A big reason I started this blog (almost twenty years ago!) was to have a safe space to rant about things I’m obsessed with. One of those obsessions is TV, but growing up in the UK and living in the US most of my adult life has left me with tastes that don’t seem to match up with anyone’s demographic. That means I spend a lot of time trying to find shows that I enjoy, and while I hope I’m not a snob (I watched almost every 9-1-1 show, love Rob Lowe and Angela Bassett) I do sometimes discover obscure programs that I can’t believe aren’t better known. Here’s my brain dump of recent TV shows I’ve loved that I don’t feel like got the audiences they deserved.
Despite the risque title and setting, this period drama is a razor-sharp examination of power, class, and gender politics. Based very loosely on a historical guide to the prostitutes of Covent Garden, the three seasons follow the fight of a group of women to find their own space and safety in 1760s London. It features some top-tier performances from actors like Lesley Manville, Kate Fleetwood (whose stunning cheekbones you may know from Wheel of Time), Holli Dempsey, Julian Rhind-Tutt, and Liv Tyler. The story moves fast, it’s often a pitch-black comedy, and the stakes always feel high. In the US you can find its three seasons on Hulu.
This was a show that I thought I’d hate based on first impressions, but two seasons in I’m hooked. It’s a throwback to a time before scifi shows had to be prestige TV, a space western with a non-existent budget but strong writing that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It jumps right into archetypes we’ve seen before, but manages to breathe a lot of life into some stale cliches. It has hints of other Canadian productions like BSG and Orphan Black in its best moments, playing with a lot of the themes of identity, and always entertains. I’ve been watching it on Apple TV.
I have to admit this one is a guilty pleasure. Did you know that Queen Latifah starred in an updated version of the old Edward Woodward show for five seasons? I love her, which helped me get through the crazily ridiculous plots of most episodes. She wears sweaters that only she could pull off, is a badass assassin, and generally has an incredible amount of fun onscreen. Sometimes I just need a show where I can turn off my brain and be swept along, and this definitely scratches that itch. I watch it on Amazon Prime.
A French spy thriller that focuses on the flow, denial, and corruption of intelligence in what feels like a very grounded and realistic way. Nobody here is 007, villains and heroes aren’t clearly separated, and everyone is working within larger systems that constrain their actions. A lot of the elements even felt familiar from my decades working in an office, going against the bureaucracy often leads to disaster, and unlike most US thrillers there’s a real price to pay for going rogue. The writing, world, and characters are fresh and absorbing, this show hooked me in a way few others have. I watched it on Amazon Prime.
A Chris Estrada comedy set in LA, this show was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in years. The whole cast is spot on, with Michael Imperioli giving a scene-stealing performance as the broken-down Unitarian minister running “Hugs not Thugs”, the non-profit that Chris’s uptight Julio is drawn into by his bad boy cousin, who’s trying to go straight. The comic chemistry between Julio and his cousin played by Frankie Quiñones is perfect, and Michelle Ortiz brings crazy-eyed energy as Julio’s sometime-girlfriend. Short and sweet, I watched this on Hulu.
Game of Thrones’ deranged younger cousin, this show starts with Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man as the theme song, and gets weirder from there. Set during the Roman invasion of Britain, it manages to make the past seem truly alien in a way I’ve never seen before. It helps that David Morrissey, Zoe Wanamaker, McKenzie Crook, Kelly Reilly (you may know her from Yosemite) and Julian Rhind-Tutt (again) are absolutely committed to their roles. This is a world where everyone believes in spirits, gods, and demons to a terrifying extent, and the show does an excellent job leaving the viewer unsure of whether what they’re seeing is truly supernatural or just the consequences of fanatical belief. David Morrissey’s Roman general manages to be charming, even sympathetic, while behaving in monstrous ways, and Eleanor Worthington-Cox brings depth to a teenage role that could easily have been lightweight, even irritating if it wasn’t handled carefully. I watched it on Prime.
I’ve only made it partway down my mental list of shows I want to feature, but dinner calls, so I guess this post will be part of a series? Stay tuned for more, and let me know any shows that might fit my sensibilities in the comments!
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