Thursday, June 20, 2013

What I'm watching

I discovered Hebburn on the PBS channel of my Roku.  This charming little slice of life comedy tells the story of a young man who moves back to his family home with his young wife.  The town he hails from, Hebburn, is full of odd and eccentric characters.  It's yet another winning small town comedy from the BBC.  And it fuels my crushes on Gina McKee and Kimberly Nixon. 

 Braquo is a super intense and at times hyper violent French TV show about some bad cops who strive to do the right thing before they get killed by gangsters or caught by Internal Affairs.  It's a moody series full of scruffy French cops with hair trigger tempers who want to be good but can't follow the rules at all.  To them the end justifies the means and if that means a high body count, then so be it.

 I just started watching the New Zealand import Outrageous Fortune.  It's about a small time crime family who tries to go straight after the father, the titular head of the family gets sent to prison for four years.  It's a blend of comedy and drama that works mainly because of the female characters.  They drive the plot and without them this show would be just another boring sausage fest.  Robyn Malcolm stands out as the mother of the family.
I watched one episode of this Irish series about small time criminals but I'm not sold on it yet.  I have to go back an watch the first episode again because the first time I watched it was late at night and I kept nodding off.  The accents are as thick as the trunk of a giant redwood and it's hard to make some of them out but I think it might be worth it to see this series through.  It stars the beautiful Ruth Negga and the usually great Aidan Gillen.
I'm loving the British import The Syndicate.  It's about a group of grocery store employees who hit the lottery jackpot.  The story shows their lives before and after they get the money and how it affects them and those around them.  It's yet another example of the great story telling that they do in these limited episode series that the BBC produces.  I love the fact that the people cast aren't all beautiful Hollywood types, the cast looks like people you know and live around, which makes it all the more interesting.  An American version is planned but I'm sure it will not be able to hold a candle to the original.

All these shows, with the exception of Hebburn, are on Hulu Plus.

4 comments:

Nancy's Cooking Adventures said...

I almost asked why these are all foreign, but quickly answered my own question.

phairhead said...

Ok I now will watch The Syndicate....my love for Timothy Spall knows no bounds

Dr. Monkey Hussein Monkerstein said...

Neither does mine phairhead.

gmb said...

Thanks for the suggestions. I e-mailed my brother and told him to keep an eye out for The Syndicate.