Recommend TV Shows Not From The States. The Sequel

[odessasteps]

The rumored start of S3 was May 2020, but sounds like from a quick net scan it hasn't even filmed yet.

[Matt D]

I looked this up yesterday and was equally disappointed.

We are very, very slowly going through the new season of Kim's Convenience, because after that, there'll be no sitcom for us.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Matt D

[J.H.]

This also has me worried how much of Letterkenny S9 was shot. When I saw the live show in Detroit they ran a small trailer for the new series but who knows how many episodes were completed.

James

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

AMC has started rerunning early seasons of Line of Duty, the BBC police drama.

Season two starts this Saturday.  I'm stoked.  Always heard great things about the show but never watched it till now.  Season one was uneven, imo, but convinced me there was a great show in there.

Season one hooked me, but then lost me a bit with a plot pivot.  I felt like I knew where the show was going after a couple eps in, then a twist at the end of an ep send the plot in a different direction/

Spoiler

The plot of each season revolves a police corruption investigation.  Season one had Lennie James playing a highly respected DCI being investigated for a corruption charge.  The charge is kinda minor - the character is elevating his clearance rate through dubious means - but the implication is the investigation might turn over the wrong rock and uncover the stuff James' character is really into.  At the same time, James tries to help his mistress cover up a minor crime only to find out it's really premeditated murder.

I was all in at this point.  The acting and writing were great, and it seemed like James' character was probably going to have his darker secrets exposed because he tried to help his mistress, only to find out she lied to get him involved.  Then, in the final min of an episode, a gang of thugs burst in on James and his mistress (in her home), slit her throat, knock him out, and steal her body along with a knife they got his prints on.

The rest of the season is increasingly melodramatic.  The gang blackmails James' character into doing their bidding.  His mistress was laundering money for him.  Why they felt like they had to take her out was never clear.  We get scenes of James running around town to answer burner phones, the gang has James help them abduct one of the IAB officers on his case so they can torture him, etc.

The ending has James wear a wire to take the gang down, then step in front of a bus and get smushed  - after begging the IAB officer he's working with to lie that his death was in the line of duty so his family would get his pension.  Never mind that the bus driver, the people on the bus, and whover else was on this very busy street in the middle of the day are going to tell investigators he stepped out in front of a bus for no apparent reason.

First half of season one was more like Law and Order or NYPD Blue.  Second half was more like 24.

Still... high hopes for season 2.

 

 

[Matt D]

20 minutes ago, J.H. said:

This also has me worried how much of Letterkenny S9 was shot. When I saw the live show in Detroit they ran a small trailer for the new series but who knows how many episodes were completed.

James

Just checking: my wife (Who likes Derry Girls, Good Place, Maisel, and Kim's Convenience, was ok with Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother, and has no use for Office, Curb, Parks&Rec, Community, or Sunny) would hate Letterkenny, right?

[J.H.]

It's so hard to say because what the show puts forth is rural communities with rather forward thinking beliefs. If she likes wordplay then she may get into that aspect of it because there is a lot of wordplay. However if she hates dick and fart jokes  then she'll wanna skip it

James

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Yeah, being from Derry myself, Derry Girls ain't happening this year. Even before all this, the whole of Derry would know instantly when Lisa McGee even scratched her arse so we would know when they started filming anything for it because every nosy fucker in the town would find out 67 days in advance. 

I have no idea how old the cast will be by the time the new series starts, Nicola Coughlan is literally 33 years old playing a 16 year old. It's basically Derry 90210.

[odessasteps]

New pod with mission log’s john champion talking Picard and old spy shows including avengers, danger man, randall zand hopkirk, dept s and jason king. 

http://tinyurl.com/winterep86

[ChesterCopperpot]

Shows I've watched recently

Blood on Acorn TV - Irish show starring the awesome Adrian Dunbar from the above mentioned Line of Duty

Caliphate on Netflix - Swedish show that involves ISIS and a terror attack planned for Sweden

Occupied - Norwegian show created by writer Jo Nesbø - climate change, Russia taking over countries energy supplies - it's way better than it sounds

Just started Fauda last night - based on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict 

[odessasteps]

 

[J.H.]

On 5/7/2020 at 7:21 PM, Fuzzy Dunlop said:

Yeah, being from Derry myself, Derry Girls ain't happening this year. Even before all this, the whole of Derry would know instantly when Lisa McGee even scratched her arse so we would know when they started filming anything for it because every nosy fucker in the town would find out 67 days in advance. 

I have no idea how old the cast will be by the time the new series starts, Nicola Coughlan is literally 33 years old playing a 16 year old. It's basically Derry 90210.

It helps that Nicola Coughlin is so... cherubich (?) that let's her play such a young'un. I feel bad using that word but I couldn't think of another and now I feel like an asshole

Jsmes

[Gordi the recovering AEW f]

Just popped over to say that I am very firmly on the Letterkenny bandwagon now. You'd think I might have been an early adopter given that I'm Canadian... but living in Japan I only started watching it after asking a friend for COVID time killer recommendations. Just supremely entertaining.

[Greggulator]

I just started Friday Night Dinner, a UK show which is on Amazon Prime. It's as straightforward a premise as TV gets -- two brothers go to their parents house every Friday night for dinner and zany antics ensue. But it's fantastic and proof that great characters and strong writing/performances can make even the most basic sounding of shows great. 
 

I also am about to go into Plebs. It's a show about two young Brit guys trying to make it in the big city... only the big city is Ancient Rome.

[Greggulator]

On 12/12/2019 at 4:18 PM, ChesterCopperpot said:

Top Boy is fucking excellent - and is on Netflix now. 

Make sure you watch Top Boy:Summerhouse first though - it's the original series that were shown on Channel 4 before Netflix (through Drake) jumped onboard.

You'll need the subtitles on for this. 

I just started Summerhouse. It's excellent. Fans of The Wire will love this. Great show.

[Curt McGirt]

I started watching it after reading this and am three episodes in (so basically almost through the series). It's pretty good. I wouldn't say Wire good, but what is? It still hits that spot. 

If you were wondering, there isn't any police presence in the series (thus far), it's just about the criminals. 

Spoiler

Oh fuck man they just killed the dog? That's some cold shit right there.

 

[Curt McGirt]

I'm still watching Top Boy and for some reason seasons 2 and 3 didn't show up on Netflix so I dove right into 4. It starts with two main characters deep in the shit and the whole season seems to be mired in pain, loss, and regret. I might be rethinking my Wire comment from earlier because this is definitely touching it. 

[ChesterCopperpot]

On Netflix - Top Boy Summerhouse has two 4-part series and there’s a 10 episode season of Top Boy. That’s all that have aired so far.

A fourth season is due later this year. 

[Curt McGirt]

Okay, that 10 episode block is season 3, which explains why there is a huge gap in the storyline from Summerhouse to that. I have no idea why Netflix wouldn't put up the second season as well but who knows. 

[ChesterCopperpot]

It should all be there - it's on my Netflix anyways

Top Boy Summerhouse S1 - 4 episodes

Top Boy Summerhouse S2 - 4 episodes

Top Boy S3 - 10 episodes 

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by ChesterCopperpot

[Curt McGirt]

Well, I'm on the last ep of season 3. Honestly I got a bit confused as to who was allied with who. Also, there is a lot of teeth-sucking in this series. It seems to be the go-to response for any bit of dialogue.

[Greggulator]

Friday Night Dinner is as funny a TV show as I have ever watched. Man, this is just classic TV comedy that anyone and everyone would love.

[Travis Sheldon]

10 hours ago, Greggulator said:

Friday Night Dinner is as funny a TV show as I have ever watched. Man, this is just classic TV comedy that anyone and everyone would love.

One of my pick up at any episode favorites.

Shame Amazon Prime Video doesn't have the complete series.

[Eoae]

Wife and I are watching Riviera on AMC+.  Not sure I'd call it good, but it certainly is watchable and it's shot on location so the scenery is gorgeous.  Julia Stiles plays the art dealer wife of an older billionaire who is killed in a yacht explosion, leaving her to deal with his secrets and enemies.  Season one is actually an effective thriller with a couple very melodramatic "only on TV" moments and one heck of a cliffhanger

 

Spoiler

In the season finale, Stiles' character stops playing the ingenue when she learns her adult stepson orchestrated her husband's death.  She lures him to a boat, stabs him about a half dozen times and watches him bleed to death before pushing his corpse overboard.

It was somewhat out of nowhere but not really.  They had mentioned the character had a father in prison and she occasionally seemed too calm and calculating in situations that would freak most people out 

 

Season 2 is just bonkers.  Characters return from the dead and are found by people they knew but hadn't seen in decades, there's a Misery-style plot where a sick guy is held prisoner in a shed, unexplained babyface turns (and a heel turn in the same episode), plotlines that go nowhere, a creepy romance between a character that is probably in his early 30's or so and a character that turns 18 halfway into the season, an incest storyline between those same two characters that thankfully turns out not to be incest, etc..  The season ended with a high body count and a "final" fate for Stiles' character that turned out not to be final since the show got picked up for season 3.

The wrap-up to season 2 reminded me a lot of Millennium, the Fox show created by X-Files creator Chris Carter.  The showrunners were told that the show was being canceled at the end of season 2, so season 2 went out with a bang that killed off several supporting characters and had one of the main characters go out to die in the snow.   The last shot is the main character listening to reports on the news about a world-ending plague spreading rapidly around the globe and waiting to... die (?) in an isolated cabin.  Then the show got renewed with a different showrunner and they had to awkwardly reboot the premise since several of the cast from previous seasons were dead and the actors released from their contracts.  The plague that destroyed the world was retconned to a minor outbreak that affected some people in Seattle   

Edited July 11, 2021 by Eoae

[Greggulator]

Stath Lets Flats is on HBO Max. It is a U.K. comedy about an inept but ambitious rental agent in London. It’s really funny. Not a mockumentary but there is obviously an Office influence. Well worth the watch. 

[Swift]

This thread has gone quiet, so bumping just to mention Ghosts as I keep seeing ads for the US remake. For Canadians, the first two seasons are streaming on the CBC app. It's a lot of fun, but the standout episode so far has been "The Thomas Thorne Affair" where the Romantic poet tells the heroic story of how he died in a duel. And then one of the other ghosts chimes in with "That's not how it happened" and of course it didn't even cross our minds that some of the other ghosts would've been present for it. All of them gradually add their two cents in to tell the story. Very funny episode.