Right after the election I was desperate for distraction and had watched pretty much all the nordic noir available, so I decided to give Tatort a try. It's been running since 1970 (and the opening graphics are pure 70s kitsch) and there are a lot of seasons set in different cities in Germany. I don't have much patience for whimsy in my detective/mystery shows, with Ludwig a great exception, and I've found Tatort hit or miss. But when they're good they're very good and some seasons set in certain cities have as many as 17 90 minute episodes. The ones I've liked so far are: Dortmund, Streets of Berlin, and Falke. (Streets of Berlin stars one of the stellar actors in Babylon Berlin.)
This is a very valuable post! I am bookmarking it for the next time I subscribe.
I will just add Babylon Berlin which for me is an all time favorite series. It started on Netflix but alas, it was expensive and probably didn’t get enough viewers so that deal ended. It’s now on MHz and that’s why we subscribed. We also watched some Tatort before deciding to cancel until the next season of Babylon Berlin.
One frustration I have with these services (BritBox and Acorn, too) is how crime/mysteries heavy they are. To be clear, I always have some kind of murder mystery going in my TV rotation but I like a variety. I like drama/dramedy/comedy too! And sometimes these services don’t really deliver that. Or enough of it at least. So it’s hard to justify subscribing to too many at the same time. I will say I am enjoying Dectectorists on Acorn for something different.
I did hear about an upcoming drama on BritBox called Outrageous that is not a murder mystery. Mo Ryan recommended it in Vanity Fair.
I definitely took for granted that Babylon Berlin is the pre-eminent series on the channels, so I didn't even mention it (though I do want to watch it from the beginning, just haven't ramped up that layer of commitment yet). I mean, on MHz they have "what to watch after Babylon Berlin" section which I think is the ultimate respect. Ha.
And OMG are you right about the crime stuff. It's just saturated. But it does make sense since the Brits are the ultimate crime show audience and they just kind of exported that template to other countries years ago as they were building their television skills. Murder mysteries are almost always popular so that was the easy choice. But yeah, now I think some other shows would be nice!
Yes, the Germans, too. I just remember reading at some point the top 10 rated shows in the country were all “Krimi”. Babylon Berlin is structurally crime fiction but it also covers many threads including, yeah, politics. I believe in the last season, Hitler will come to power. I just find the show a good way to interrogate our current political moment but in a safe way. And there are lots of fun scenes. So it’s not eat your green beans kind of TV.
OMG you finally found the Finnish shows I watched ages ago! Yes to the driving through barren snow-filled landscapes!
Once upon a time Bordertown was on Netflix. I'll have to check out MHz now. I downgraded my. Netflix to the ad supported to catch up on some things that I missed when I was on hiatus from it.
When you say "I prefer to just call it MHz" do you think just the letters or do you think the word megahertz?
My old addled brain will always translate MHz to megahertz.
Fun with numbers: TUE was 6/3 and I was 63 years old. Yesterday was 6/4 and I was 64 years old - a once in a lifetime occurrence! Sorry Tim, but you will have to wait until your 422nd birthday for that experience :)
MHz definitely registers as megahertz for me. But MHz Choice sounds exactly like what it is -- a merged company (at least they didn't go with Plus!). And those clunky company names are no fun. MHz isn't great, but it's not terrible. (Max is terrible). I don't know.
That birthday trick is cool -- Happy Day Late Birthday! And you know what? Some days I DO feel right about 422 years old. But I think I was denied a fun math fact/trick because I'm terrible at math. It's just more math punishment in my life.
Great that you are giving MhZ Choice the spotlight -- they deserve it. The wonderful thing about the service is that it has so much quality programming that my list of recently enjoyed shows doesn't have any of the shows that you just listed. I'd recommend Dead Mountain, UFOs, Paris Police 1900/1905, Wara, Blackport, Enemy of the State, Anne+, Helvetica -- just off the top of my head.
Nice! Also I think it's great that there was no crossover, so now you have a lot of shows to potentially discover. And that's the whole point. I hope you find some new favorites!
If you want a goofy law show in Paris, you can watch Munch, otherwise Astrid (more locations as it went on as I recall) - both on PBS Passport. And Paris Murders sets their office right across from Notre Dame so they do a lot of exteriors there by the river.
You KNOW that when I was writing it I was thinking, oh, hell, this is a LOT. And I would check my notes and think, holy hell, I'm not even close to the end. But I did it that way because I probably won't do another MHz Deep Dive for like a year and I wanted to be thorough. Still, yeah, typing it was actually making me anxious...
Well it got me to finally get around to creating a "Tim Goodman" folder in my email to stick these things for reference later. (Who's kidding who -- like I'm ever catching up enough to get back to this? I've still got your year-end email lists to add to that folder 🤣). Like there's way too many even to add to the SPREADSHEET 😝
Unfortunately when my wife and I watch TV in a foreign language with English subtitles we inevitably fall asleep so I will await more of your English language recommendations. We loved “Paris is Falling” and “Culprits” so thank you for those.
I’m so glad to know about MHz+ (it sounds like a chromosomal anomaly!) Also, I’m grateful for the inclusion of all of your deep dives. Lucky for us. And, Finland sure is pertinent now, with Russia’s missiles poking their noses in its snowbanks.
I love Nordic Noir, because the climate and topography kind of become characters in the stories. And the landscape is so beautiful…the many hours of darkness.
My go-to streamers are HBO, Prime (bc it’s THERE, and I can always find something, even if it’s a cheap rental), BritBox, and Hulu. I subscribe to the others when something good comes on. GAD, if Netflix doesn’t have the worst user interface EVER. (Although, if I do subscribe for a month, I love to watch Dave Letterman’s great interview show: (“My next guest needs no introduction”). If I’m skint, I might let Hulu go for a month if there’s nothing on. My airhead, forget-to-cancel pleasure is Acorn TV. I love HBO as a staple, bc its shows are top-it’s, and been good for me for deep dives. Plus, JOHN OLIVER.
Thank you, thank you Tim for breaking down these streamers and for the great deep dives lowdown!8
Oh that Netflix UI is really troubling because it absorbs tiny trends and then gunks everything up. Thank you for all the kind words and enthusiasm for the DDs!
I missed your subscription poll but MHz+ is absolutely one of my go-to streamers. Funnily enough, I never set out to have it. Instead, I was content with a competing service, called Topic, which MHz+ then absorbed. The merged service is very, very strong.
Ah, you could have bumped it up to 4%! But seriously, glad you’re into MHz/Tropic/Choice etc. So much good stuff. So many series without trailers that I will eventually get to (though this is a mighty long list).
Of the series currently available on MHz+, I’ve watched these in their entirety (so far). I can recommend all of them to one degree or another, except Professor T, which adds up to a disappointing mess.
Right after the election I was desperate for distraction and had watched pretty much all the nordic noir available, so I decided to give Tatort a try. It's been running since 1970 (and the opening graphics are pure 70s kitsch) and there are a lot of seasons set in different cities in Germany. I don't have much patience for whimsy in my detective/mystery shows, with Ludwig a great exception, and I've found Tatort hit or miss. But when they're good they're very good and some seasons set in certain cities have as many as 17 90 minute episodes. The ones I've liked so far are: Dortmund, Streets of Berlin, and Falke. (Streets of Berlin stars one of the stellar actors in Babylon Berlin.)
This is a very valuable post! I am bookmarking it for the next time I subscribe.
I will just add Babylon Berlin which for me is an all time favorite series. It started on Netflix but alas, it was expensive and probably didn’t get enough viewers so that deal ended. It’s now on MHz and that’s why we subscribed. We also watched some Tatort before deciding to cancel until the next season of Babylon Berlin.
One frustration I have with these services (BritBox and Acorn, too) is how crime/mysteries heavy they are. To be clear, I always have some kind of murder mystery going in my TV rotation but I like a variety. I like drama/dramedy/comedy too! And sometimes these services don’t really deliver that. Or enough of it at least. So it’s hard to justify subscribing to too many at the same time. I will say I am enjoying Dectectorists on Acorn for something different.
I did hear about an upcoming drama on BritBox called Outrageous that is not a murder mystery. Mo Ryan recommended it in Vanity Fair.
I definitely took for granted that Babylon Berlin is the pre-eminent series on the channels, so I didn't even mention it (though I do want to watch it from the beginning, just haven't ramped up that layer of commitment yet). I mean, on MHz they have "what to watch after Babylon Berlin" section which I think is the ultimate respect. Ha.
And OMG are you right about the crime stuff. It's just saturated. But it does make sense since the Brits are the ultimate crime show audience and they just kind of exported that template to other countries years ago as they were building their television skills. Murder mysteries are almost always popular so that was the easy choice. But yeah, now I think some other shows would be nice!
Yes, the Germans, too. I just remember reading at some point the top 10 rated shows in the country were all “Krimi”. Babylon Berlin is structurally crime fiction but it also covers many threads including, yeah, politics. I believe in the last season, Hitler will come to power. I just find the show a good way to interrogate our current political moment but in a safe way. And there are lots of fun scenes. So it’s not eat your green beans kind of TV.
OMG you finally found the Finnish shows I watched ages ago! Yes to the driving through barren snow-filled landscapes!
Once upon a time Bordertown was on Netflix. I'll have to check out MHz now. I downgraded my. Netflix to the ad supported to catch up on some things that I missed when I was on hiatus from it.
FINLAND 🇫🇮! ❄️ 🩸
When you say "I prefer to just call it MHz" do you think just the letters or do you think the word megahertz?
My old addled brain will always translate MHz to megahertz.
Fun with numbers: TUE was 6/3 and I was 63 years old. Yesterday was 6/4 and I was 64 years old - a once in a lifetime occurrence! Sorry Tim, but you will have to wait until your 422nd birthday for that experience :)
MHz definitely registers as megahertz for me. But MHz Choice sounds exactly like what it is -- a merged company (at least they didn't go with Plus!). And those clunky company names are no fun. MHz isn't great, but it's not terrible. (Max is terrible). I don't know.
That birthday trick is cool -- Happy Day Late Birthday! And you know what? Some days I DO feel right about 422 years old. But I think I was denied a fun math fact/trick because I'm terrible at math. It's just more math punishment in my life.
Great that you are giving MhZ Choice the spotlight -- they deserve it. The wonderful thing about the service is that it has so much quality programming that my list of recently enjoyed shows doesn't have any of the shows that you just listed. I'd recommend Dead Mountain, UFOs, Paris Police 1900/1905, Wara, Blackport, Enemy of the State, Anne+, Helvetica -- just off the top of my head.
Nice! Also I think it's great that there was no crossover, so now you have a lot of shows to potentially discover. And that's the whole point. I hope you find some new favorites!
There’s a French show, Spiral, that I used to watch on iTunes. It’s on mhz. Kind of like a law and order but in Paris.
I did check it out because it’s a fan favorite on the channel but I’m not very into courtroom series. If they showed Paris a lot maybe, but even then…
If you want a goofy law show in Paris, you can watch Munch, otherwise Astrid (more locations as it went on as I recall) - both on PBS Passport. And Paris Murders sets their office right across from Notre Dame so they do a lot of exteriors there by the river.
Definitely could use more car/motorcycle chases around the city
HA. Always
Jesus Tim, are you trying to drown us???
It’s a lot, I know. And I laughed pretty hard at this.
❤️
You KNOW that when I was writing it I was thinking, oh, hell, this is a LOT. And I would check my notes and think, holy hell, I'm not even close to the end. But I did it that way because I probably won't do another MHz Deep Dive for like a year and I wanted to be thorough. Still, yeah, typing it was actually making me anxious...
Well it got me to finally get around to creating a "Tim Goodman" folder in my email to stick these things for reference later. (Who's kidding who -- like I'm ever catching up enough to get back to this? I've still got your year-end email lists to add to that folder 🤣). Like there's way too many even to add to the SPREADSHEET 😝
Unfortunately when my wife and I watch TV in a foreign language with English subtitles we inevitably fall asleep so I will await more of your English language recommendations. We loved “Paris is Falling” and “Culprits” so thank you for those.
Totally understand and more shows sans subtitles coming. Really glad you liked those two though. Lots of fun.
I waste too much time on Netflix that I could better spend on MHz+. Fortunately I’ve recently re-upped for another year, so this DD is timely!
Happily crunching through ‘Humans’, with an actor link to ‘Utopia’. The adorable Arby aka Raisin Boy aka Pietre also plays Pete Drummond.
Drummond with the diametrically opposed roles! He’s great in everything but obviously Utopia.
MHz list has me *very* excited. Can’t wait to slowly devour these (and I left off a handful of other good ones).
I’m so glad to know about MHz+ (it sounds like a chromosomal anomaly!) Also, I’m grateful for the inclusion of all of your deep dives. Lucky for us. And, Finland sure is pertinent now, with Russia’s missiles poking their noses in its snowbanks.
I love Nordic Noir, because the climate and topography kind of become characters in the stories. And the landscape is so beautiful…the many hours of darkness.
My go-to streamers are HBO, Prime (bc it’s THERE, and I can always find something, even if it’s a cheap rental), BritBox, and Hulu. I subscribe to the others when something good comes on. GAD, if Netflix doesn’t have the worst user interface EVER. (Although, if I do subscribe for a month, I love to watch Dave Letterman’s great interview show: (“My next guest needs no introduction”). If I’m skint, I might let Hulu go for a month if there’s nothing on. My airhead, forget-to-cancel pleasure is Acorn TV. I love HBO as a staple, bc its shows are top-it’s, and been good for me for deep dives. Plus, JOHN OLIVER.
Thank you, thank you Tim for breaking down these streamers and for the great deep dives lowdown!8
Oh that Netflix UI is really troubling because it absorbs tiny trends and then gunks everything up. Thank you for all the kind words and enthusiasm for the DDs!
I missed your subscription poll but MHz+ is absolutely one of my go-to streamers. Funnily enough, I never set out to have it. Instead, I was content with a competing service, called Topic, which MHz+ then absorbed. The merged service is very, very strong.
Ah, you could have bumped it up to 4%! But seriously, glad you’re into MHz/Tropic/Choice etc. So much good stuff. So many series without trailers that I will eventually get to (though this is a mighty long list).
Of the series currently available on MHz+, I’ve watched these in their entirety (so far). I can recommend all of them to one degree or another, except Professor T, which adds up to a disappointing mess.
- Border Town
- Spring Tide
- Pagan Peak
- Freezing Embrace
- The Killing
- White Sands
- The Bridge
- Fallen
- Professor T
I was curious about Pagan Peak, actually. Professor T didn’t seem like my thing. Glad a bunch of mine are already on your list. Solid!
Which Professor T? I enjoyed the original Belgian one. The English remake upped the irritation factor somewhat gratuitously and I quickly abandoned.