Those foreign dramas on Channel 4

[holyzombiejesus]

Any good? Might watch The Crimson Rivers tonight. I saw a film called The Crimson Rivers a few years back and it was shit. Had a really crappy computer game bit if I remember correctly, so I hope the series isn't related.

[paruses]

I watched a few episode of Professor T the other week. It's a Belgian show about a reluctant criminalist consulting to the police.

It's Ok but made me realise that just because something's in foreign it doesn't mean that it's going to be any more enjoyable than a similar US idea.

[mothman]

Exactly. We're oversaturated with foreign drama now. We were fortunate in the early years that a lot of the shows that (say) BBC4 put on were actually quite good in themselves. I've not seen anything on 4OD offshoot Walter Presents that is actually watch. In fact, if C4 actually showed more of it on their main HD channel rather than either making you watch it on WP with ads every 5 minutes, or sticking it on More4, it'd be preferable.

[Cuellar]

I liked Professor T. Sufficiently weird. Surreal (as you'd expect from a load of Belgos!)

[holyzombiejesus]

I was thinking much the same last night when watching The Crimson Rivers. Subtitles bestow undeserving gravitas on something which seems to be a French Midsomer Murders with Nazi dogs.

[paruses]

I liked Professor T. Sufficiently weird. Surreal (as you'd expect from a load of Belgos!)

Yes - it did feel very Belgian. I like the Belgians - a lot closer to the English than you'd think (or at least they were in the 90s when I lived there). Obviously fusing the Dutch and French together works such that they are not unbearable like the French nor are they unbearable like the Dutch (I'm joking about the French).

I've lost the thread of what I was saying - oh yes - it had that slight edge to it which made it not completely interchangeable with a US counterpart but at the same time I didn't think that the plotting or characters were any different from a US counterpart.

I'm slagging it a lot for something I quite liked, aren't I?

[Bad Ambassador]

Deutschland 86 starts on More4 on Friday, and will actually be showing on broadcast for its whole run.

[Cuellar]

Yes - it did feel very Belgian. I like the Belgians - a lot closer to the English than you'd think (or at least they were in the 90s when I lived there). Obviously fusing the Dutch and French together works such that they are not unbearable like the French nor are they unbearable like the Dutch (I'm joking about the French).

I've lost the thread of what I was saying - oh yes - it had that slight edge to it which made it not completely interchangeable with a US counterpart but at the same time I didn't think that the plotting or characters were any different from a US counterpart.

I'm slagging it a lot for something I quite liked, aren't I?

No I agree, plotting and character-wise it's pretty routine, but it has flashes of the genuinely disturbing/outright bizarre that made it pretty compelling.

[Pseudopath]

Deutschland 86 starts on More4 on Friday, and will actually be showing on broadcast for its whole run.

Cheers for the heads-up. Really enjoyed Deutschland 83 even though it was a gigantic flop in its homeland. The follow-up was actually released by Amazon Prime in Germany as RTL were so embarrassed by the original series's critical and commercial mauling.

[mothman]

Really? I was under the impression (granted, I know not from whence I got it) that it had done quite well there...

[imitationleather]

Cheers for the heads-up. Really enjoyed Deutschland 83 even though it was a gigantic flop in its homeland. The follow-up was actually released by Amazon Prime in Germany as RTL were so embarrassed by the original series's critical and commercial mauling.

Huh. German TV critics sound like they're more discerning than I would have expected given the general quality of their television.

[Pseudopath]

Really? I was under the impression (granted, I know not from whence I got it) that it had done quite well there...

There's a good article here which provides some background and analysis of why German audiences didn't take to it.