tourist

All seasons.

Jamie Dornan

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September TV Preview

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Get details on the most notable new and returning shows debuting in September 2024, including Agatha All Along, The Penguin, the return of Slow Horses, and more.

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5 best shows like 'The Tourist' to watch after season 2

Here are more thriller TV series like 'The Tourist'

Imagine waking up in a hospital room, in Australia, without any identity about who you are and why you are there. That's the premise behind the trending series on Netflix, "The Tourist."

"The Tourist" seasons 1-2 are streaming on Netflix .

Jamie Dorman stars as the main character, who has no memory of who he is and how he landed in the hospital. A variety of strange, helpful and quirky characters help him along the way. The fantastic blend of mystery, action, and a sprinkling of dark humor has made the show a top choice on Netflix.

Season 1 just became available in the U.S. on the streaming network earlier this year and season 2 just dropped on Feb. 29. When you're done binge-watching, here are some shows like "The Tourist" that offer up the same or similar vibes to fill the void.

Listed as one of the top-rated TV shows by IMDb, this show has endured for five seasons and has received numerous awards and nominations, including six Primetime Emmy wins. The anthology series changes the time period and location for each season, although there is some slight overlap of characters. Each installment focuses on a crime that somehow manages to connect to the city in North Dakota, which the show is named after. 

Fans of the movie will recognize it's a spinoff of the famous film. In addition, if you are familiar with Coen brothers movies , you are sure to spot references to their catalog of work through the show.  This is the perfect follow-up to "The Tourist," considering the mystery woven throughout every season and the dark humor throughout. However, there is plenty of violence in the show, so make sure you are prepared for that. 

Watch on Hulu

'The Missing'

This show is a no-brainer follow-up to "The Tourist" since it was also written and produced by brothers Harry and Jack Williams. However, "The Missing" has less of a humorous touch than its Australia-set counterpart. Season 1 of the show focuses on a little boy who goes missing and his father's motivation to find him. Season 2 shifts to the mystery of a teen who wanders off campus and gets kidnapped, only to come back with a story of another missing girl.

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Much like you see with "Fargo," each season is an anthology where there is very little overlap, and you can easily watch them independently of each other. The main connection is the French investigator, Tchéky Karyo as Julien Baptiste, who investigates both cases. 

Watch on Starz

'Three Pines'

If the mystery behind "The Tourist" is what drew you in, you'll love "Three Pines." Based on the novel by Louise Penny, the single-season show centers on Alfred Molina's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who is solving perplexing murders in the small Quebec village of Three Pines. The residents aren't exactly happy to see him, but despite that cold reception, he is drawn into the villagers' lives and spots numerous possible suspects, giving the show an intriguing Agatha Christie vibe. 

Sadly, despite its positive reviews, it was canceled after the first season because there was disagreement between the production companies. However, it still stands on its own as a miniseries. You'll be pleased to know there is an ongoing request for signatures to renew the show on Change.org if you find yourself enthralled by season one.

Watch on Prime Video

'Mr. Inbetween'

For those enticed by "The Tourist's" Australian setting, you don't want to miss Mr. Inbetween. Scott Ryan's Ray Shoesmith is a charming but violent hitman in Sydney. The mockumentary "The Magician," released in 2005, was about the same character. The show tells Ray's story more seriously and the title points to the ongoing struggle that he faces while balancing his criminal activities with his obligations to friends and family. No surprise, his work takes a toll on his relationships.

There is plenty of crime, romance, and comedy to be found within this series created by our Aussie friends. The series lasted for three seasons, coming to an end simply because Ryan was done playing the character. Considering he played the role in an independent film and a major series, it's no surprise he was done.

'Underbelly'

Another Australian show to add to your streamlining list is "Underbelly." As the title implies, it takes place in the underbelly of the Australian world, focusing on both sides of the law. What really will pull you into this show is each series is based on true-life events.

The first three seasons are based on the book "Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld," while the fourth season is based on the book "Razor" by Larry Writer and the fifth season is on real-life convicted murderer Anthony "Rooster" Perish. The sixth season, set between 1915 and 1927, is about Melbourne gangster Squizzy Taylor. Then, the final season tells the story of gangster Mark Read, otherwise known as Chopper. For crime fans who love a show based on true stories, this one is certain to draw you in and not let you go.

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Nicole Pyles is a writer in Portland, Oregon. She loves movies, especially Lifetime movies, obscure TV movies, and disaster flicks. Her writing has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Mental Floss, WOW! Women on Writing, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and more. When she isn't watching movies, she's spending time with family, reading, and writing short stories. Say hi on Twitter @BeingTheWriter.

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The Penguin Series Is So Much More Than A Batman Comic Book Show—It’s A Crime Epic

F rom the moment Colin Farrell limps into frame as the scarred and strange Oswald Cobb, it’s clear that The Penguin is going to be special. Set immediately after the events of 2022’s The Batman, the HBO limited series tells the story of the infamous villain in a grittier, more grounded version of Gotham, one that fits into the world Matt Reeves created for Robert Pattinson’s caped crusader a few years back.

As such, The Penguin feels much more gangster show than comic book series, like a slightly more absurd version of The Sopranos where an entire city can be flooded by a supervillain called The Riddler and a mass murderer can be released from Arkham Asylum and jump right back into her seat at the crime family table.

The Penguin and The Hangman

If I had to pinpoint what makes The Penguin so good, I’d have to choose two things: Farrell’s Oz and Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone. The two actors absolutely chew on scenery whenever they’re on screen, pulling your eyes like mosquitos to a neon-blue bug zapper. Farrell plays Oz like a man split down the middle: at times calm, cool, collected, and calculated; at others, an exposed wire sparking dangerously close to a puddle of water. Oz can sweet-talk his way out of hairy situations, relying on a charm that he’s cultivated to counteract his appearance—an appearance that will consistently shock you, as you forget and then remember again and again that this is Colin Farrell (one of the sexiest men alive) under all of the impressive SFX makeup and prosthetics.

He is unrecognizable in this show, and not just because a deep scar bifurcates his chin and right cheek or because his pores are gargantuan or because he has gold caps on some of his teeth, but because Farrell’s body language, mannerisms, and voice are so lived-in, so legitimate. He’s sunk deeper into the role than he was in The Batman, wearing the suit like a second skin. He is The Penguin.

But Milioti (who you may know best from the Star Trek-inspired episode of Black Mirror, or as the Mother in How I Met Your Mother, or the co-lead in Palm Springs) doesn’t just hold her own in scenes with Farrell, she commands your attention just as much (if not more) than he does. As Sofia Falcone aka The Hangman, the daughter of Carmine Falcone and a convicted serial killer in her own right, there is a consistently bubbling cauldron of rage hiding barely below the surface, with Milioti’s huge eyes and perfect sneer telegraphing Sofia’s sadistic nature at all times.

In one scene, after Sofia’s cousin approaches her to reminisce about the good ol’ days at Lake Como, we see the cousin balk when her young daughter steps up to join the conversation. Sofia recognizes her cousin’s mood shift, and bends down to get eye-to-eye with the little girl, menacingly fixing her hair, a reminder of who is in charge, and what she’s capable of. Milioti, a New Jersey native, effortlessly adopts the patter of an Italian mafiosa, snapping her consonants and dragging out her vowels and spitting out curses with gusto. She is brilliant, and if both she and Farrell don’t get award noms for this show, then there truly is no justice in Hollywood.

A comic book Cosa Nostra

I watched five episodes of The Penguin and can safely say it belongs in the pantheon of great limited series like Sharp Objects, Chernobyl, and Band of Brothers. It is, front to back, nearly perfect—a pristine crime drama about conniving con-men and murderous matriarchs, with a kind, beating heart at its core: Gotham teen Victor Aguilar, AKA Vic, played brilliantly by Bronx-born actor Rhenzy Feliz. Feliz’ stammering and sweet Vic is swept into this world, with Oz becoming his de facto “capo” and forcing the young boy to adopt his casual cruelty as a means of getting a leg up in the still-underwater city of Gotham.

Oz cleverly carrot-and-sticks Vic throughout The Penguin, doling out punishment and threats in one breath and praise and prizes in the next. Because of Farrell’s brilliance and Feliz’ believability, you find yourself on the same rollercoaster as Vic: In one scene you’ll believe without a shadow of a doubt that Oz is a monstrous man undeserving of any kindness, and just a few moments later you’ll feel a pang of empathy for Oz, or a surge of pride as he congratulates Vic on a job well done. You can feel the allure of this world, the shimmering mirage of mafia life on the horizon. You can see the glittering, winking diamonds in the necklace Oz gingerly places on a woman’s neck and understand how someone could get wrapped up in this seedy crime world, how powerful the pride must be after pulling off an expert caper. After all, those in power don’t care about any of us, right? Why not take what we can get for ourselves?

The Penguin is well-written, well-paced, well-shot, and brilliantly acted—its episodes are succinct and smartly laid out, with showrunner Lauren LeFranc deftly weaving social commentary, heart-pounding action, familial strife, and black comedy throughout. TV and movies based on comic books can be so much more than guys in suits fighting across visually muddy CGI battlefields—Reeves showed us this with The Batman, and LeFranc takes the baton and streaks away faster than Sha’Carri Richardson. Expect this show to win awards, guys. It deserves it.

The first episode of The Penguin airs on HBO on September 19, 2024 at 9 p.m. ET. You don’t want to miss this.

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