TV, DVD, Streaming, Boxed sets, whatever.

[KLaban]

A thread to compliment Rob's Music thread.

TV, DVD, Streaming, Boxed Sets, whatever. Series - rather than individual films - that you could recommend to others. Doesn't have to be esoteric or arty, simply something you've enjoyed and could recommend.

OK, I'll start.

The Handmaid's Tale. Shown in the UK on Channel 4. Staring Elisabeth Moss, superb as Offred. Harrowing yet remarkable adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel. Superbly cast, wonderful acting and cinematography. Misogynists need not apply.

The Sopranos. Hardly needs an introduction. James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, the sociopathic but vulnerable mafia boss. Set in New Jersey.

The Bridge. Shown in the UK on BBC 4 and BBC 2. Nordic noir detective drama staring Sofia Helin as Saga, an autistic cop and her sidekicks. Very atmospheric. Want her car.

Spiral. Shown in the UK on BBC 4. Excellent French cop drama, so much better than the rather wooden Braquo.

That's mine for the moment.

Yours? 

[Rob C]

Braquo. Rather better than the somewhat stolid Engrenages (Spirals) that I am rewatching at the moment. The female cop in Engrenages is much prettier than the one in Braquo. But the cars are much prettier in Braquo. Everything works out equal in fiction.

A side-benefit is that the titles in Braquo can be very inspìrational to stills photographers too.

Sopranos, without a doubt, without reservations.

There are some BBC 4 art series that I would recommend, but I can't remember their names.

I also loved the (two?) series with the Italian chap who lives in Venice and drives an old Alfa sports car (in Venice he drives a motorboat). Also on the Beeb. Is his name Francesco?

Other than that, I'm not much into series, thinking that sometimes they lose their way after the often good pilots.

[Christopher Sanderson]

 - that I have watched many times and return to with great pleasure over and over again:

1. The Singing Detective; BBC series; Michael Gambon
2. Topsy Turvy; Mike Leigh's G&S movie with Jim Broadbent as Wm. Gilbert, "O horror, horror, horror!..."
3. A Dance to the Music of Time; Channel 4 series; with Simon Beale who is superb as Widmerpool, along with appearances by "virtually every classy act in British theatre"
4. Fortunes of War; BBC series; Ronald Pickup, Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompson
4. Love in a Cold Climate; BBC series; Alan Bates is unforgettable, "Sewer!"
5. Brideshead Revisited; Granada; Jeremy Irons
6. Rumpole of the Bailey; ITV series; Leo McKern; I confess to having every episode made and there were many, 42+

and of more recent vintage from this side of the pond

1. Tremé; HBO series on New Orleans Jazz & culture

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... The Bridge. Shown in the UK on BBC 4 and BBC 2. Nordic noir detective drama staring Sofia Helin as Saga, an autistic cop and her sidekicks. Very atmospheric...

The Bridge. American version. It is bright TexMex colors vs. puke-green Nordic ones. Pick your atmospherics

[Farmer]

The Bridge. American version. It is bright TexMex colors vs. puke-green Nordic ones. Pick your atmospherics

Or the British-French version, The Tunnel, which is also excellent.  Same story, different setting, multiple seasons with fantastic characters and in particular from Clémence Poésy.

Add to that, The Fall, also British, in which Gillian Anderson (including a British accent) plays a character of tremendous depth and lack of stereotype in a multi-season crime thriller centered on a single criminal.  It is fantastic.

Orange is the New Black is funny, interesting, challenging, and just good.  Based on the novel by Piper Kerman.

Absolutely loved, Dexter even as it became difficult to watch in some regards toward the end.  The conflict in rooting for the serial killer is wonderful and it has a great ending.

Too many to add more now - it's 5:30am and I need to head to work.  More later.

[Redcrown]

To take the Brits out of their comfort zone, I recommend "Justified", a TV series that ran from 2010 to 2015, 78 episodes. Currently avaialble on Amazon (free on Prime).

A maverick US Marshal chasing southern red neck bad guys in Kentucky. Great acting, great writing, and the best bad guys I've ever seen. While each season involves the same bad guys, they kill them off in the end and bring on new bad guys. The writers are not afraid to dispatch major characters. I don't know how I missed it on original broadcast, since it received high praise. Definitely binge worthy with streaming.

[degrub]

“Last of the summer wine”
IMO, i find remarkable the number of scenes i am reminded of with some of the post serie here. 

[Alan Goldhammer]

Best streaming show of the past year, 'Babylon Berlin' for it's wonderful portrayal of the twilight of the Weimar Republic.  Atmosphere was great and I still am amazed when they do street scenes that look so realistic.  It was the most expensive non English television drama and it shows.  I watched it on Netflix.

Best streaming show of all time (IMO) HBO's 'The Wire' about the drug scene and assorted other issues in Baltimore circa 2002 or so.  Phenomenal characters and the topicality of the drama is spot on.  I re-watch it every three years or so and it is still as fresh as when it first aired. 

[Farmer]

Spooks or in the US I think it was released as MI-5 because of the racial connotations of the term "Spooks" (which in British and Commonwealth parlance refers to spies).

If you want a show that isn't afraid to kill off characters, has some really interesting story lines, and is great "spy novel" escapism, then it's great.

[B-Ark]

Best series ever anywhere - Penny Dreadful.
The acting is brilliantly superb.

[Robert Roaldi]

Ditto on The Wire and Treme (pronounced Trémé). There was a TV series Homicide: Life on the Street by the same creators that was good as well.

Broadchurch (all 3 British series, I haven't seen the US remake)

Cracker, the British series with Robbie Coltrane, if you like your heroes flawed.

We rewatch the Morse series every 2-3 years.

A recent 6-parter called Broken was very good.

For something lighter, watch the 3 seasons of Detectorists. The scenes from the club meetings are worth the price of admission.

(Note: re The Fall, I believe that Gillian Anderson is British, but I don't know which of her accents, American or British, is natural.)

The Worricker Trilogy, if you like convoluted spy stories.

[HSakols]

Spooks or in the US I think it was released as MI-5 because of the racial connotations of the term "Spooks" (which in British and Commonwealth parlance refers to spies).

I couldn't stop watching MI5

Another good one is Firefly which is scifi but hillarious.  A movie was eventually made but not as good as the series. 

[NancyP]

Another vote for the movie Topsy Turvy, although it isn't a series. UK character actors are the best!

Borgen, a 3 year series on Danish politics (really) - West Wing in a parliamentary system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgen_(TV_series). I stumbled across it at my public library DVD collection. Excellent ensemble acting, good plot line.

I don't watch much TV, it has never been hooked up to cable. My amusements are reading and listening to opera.

[OmerV]

Detectorists, a wonderful and quirky show about folks using metal detectors. Fantastic character actors, and best of all, it's a show in which women and girls don't get killed. A non violent show, how refreshing.

The End of the F**g World, about a boy and a girl, teenagers, escaping their oppressive home life. Weird and brilliant.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, a period comedy show, late '50s, about a wife who turns to stand up comedy after her husband leaves her. One of the best on TV.

Bad Genius, a Korean dramatization of a SAT exam cheating scandal revolving around a brilliant teenage girl. Exposes social and class inequality issues. Well produced and good acting.

Penny Dreadful, a mash up of Dracula, Frankenstein, witches, and a titanic tussle between good and bad. Some of the best acting and writing on TV, with Eva Green heading a fantastic cast. However, has violence, nudity, and sex.

[Farmer]

(Note: re The Fall, I believe that Gillian Anderson is British, but I don't know which of her accents, American or British, is natural.)

Anderson was born in Chicago and moved to the UK as a kid, but back to the US before high school.  She has lived in the UK since the early 2000s.  Her natural accent is mostly American - refer her in X-Files.  The accent in The Fall is put on to make it more British, but she has childhood exposure and current locale helping, of course :-)

[Robert Roaldi]

Anderson was born in Chicago and moved to the UK as a kid, but back to the US before high school.  She has lived in the UK since the early 2000s.  Her natural accent is mostly American - refer her in X-Files.  The accent in The Fall is put on to make it more British, but she has childhood exposure and current locale helping, of course :-)

Thanks, more to it than I thought.

[Rob C]

Okay, if we are allowed to drop the straight face, then I used to watch these with the family and look forward to the entertainment, the Golden Wonder crisps and the scotch on the rocks to smooth away the salt:

The Rockford Files (the Pontiac!)
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The Saint (for me, it was the Volvo)
Rowan and Martin Laugh-in
The Avengers
That Was The Week That Was
The Prisoner
Route 66 (for the 'vette)

[KLaban]

My shopping list is growing by the minute. So far, The Tunnel, Babylon Berlin and Penny Dreadful.

Thanks for all the suggestions, great stuff and keep 'em coming.

[Telecaster]

All currently available on Netflix:

Secret City, originally broadcast in Australia a couple years ago. Set in Canberra, it's about a journalist investigating a murder and uncovering a much bigger story of political/governmental collusion with an authoritarian foreign power. Stars Anna Torv, one of my 21st century faves, as the journalist. Fast-paced and only six episodes so you can take it in over a fairly short time. There'll be a season two.

Mindhunter, developed by David Fincher, about the origins of modern *serial killer profiling and tracking. Based on the book by one of the FBI investigators fictionalized in the show. Anna Torv is in this one too, portraying a psychologist working with the FBI. Also getting a second season.

The OA, a genuinely strange show about a young woman who claims to have died and then come back from death. Many times. Her story and her presence have a profound effect on the group of misfits she gathers around herself. Is she telling the truth or is she some kind of aspiring **cult leader? Co-written by and starring Brit Marling, another of my recent favs. And, yep, season two has been made and will likely drop late this year or early next.

I'm a big Dexter fan too, but I'd recommend stopping with season five. The end of that season is IMO a fitting one for the whole show. The final three seasons increasingly strain credulity…though of course a show about a serial killer with a (more or less) humane and beneficial moral code pushes the envelope a lot to begin with. 

-Dave-

*Fincher also directed Zodiac, an IMO excellent true-story-based film about the decades long hunt for a serial killer.

**Check out the 2011 film Sound Of My Voice, co-written and made by the OA team. It's a kinda prototype version of The OA.

[Farmer]

Oh, The OA was indeed great.  Different!  But great.

I also thoroughly enjoyed both seasons of 13 Reasons Why.  It caused a big stir with the subject matter, but I thought it was really well put together and very, very confronting in a good way.

Oh, another great series, which is complete (rumours of a movie to come), is Orphan Black.  The performances by Tatiana Maslany are fantastic.  It's a bit out there at times with the story line, but good action and drama, but it's all about all of Maslany's characters - really good.

For something quite different but in the sci-fi, try Sense8.  There's a movie(ish) length finale that came out after the series was originally cancelled (after a few seasons) which wraps it up all nicely, so no let down with the cancellation there.

More +1s for Broadchurch (English version).  If you've never seen the UK version of Life on Mars and then the sequel series Ashes to Ashes are both absolutely excellent.  John Simms in Mars and Keeley Hawes in Ashes are fantastic, as is Philip Glenister in both.