Translated material
Guest Post: Jin Telemaster
The author of the British TV blog amounted to the ten best series of foggy Albion, and ten more reserve.
A series of guest posts in the Buster film blog continues Jin, author of the Russian -speaking Tumlog about British TV Telemaster . Jin is not one of those who are stuck in the past and still lives in the memory of Monty Pieton and the Fry and Lori show-on her Tumblr page you can find everything about the life of British television here and now. And this life is very diverse: in addition to all the well -known Sherlock and Dressings on British television channels, you can find a dozen no less high -quality, but less familiar to Russian spectators of the series. At the request of Look At Me, Jin made a list of the ten most interesting modern British shows and complemented each item with an alternative for those who are ready to delve into the topic. And at the same time she explained why on television screens of the stiff Britain they joke much more about gopniks and pedophiles than on progressive American TV.
Before you start watching any British series, you need to understand a few things - at least how British TV is different from the American one, to which we are all more accustomed to.
To begin with, the British conduct television products in much smaller quantities. The maximum number of series, which is worth counting on in one season, is thirteen. There can be three, and even two episodes in the season. If the American series often writes a whole room of scriptwriters, then British can write one person altogether. Therefore, famous screenwriters know by names.
In the vast majority of cases, the series has a thoughtful complete general plot, and the series will end when it should, and will not continue endlessly until it dies in agony. The British are reverent of their television - to such an extent that all large newspapers have a section of exclusively TV - therefore they prefer quality to quantity. Few are proud of the fact that they do not watch TV.
The British have a different attitude to sex on TV and censorship as a whole. After ten o’clock in the evening, they can swear on the screen, they can cruelly beat someone, spraying blood in all directions, and can calmly show a variety of sex (hetero, homo and generally any: Great Britain-probably the most tolerant country in Europe). Priests and boobs will not be bashfully covering. Even in the kindest sitcom “Miranda”, the main character can calmly walk along the street, eating a chocolate member (literally chocolate, yes). Of course, all this does not mean that in the English series they will show hard-porn.
It is impossible not to mention the British sense of humor. Contrary to widespread opinion, English humor is not so much surreal as hard and cynical. For all their tolerance to a variety of minorities, the British are not as much fixed to political correctness as Americans. So in the series they joke about everything - about death, about pedophiles, about immigrants. Yes, British humor is often very “black”.
The British have no tendency to moralization, and few are passionate about psychoanalysis. In the British series, everything will be shown to you rather than tell you. Any series is, first of all, entertainment, and no one is ashamed to admit it.
The British are still worried about the class structure of their own society. In America, this topic on TV in recent years has somewhat smoothed out, but in the UK they are still interested in, for example, how the highest strata of society interact with gopniks. There are whole series dedicated to the life “on the rang” or the life of aristocrats.
Belonging to different classes always affects the relations of heroes. This is perhaps the most difficult to understand the foreign viewer.
On British TV, anyone can find a good series to their taste, so great diversity. Below - the “hot ten” relatively fresh British series in a completely arbitrary order. They are all so different that it is impossible to compare them. Each item is attached to a bonus track in the form of a series in the same genre, but the opposite in spirit-let no one leave deprived.
Sherlock ("Sherlock")
 | Sherlock is a modern interpretation of the books of Arthur Conan Doyle about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The action is transferred to modern London. Sherlock constantly scribbles SMSKi on his “Blackberry”, is glued with nicotine plasters (the avid smoker is difficult to survive in the current London in a different way) and is sometimes investigating unusual affairs from boredom. Of course, military doctor John Watson, who recently returned from service in Afghanistan, helps him. Classic plots are adapted to our time. Everything is slightly reminiscent of a photo in gloss, up to the point that Sherlock loves to wear Gucci, and Moriarty - Westwood. In one season there are three films - three “affairs”. Sherlock and John play Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. |
Bonus track: Sherlock is still more likely energetic adventures, and not a measured English detective. If you want to see something more traditional, then you can watch the series Lewis ("Inspector Lewis"). If in Sherlock the unusual hero is turned into a fetish, then into Lewis the hero-detective investigating the murder in Oxford is characterized in that he is the most ordinary person. But his assistant sergeant is unusual-this is a former student of the seminary, who, instead of a priest, became a police officer.
Doctor Who ("Doctor Who")
 | Doctor Who is an exception confirming the rule. This cult series is completely endless, has been going on since 1963. Of course, we are more interesting for us those series that began to shoot in 2005 after a long break. The series is about the adventures of an eccentric alien named Doctor (no one knows his real name, hence the name-question of the series), traveling in time and space. Of course, he travels in the company of various earthlings. Doctors, like James Bond, are played by different actors. The target audience of the series is children, but thanks to witty plots and a little absurd humor, adults love him. Previously, the series could be watched from any season and from any series (one, a maximum of two series-one adventure), but recently the creators were carried away by the confusing plot lines a la Lost. Since 2005, doctors have been played by Christopher Eccleson, David Tennant and Matt Smith. |
Bonus Trek: There is a spin-off doctor Who for adults- Torchwood . The main character is an immortal man named Captain Jack Harcness. Captain Jack is a sort of hero-trikster who sexually attracts all living things (women, men, aliens). He began as a petty villain in the Doctor Who, but over time he grown to the sufferer, constantly saving the Earth. Torchwood from the name of the series is the British secret organization investigating the ugliness that aliens in the UK, and in the very recent season in the USA. Captain Jack leads Torchwood. Unlike an emotionally saturated, but optimistic doctor who, torchwood is rather gloomy.
Miranda ("Miranda")
 | Miranda - a seat about a two -meter shy and clumsy girl Miranda, the owner of a comic gift store. The series was shot in an old -fashioned and half -saved genre of eccentric comedy: Miranda is ridiculously falling, ridiculously losing clothes, ridiculously running along the street - in the best traditions of Charlie Chaplin. Funny monologues-figures to the viewer are attached to this. The series writes and plays in it Miranda Hart. |
Bonus Trek: Despite the rather strict “physical” humor, Miranda is a very kind and in some places naive. For lovers of humor, there is a sieve than Peep Show (“Pip Show”) about two completely different neighbors in the apartment. In PEEP Show, the audience at everyone looks at them with their eyes and hear their inner monologue. The series is written frankly and quite cynically. It has a lot of literary humor and memorable jokes (“People as a whole cannot be trusted. People love Coldplay and voted for the Nazis”).
Being Human ("be a man")
 | Being Human is a comedic drama about the life of a vampire, werewolf and ghosts in the modern world. In the first season, there was more comedy (the series resembled “friends”, only friends living together were not people), in the next seasons there were more drama. A lot of attention is paid to various household details and how the trinity of supernatural creatures is trying to adapt to the world of people and not lose contact with it. The vampire is played by Aidan Turner, the werewolf - Russell Tovy, the ghost - Leonor Kriclow. |
Bonus Trek: A few years ago, the series was shot in England on the same topic, but more psychological and not so caricatured- Afterlife (“after life”). In it, the main characters were a clairvoyant, tormented by what ghosts could see, and a scientist, who was going to write a book about the mental disorder of the clairvoyant. Naturally, the mental disorder turned out to be a very real ability.
The Shadow Line ("Border of Shadow")
 | The Shadow Line is a criminal thriller and a stylish noir. Someone kills a famous and influential drug lord, both the police and gangsters are accepted for the investigation. The denouement is perhaps the most unexpected in the entire history of TV. There are many heroes in this mini-series, so there are a lot of good actors-Chvetel Edgeopher, Stephen Ri, Christopher Eccleson, Leslie Sharp, Rapie Upol. |
Bonus track: A good thriller is a rare thing. Another good example is the political thriller about the British after the USA THE STETE WITHIN (“state in the state”).
MISFITS ("Dispers")
 | Misfits is a comic book about unusual young superheroes. Their unusualness lies in the fact that all of them are small hooligans and criminals who work out their punishment in socially useful work. They received abilities during a mysterious thunderstorm. Of course, they were not alone in the thunderstorm. Heroes do not do good deeds, but basically fight for their survival with varying success. All this is attached to an excellent soundtrack and a fair amount of black humor. |
Bonus Trek: In the fresh series The Fades , we are also talking about unusual abilities. Only the main character is a clogged botanist pissed in bed. It distinguishes him from ordinary people that he can see dead people stuck in this light - something between zombies and ghosts.
Luther ("Luther")
 | Luther is a criminal drama about the hot -tempered police John Luther. Luther has his own ideas about justice, he never throws offended and offended in trouble, and he is also friends with a psychopath girl. Luther is played by the charismatic Idris Elba, the ingenious but crazy Alice Morgan - Ruth Wilson. |
Bonus track: there are more than enough series about unusual cops, but in the vast majority of them the emphasis is on the detective component. The character of the protagonist was not forgotten yet in Wallander (“Wallander”), the British adaptation of the Swedish novels, and Thorne (“Thorne”), and the adaptation of the books of Tom Billengem.
The Hour ("Hour")
 | The Hour is both a production drama and a detective. The time of action is the 1950s, more specifically-the Suez crisis. According to the plot, the BBC is launching the information and analytical program “Hour”. The journalist, presenter and producer of this program, are the main characters. Part of the intrigue of each series - whether the next release of the program will allow on the air, or the interfering policies will not allow this. In parallel, one of the main characters is trying to investigate the mysterious murder of a childhood girlfriend and is so admitted to a spy history. Spies, of course, Soviet. The creators of the Hour program are played by Ben Willishu, Romola Garay and Dominic West. |
Bonus Trek: Journalists were unraveling the theory of conspiracy also in the State of Play series (“Games of Power”), which recently tried to adapt Hollywood for a large screen. In the original British version, the plot is somewhat more complicated.
Downloadon Abbey ("Downton Abbey")
 | Downton Abbey is a costume drama about life in a fictional downton estate. The time of action is the era of King George V (the pope of the stuttering colin Ferot from the “King says” Remember? Is this this king). The plot is concentrated around the Crowley family and their servants. Who, what, with whom, how, why. Screenwriter is one of the authors of the Gosford Park script. Downton Abbey is the most popular costume drama in the UK in the history of television. Many characters, many actors. Probably the most famous among them are Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville. |
Bonus Trek: The British are famous for their costume dramas. It seems that they shot TV shows already about all the eras, about which. True, not all costume dramas love the same way, and many forget immediately after the last series. The previous record holder in popularity was the film adaptation of Ivlin’s novel in Brideshead Revisited . He is remembered and still loved.
Psychoville ("Psychovil")
 | Psychoville is a cross between a skew show, a sitcom and a horror film. There are several main characters in the series: a clown without a hand, a man obsessed with serial killers and living with his mother, a nurse raising a doll as a living child, a blind collector of toys and a dwarf actor. In addition to grotesque characters, the series has no less grotesque plot. Two actors and creators of the series play several roles - this is Steve Pemberton and the Shirsmit rice. |
Bonus Trek: In the UK, the tradition of grotesque comedy is very strong, a fresh example of this- this is Jinsy (“these are jeans”). This is again a hybrid of a skeuch show and an ordinary comedy with a surreal humor. Heroes are residents, flora and fauna of the mysterious island of jeans. Unlike Psychoville, this series is relatively kind and quite camp.