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Non-American or British TV

Maestro

Maestro

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I don't watch a ton of US TV, mostly because a lot of our mainstream programming isn't that good. I mainly watch NCIS, The Big Band Theory, Being Human (US), a few of those History Channel unscripted affairs, and that's about it.

I really like a lot of the programming that is produced in Great Britain, Downton Abbey, Being Human, Spooks, Dr. Who, Sherlock, and so forth (fortunately, a lot is available legally via Netflix).

Is there any good programming in other countries? English speaking or otherwise... Does Australia have some absolutely awesome show that no one in America has heard of? What about Germany or France?

Or, is it just the US and the BBC?
 
There's an Australian Show called "Spirted" about a sexy Dentist in love with the Ghost of a Punk Rock Idol which is fabulous.

Then from New Zealand there's the Almighty Johnsons.

The Gods of Asgard went into hiding a few hundred years ago, and since then they've been reincarnated into new mortal bodies ignorant of who they really are until their 21st birthday when they get their god powers and memories of better times returned... Because each time these Gods of Asgard go through this process, they get a little weaker until present day, when they're a shadow of their fomer glory and the only thing that can get these Gods back up to full power is if the reincarnation of Odin (A drunk druggie slacker) goes on a spiritual quest to find his soul mate and former wife Frig, and root her.
 
is root an euphemism? lol

I think that there's probably as much good American stuff as there is British etc., it's just that because you're American you get exposed to the whole spectrum of US TV, where you'll probably only see the best that the BBC has to offer.

dJE
 
Guy never uses euphemisms. Root is an Aussie word for exactly what you think it is.
 
I can't say I have watched a lot of foreign langauge TV, but one I really enjoyed was Riget, a Danish show written & directed by Lars Von Trier.

Known in the UK and US as The Kingdom, it was later remade by Stephen King as Kingdom Hospital, but the original is waaay better.
 
Worst pickup line ever.

"Have you ever tripped over a tree stump? How about a root?"

I live a little closer to Antarctica.

This morning my country was invaded by America.

Feeling Jolly.

Have you ever seen an HBO/Canadian Sitcom "Less than Kind"

There's this kid, who during his Bat Mitzvah, looks about the assembled crowds of ailing uncles and aunts and has this mighty epiphany: "Good Lord, I'm a loser!"

Then his continuing adventures from there, as everything gets steadily worse.

The climax of the Theme song is the lyrics "I hate Winnipeg"
 
The bbc are launching their 'global iplayer' very soon which I belive you can get for a monthly fee.
If you speak german you can watch all content from ARD for free abroad. http://www.daserste.de/ I am learning German so I watch a lot of their TV I like their detective shows Tartot and Polizeiruf 110. You might be able to get a similar service from france. Ofcours there are no subtitles for non German speakers because it is aimed at German speakers.
 
If you thought Wilbur, that sitcom about a Hobbit and his talking dog sharing a bong, was an odd piece of work, the original Australian rendition was plain bizarre.
 
It does make one wonder what Mr. Ed would be like seen through the Wilfred lens. :)
 
stoneroses, much of what I watch from Great Britain is done so through completely legal means. The times that I have to resort to practices that are not, I always buy a legal copy once it becomes available. I've seen Sherlock Series 2, and will buy the DVDs when they come out. I'm not certain that the Global iPlayer will be of much use to me, and I have to wonder what kind of lag there will be on availability. Will they be willing to screw over BBCAmerica just to have my business on their iPlayer? Or will this finally become a step to getting global availability of TV channels. Why shouldn't the American, Columbian, and National Broadcasting Companies be available on Sky? Why shouldn't FOX for that matter, since Murdoch owns both FOX and Sky? Why shouldn't BBC and ITV be available on DISHNetwork?

And is "At Home With Julia" as good as "That's My Bush"? And since it's not available in America, how will people like me who like political shows ever find out?!
 
"Not Going Out", English Sitcom.

best joke ever...

The guy was rummaging through the girls wardrobe for a completely innocent reason when the girl catches him...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY WARDROBE!!??"

"I'm looking for a lion and a witch."

"What's in my wardrobe is none of your business!"

"No, don't you mean that it's Narnia my business?"
 
Speaking as a German: Nothing to see here, move along. The German language sphere is too small to make internationally competitive homegrown shows economically viable, yet the country is wealthy enough to afford dubbing foreign imports at high quality, creating a vicious circle removing incentives for creative ambition. 50% or more of our serial programming is dubbed US imports, the rest is divided between daytime schlock like soaps and telenovelas, usually shortlived and hilarious rip-offs of US formats like CSI and solid-but-unremarkable evergreens like hospital or police procedurals (stoneroses mentioned two of the latter).

Very rarely something decent like KDD (reminiscent of The Shield, but not a rip-off, and astute about things like ethnical tensions in Berlin) or Danni Lowinski (quirky and well-written dramedy about a female lawyer with a white trash background who graduates from law school too old to be hireable, and in her desparation sets up shop in the mall her bff works in as a barrista, using a folding table as her office - optioned by The CW for a midseason US remake, but the pilot didn't get picked up) will come along and eke out two or three seasons, but that's it.

Part of the problem is also that our TV star system is built exclusively around performers. There is no J.J. Abram's new show equivalent here; the names of showrunners and scriptwriters are effectively unknown to all but industry insiders.

(Fortunately, things are much healthier on the film side of things.)
 
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Laid.

Australian sitcom/horror/mystery about about a 20something woman who discovers one day that every man that she has ever slept with is dying. Dying in the chronological order which she slept with them. No, not a disease, but "accidents" just keep knocking these blokes off, kind'a like how when people would start to suspect who Damien really was in the Omen movies, or those final destination movies.

America has bought the rights, and is making their own episodes to the same plot.
 
Maestro said:
stoneroses, much of what I watch from Great Britain is done so through completely legal means. The times that I have to resort to practices that are not, I always buy a legal copy once it becomes available. I've seen Sherlock Series 2, and will buy the DVDs when they come out. I'm not certain that the Global iPlayer will be of much use to me, and I have to wonder what kind of lag there will be on availability. Will they be willing to screw over BBCAmerica just to have my business on their iPlayer? Or will this finally become a step to getting global availability of TV channels. Why shouldn't the American, Columbian, and National Broadcasting Companies be available on Sky? Why shouldn't FOX for that matter, since Murdoch owns both FOX and Sky? Why shouldn't BBC and ITV be available on DISHNetwork?

And is "At Home With Julia" as good as "That's My Bush"? And since it's not available in America, how will people like me who like political shows ever find out?!
Click to expand...

Because a lot of the time it's more profitable for Fox to sell its shows to Sky or Channel 4 or who ever than to broadcast it themselves in the UK, also they would have to conform to British Television standards, which would mean no more than 12 minutes of ads per hour, no junk food commercials in Childrens TV, working round the watershed hours. Basically it's more effort less profit.
Take for example BBC America, they're showing few British shows and more American shows because it's cheaper and easier to fit in to the American schedule.

Online VOD may be the way forward in these situations, like iPlayer, but then it would cost to set up the facility for who knows what levels of profit.

I seem to recall there was a good show from New Zealand called This is not my life, similar vibe to The Prisoner, never did get to watch it all though.
 
I got two episodes in, and gave This is Not My Life a pass.

I'll get back to it some time, I usedto have a thing for the wife when she was on Shortlands Street, but I just started her new show "Nothing trivial" which is using the framing sequences of Slumdog Millionairelike flashbacks to explain how a bunch of drunks falling in love with another, at a pub quiz know all the answers that they do

"Nothing trivial"

I saw an Amazing Canadian show recently "Alienated". Started a thread but no one here seemed to care about it. A decent ordinary family is given sexual super powers after being abducted aliens to fufill some nefarious masterplan to use earth as a herd of surrogates to cop with the aliens going sterile.
 
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