Following up on several previous posts (Even More Must See Brit TV!, More Must See Brit TV, The Best of British TV Dramas, and Do You Enjoy British Humour? Watch These Shows...) about which British television shows everyone should be watching, I thought I'd add to the list of programmes from "across the pond" that I have recently discovered and endorse wholeheartedly.
- The Wrong Mans (2013): Voted Best New British Sitcom at the 2013 The Comedy.co.uk Awards (Britain's version of People's Choice Awards), this BBC Two sitcom/spy thriller is written by and stars James Corden and Mathew Baynton. The show is the epitome of splendid British comedy! A fast-paced tastefully funny show with great dialogue and laced with some appropriately portioned action scenes. The plot is simple: two male employees of an obscure town council become the most unlikely heroes when they get involved accidentally in a criminal underworld, double agent-turned culprit, law enforcement chase only to find themselves getting mired deeper in the mess. The script is smart and very well written. Just when you'd think you know what comes next, you are in for a surprise, as the story has major twists and turns. In addition to the great writing, the acting is superb. The lead actors play characters who are likable and quite the opposite of today's boring all muscular and super smart superheroes. We are given two ordinary guys with ordinary thinking, who survive through all sorts of dangerous situations, and even the score with the bad guys. The Wrong Mans is thoroughly entertaining, and is one of the best of its kind in recent years. There are only six shows in Season 1 and, as each episode is only 30
minutes long, I ended up watching the entire series in one sitting. Highly recommended! You can catch The Wrong Mans on Hulu.
- Fresh Meat (2011-present): Voted Best British Comedy Drama at the 2013 The Comedy.co.uk Awards, the plot revolves around the lives of six university students, who are freshmen (minus 1) at a fictional university - Manchester Medlock University. They live together in a shared house off-campus rather than university halls of residence, due to their late applications. Being someone in her late 40s, I didn't expect to like the show based on the premise nor did I expect to connect with these characters or their collegiate escapades, but I found them to be...well... while not entirely relate-able, they are fun and funny. There are plenty of clichés (casual sex and alcohol consumption), but clichés come from somewhere. Most of these situations do tend to happen to everyone who attends college. I love the unique blending of characters and the filter-less nature of the dialogue. Anyone in college, recently graduated, or seeking some nostalgia should have no problem relating to the relationship drama, the wit, the parties, and the sense of confusion which naturally arise from throwing a bunch of young people into one small area. Of course, this review may be premature as I'm only halfway through Season 1 but it has won Best British Comedy at The Comedy.co.uk Awards for three years straight. That speaks volumes! There are currently three seasons of Fresh Meat with a fourth one in the planning stage. You can watch Fresh Meat on Hulu. Fair warning: some of the accents are really, really heavy, so if you're not used to regional accents, it could be hard to understand, especially with some of the more obscure British colloquialisms.
- Whites (2010): This BBC sitcom stars Alan Davies as the executive chef at a country house hotel. This show is a quirky, witty and quite often laugh-out-load funny comedy about the goings on in the kitchen of a posh restaurant. I really like this series and can't understand why it has received such mixed reviews. Whites has interesting characters played by a great cast, is very topical with its subject matter (isn't everyone obsessed with cooking shows? Or is that just me?), and is actually funny. Davies plays Roland White, a master chef who just can't be bothered anymore and has basically given up. I have always found Davies to be a very likable actor as well as being funny. The rest of the cast are equally funny and enjoyable to watch. The exterior shots were filmed at Thornbury Castle at the edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, which makes for extraordinary setting. I don't understand why Whites only lasted six episodes. The snappy, dry wit is classic, the ability to make small things funny uncanny. Who would think to make a joke out of an eggless omelet? As with The Wrong Mans, it was easy to watch this series in one sitting (6 shows of 30 minutes in length). The first (and only) season is available on Hulu.
- Getting On (2009-2012): Voted Best Sitcom at the 2013 British Comedy Awards and winner of several other awards, Getting On is a satirical British sitcom based on a geriatric ward in an NHS hospital. It is written by its core cast, Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine, and Joanna Scanlan. One of my favorite comediennes, Jo Brand, has impeccable comedic timing and steals the show. She is so convincing as the ward's dogsbody - the portrayal being as true to life as you can get. I can only assume she wrote the part based on her real life experiences as a psychiatric nurse. The rest of the cast of Scanlan, Ricky Grover, and Pepperdine are just brilliant. "Set on a drab ward somewhere on England's south coast, it instead drew unexpected howls of laughter from the drudgery, frustrations and indignities of life for patients and staff in a typical world-of-beige NHS hospital. One episode revolved around finding out who had pooed on a chair and who was going to clean it up" (The Guardian). Getting On ran for three seasons before being cancelled. You can catch it on Hulu Plus.
Based on a couple of website reviews, I have a rather lengthy list of British television show that I want to check out. As soon as I have time to watch them, I will post reviews of the best of the best! In the meantime, you should check out these four shows.
