2011 Top Ten: Game of Thrones

I’ve been sick for days. Here is a video rather that something I wrote.

2011 Top Ten: Fobrydelsen

 

I am recycling this from earlier in the year. That’s what you do when you’ve been sick since September. Anyway….

With TV on a short hiatus for most shows I had some extra time. Wouldn’t it be great to watch and episode of the original The Killing (originally titled Forbrydelsen which better translates into The Crime) and see what might have changed when it was brought to America as a remake on AMC?

On the surface AMC seemed to have shot a good remake out of it, but if the AMC version was good how much better could the original be? I would watch one episode a week from both, maybe two since the original was a little longer, and compare the two as long as my interest held.

Well, 20 episodes of the original and little sleep later and I was in love. Sofie Gråbøl is one of the most compelling actresses I’ve come across in a long time and Sarah Lund has brought back the crime drama IMO. I am more than over the quirky crime/medical dramas we’ve seen too many of lately where characters are the sum of their “thing” rather than actual characters. Some shows do it better than others, but the shear number of them has muddied the genre so to speak. Sarah Lund and Forbrydelsen is something different. Cousin to The Wire perhaps. Whatever it was I loved it.

Wanting more Sarah Lund adventures I looked her up on IMDB and found there was a series 2 out and a series 3 in the works. So of course I immediately watched series 2. I had grown fond of that odd sounding language which was like an invisible character in the show. It is a relentless sounding language, but it grew on me and I love it.

2011 Top Ten: Luther

Idris Elba. Idris Freak’n Elba. Run, don’t walk to this. You still have time. It is on Netflix instant. I’ve been a fan of his since The Wire and this year I was lucky to have enough connections across the pond to hear about this when it came out. BBC, bringing the awesome once again.

Luther is a pretty basic crime drama on the surface. The show starts off at the end of one of Luther’s cases were he takes it a step too far and ends up on leave as they fear he had something to do with a suspect’s coma. His marriage is in shambles, he is super intense with his job and it hurts his relationships… but he is very good at what he does and as the criminals get more sophisticated so must the hero. His fault is feeling too deeply rather than not feeling enough and eventually the people who should probably hate him the most can’t help but be drawn to him. Even his dark muse Alice, a sociopath he battles with, finds his screwed up life immensely interesting.

“Kiss me. Kill me. Do something!”

The stories are grim but nothing revolutionary. It’s the performances of Idris Elba (Luther) and Ruth Wilson (Alice) that win the day. Paul McGann, Indira Varma, Warren Brown complete the brilliant cast.