Best of international television

Cafe Society
21

Aussies ARE good at TV comedy, if I may say so. Check out:

  • Chris Lilley’s work - We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High are both worth watching.

  • I concur with Kath and Kim and The Games, although the jokes may be a bit parochial to mean much without an interpreter.

  • Working Dog’s show Frontline was a behind the scenes mockumentary of a current affairs TV show - VERY funny, and scarily believeable.

  • The Chaser’s War on Everything is a kind of hybrid sketch and political comedy/commentary, although, again, possibly a bit irrelevant if you don’t know or care who the Prime Minister of Australia is. (It’s Kevin Rudd :slight_smile:

There’s a few that I personally wouldn’t recommend, like the recent **The Librarians ** (boring!) and The Wedge (unfunny!) - but tastes vary, etc.

All of these are out on Region 4 DVD.

22

If you can find me a copy of series 2 of The Games, I would be tremendously grateful.

23

Monkey

(okay, it’s a bit older than 10 years, but still a lot of fun)

24

Summer Heights High and The Games are both good. I’ve sampled Underbelly as well, and see how that turns out.

So, that’s a taste of Oceania. How about some South American or Asian programming?

25

There are several very funny Canadian comedy TV shows besides Corner Gas.
Little Mosque on the Prairie, The Red Green Show leap to mind.
Personally I love Royal Canadian Air Farce, but it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

26

I’ve been watching season one of The Games, and it’s hilariously well done. I hope season two becomes available somehow. It doesn’t matter that it’s about the 2000 Olympics. The humor isn’t dated.

27

I didn’t much like the one episode of Little Mosque that I saw, but I’ll agree with Red Green. As for Air Farce, it’s a little too timely and involves too many Canadian current events–I don’t think it would translate well to other nations. Heck, unless they give an original broadcast date when it’s rerun, I can’t remember the news that gives rise to the jokes.

28

Last year the BBC showed the excellent French police series Spiral(Engrenages). Once I had gotten my head round the complexities of the French legal system I found it was one of the best programmes I have seen for a long time . Some details here :- Spiral and here :- IMDB

29

As mentioned before, Thai programming is putrid.

30

On channel 56 (WNVT), I try to catch Scene of the Crime. It’s a German crime show with practically no budget to work with and it must be 20 years old at least. Bearing in mind I’ve had no exposure to any german language instruction, I like picking out certain words I understand, (strasse, herr, etc.) Besides, the leading man is pretty good looking. Okay, I’m easily entertained.