For those who already have multilingual viewing habits… what are the absolute best (and only the very best) non-English TV shows?
And, this is directed at people who, like me, had spent most of their life only watching English-language television. It’s time to broaden your horizons to include all those critically acclaimed gems that people suggested to you to watch but you didn’t because you didn’t think you could get past the subtitles.
I will drop some non-English gems right here, and you can trust I won’t be recommending some mediocre crap (no offense):
▪︎ Dark (German series) ▪︎ How to Sell Drugs Online Fast (German series) ▪︎ Death Note (anime… whatever I’m including it) ▪︎ Les Revenants (French) ▪︎ Serie Noire (Quebec/French-Canadian… this one is wild)
Watch anime in Japanese as God intended. Dubs are the Shaitan.
Bruh I swear…
It’s very rare for any dub to be as good as the original.
Undercover (Dutch/Flemish series) Penoza (Dutch series)
Narcos and to some extent Narcos Mexico.
Also Das Boot (tv serie) is excellent German TV series.
I recently watched La chica invisible, a Spanish series. As a Dutch speaking person I quite liked Als de dijken breken, it’s a collaboration between Flanders and the Netherlands about a big flood.
Bron/Brorn (2011) is Swedish/Danish serial killer crime drama. It has spawned UK,US,German and French versions. First two seasons are up there in the best seasons of TV drama created IMHO.
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I really enjoyed diablero. About a demon bounty hunter and his gang/friends.
Drops of God on Apple TV is equal parts French, Japanese, and English. It was a really enjoyable limited series based off a manga.
Ages ago in the UK they showed this excellent Icelandic comedy called ‘The Night Shift’ (Næturvaktin)
I can’t remember much about it now apart from really enjoying it! Similar setup as Clerks - 3 guys working the night shift in a garage station - but a more surreal and sad sense of humour from what I remember.
Doesn’t look like it’s easily streamable anywhere, so I can’t go and check my memory. But the fact I’ve remembered it this long just from seeing it in 2011 (according to the linked wiki article) speaks volumes…
Because This is my First Life. Really thoughtful and non hackneyed Kdrama.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Because_This_Is_My_First_Life
Squid game is really good stuff. Korean show about a game show gone wrong. It’s on Netflix.
Similar vein: “All of us are dead” is a surprisingly good Korean zombie apocalypse series
