Why is no-one talking about these shows?

It’s still 2020, but one positive thing I can say about this year is that I’ve spent a lot of time inside (more than usual, that is) and had copious amounts of free time to dig deeper into some of the streaming sites available to me.

I have a tendency to just add on to my watchlist while thinking “this seems like a good binge for my next day off”, but when a free weekend pops up I end up rewatching Sherlock for the 10th time. This year was different though because, during my stint at Living Room County, I decided to take a different approach.

As things are starting to slowly go back to ‘normal’ (yes, we’ll go with ‘normal’) where I’m from, I thought I’d look back on some of the gems I found while stuck indoors.

I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy your mainstream award-winning shows (I have finished every season of Stranger Things in one sitting, as they came out and followed Game of Thrones religiously till the very end) but I am quite surprised that these tv shows haven’t gotten the same amount of attention (from what I’ve seen at least).

Fortitude

The fictional Norwegian Arctic island of Fortitude’s peaceful, small-town existence is torn apart when a string of strange and ultra-violent deaths start emerging seemingly out of nowhere. Investigations into the bizarre happenings in Fortitude create a ripple-effect of increasingly strange occurrences and it’s clear that every single person in town has at least one deep dark secret. This show came out of friggin’ nowhere. From the get-go, it’s clear that Fortitude is not your average psychological thriller. What I liked about Fortitude (apart from the beautiful cinematography, outstanding performances, and edge-of-your-seat-storytelling) is that it had so many opportunities to turn into a soap opera type show that diverted completely from the original concept, but never took it. Everything happens for a reason in the show and follows through. Occurrences, no matter how batshit crazy (and you better believe me when I say it gets BAT. SHIT. CRAZY) near the end of the final season can be linked back to the very beginning of the first season. With three short seasons (26 episodes in total) it’s an easy show (depending on your stomach) to finish in one weekend (don’t pretend like you haven’t done it before).

Norsemen

Norsemen takes place during the 8th century and centres around the residents of a small Viking village as political rivalry and social change upend their way of life. Do not let the general (and limited) synopsis for Norsemen available online fool you; it is absolutely ridiculous – but in the best way imaginable. It’s clear from the very first scene of the first episode, that Norsemen is like no other. It perfectly blends the dramatic music and cinematography expected from your typical historical drama with outrageous (and almost unrealistic) characters and off-beat dialogue. Although at times, it feels like the show has no point, and that it’s not going anywhere, it still managed to keep me enthralled (I was genuinely invested in the characters as well as the “non-story”). This is what makes Norsemen one of my favourite tv series in recent years is. The best way I can describe the short, three-season show (let’s hope the season 4 rumours are true) is “Monty Python Presents: Vikings”.

Rake

Rake is an Australian television series that premiered back in 2010. The show follows Cleaver Greene, a brilliant but self-destructive Sydney barrister as he navigates between defending the more-often-than-not guilty client and his own screwed-up life. Cleaver “Cleave” Green is one of the most infuriating, charming, sympathetic, endearing, and devilishly funny characters I have ever seen in a tv show. We shout angrily at him as he puts a seemingly unending string of feet in his mouth, one after the other, while he fucks himself into every single corner on earth, but still, we as the viewer cannot help but root for this lovable garbage-pile-of-a-main-character. Rake took two of my all-time favourite shows, Californication and Boston Legal (stay with me here), and mushed them together. They took an extremely talented and endearing piece of crap human being (like Hank Moody in Californication) and made him not only deal with the trouble he creates for himself but also made him fight for the underdog (much like many of the cases and subplots in Boston Legal that were so cleverly written and covered in gray area, that you almost wish the guy who ate his best friend will get a not-guilty verdict). With an impressive and very rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, Rake is definitely mandatory viewing.

Happy!

Okay, this one I heard about and started watching before the whole 2020 shitstorm started, but I’m still mentioning it. The people NEED to know, damn it! Based on a graphic novel, Happy! stars Christopher Meloni as Nick Sax, disgraced ex-cop turned hit-man with a talent for substance abuse. Sax’s habits catch up to him in the form of a heart attack; this leads to him meeting a small, blue, flying (animated) unicorn (voiced brilliantly by Patton Oswald), called Happy. Happy is the imaginary friend of a small girl named Hailey (who is also Sax’s estranged daughter), who has been kidnapped by a man dressed as Santa Claus and Happy has sought out Sax to help find the girl. Now, I know what you’re thinking; “sounds like some loser-turned-hero journey where our main character saves the day and learns about the power of friendship”, and yeah, I guess you can say it is that, but man is that hero’s journey a fucked up one. As Sax and Happy search for Hailey, they get pulled into the dark underworld of child trafficking, weird sex cults, sociopathic killers, and everything in between (and that’s just the first season). I will say that this show is not for everyone, but if you are into the shockingly grotesque, stylized violent, and I-am-not-supposed-to-be-laughing-at-this kind of thing, Happy! might just become one of your favourite TV shows.

What We Do in the Shadows

Adapted from the equally underrated Indie Film with the same name, What We Do in The Shadows stayed with the film’s original concept and follows a group of vampires who are also flatmates (yes, they’re called flatmates, not roommates – that’s what they were in the original New Zealand film, also you share a flat, not a room, but I digress). Much like Norsemen, the show is absolutely ridiculous; shot documentary-style, we see the main characters struggle to keep up with not only the responsibilities and duties that come with being a vampire (and part of super-meta and pop-cultured filled secret vampire society) but also navigate modern time New York. I remember watching the film years ago and falling in love with the outrageous characters and unique story (I suggest you watch that as well if you haven’t. If you have and liked it, you will most definitely love the series as well). What We Do in the Shadows is one of those shows you just cannot explain to anyone (especially if they haven’t seen the film before), but after watching it, you’ll probably try and convince anyone and everyone to do the same.

For the record, this list would have been way longer (there is some really good stuff out there, people), but I thought “Chantal, let’s not get carried away and bore the readers to death with your self-indulgent rambling” (I want to keep my three readers coming back, thank you very much).

These shows might not be for everyone (but everyone is usually wrong in my opinion), and yeah, there might be “better” shows out there, but if you are looking for something different than the mainstream to keep you preoccupied on those ah-it-can-wait-till-Monday-type weekends, try and check out one of these shows I’ve mentioned. Who knows, maybe you can become like me and force the people around you to contaminate their watchlist suggestions with some off-beat entertainment.