It’s Thursday and I’m back with a new Thursday Movie Picks feature post. This series is hosted by Wandering through the Shelves and offers you a weekly prompt to post some movie recommendations/talking points according to the theme. Usually, you are supposed to post about 3-5 examples, which I find a very manageable amount.
As it so happens, we change it up once per month and talk about TV shows instead of movies and this time around we are talking about non-English TV shows and series. In general, this is fairly easy for me, as I do not come from an English speaking country. I’ve always watched either German shows or dubbed content from all over the world. However, I think it’s best that I’ll try and present shows that are available on streaming platforms or elsewhere, because where’s the fun if no one can actually watch them? Let’s get started!
Dark (German)
I stand by the opinion that this show is one of the best German shows to ever be produced. The cinematography, the well thought-out story and the intriguing plot are just something that will forever stay with me. You can’t just watch this in the background, you have to pay attention, but it will have been worth it.
The Rain (Danish)
The final season wasn’t my favorite, but I loved this show so much. The moral implications of a lot of it were just great to see unfold.
Ragnarok (Norwegian)
I have a thing for Norse mythology … sue me.
Plan Coeur (French)
My relationship with French has always been a rocky one, but shows like this bring the joy back for me. I loved watching it and even cried at the pandemic special episode they created. So worth it!
Honorable Mentions
As per usual when it comes to TV shows, I just can’t contain myself. Here are some more shows I think are worth the watch, which aren’t all on Netflix (but still most of them):
- Almost all the iterations of SKAM, but especially Druck
- Control Z (Mexican)
- 3% (Brazilian)
- Elite (Spanish)
- Blood & Water (South African)
- Vampires (French)
- The Mess You Leave Behind (Spanish)
- Bad Banks (German)
- Ku’damm 56 (German)
- Trakehnerblut (Austrian)
- Arme Millionäre (German-Austrian)
For everyone who’s missing Casa de Papel here, I’m still only in S1, so it didn’t feel right to mention it.
Life and Other Disasters 
I would love to watch more things in relation to norse mythology so I will have to check out Ragnorak at some point 😍 it looks cool!! Do you have a favourite character??
I watched friend zone, a Thai series, and I really enjoyed it. The second series is stronger imo and it is quite messy, but I enjoyed it!!
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Ragnarok is slow, but really interesting. I enjoyed the first season more than the second, but I still want more! My favorite character is probably Fjor in the first season and In the second season, it might be Saxa.
Oh, I don’t think I know friend zone – I might check it out!
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Ragnarok is popular this week. I’ll have to look into that. This theme is so hard.
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I really like Ragnarok. I hope more people watch it, because not enough people talk about it haha
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Does anime count? Because if it does, I have plenty of suggestions.
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Sure! I prefer live-action examples, but their origin often isn’t from the English language realm.
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Fine then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Deep breath Overlord, Sailor Moon, Rising of the Shield Hero, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, My Next Life as a Villainess, Zombie Land Saga, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, and so many more!
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It’s not like I have to watch them haha I don’t mind.
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Shame. I think you would love Ascendance of a Bookworm.
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Dark is the only one I’ve seen and I picked it too because I adored it. I stumbled across Plan Coeur the other day and added it to my list, I’m glad to read it’s worth the time.
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I hope you’ll enjoy it! It’s definitely cheesy, but I liked it.
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I still need to watch the second season of plan coeur! I also watched Skam in a lot of languages but I agree that the German one was very good. I think my favorite is still the OG one haha! Did you see the remake in Belgium (WTFOCK)?I also enjoyed Elite, Money Heist,Young Royals, another Norwegian show that I watched in my skam fan fase haha. I started watching Lupin but I haven’t continued with that one. I also grew up watching a lot of tv shows from Belgium.
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I’m telling you, the COVID special of plan coeur after s2 wrecked me. I only watched the German and French version of Skam, which both had qualities of their own.
And i, too, still haven’t watched Lupin S2 haha
As for Norwegian shows, I can’t believe I forgot Home for Christmas
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[…] of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (Book Review) & TMP – TV Edition: Non-English Shows (Kat @ […]
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I am not sure about Ragnarok even though I love this mythology. I don’t think I would be interested in Rain but, at least, people didn’t turn into zombies. The last one quite appeals to me and would like to see this one.
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I hope you’ll enjoy it, should you end up checking it out!
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DARK!!! It’s truly one of the best German shows and I’m glad that it was successful on Netflix/got all the seasons the creators wanted 🥰 I hope you continue Money Heist/Casa de Papel! I felt like some parts weren’t as good but the most recent one was amazing!
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I think I just got tired, because of the subtitles. Then again, I binged Elite a lot. I don’t know what it is, but I struggle with crime stories.
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Dark – I only love the first season. The second season was so-so, the third was bad.
The Rain – watched all the seasons but I didn’t really like it.
Ragnarok – Only saw the first season. Did not like it. It seems really low budget (much lower than The Rain) a lot of things feel very awkward and not fully realised.
The Hook Up Plan – I enjoyed the first season, it was quite funny and cute. The second was a disappointment, the characters seem a little more annoying than before and the story just not as strong. The third season or special has not been released where I’m from.
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I think our tastes will never align hahaha
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