While indulging in my awful habit of endless TV watching, I suddenly recognized that I turn on subtitles for almost everything I watch. It has nothing to do with my hearing (which admittedly is lousy), but everything to do with the befuddling world of British accents. All of my favourite viewing right now comes from across the pond.
First off, there are two first-rate crime dramas to choose from.
Legends (Netflix) is a genuinely gripping drama based on a bizarre true story. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, England was awash in heroin. Faced with rampant crime and overdose deaths, a unique undercover operation was spawned, but not with elite police. No, the government turned to civil servants, specifically employees of Customs and Excise, none of whom had police experience, much less undercover. What sounds like the premise for a wacky sitcom (Customs Cops!) is instead an edge-of-the-seat thriller, as the would-be spooks get deeper and deeper into the underworld. A brilliant cast (led by Steve Coogan and Tom Burke) and taut screenwriting make Legends a very bingeable show.
Over on Apple, Criminal Record is just wrapping up a second season. Like the first season, it’s a clash of, well, everything. DCI June Lenker (played by Cush Jumbo, which, no offence, is a hilarious name) is young(ish), black and female. Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) is older, male and white. Their intense clashes in season one (you don’t have to watch the first season to watch the second, but it couldn’t hurt) carry over into season two, when a political rally ends in a murder. The acting is first-rate, the story gripping.
If you’re familiar with the British mockumentary series W1A – a savage skewering of the BBC and the absurdities of corporate culture in general – you’ll enjoy Twenty Twenty Six on Tubi. Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey and pretty much every other good show or movie on British TV) finds his character, the former ‘Head of Values’ for BBC (and before that head of the London Olympics), now in Miami for the World Cup as the ‘Director of Integrity’, whatever that means. He is surrounded by an international crew, all of whom are heads of something that we could easily survive without. David Tennant provides the droll and frequently absurd narration.
Attention Clarkson’s Farm fans: season five is now available on Amazon. This reality series follows British celebrity Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear) as he attempts to run Diddly Squat farm and a pub, with British bureaucracy standing in his way. Fun and enlightening, definitely watch this series from the beginning.
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And finally, a recommendation for parents or grandparents who can’t stand watching another episode of Paw Patrol or any of the other cookie-cutter computer-animated slop.
Shaun the Sheep (Netflix and Tubi) is a delightful slapstick confection from Nick Park, creator of the beloved Wallace and Gromit films. Set on a quaint British farm, Shaun the Sheep is filmed in painstaking stop-motion animation (pioneered in the 1933 classic “King Kong”), where the physical characters are manipulated, then filmed one frame at a time, giving the characters a tactile feel missing from computer-generated kids’ shows. Shaun the Sheep has no dialogue, no messages about sharing and caring, just slapstick comedy. My two-year-old grandson asks for Shaun the Sheep by name, and I happily watch episodes with him. You may never have to watch Paw Patrol again. You’re welcome.
