Some TV Recs
2024-02-04 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rodoUsually, I only rec dramas – because let’s face it, I probably watch way too many of those – but I do watch other series as well. Here are five recs for some non-Asian TV shows that I liked and haven’t recced yet:
1. Bodies (2023): In 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053, four cops find a body that is one and the same. In the quest to unravel the secrets of the dead (and maybe not so dead) man, they stumble upon a secret cult set on shaping the future of Britain… I’m incredibly picky about time travel stories, and this one put an interesting spin on it. The amount of people who travel through time is very limited (to three, to be precise), and it’s rather one way. But nonetheless, all four storylines are intertwined and everyone helps to stop the villain, not through violence, but through small, seemingly inconsequential actions. That, more than even Hillinghead (1890) and Hasan (2023) made me love the story.
2. Lupin (2021): Assane Diop is the son of an immigrant who was framed as a thief. It only served to spur him on to become the best thief possible, taking inspiration from the tales of Arsène Lupin. But in his quest for revenge, he might take on more than he can deal with… I like heists, and this series has a lot of charmingly plotted attempts (usually successful) to steal everything from jewels to paintings. And then there’s main character Assane, who can be a bit of a dense asshole, but whose charm just oozes off the screen whenever Omar Sy smiles. And then there’s Guédira, a really good cop with a heart of gold and a penchant for Lupin novels that might get him into trouble more often than not – especially when faced with a charming master thief.
3. School Spirits (2023): One day Maddie wakes up in school, only to discover that she’s now a ghost, stuck in an in-between space with a couple of others, unable to leave school grounds. She has no memory of what happened to her and nobody can see her, except her best friend… I really liked how the truth behind Maddie’s death got gradually revealed, how the series dealt with grief, and how the other ghosts deal with being dead. It’s a surprisingly sweet series, but that doesn’t mean there’s no edges to it or the characters. My favourite was – probably predictably – the dead football player who still tries to please his parents.
4. Starstruck (2021): One New Year’s Eve, regular girl Jessie has a one-night-stand with Tom Kapoor, famous movie star. Then they keep running into each other, but their relationship is far from easy… I rarely watch comedy, but I really love this one because of the complicated relationship between Jessie and Tom (who love each other but want different things all the same), their lovable but flawed characters and all their messy, strange, yet still relatable and realistic friends. Even the ups and down in their relationship worked for me, because the miscommunication and problems just work for their characters.
5. Zorro (2024): When his father gets murdered, Diego de la Vega returns home to California to find out what happened. Along the way, the local fox god decides that destiny has something more in store for him… What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good Zorro adaptation, and I really enjoyed this one. There is a decent focus on Diego using not just Zorro but also his real identity to his advantage, and I absolutely loved a lot of the minor characters, like Nah-Lin (who wanted to be Zorro instead of Diego), the long-suffering servant Bernardo and Captain Monasterio, who tries to uphold the law even if it doesn’t always work out.
1. Bodies (2023): In 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053, four cops find a body that is one and the same. In the quest to unravel the secrets of the dead (and maybe not so dead) man, they stumble upon a secret cult set on shaping the future of Britain… I’m incredibly picky about time travel stories, and this one put an interesting spin on it. The amount of people who travel through time is very limited (to three, to be precise), and it’s rather one way. But nonetheless, all four storylines are intertwined and everyone helps to stop the villain, not through violence, but through small, seemingly inconsequential actions. That, more than even Hillinghead (1890) and Hasan (2023) made me love the story.
2. Lupin (2021): Assane Diop is the son of an immigrant who was framed as a thief. It only served to spur him on to become the best thief possible, taking inspiration from the tales of Arsène Lupin. But in his quest for revenge, he might take on more than he can deal with… I like heists, and this series has a lot of charmingly plotted attempts (usually successful) to steal everything from jewels to paintings. And then there’s main character Assane, who can be a bit of a dense asshole, but whose charm just oozes off the screen whenever Omar Sy smiles. And then there’s Guédira, a really good cop with a heart of gold and a penchant for Lupin novels that might get him into trouble more often than not – especially when faced with a charming master thief.
3. School Spirits (2023): One day Maddie wakes up in school, only to discover that she’s now a ghost, stuck in an in-between space with a couple of others, unable to leave school grounds. She has no memory of what happened to her and nobody can see her, except her best friend… I really liked how the truth behind Maddie’s death got gradually revealed, how the series dealt with grief, and how the other ghosts deal with being dead. It’s a surprisingly sweet series, but that doesn’t mean there’s no edges to it or the characters. My favourite was – probably predictably – the dead football player who still tries to please his parents.
4. Starstruck (2021): One New Year’s Eve, regular girl Jessie has a one-night-stand with Tom Kapoor, famous movie star. Then they keep running into each other, but their relationship is far from easy… I rarely watch comedy, but I really love this one because of the complicated relationship between Jessie and Tom (who love each other but want different things all the same), their lovable but flawed characters and all their messy, strange, yet still relatable and realistic friends. Even the ups and down in their relationship worked for me, because the miscommunication and problems just work for their characters.
5. Zorro (2024): When his father gets murdered, Diego de la Vega returns home to California to find out what happened. Along the way, the local fox god decides that destiny has something more in store for him… What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good Zorro adaptation, and I really enjoyed this one. There is a decent focus on Diego using not just Zorro but also his real identity to his advantage, and I absolutely loved a lot of the minor characters, like Nah-Lin (who wanted to be Zorro instead of Diego), the long-suffering servant Bernardo and Captain Monasterio, who tries to uphold the law even if it doesn’t always work out.
