An archive of blog entries about international TV programmes and production, including co-productions and shows from countries other than usual
Airdates
When’s that show you mentioned starting, TMINE? Including Good Girls, S.W.A.T., Sacred Games and Mr Sunshine
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest TV shows from around the world will air in the UK
One new premiere-less acquisition this week, with BBC Four picking up ARD (Germany)’s period terrorism drama Gladbeck (54 Hours) for airing “later this year“; otherwise, everything else has a date.
Premiere dates
Good Girls (US: NBC; UK: Netflix)
Premiere date: Tuesday, July 3
Christina Hendricks, Retta and Mae Whitman decide to improve their lives by robbing the local grocery store. Fortunately, it turns out to have far more money in its safe than it’s supposed to have. Unfortunately, not only does it all turn out to be a gang’s drug money, but Whitman’s boss recognises her and tries to use it to his advantage. After that, things spiral out of control.
Supposed to be a comedy, it honestly isn’t.
Episode reviews: 1
Sacred Games (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, July 6
Set amid the chaos of Mumbai, this epic series explores the corrupt underworld lurking beneath India’s economic renaissance. Based on the novel.
S.W.A.T. (US: CBS; UK: Sky Living)
Premiere date: Sunday, July 8, 9pm (or 10pm)
Remake of the 70s cop drama about LA’s Special Weapons and Tactics police squad. Mostly just an excuse to give Criminal Minds‘s Shemar Moore something to do, in a Fast & Furious style shoot-up mixed with a weird attempt at social commentary on the black-American community that makes it more like Marvel’s Luke Cage than anything else.
Episode reviews: 1
Mr Sunshine (Korea: No idea – soz; UK: Netflix)
Premiere date: Thursday, July 19
Set in Shinmiyangyo, or the U.S. expedition to Korea in the late 19th century, Mr. Sunshine tells the story of a Korean boy born into a family of a house servant running away to board an American warship, later to return to his homeland as a US marine officer. He ironically falls in love with an aristocrat’s daughter and discovers the dark scheme to colonize the country that he once ran away from.
Obviously, I’ve not seen this one, since it doesn’t start anywhere until July 7, but it does star the hugely popular Lee Byung-hun and looks very shiny, so it stands a chance of being good.