Jessica Stevenson, Simon Pegg and the rest of the cast of SPACED.
© BBC
International Alternatives to Repeat TV
By: Stephen LackeyDate: Friday, December 28, 2007
There are some bright spots on the TV horizon, but those bright spots are few and far between. It would be easy to say get your hands on Season 3 of LOST, or the first 3 seasons of BSG, or some other television series box set but that doesn’t help most of you if you’re like me and you watched most of this stuff when it originally aired. So, what I thought I’d do is come up with a list of fantastic international programs that you may not have seen before. All but one of these shows is available on DVD in Region One. For the show that’s not available in Region One, it won’t ever be available so go to whatever lengths you need to in order to acquire it. My choice was to purchase an all region DVD player and import it. Anyway, onto the shows!
Trailer Park Boys
If you aren’t familiar with this goofy and hilarious series, well you’re in for a treat. The series is currently in its 7th season on Canadian television. So you’ve got 6 seasons and a feature film to catch up on. This series is similar to The Office in that it’s a “mockumentary”, a scripted series made to look like a documentary. Here we have a documentary film crew following the lives of a group of losers selling pot and getting into trouble in a small trailer park. Ricky and Julian aren’t bad guys; they’ve just been brought up in a place where petty crime isn’t such a big deal. The series starts with the two getting out of prison and more often than not they find themselves back behind bars. Along with their cohorts, they get involved in growing pot, shooting guns, making porno movies, and a lot more. The show is goofy and light fun.
Spaced
This is the series that isn’t currently available in Region 1 and probably never will be due to rights issues especially related to the music used in the series. The show is being remade here in the states but don’t expect it to actually be good. In the series Tim (Simon Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) are friends that pretend to be married in order to get an apartment that’s supposed to be limited to couples only. Tim is a slacker comic book artist and Daisy is a moody writer. This UK situational comedy is written by geeks (Edgar Wright) for geeks with more fandom references than any other series I can think of. They reference Star Wars a good bit as well as Star Trek and most other popular scifi/fantasy movies, shows, books, and games. In one of the better episodes, Tim becomes obsessed with drowning Lara Croft in the original Tomb Raider video-game. If you’re a fan of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, then this series is a no brainer, but if you also like comic books, science fiction and fantasy then you’ll at least enjoy all of the in jokes. Look for Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) to steal scenes as the downstairs neighbor. There are two seasons out there for viewing fun!
Extras
The life of a film extra can be tough, hoping from job to job making little money and getting even less respect. Andy (Ricky Gervais The Office) and Maggie (Ashley Jensen Ugly Betty) are two friends that hang out together while they wait for gigs on various films being shot in England. Season One is pretty light hearted and humorous covering the various experiences of the two leads with one of the best being the guest appearance of Daniel Radcliffe’s appearance in the series. Maggie gets a small role in the film Radcliffe is shooting and she has to spurn his constant bumbling advances. Season Two and the finale get a good bit darker but still remain constantly funny and full of commentary on the entertainment business. If you liked the UK version of The Office, then you know what to expect from Ricky Gervais and you won’t be disappointed. The two seasons and the hour and a half series finale aired recently on HBO and are now on DVD.
MPD Psycho
OK, enough of this comedy stuff it’s time to get surreal and to do that we look to one of my favorite modern directors Takeshi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer). MPD Psycho or Multiple Personality Detective is a really hard miniseries to comprehend on an initial viewing. In the series, a police detective witnesses his wife being murdered. He is affected to such an extreme degree that he develops multiple personality disorder. One of his personalities seeks out and kills the man responsible for the killing and all seems to settle down until the murders start again. Apparently the soul of the killer was able to escape his body and has found a way to transfer itself to another host body and start killing again. So, the detective goes on the hunt to find this new serial killer and how the soul has been able to move from body to body. This series is extremely surreal and very atmospheric, almost to the detriment of clear plot. This series expands from a serial killer story to a soul that jumps through cell phones and even a cult whose members have bar codes on their necks. If you can get through this six episode miniseries based on a manga it’s very rewarding. This series has been compared to Twin Peaks due to its unending weirdness and for that the comparison is valid but MPD Psycho is actually a much more complex story under the hood than Twin Peaks was. Along with the deep storyline, there’s intense violence, drama, some twisted comedy, and some commentary on the censorship on broadcast television in Japan. Get this miniseries and watch it twice.
Hex
Ever wonder what Buffy the Vampire Slayer might have been like if it were made in the UK? Well, this series is probably a pretty solid example of how it might have been done. The series died an early death probably due to a unique evolution of the series. Ella, the main hero doesn’t get featured until 5 episodes in. Once she appears though the series gets to be a great deal of fun. She’s a hundreds of years old warrior with mystical abilities that does constant battle with demons and the devil himself. The series is funny, dramatic, laden with special effects that are sometimes questionable due to the budget, and full of action, similar to another series we know. So, before you start flaming: no this series isn’t as cleverly written as Buffy but it is a great diversion and better than most American series that try to be this level of cool.
