The Wire is one of those shows that casts huge shadow over TV. Arguably one of the best TV shows ever made, if not the best, it’s a novelistic, many-layered show as Charlie Brooker will happily explain to you (you’re welcome, Charlie):
Naturally, every new, vaguely similar TV show wants to be “the new The Wire” to bask in inherited glory. As soon as international distributors want to export their gritty cop show to another country, said cop show becomes the country in question’s “answer to The Wire“. So Engrenages (Spiral) was “France’s answer to The Wire“, for example, even though it’s better to think of its first season, at least, more as Law & Order meets Scandal.
However, I think it’s fair to say that the multiple award-winning 4 Blocks is the first show that you could call “somewhere’s answer to The Wire” (that somewhere being Germany) and for that genuinely to be the case, both in terms of themes and general quality of production – all without being a straight carbon copy. Even if the Süddeutsche Zeitung thinks it’s more like The Sopranos and Die Zeit thinks it’s the ‘German Gomorra‘.
Here’s a highly NSFW trailer. Slightly spoilery discussion of the whole season after the jump.
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know the latest announcements about when new imported TV shows will finally be arriving on UK screens – assuming anyone’s bought anything, of course
Nothing much in terms of premiere dates this week, I’m afraid. However, Walter has acquired the show that got him into the whole Presenting lark in the first place: Hořící keř (Burning Bush)(Czech Republic: HBO Europe). Says Wikipedia:
Burning Bush is a 2013 three-part mini-series created for HBO by Polish director Agnieszka Holland. Based on real characters and events, this haunting drama focuses on the personal sacrifice of a Prague history student, Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in the previous year. Dagmar Burešová, a young female lawyer, became part of his legacy by defending Palach’s family in a trial against the communist government, a regime which tried to dishonour Palach’s sacrifice, a heroic action for the freedom of Czechoslovakia.
Walter reckons it’s the best thing he’s ever seen, so it might not be too bad. Starts some time this month, allegedly, but no firm date from Mr Iuzzolino yet.
Also due on Walter Presents before the end of the year are the following shows, it turns out:
De prooi (The Prey) (The Netherlands: VARA)
De Prooi tells the story of the rise and fall of Dutch banker Rijkman Groenink and the fall of ABN AMRO Bank. It is based on the acclaimed novel by research journalist and professor Jeroen Smit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUbluZywmjo
De Zaak Menten (The Body Collector) (The Netherlands: Omroep Max)
The story of Dutch journalist Hans Knoop’s 1970s struggle to uncover the truth about World War II war criminal Pieter Menten.
Der kalte Himmel (Frozen Sky) (Germany: WDR Fernsehen)
Germany, 1967, a time of growing social unrest, as hard-dying prejudices collide with new, revolutionary, liberal views. Deep in the rural farmlands, a young wife and mother of three, Marie, is about to undertake an incredible adventure to help her six-year-old son Felix, a “problem child” whose introverted, anti-social behavior is becoming increasingly difficult for the family to support. When the primary school refuses to accept Felix, only Marie unwaveringly stands by her child, who is a genius with numbers and clearly prefers them to people. With her husband’s farm nearly bankrupt and her mother-in-law organizing an exorcism, Marie finds understanding only in Alexandra, called Alex, the unconventional new choirmaster from Berlin. She introduces Marie to her friend Niklas, a young Berlin child psychiatrist who believes he might be able to help Felix. In spite of the family’s crushing financial situation, Marie sets off for Berlin with Felix.
In Berlin, Marie learns that her health insurance won’t pay for Felix’s therapy. Determined to go through with it anyway, she finds a job as a waitress in a night club – and a place to stay with Alex, who has returned to Berlin. The chaotic, devil-may-care, free-loving lifestyle in Alex’s commune in itself proves therapeutic to Felix, who is accepted by the commune dwellers’ children. Soon, Niklas also gains the trust of his little patient, who begins to reveal the full extent of his mathematical and musical gifts. Yet although Felix is responding well to the therapy, Niklas is forced to be brutally direct with Marie: Felix is autistic and will never function the way “normal” people do. He recommends that Felix be sent to a special psychiatric clinic. Marie and her husband have reached a crossroads: if they help Felix, they will destroy their family. But just as Marie begins to lose hope, an unexpected solution awaits her and Felix on their return..
Le vol des cigognes (Flight of the Storks) (France: TF1)
Jonathan Anselme, a young English academic, teams up with Max Böhm, an amateur ornithologist, to follow storks on their migration from Switzerland to Africa. Max wants to find out why some birds never return from this journey. However, after Max is found dead in mysterious circumstances, Jonathan decides to make the trip alone, never suspecting that he will find himself caught up in an international web of intrigue. While the Swiss detective Dumaz investigates Max Böhm’s murky past, Jonathan is forced to confront his own troubled history. He uncovers a trail of grisly murders travelling through Bulgaria, Turkey, the Middle East, the Congoalong the pathway of the migrating storks and their deadly secret.
