September is an awards month for the linguistic industry and that’s when the Day Awards (partnership) take place.

This year’s categories include:

Best Localized Video Game 2024

Best Translated Book 2024

Best Linguist Industry Tool 2024

Best Localized Movie 2024

Best Localized TV Show 2024.

Today we will look at the best TV show of 2024 that have been translated into other languages to cater for international audiences.

Best Localized TV Show 2024

• 3 Body Problem
• Griselda
• Fallout
• Those About to Die

3 Body Problem

3 Body Problem is a 2024 sci-fi Netflix TV series with an international cast made predominantly by British and Chinese actors. The cast include major movie stars such as Jonathan Pryce, Rosalind Chao and John Bradley as well as young stars like Elza Gonzàles and Sea Shimooka.

Originally a 2023 Chinese TV series called Three Bodies, 3 Body Problem has been translated into English.

The programme was created by David Benioff, Alexander Woo, D. B. Weiss and is an adaptation of Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which was published in Chinese in 2008. The book is the first instalment of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy and it received the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015 and the Kurd Laßwitz Award for Best Foreign Work in 2017. The books have depth and rich cultural meaning, and some critics were sceptical about a possible screen adaptation, but the TV series got positive reviews.

The concept of the three-body problem is when three similar planets, stars, or suns may collide or avert each other with force.

Griselda

Griselda is a 2024 true crime drama TV series on Netflix which was created by Doug Miro, Eric Newman, Carlo Bernard and Ingrid Escajeda. It’s available in Spanish and English and so far it has received many positive reviews.

Most of the characters are from Latin America and most of the time the dialogue is in Spanish with some English.

Sofia Vergara plays Griselda, the villain, and the rest of the cast includes Alberto Guerra and Vanessa Ferlito.

The plot centres around an undercover police officer who speaks Spanish (June Hawkins, played by Juliana Aidén Martinez) and infiltrates into the Miami drug cartel in the 1970s and 1980s.

Fallout

Fallout is an American dystopian TV series for Amazon Prime Video that started in 2024 from creators Geneva Robertson Dworet and Graham Wagner, starring Kyle MacLachnan, Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten and Walton Goggins. The story is an original script based on the video game with the same title.

There are many available language options, both for subtitles and for dubbed versions, including Arabic, French, German, Indonesian and Vietnamese.

The series, which not only has received excellent reviews but which also won a Primetime Emmy Award, is based in a post-nuclear and radioactive Los Angeles where people have to live underground to protect themselves from dangerous radiations. In the meantime, at ground level, chaos has ensued with lawless criminals and monsters terrorising anyone who comes into contact with them.

Those About to Die

Those About to Die is a 2024 historical drama TV series on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video about gladiators in Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire, loosely based on the Daniel P. Mannix book with the same title, which also inspired the Hollywood movie Gladiator.

The show, which is a German, American and Italian production, is available in different languages: English, Italian, German and Arabic.

The cast includes the legendary actor Anthony Hopkins as well as Iwan Rehon, Tom Hughes, Jojo Macari and Sara Martins.

The storyline is centred on gladiator games as a form of mass entertainment. So far the show has received mixed reviews, with many audience members enjoying the choreographed fight scenes while some critics saying there are too many characters (and possibly not enough screen time dedicated to Anthony Hopkins) which makes the viewer less engaged and interested in individual storylines. The writing itself attracted criticism as some deemed it to be superficial and not giving characters enough depth.