John Byrne's telly week included French political drama Spin, US-Swedish murder mystery 100 Code, and the latest comedy offering from Channel 4, Crashing.
If you're not in favour of multiculturalism, I can only assume you don't watch that much telly. Over the last few years there's been a gradual increase in the number of subtitled shows landing on Irish and UK TV channels, and it's at the stage where there seems to be a new one popping up every week.
Last week alone, Scandinavian fave The Bridge returned to TG4, while two new shows appeared on British channels, offering quite a contrast. First up, there was the very promising 100 Code (Wednesday, Sky Atlantic), a 13-part crime drama written by Robert Moresco (an Oscar winner with Crash), and based on Merrick, a 2014 book by Irish novelist Ken Breun.
It features former Lost and Lord of the Rings star Dominic Monaghan as New York Detective Tommy Conley, a man with a patchy past who gets sent to Stockholm to see if a serial killer with previous form in New York has now decamped to the Swedish capital.
Conley is there as an advisor but he can't keep his nose out of things, driving cars and getting his hands on a gun, he's quite the naughty boy. Unluckily for him, he's working alongside burnt-out cop Mikael Eklund, who’s thinking of quitting the job for a lucrative position at a security firm run by a pal and former cop (Magnus Krepper from The Bridge). They immediately dislike each other as Conley is secretive while Eklund doesn't really want to know and sees Conley as a pain-in-the-ass Yank.
Like several other shows - most recently the The Last Panthers on Sky Atlantic - it's a mixture of English and subtitles, but the premise is very American. It feels like a US procedural that just happens to have Swedish dialogue and some nice shots of Stockholm. And for those of you who like that sort of thing, the Killer's MO is pretty nasty. I'll say no more just in case you want to play catch-up.
100 Code reminds me of those imitation craft beers manufactured by major breweries: it's a pleasant change from the usual bland schedule-fillers, and offers an introduction to a new world of telly-viewing for those more accustomed to traditional TV dramas, but it's not the genuine subtitled experience. If you're already a Scan-dram fan, well, there's nothing new here for you. But it's worth a look.
Borgen went down a treat both on TG4 and BBC4, so fans of that Danish political drama might be more interested in Spin (Friday, More4). This French show opened with a double episode, and under the flag of Channel 4's Walter Presents.
This project shows how far the subtitled genre has come on British TV. Walter Iuzzolino, chief creative officer of Global Service Network (No, I've never heard of them either), Channel 4’s partner in the scheme, is the Walter who presents, and he's made a personal selection of his favourites from an apparently massive pile of foreign-language shows.
Most of them will be available online in box set form, as a massive free-to-see streaming service through the All4 site, with a select few going out on the old-fashioned goggle box. Deutschland 83 (which also airs on RTÉ2) started the roll, and now France enters the fray with Spin.
Following the killing of the French president in an apparent terrorist attack, former political PR consultant Simon Kapita (Bruno Wolkowitch) decides to stay put in Paris rather than return to his new job and life in the USA. He wants to keep an opportunist politician - who's lying about the president's killing for his own purposes - out of the Elysée Palace.
In typical French fashion, he gets the dead president's former lover to run. She's a politician, played by Nathalie Baye, who is essentially a French Helen Mirren, and already it's an engrossing mix of political and Franco-sexual intrigue. Spin's full of sharp suits, sharper tongues and sexy eyes, served up in a soapy mix, so there's plenty here to enjoy. Shallow? Moi?
Following the success of Sharon Horgan's potty-mouthed comedy Catastrophe, could Channel 4 possibly be on a roll? If the opening episode of Crashing (Monday, Channel 4) is a good barometer, the thumbs are up. Even though I felt burdened by the news that day of David Bowie's death, I went to bed that night with a smile on my face and full of regard for Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the brains behind Crashing. She both writes and stars.
This sitcom literally covers new ground as it's about a bunch of folk who are property guardians in a disused London hospital. Such people provide live-in security for empty buildings in return for low rents. Apparently it's a bit of a thing in London, where traditional accommodation is eye-wateringly expensive.
The opening episode was wrapped around a party at the hospital as viewers were introduced to the central characters, ranging from an engaged couple whose stability could be undermined by the arrival of an old friend, a prat of an estate agent, a middle-aged divorced man (everyone else is mid-20s), and a compulsively seductive French teacher.
Crashing isn't perfect, but it's a good Monday night mood-lifter. It's well-scripted and paced, and while peppered with the by-now obligatory gratuitous references to bodily functions and sexual activities, the cast is energetic. Ultimately, any show which mixes tequila, a ukelele and a disused hospital at the start of the week is mighty fine by me.
John Byrne
