A New Stream

Last week, I posted an article here about a piece in the Los Angeles Times by their TV critic Robert Lloyd.  He had written an article on 30 wonderful international streaming series, most of which sounded great, and I linked to it.
 
Unfortunately, it turned out that Lloyd’s article was for a special section in the paper, and as a result it was behind a paywall, and so no one could access it without being a subscriber.
 
I didn’t want to cut-and-paste the entire article here, since I didn’t think that was proper for the paper.  However, I did what I hope is a reasonable compromise.  I culled out 19 of the series I found most interesting – and which were on the most-accessible streaming platforms – and significantly trimmed down the detailed paragraphs of each that Robert Lloyd wrote.  Instead, I added just simple capsule descriptions, most only one sentence, to identify what each series is about.  And then finally, while the Times article listed all the shows by the country that made them, I rearranged them by the streaming service they’re on – and noted their country parenthetically.
 
I’ve seen two of the series mentioned here.  The entire series of the tremendous Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and the first season so far of Call My Agent (which has been adapted by British TV.)
 
 
HULU
 
El Encargado (Argentina). A dark comedy of social and economic class about the manager of a luxury condominium in Buenos Aires, who has come to identify the building as his own.
 
The Office (India). An Indian adaptation of the series. 
 
Boris (Italy). The fourth season of a series revived after 11 years.  A hectic backstage comedy about making an Italian TV series on the life of Jesus, fictionally funded by a Netflix-like American company.
 
One Dollar Lawyer” (South Korea) is about an attorney who only accepts $1 from needy clients; he’s cool, colorful, eccentric and behind on the rent.
 
 
NETFLIX
 
Rough Diamonds (Belgium). Set in Antwerp among Orthodox Jewish diamond merchants, a suicide brings family members back together, Albanian mobsters and an interested prosecutor.


Call My Agent (France) about a talent agency, mixed with real actors spoofing themselves.
 
Standing Up (France) a terrifically sweet series set in the comedy clubs of the city’s less chic quarters, its characters struggling to make a name for themselves.  From the same creator as Call My Agent, also with real French comics playing themselves mixed in.
 
Dark (Germany). There’s a wormhole in the caves below a nuclear plant.  A time- traveling multifamily drama, with moody, mysterious sorrow and shades of gray.
 
The Law According to Lidia Poët (Italty). A mystery set in 1880s Turin, based on Italy’s first female lawyer who was kicked out of the bar and became a detective, assisting her lawyer brother. Smart, exciting and a bit naughty, it moves through social strata and historical moments.
 
Midnight Diner (Japan). An anthology series set around a backstreet Tokyo eatery, that opens at midnight, where night owls offer short stories that tend to the bittersweet, but mostly sweet. Food plays an integral role; some episodes even end with a demonstration of the episode’s main dish.
 
Tiger and Dragon (Japan). A deceptively complex comedy about storytelling. A young yakuza is frustrated because he can’t tell a joke, comes to collect a debt from a master of rakugo, which is a classical form of comic performance, and becomes his apprentice. Characters enact the tales they tell from stage.
 
Extraordinary Attorney Woo (South Korea) is a sweet, oddball legal series about a lawyer with autism spectrum disorder. The tone is largely whimsical, often comic, but never mocking.
 
 
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
 
Guilty Minds (India). Character-rich, lively legal drama, in Hindi and English about old friends on opposite sides handling big issues. 
 
A Private Affair (Spain). Set in 1960s, the rich sister of the new police commissioner faces prejudice after seeing a woman murdered, and turns investigator with intelligence, beauty, bravery, madcap adventure and romance.  High production values and very cinematic give eight episodes an epic feel. With Jean Reno as Hector, her butler and reluctant Watson.
 
 
AMAZON PRIME FREEVEE
 
The Three Musketeers (South Korea ) translated to 17th century South Korea, some new narrative twists, romance, comedy, intrigue, fascinating period work and swordplay.
 
 
APPLE TV+
 
Pachinko (South Korea). American-made trilingual epic melodrama tells of four generations of a Korean family, beginning with Korea under Japanese colonial rule to modern day.
 
 
MAX
Garcia! (Spain). A super-spy is put into suspended animation in 1961 and awakens in the present day. He’s adopted by a talkative aspiring journalist and must adjust from having lived in a dictatorship to now in a democratic nation with political skullduggery trying to bring him down. Mainly a comedy with some Spanish tragedy, romance and action, on the need to change.
 
I Don’t Like Driving (Spain). TV critic Lloyd says this might be his favorite.  A beautifully shaped, novelistic single-season comedy about a middle-aged, misanthropic literature professor who decides to finally learn to drive. He’s been stuck emotionally and literally. relying on others, and then some new people come into his life.
 
 
HBO
My Brilliant Friend (Italy). Adapting three of Elena Ferrante’s “Neapolitan” novels, an intimate epic that follows its two life-long friends from 6 to 66, women in a world ruled by childish men.
 
And as I posted at the end of my previous article, just for the heck of it again, this is the trailer for Extraordinary Attorney Woo.  The trailer is enjoyable and shows the series' charm, though perhaps over-emphasizes the whimsy a bit and doesn't even begin to come close to doing the program justice -- not touching on some of the fascinating law cases, its serious conflicts, or any of the show's twists.  But it gives a somewhat reasonable sense of things and you do get to see the tremendous lead actress, Park Eun Bin.

(She originally passed, not sure if she could do the character justice and be respectful, so she went off and did another series.  But the producers waited for her.  She reconsidered and signed on.  They were wise to wait.)

I love the series, which has become a huge international hit, but you should know it might take 2-3 episodes for it to fully kick in.  That’s what happened with me, after having it recommended by a friend.  And I in turn recommended the series to a friend -- who stopped after one episode.  Three months later, he told me he'd given it another try.  And became so overwhelmingly hooked that he binged the entire 16-episode season in a few days.
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