Couple of things:
Those in the UK with an Amazon Prime subscription (possibly other markets, don’t know) can enjoy Dead Like Me, an absolutely delightful and bittersweet, but sadly short-lived, series from 2003-04 (cancelled for reasons of internal Showtime politics, so no good reason). It is an early Bryan Fuller show and concerns Georgia Lass, and aimless 18-year old drifting through her life until it is unexpectedly terminated by a toilet seat from the de-orbiting Mir space station. At this point she finds herself appointed as a Grim Reaper (not the Grim Reaper), charged with taking the souls of people just before they die and helping them on to whatever comes next. Meanwhile, her family copes with the grief of loss… It is funny, intelligent and kind, and also literate – a joy from beginning to end.
Harder to find if you are not a US-based Hulu subscriber (or willing to use totallylegitimatedownloads.com) is season 4 of Veronica Mars , which is pretty amazing given that season 3 aired in 2006. In the original series, Kristen Bell played the titular character, a high school student in a town “With no middle class” where the working classes have no real choices, the upper classes have no functional moral compass and her best friend has been murdered. A sort of Nancy Drew through a Raymond Chandler lens. It was Bell’s break out role. When I *cough* acquired it after hearing some buzz, but not having a clue what it was about, I settled down to watch a couple of episode before supper and 10 episodes later it as 2:30am.
The line that absolutely sold it to me: “You wanna know how I lost my virginity? So would I.”
There was a reasonably successful fan-funded movie a few years ago, but the new series came somewhat out of the blue when Bell announced it last year. Being on Hulu and therefore free of Network TV restrictions it is able to go full Noir and is everything I would have wanted in a reboot. It picks up about 10 years after the original series, with Veronica now working as a private detective. It also does a thing that made me yelp with joy, because of who it will annoy…but that would be a spoilers. Not essential to have seen the first three series, but the pleasure is much richer when you have.
Alas it will be a lot harder to find, thanks to it only being on Hulu in the US and no news of international distribution.
I can think of only a handful of series that have grabbed me the way Veronica Mars did – let’s think…NuWho, obv, Buffy, the first season of Heroes, Red Dwarf, Thirteen Reason Why. Even Leftovers and Rectify were more slow burn.
Both highly recommended.
(BTW, Chernobyl is out of DVD/Bluray, @thane16 )
