Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

Recommend TV Shows Not From The States. The Sequel


_MJ_

Recommended Posts

 

 

Me and the wife really enjoy the British crime/mystery/detective shows so much more than what Hollywood offers.
 
We finished Wire in the Blood. Right now we're in the middle Prime Suspect and Waking the Dead. Planning to see also Jonathan Creek, Silent Witness, Inspector Lewis and Foyle's War. Recommendations are welcome.

 

 

Check out Cracker if you haven't already. Very gritty. I also used to enjoy A Touch of Frost. Not sure how well it's held up.

 

Also, holy shit at the Moyes/Taggart conversation. Stunning.

 

 

The first episode of Cracker wasn't very good but the next couple were excellent. 

 

Why do the Brits make crime/mysteries so well? Sure they have flaws, plot holes and recurring plot devices but they're damn entertaining and addicting. My wife and I have been watching an episode a day of any of these series:
 
Prime suspect
Cracker
Waking the Dead
Lewis
New Tricks
Touching Evil
Jonathan Creek
A Touch of Frost
Foyle's War
Whitechapel
 
We're also enjoying Hustle.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Life in Film is this great, short-lived series from the early '00s. It was focused around a frustrated movie screenwriter (Kris Marshall) and every one of the 6 episodes was a film parody. It's on youtube. Some of the episodes are better than others, of course, but it was a really unique idea and it's a shame it didn't last.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love House Of Fools 10 times more since I first posted that. I think I just like things that are so wilfully stupid.

 

Totally unrelated, I see that Jonathan Meades has a new thing on BBC4 this week, about Brutalist architecture. He makes these rambling, stylish documentaries that are usually about architecture. I've been going through youtube watching a lot of his stuff I hadn't seen and I just can't get enough. Fascinating stuff even if, like me, you're not at all knowledgeable on the subject. His film about Surrealism is a total head fuck too.

 

House of Fools was very surreal, I liked The Young Ones so gave it a shot.

 

Along similar lines I watched the first couple of episodes of another BBC comedy this week "Brian Pern's Story of Rock".

 

The main dude is clearly a take on Peter Gabriel.  It was a really fun spoof-doc with a lot of music names including Roger Taylor, Rick Wakeman and comedians including Vic and Bob playing a folk duo and a lot of the Fast Show cast.

 

Phil Collins and the other guy being chased by the KGB while flying on concorde and his intro to "Stairway" at Live Aid is among the funniest things Ive seen all year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Me and the missus have been watching The Misfits on Hulu. Sometimes the writing is a little poor with how people act in certain situations and things like that, but we like it. We just started in to Season 3. Didn't like the "new Nathan" in the first episode as it seemed like he was trying to be a little TOO "Nathan", but he grew on me the last three episodes we've watched. Curious to see where they go with it since I know pretty much all the original characters aren't there for the last season at least. I also read something recently about the actress who plays Kelly was arrested awhile ago for some sort of racial assault on a cab driver or something? Can't look at the Kelly character the same way anymore after reading about that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Edwin

Has anyone seen the Only Fools and Horses new sports relief special with David Beckham? It was all kinds of awesome. I thought Beckham was good in it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Heads up that the sequel to The Trip, The Trip to Italy started airing tonight in Britain.

 

This has me giddy...

 

The second episode of series two features an extraordinary exchange in which Brydon is doing Roger Moore playing Tony Blair and Coogan is Saddam Hussein doing a Frank Spencer impression.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been really looking forward to that, just about to watch it.

 

Stuff I've seen lately that I'd recommend -

 

Page Eight/Turks and Caicos/Salting the Battlefield, a trilogy of TV films by David Hare, the first was on a couple of years ago and the other two were just on in the last few weeks. Spy thriller stuff with an amazing cast, Bill Nighy plays the lead.

 

Shetland, A crime drama set on Shetland, so some heavy fucking accents, I guess it apes these Scandinavian crime shows but it works well in the setting.

 

Line Of Duty

 

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Stewart Lee is my favourite stand-up, and this show is mostly stand-up, as well as interview sections with Chris Morris, which Armando Iannucci was doing in previous series. Can't recommend this enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Guest Edwin

One of the best British sitcoms of recent years, Friday Night Dinner returns with a third season in a little over a week on the 20th. Some people claim they've already seen the first 2 episodes and that they live up to the standards of season 2 and have continued to surpass season 1.

 

Can't wait!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will not tolerate any bad shit said about Moriarty from Sherlock:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okxD3mSnnks

 

AND ALL OF YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING ORPHAN BLACK~!

 

Why is fucking BBC America showing re-runs of Torchwood: Miracle Day only in the morning?

Because the two Torchwood miniseries(and especially Miracle Day) were abominations that shit all over the characters from series? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished Season One of Orphan Black tonight and oh shit. I try to avoid Nefarious Means so it'll be a couple months before I have the $$ for season 2, but I'm really glad I finally got a chance to watch this.

 

Since it's on Hulu now, I need to revisit the Fry&Laurie Wooster and Jeeves series.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So after watching two of the Netflix original series and hearing so much about Amazon Primes original content I googled what was coming up. For Amazon not a lot looked interesting but Ripper Street caught my eye. I read about it on wiki and it says that it got mixed reviews at best. It compared it to whitechapel which I also googled and didn't see how they could be that similar. From what I gather one takes place while Jack is committing the murders and lasts for two seaskns. The other is about a modern day copycat and lasts for about a third of that. So is Ripper Street worth checking out? Does it have any redeeming qualities?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jerome Flynn is great in Ripper Street, so it's got that going for it. It looks fantastic, and it's fairly light despite some of the story points. The lead, whose name I forget, is a bit overwrought as a character but it all works well enough. It's really a mystery of the week thing with arcs tying everything together. I enjoyed it, I think there's a third series coming.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Edwin

2 episodes in and Friday Night Dinner just keeps on getting better and better.

 

I seriously can't believe this doesn't receive the amount of praise it should receive.

 

Along with Bad Education, these are 2 of the best British sitcoms in most recent years by a mile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen The Returned (Les Revenants) popping up on a bunch of "Best of" tv show lists and the plot has me intrigued.  Anyone seen it?

 

I just finished watching this. It was beautifully shot, good acting, great soundtrack... then it brought "Lost" back into my memory. They just stacked mystery and creepiness one after the other in arbitrary fashion with no rules and no pay off. The last 2 episodes were especially meandering. I suspected it would be like Lost midway through; should have listened to my instinct.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never saw ripper street, but White Chapel is outstanding. . . 

 

Yup. I thought it became outstanding at season 3, when they switched to multiple cases per season. Too bad it got cancelled just when it was peaking.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So we idiotic Americans are turning the ITV mystery show, Broadchurch, into Gracepoint and putting it on Fox this fall, but at least we're keeping David Tennant in the cast.

 

I like crime thrillers so I am tempted to tune in to watch Gracepoint, but I'd also like to check out Broadchurch, too.

 

Is Broadchurch any good?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...