Thursday 27 July 2017

TMP Television Edition: Non-English TV Shows


The annoying thing about really great shows that just happen to not be in the English language is that they usually get a remake and they're usually not great. But this is also the case of UK to US remakes which are usually just plain s**t. The Fawlty Towers remake anyone? The attempted Spaced remake anyone? Life on Mars anyone? I suppose The Office was an exception.


Cantabile Tomorrow
Set in a prestigious music school in South Korea, arrogant and talented musician pianist and violinst Cha Yoo-jin aims to become a conductor. He meets, by accident at first, an amazingly gifted fellow pianist, Seol Nae-il, who is free spirited and prefers to play by ear. She is afraid of music teachers and the harsher teaching methods. The two opposites end up becoming friends and help each other overcome personal issues and eventually fall in love, but in the weirdest ways. There might have been a translation issue but no matter the music is great, especially when two competing student orchestra rise up. My favourite character is the sweet but dim amazing violinist Yoo Il-rak, who favours the electric violin. I clicked on the show on the off chance on Netflix and then I was hooked, although there are a few episodes that were pretty pointless.

The Bridge
I had wanted to see this Danish/Swedish TV series when it first came out but I missed the whole thing. But when Netflix picked it up I got through series 1 super fast as a story about half a dead body being left purposely on the Denmark and Sweden boarder on the bridge that connects them was too good. But being immensely irritated by Saga Norén, the lead Swedish detective and as the first series ended in a devastating way I couldn't get past 3 episodes in series 2. Great first series though. I haven't checked out the two remakes, one US and one UK (The Tunnel).

                                 Les Revenants

This was another show that I watched the first series and just left the second out. An eery story about a town in the mountains that experiences the dead or 'the returned' come back to life. Each story of the dead was fascinating but it became more of a thriller when weirder things start happening and the bigger questions are asked. I meant to watch the second series but just never got round to it. I know there was a US version (of course there was) that was quickly got scrapped and rightly so. Why not just watch the original? Its disturbing and emotional at the same time and set in a small town where quite a few people have died mysteriously... what's not to like?


Don't forget to check out where it all started over at