News and reviews about European TV
There is way too much awesome in this video for me to cope with.
Has there ever been a better French animation series? I will not accept Wattoo, Wattoo Super Bird as an answer.
PS For those who don’t remember the original…
[via]
You may only have seen the UK version of Doc Martin…
But he’s gone all round the world – look!
In France
In Germany
In Spain
And in Greece.
Don’t ask me to translate
(Thanks to Thierry Attard)
Now, I try to stay abreast of world TV. True, my first love is US TV and when I’m not watching that, I’m usually watching British TV. But I do try to sample the wares of other countries when I can, including Canada, France and very, very briefly Australia. I’ve even been known to watch German TV.
But it’s not exactly my speciality. So let me introduce to you Thierry Attard, who seems to me to be a lot better at looking at continental European TV than I am, with French TV being one of his specialities. Want to know how the French and Greek remakes of ITV’s Doc Martin are going? He’s your man. Want to know TF1’s format-acquisition strategy for drama? Look no further.
And he writes in English, which is helpful. So add him to your bookmarks, RSS feed, smoke-signal generator or whatever it is you use to read t’Internet forthwith.
Bob asked last week, so this week’s question follows on from last week’s:
What new non-US TV shows have you seen recently – either that you’ve watched or only seen trailers for – that you like the look of?
They can be from anywhere except the US, including Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Scandinavia.
I’ve only seen Braquo, recently, if that helps. It probably doesn’t though.
In the UK: Sundays, 10pm, FX UK
In France: Canal+. First broadcast 2009
Once upon a time – i.e. five or six years ago – FX was the place to go to if you wanted to watch the best, most niche US TV shows. The Wire was on FX years before DVD and BBC2 showings made it nearly a household name, while Dexter and numerous other top-quality shows aired only on FX or aired on it first.
Then along came Sky Atlantic and screwed all that up. Have a look at the roster now and yes, there’s The Walking Dead, True Blood and American Horror Story, but that’s three horror shows, only one of which is any good and everything else is just re-runs. And let’s not start on the fact The Defenders is on there. That’s just embarrassing.
So FX came up with a cunning idea: let’s see what countries other than the US have to offer. So it started with Canadian TV. Along came The Border, which wasn’t half bad, The Listener, which was, and ReGenesis and The Booth At The End, which I admit I’ve never seen but which I also admit I don’t feel inspired to watch, either.
But hunting for good quality Canadian TV can be tricky. For every, The Border, jPod, Being Erica or Endgame, there’s a The Line, Men With Brooms, InSecurity, Good Dog or XIII waiting to make you regret your TV-watching decision. FX can’t exactly pack its schedules to the rafters with Canadian TV, particularly since E4’s started nicking Canadian shows as well.
So FX has cunningly decided, just as BBC4 is cutting back on its acquisition budgets and focusing on Scandinavian shows, to capitalise on one of that channel’s other innovations and look close to home for its shows. To France, in fact.
So not only has it been showing the two-part movie Mesrine, starring Vincent Cassel as the eponymous gangster, it’s also acquired Spiral/Engrenages‘s sibling show at Canal+ Braquo, a dark policier about a cop with broad definitions of legality and what he’s allowed to do.
The question is – has FX found the new The Killing or is it about to discover what those of us who have watched French TV for some time now have found: that French TV drama, by and large, sucks?
Here’s a trailer.
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