6 anthology series for those who hate playing catch-up

Love the idea of starting a new a show but don’t want to invest the time in playing catch-up? Come to Showmax. Each season of these anthology series brings you new faces, a new setting or a new storyline … or the whole lot.

The White Lotus

Season 1 was set at the White Lotus hotel in Maui, Hawaii, and saw a motley group of rich and oblivious guests dumping their literal and metaphorical baggage on an already troubled team of hotel staff, including a wild manager with substance abuse problems and a spa manager whose mistakes are snowballing. It’s the guests – or one in particular – who make the show: Jennifer Coolidge plays Tanya McQuoid-Hunt who’s on the island to spread her mother’s ashes … and complete chaos. The other guests won’t know what hit them when they end up on her ash-spreading cruise.

For the brand-new Season 2, Tanya is the only character to return as the show heads to the White Lotus resort in Sicily, Italy, where a handful of guests have mysteriously died … Look out for new characters played by the likes of F Murray Abraham, Tom Hollander, Meghann Fahy, Aubrey Plaza and Michael Imperioli (Christopher from The Sopranos all grown up!). New episodes land every Monday.

Love Life

This show’s seasons each follow the love life of a different character, from their first relationship until their final romance. Season 1 follows Darby (Anna Kendrick), who meets Augie Jeong (Jin Ha) at a karaoke night in episode 1. They hit it off immediately, no thanks to Augie’s “smooth” flirting, and they end the night together. Darby hands Augie her number and tells him to call her. He doesn’t … until a couple of weeks later when they start dating, only for Augie to reveal that he’s leaving town to report on the Barack Obama presidential re-election campaign. That’s not the end of their story. In fact, once they say the L-word for the first time, it’s just beginning …

Season 2 follows Marcus Watkins (William Jackson Harper), whose link to Darby we’re not going to reveal because it’ll spoil Season 1. What we will say is that he’s going to get into an entanglement and it’s going to make his wife less than happy …

Room 104

This four-season series is set in a single room at a dingy roadside motel in the US and each of the 48 episodes focuses on one specific guest who checks into the infamous Room 104. It’s a mix of genres, with everything from comedy and action to drama, sci-fi and horror unfolding in the episodes.

There are a couple of big-name actors starring, like James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek), series creator Jay Duplass, and performers like Mae Whitman, Rainn Wilson, Judy Greer and Michael Shannon telling stories that include the sole survivor of a plane crash who’s considering going back to her estranged husband, a man trying to get his childhood teacher to confess to her sins, and a dying woman who thinks that the walls are talking to her … all in Room 104.

If you want a local show that’s similar, try 4Mure.

Small Axe

This five-episode series of films comes from the brilliant mind of Sir Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave), who wrote, directed and produced the shows from start to finish. He took over a decade polishing the scripts and screenplay before he filmed them in 2019. They’re set in the late 60s to early 80s, and focus on the real-life experiences of the West Indian community living in London, England.

Mangrove (episode 1), for example, tells the true tale of the Mangrove Nine, a group of Black British activists who tried to incite a riot against police brutality directed at the employees at the Caribbean-themed Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill, and their ensuing court case. “I needed time to create this show. It’s more than just a show; it’s a production of life, a tale of terror that a community went through and suffered at the hands of people sworn to protect the community,” says Sir Steve. “I wasn’t ready even in 2017 to make Small Axe. I wanted to make this perfect because this production will be the pinnacle of my career. Nothing will be more important to me than Small Axe, and I wanted to do it justice.”

High Maintenance

Each episode of this comedy series follows the drug-buying process of a new pot smoker as they buy their stash from The Guy (played by series creator Ben Sinclair, who wrote and directed the series with his ex-wife Katja Blichfeld). It’s set in Brooklyn, New York, and sees The Guy going from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, including the more upmarket parts of town like Manhattan, as he sells his wares to the fine consumers of pot.

The episodes are based loosely on reality and because each episode is so vastly different, there’s no specific style or feel to the show, which has earned it critical acclaim and awards over its four-season run.

Watch the original web series, which then became the comedy series, also on Showmax, here.