The best TV shows in foreign languages

Our Boar TV writers tell us about their favourite TV shows in foreign languages

Wallander

Reece Goodall

Image: Flickr/ John Keogh

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across a treat on BBC4 – the channel was airing the Swedish TV series Wallander, starring Krister Henriksson as the titular detective. As a fan of the books, this series, comprised of new stories suggested by author Henning Mankell, was a treat.

This series is dark and darkly humorous, and Wallander is played with both a certain world-weariness and an underlying
humanity – he is far from the perfect detective that so many shows offer. This show holds a strong sense of local identity (whenever I think of Sweden, images from this show come to mind), but it is also incredibly universal, with its strong human roots and the way it deals with complex and current issues.

Somewhat unusually for a crime show, it is also very moral – Wallander is privy to all kinds of human degradation, but he continues because he knows what he is doing is right. Wallander is superior crime television, and well worth watching even if you find the language barrier off-putting.

The Returned

Daljinder Johal

I’m an English and French student so I appreciate the chance to feel like I’m doing work, while being as lazy as possible. Les Revenants, or The Returned, is a Canal+ supernatural drama that was first shown on British screens by Channel 4, which makes this task as easy as possible for me.

In a mountain village, many people are recovering from the loss of their loved ones in a bus crash four years ago. Except, their deceased loved ones come back. The dead return from the crash and other incidents, including one twin sister, Camille who has remained four years younger than her twin, Léna. Slow-moving and atmospheric with Scottish post-rock band Mogwai creating a haunting soundtrack, the show avoids the typical gore of zombie shows and focuses on emotional storytelling to depict the complex reactions of the dead and the alive to this bizarre situation.

With other eerie and unexplained phenomena occurring in the village, the show evokes comparisons to the mood of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, but it is determinedly French. In fact, if this is how the French do the American zombie movie, I say that they should definitely carry on.

Kaboul Kitchen

Molly Willis

Over winter break, Channel 4 began advertising their ‘Walter Presents’ series, where they showed the best subtitled television series from around the world. I would put it on in the background when I was doing my ironing, in a feeble and short-lived attempt to actually do my chores. I managed at least ten hours of normal household duties watching Kaboul Kitchen, a French comedy set in post-9/11 Afghanistan.

A comedy that is gratuitous in its depiction of Jacky, its central character, as a charming, if not slightly sleazy, businessman seeking refuge from a regimented Parisian life in his expat restaurant, Kaboul Kitchen. He is joined by his daughter Sophie, one of a group of boozy humanitarian workers.

The series could be criticised for its portrayal of an overtly westernised Kaboul community, but I find that comedy is often the best way to tackle such abrupt culture shock. It doesn’t ignore the corruption, danger and conflict, particularly in the final episodes of its first season, but handles them with good humour and stylish storytelling.

Having lived in France when I was younger, I was always disappointed with the re-runs of dubbed CSI episodes and boring reality TV shows, so I can only hope that Kaboul Kitchen is a sign of a changing the mainstream of French TV.