I bet Paul Revere wouldn’t have been able to see this coming. What am I referring to, you ask? The influx of premium British television shows that seem to exist in abundance, for us all to pluck from as we see fit. I am going on the record, right now, to say that I truly believe that some of the best television I have ever seen has been British in lineage. And the factors for this are many.
The main reason is that British TV is far less scrutinized and censored, so often times what we see will be ripe with sex and violence of the most uncensored kind. But that is not the selling point at all. As you will see from these five shows, no single element runs through them. A few of them are riotously funny in ways we have never seen before. A few of them are incredibly dark and deal with things that would be taboo to most American audiences. And mainly, you have shows that don’t pander. Shows that do not dumb themselves down for the sake of their audience. Shows that change the terms of what we are used to seeing on TV. Also, in a few of these cases, shows that introduced huge future movie stars to the world through British television.
And honestly, even if you hate British television because it makes you think of stuffy, uptight humor, YOU are the reason I am making this list. I promise (and you can hold me to this here) that every single one of you reading this right now will find at least one British television show on this list that you enjoy immensely.
And only Commies don’t like Spaced.