Seized at Sea
Channel: CBS Reality (DStv 132 / StarSat 170)
TX Time: 11h30
Genre: Reality
This 12-part series from the producers of Borderforce USA follows the work of US Customs and Border Protection officers in Puerto Rico, Florida and New Jersey as they take the fight against drug cartels and human traffickers away from the southern land border to the territorial waters of the United States.
Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection investigate the hidden world of smuggling in major US ports and waterways.
See exclusive insights into the operations of well-established drug cartels, wild Caribbean party boats docking and more.
In the series premiere: A routine inspection of a cargo ship uncovers a well-hidden, illicit load; and weapons smugglers attempt to evade authorities.
Also, a luxury boat comes on the radar and agents locate a ship filled with people smugglers trying to make landfall.
Paradise Patrol
Channel: eExtra (Openview 105 / StarSat 489 / DStv 195)
TX Time: 20h30
Genre: Documentary
This fly-on-the-wall documentary follows the story of three extraordinary men who fight crime using extremely unorthodox methods.
Their remarkably fascinating use of nothing more than their inventive minds leads to the creation of the ultimate crime-fighting team.
Known as "The Mountain Men", they're loved by the public, but hated by criminals.
Murder in the Skies: Who Downed MH17?
Channel: National Geographic Channel (DStv 181 / StarSat 220)
TX Time: 21h00
Genre: Documentary Series
July 2014. When Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashes in Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, the circumstances are shrouded in mystery.
With a regional war beginning to rage around the crash site, disinformation is everywhere.
Western governments are left scrabbling for detail while one civilian is leading the hunt for answers – dad of two and amateur blogger Eliot Higgins.
And with an unlikely team of online detectives by his side, he's ready to fight all the way to the truth.
The Crash
When a passenger jet crashes over Ukraine killing 298 people the world demands answers. But the truth comes from an unlikely place.
The Murder Weapon
The online battle to find out who shot down MH17 intensifies. Amidst the disinformation and lies, an army of keyboard warriors uncovers vital evidence.
The Guilty
As the investigation closes in on those responsible for shooting down MH17, the families of the victims seek justice.
Black Market: Dispatches
Channel: eReality (Openview 108)
TX Time: 21h00
Genre: Documentary Series
From the tunnels of Gaza to Ukraine's Carpathian mountains to the dusty tip of Colombia, this series explores the dangerous ways everyday items become commodities on the black market.
In the series premiere, "The Tunnels of Gaza": Suffering under economic blockade, Gazans use an illlegal network of tunnels to smuggle in goods to survive.
But the tunnels are under attack from Israel and Egypt.
Whale with Steve Backshall
Channel: S3
TX Time: 17h00
Genre: Wildlife, Nature, Documentary Series
Naturalist and conservationist Steve Backshall takes the viewer closer to the most iconic, mysterious and threatened whales and their dolphin cousins.
He free-dives in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, meeting sperm whales, humpback whales, orcas and bottlenose dolphins along the way, revealing complex social relationships, surprising hunting techniques, and more.
Confronted with the uncomfortable and urgent truths of overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction, Steve meets with other whale advocates from around the world to explain why whales are essential for the health of oceans.
Whales and Us
Steve Backshall explores the evolving understanding of whales, how much they have in common with humans, and how recent discoveries could help to better protect them from threats in an increasingly changing world.
Ocean Hunters
Steve encounters the largest and most sophisticated hunters on the planet, revealing how the ingenious strategies used by whales can sometimes get these extraordinary predators in trouble.
Ocean Voyagers
Steve journeys the globe with some of the greatest travellers on the planet as he explores the reasons that drive their epic voyages and the challenges migrating whales face.
Ocean Survivors
Steve returns home to the Atlantic waters of the British Isles as he considers the question of what humanity can do to ensure the enduring future of whales, which have already survived so much.
Viola 2
Channel: eExtra (Openview 105 / StarSat 489 / DStv 195)
TX Time: 19h30
Genre: Drama
Viola Vitale, a gorgeous and magnetic woman who has always worked in the field of fashion journalism, moves from Paris back to Palermo, armed only with optimism and trust, to search for the father she never knew.
There, Violet starts working for an online publisher, covering the crime beat, collaborating with Inspector Francesco Demir.
He's charismatic and seductive, with top investigative talent, but little faith in humanity - in that, the polar opposite of Violet.
Highly intuitive on the job, Demir is also impulsive and given to bending the rules.
The pair work side-by-side on homicide cases, she as a reporter, he as a cop.
Hugely difficult at first, given the clash of opposites, in time they learn to collaborate successfully.
This is in part because Violet can count on her special gift: synesthesia.
Synesthesia is not merely a figure of speech, but also the actual spontaneous and uncontrollable blending of multiple senses - sight and hearing, for example.
In Violet's case, she associates emotions with colours.
When she looks at a person, she sees a colour they give off, allowing her to read their deepest, possibly hidden, feelings: fear, joy, pain...
Violet develops the ability to grasp the true mindsets of people she encounters.
Behind her synesthesia, however, she guards a bigger secret, to do with her real reason for returning to Palermo.
In Season 2 we welcome new characters, including the publisher Leonardo Piazza, who will prove to be a mentor to Viola, and the director Vita Stabili, with whom she will have a conflicting relationship.
In addition, there will be some new journalists, as well as her reliable, irreplaceable sidekick, Tamara.
But the new developments don't end there, because Viola will no longer have to deal with crime reporting as such: her new calling will be to create a podcast that starts from the news to reveal the human stories that lie behind it.
To do that, she will inevitably collaborate again with Francesco, the charming police inspector whose intuition always proves fundamental in solving every case they find themselves facing together.
In the Season 2 premiere: Viola accepts her incurable condition and tumultuous relationship with Demir.
A new PM confuses her feelings as she adjusts to a new boss and co-workers at S Sicilia Web News.
MORE: Back! Viola Teasers - February 2025