Non-US Dopers: what US TV shows do you like?

A couple of years ago, I did a thread about the UK shows that Americans like. It did pretty well, and then got resurrected last week, and now is up to three pages. So I’m curious: what US imports do well overseas? I’m especially interested in what UK people watch, but I want to hear from all corners. I remember when I spent a summer with family in Slovakia, I discovered they watched a ton of crappy US TV (those nighttime soaps like Dallas, Dynasty and Hotel) dubbed in German. It was the 80s, though; there wasn’t much good to watch.

Of the ones that I think are US not Canadian, this South African is currently liking Westworld, *Lucifer *and *Elementary, as well as all the Marvel and DC shows except Arrow.
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I also like Last Week Tonight and *Face/Off
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A lot of the U.S. shows I like seem to be filmed in Canada. Their pop culture is basically our pop culture.

Quality mainstream dramas like 24, Breaking Bad and Walking Dead do extremely well on Japanese cable TV. As do comedies like Modern Family.

Nothing currently screening really floats my boat, but I can lose an hour or so with:

Designated Survivor

The Get Down

Walking Dead [but not fear the Walking Dead so much]

Most favourite of recent decades was The Wire, replacing* Rockford Files*.

Biggest joy of recent times is going through Arrested Development systematically from start to finish in order. Total joy!

Another vote for Lucifer, Westworld and Marvel’s Netflix shows.

No love for any Arrowverse shows, including Supergirl, from this English-speaking South African.

As to whats US shows are popular here, probably the same stateside - Big Bang Theory, NCIS and other unfunny sitcoms and silly police procedurals.

Among older shows, MacGyver (the original) remains incredibly popular.

I’m in the UK.

I have complete collections of:

Murder One + Murder Two
Law and Order (original series)
CSI (original series)
Sports Night
West Wing
Studio 60
Newsroom
Big Bang Theory
Two and a Half Men
Entourage
Serenity
Franklin and Bash

So everything by Aaron Sorkin; comedy by Chuck Lorre; shows where the budget for scriptwriters is higher than the budget for makeup (e.g. Charmed :wink: )

Similarly, I have

West Wing
Frasier
ER
24
Tour of Duty (a drunken Amazon purchase, but it’s actually pretty good)
Homicide: Life on the Street
Police Squad
Battlestar Galactica

I’ve been swithering over buying the complete Hill Street Blues, but it’s about £150…

Personally, I’ve enjoyed The Wire and comedies like Frasier, Will and Grace, Golden Girls, and I stuck with Desperate Housewives. I seem to remember enjoying shows like Hill Street Blues, Taxi, and Cagney and Lacey. I don’t much care for sci-fi or shoot 'em up crime dramas, nor for a lot of formulaic committee-written sitcoms and dramas.

Any show that’s sold as “heartwarming” or ends with weepy reconciliations, especially where there’s a dog involved, immediately fires up my inner Uncle Fester.

¿Lately? None.

I kinda enjoyed Stranger Things, but nothing since then.

When I was in China all of the younger people seemed to like any American TV, but I’ve heard The Big Bang Theory mentioned by many of them.

I’m a big fan of political dramas and comedies which, aside from the original House of Cards and The Thick of It, we in the UK just don’t do much of for some reason, so US TV supplies that filler for me in the form of:

> West Wing
> House of Cards (US version)
> Veep
> Madam Secretary.

You don’t seem to do much historical drama, which is my other love, although I still remember North and South with great fondness.

Well, apart from Mad Men. Love Mad Men.

And who doesn’t love Friends?

Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos

Are you kidding ?! Ninety % of our TV shows and movies are made in the US. I rarely watch a Dutch movie. I read American websites, too. The only Dutch things I read are the weekend newspapers and work-related stuff.

So, I enjoy the usual quality HBO and Netflix shows that everyone else always mentions.

Your pop culture is my popculture.

Well, Vancouver has been a tax-break haven for filming for a long time. I think X-files filmed there for its first 5 seasons and that was over 20 years ago.

My wife and I call the forests up there “Caprica forest” because in the first season of Battlestar Galactica, Helo and Athena spend a lot of time there. Every time we see a show in a forest, we check and learn it is Vancouver’s “Caprica forest” and laugh. It’s oddly distinctive for being a forest.

Those shows are mainly American shows, not Canadian. Some shows are co-produced Canadian and American, but a show like X-files is fully American despite being filmed in Canada. Supernatural is another fully American show filmed there.

After visiting the Netherlands, I was both a little bit happy, and a little bit sad that the Dutch television stations tended to show a LOT of English-speaking stuff, and in a few cases, were actually IN English, and subtitled in Dutch.

It was a relief relative to say… a trip to Prague or Italy, where the only thing in English was the BBC world news. (although I have to admit that “Beavis and Butthead Do America” dubbed into Italian was strangely hilarious to watch)

Take heart, Canada is currently killing it with Sci-Fi shows like Dark Matter, Killjoys and Orphan Black. I consider all those Canadian even when US companies are involved in the production.

Huh. I thought Orphan Black was from the UK. Guess I should watch the credits more closely.

“Since then”? It came out this summer, it’s not like you’ve been traveling across a long, dry television desert for decades. :wink:

A lot of the people making the shows are Canadian, and I don’t just mean film crews but directors, writers and actors.

That said, I was fond of the original Law & Order, which I guess is as “New York” a show as one can get.