I feel like most talked-about shows and movies are American, what are some good European ones?
Bad Banks
A drama in the banking business. Germany, Brussels, Luxembourg. German , French, English or Dutch. All the languages are in it. Can’t get more European than that.
Some Swedish movies everyone should watch:
Kopps (All movies from Josef Fares are great. He also happens to be the founder of the co-op focused game studio Hazelight Studios, which have made A Way Out, It Takes Two, and the recently released Split Fiction)
En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove)
Populärmusik från Vittula (Popular Music)
Bröderna Lejonhjärta (The Brothers Lionheart) (And all other Astrid Lindgren movies. I happen to share the same surname, heh.)
Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton (Christopher’s Christmas Mission)
These were just the ones I thought of right now, here are some more comprehensive lists:
A Guide to Swedish Film: 10 Films to Watch
The 25 Best Swedish Movies of All Time
I always recommend watching with undubbed with subtitles of your own language, it’s just better in 99.99% of cases.
Interesting list! The fact that it includes “En man som heter Ove” and general Astrid Lindgren recommendations indicates to me that the rest of your mentions that are unknown to me must be worth checking out.
I generally prefer original audio with subtitles for most things I watch, but a great exception would be all those Astrid Lindgren movies, which I believe many people from my country would agree with. The reason, at least to me, is nostalgic. Many generations of kids here grew up with some very soothing narrator dubs on top of the original audio, and these few well-known voices are a wonderful addition. We still hear the original actors’ voices below, but a single calm voice throughout each movie tells us in summary who’s saying what and what’s going on. But that’d be the exception.
Yeah, I generally find that older movies have better dubbing too, especially ones that are well-known worldwide.
Kopps is an absolute must-see, don’t watch a trailer or anything, go in blind and you’ll laugh your ass off!
No Aniara?
Sone obvious ones like Sherlock, Broadchurch or Taskmaster.
I haven’t seen La casa de papel or Borgen yet but consistently hear that they’re good. Also have heard good things about the british-austrian production Vienna Blood.
For lgbtq teen drama, I can recommend the Nordic Young Royals and Tore.
Btw, Germany and Austria did an adaption of The Bridge set at an alpine mountain pass, called Pagan Peak (OT: Der Pass).
It is a weird niche, but if you like fckd up cartoons like South Park or Rick and Morty, then check out the Polish series Exorcist (on Netflix, though I am sure you can also find it elsewhere…)
Shetland is amazing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_(TV_series) ;
Now I watch Vigil - quite good too - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigil_(TV_series) ;
Finnish TV series Exit is disturbingly good - https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_(suomalainen_televisiosarja) . Would like to watch norwegian original.
North sea connection is also great - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15654810/ ;
Cry wolf - very good, Fargo vibes on swedish-finnish border - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_Wolf_(TV_series) .
I have too many people into arthouse around, but especially when it comes to movies I have long been watching more European than American stuff.
Ruben Östlund makes both movies that are fun and deep (e.g. “Triangle of Sadness”, “The Square”).
I love Kusturica’s movies. A touch of magical realism and humour from the Balkans. His political views are… let’s just say you do not have to agree much with the views of an artist to enjoy his work ;)
“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” is a great recent comedy from the Romanian Radu Jude.
“Blue Is the Warmest Colour” is a beautiful lesbian love story.
Petro Almodovar has made incredible melodramas.
I can also very much recommend “Cold War” by Paweł Pawlikowski (another love story, but this time with a very sensitible perspective on Central European history in the background).
Lukas Dhont makes very touching movies, I have rarely cried as much on a movie as on his “Close”.
Blue is the warmest colour has so many lesbian sex scenes that it became a meme for that
Babylon Berlin is amazing
In France, for TV productions, we’ve had Le bureau des légendes, Kabul Kitchen, Kamelott (don’t try this latter one if you don’t speak French). There’s probably many others I’m not thinking of right now.
As for movies, there’s quite a few, none of which I can remember at the moment :)
The Brits make great English language television, from Sherlock to Downton Abbey to Monty Python. Currently watching Killing Eve wich is great, same as Toxic Town. Can’t think of any others by heart, but there is loads.
Allo Allo, Black Adder, Shameless (2nd or 3rd season onwards)
Killing Eve is great for one series. Good for two. The third was rubbish. We didn’t bother with the fourth.
Flow
Dark is a great German show about time travel.
Deutschland 83 is a German Cold War spy series.
[email protected] has tips for streaming in Germany.
HPI: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14060708/
Americans are remaking this as High Potential, but it doesn’t work IMO
