If I were to watch one show from your country, what would you recommend?
We can obviously skip English language shows as those are all well known. I’m sure other countries also have great shows that are not that popular. Ideally, something original and specific to this country, not some big Netflix show that’s the same a shows from any other country.
To start, from Spain I would recommend “Riot Police”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10883660/
Great story, great characters, great acting. It covers universal problems like police brutality and corruption so it’s accessible to anyone but it also shows them though a Spanish prism that makes it unique.
Italy: I’d probably say “Boris”, a satirical comedy series about italy’s television industry, similar to Seth Rogen’s “the studio”.
Umbre . Romanian HBO production about a mob enforcer that’s trying to keep his family and job separate. Pretty good and should be decently easy to find with English subtitles.
Australia: Lano & Woodley
It’s only funny to Aussies and has a specific kind of humour, but I get very patriotic over it
UK: I’d recommend Slow Horses on AppleTV. Gary Oldman heads a cast of misfits from an MI5 unit of rejects. Drama and comedy in a perfect blend.
You spelled father Ted and Black Books wrong.
I’m usually the guy who cries that the TV show/movie isn’t as good as the book, but in this case the show is much better than the books. The author tries to be clever and just comes off as snarky.
They adapted another of his books “Down Cemetery Road” with Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. Enjoy
Yes, we’ve watched that; it was excellent. I do enjoy the books too.
Along similar lines, Dept Q.
Edinbrugh based cold case squad works out of the basement of police headquarters. The boss has severe PTSD after being shot on the job, and his subordinates are equally broken.
Another excellent show we thoroughly enjoyed!
From Australia, and I don’t know about “best”, but one I’m watching and enjoying at the moment is Deadloch
I’d say the best would have to be bluey simply because of the huge global success
From Greece, To Nisi (The Island) is the best I’ve seen. It’s about an island where they used to move people with leprosy.
Eteros Ego (The Other Me) is supposed to be one of the best but haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. It’s a crime show that’s a sequel to the movie with the same name. The movie is on YouTube with English subs.
US: Everything by Mike Judge is gold, so for a live action show its indisputably Silicon Valley. Personal fave sci-fi was Babylon 5. Out of animation - Pantheon.
From the UK, I’d probably go for The Day Today, which ran for a single six-episode series back in 1994.
It’s a satirical news programme which manages to be more cutting and accurate than anything that’s been produced since, and along the way includes pastiches of fly-on-the-wall documentaries (doing The Office years before The Office), multi-camera soap operas (The Bureau), the rise of multichannel TV (RokTV) and so much more. A lot of the show’s staff were actually from the BBC’s own news department so timbre is spot-on, and received an incredible level of French polish before broadcast meaning every second of it is crammed with gags, slights and real blink-and-you’ll-miss-it jokes and, aside from the dated styling and real-world reference, the whole thing feels frustratingly prescient thirty years later.
Can I have sex with this 6 year old now that she’s 25?
No! Absolutely disgusting!
EDIT : Though my favourite is “This is cake. It’s a made up drug. That is to say, it’s not made from plants, but nasty chemicals”
My shatner’s bassoon has been fucked since 1997.
brilliant show, shame I don’t seem to be able to find any hi rez copies of it
Trouble is, it was never broadcast in any hi-res format, and certainly never released on one. At best you’ll find it on DVD.
ha, yeah that would explain it, thanks for the info
Germany: Der Tatortreiniger (or: The Crime Scene Cleaner) is about about someone who, well, cleans up after somebody died. While this job is most often portrayed from the side of organised crime the protagonist Schotty is just your average guy with a weird job. Most episodes start out with him having some preexisting notions and he encounters someone who challenges them. The first episode it’s a sexworker, the third is a over the top gay man who, after they are forced to spend some time together, starts making much more sense to Schotty by challenging his stereotypical boomer mentality. In other instances, for example when he encounters the most comically on brand group of Nazis, he stands his ground. Really good show, especially when you consider how fucking woke it is for being produced in 2013!
USA:
Umm…
Currently going through Star Trek: Lower Decks and enjoying it. Borrowing the discs from a friend.
Kaamelott is a good French short format comedie series. Most of the humor is based on puns, word plays and quiproquo, it would be absolutely impossible to translate and it wouldn’t be funny to anyone who isn’t absolutely fluent in French. No need to thank me for this useless recommendation.
quiproquo
Nice dual-language pun.
US: The Wire
Israel: HaPijamot (literally: The Pajamas). It’s a sitcom for kids (but really more for their parents IMO) about a mediocre band that’s trying to make it big in Tel Aviv. The show often breaks the fourth wall in a way that’s really hard for me to explain. It’s kind of like a mockumentary, but it plays with it a lot. For example, there’s a “white screen” sometimes where the cast pauses the show to explain something to the audience. It’s clearly an abstract place that doesn’t canonically exist in the world. But occasionally it plays a role in the plot, e.g. a character goes there to hide from everyone else, or someone would abuse the system and activate the white screen to get out of a sticky situation.
The original premise of the band quickly becomes secondary, it’s just a great show with excellent writing and a great cast. It even has a few spin-offs, including a great one where the fast food shop owner becomes a detective.
I think you may have triggered a rewatch for me, it’s been years since I last saw it!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HaPijamot
I’ll also point out that in the first 3 seasons, it also stars Alona Tal, who later moved to the US and there’s a chance you’ve seen her in some of her roles.
Germany, but limited to comedy (cause I don’t really watch any shows, but if I do then it’s comedy):
- Stromberg - a German office show, focused on just one department with an absolute dickhead for a boss. But the worker characters are great too.
- Pastewka - a series of the actor/comedian Bastian Pastewka where he basically plays himself in his private life. Often compared to Curb Your Enthusiasm, but while there are similarities it’s a totally different character IMO.
- jerks - basically the title, two friends who are jerks. They’re often getting into awkward situations and try to resolve them with lies and brazenness.
I love them all three, hard to pick one as the best. Probably Stromberg.
All of that sounds like cringe comedy. I’ll be skipping those. Thanks for the warning, I guess 😆.
Yeah that’s a good general description of all three lol. Guess I’m more into that than you :D
Stromberg is our adaptation of “The Office”
Canada: The Kids in the Hall.
But there are a few I really like. Orphan Black, Letterkenny, Shorzy, Littlest Hobo, SCTV, Fraggle Rock, Schitt’s Creek, Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High (not the newer ones with Drake), The Red Green Show, Reboot, Transformers: Beast Wars (or as it was known here just “Beasties”) Street Cents, This Hour has 22 Minutes, Mr. Dressup…really hard to just pick one.
Corner Gas? Kim’s Convenience?
Kim’s Convenience was ruined by its last season and getting cancelled (or whatever happened to it).
Pretend it got cancelled a season early. It’s a bit of a GoT situation, but to a lesser extent.
Trailer Park Boys, too
