Watching Foreign TV

I read some good things about the Norwegian tv series, Wisting. We had resisted watching foreign series and relying on closed captioning up until now, but having run out of alternatives, we decided to give it a try on Acorn.

It was very well done and quite absorbing. I was surprised to find that, after awhile, I was no longer aware that I was reading subtitles.

Having had a good experience with Wisting, we decided to try The Oldenheim 12 set in The Netherlands. While I would rank it below Wisting, I did like it quite a lot.

Our current watch is The Summerdahl Murders set in Denmark. Unlike the previous two series, it uses the more common short episode format rather than following one plot through many weeks although they weren't weeks for us. On Acorn, two 45 minute viewing constitute one episode, and the next set of two involves a totally different case although other threads continue.

Summerdahl is not as absorbing as the Wisting or Oldenheim, but it is passable.

As I mentioned, I was surprised to find that for the most part, I forgot that I was watching a foreign language program except for times when the white captions were over a light background which made them difficult to read.

One other surprise is that I still found it necessary to keep the volume at a somewhat normal level as if I were watching it in English. Why? I dunno.

Somewhere in there, we squeezed in The Comey Rule, a Showtime production that we were able to watch on Crave. They portrayed the characters well. It is only a two-parter that you might very like if you get the chance. It certainly doesn't do Rump any favours and makes me think better of Comey. They effectively began the series after he had made his Hillary email announcement, and I would have liked to learn more of the reason for doing what he did. What I did gather, however, was that he believed that he had an obligation to report and that he also thought that Americans would still be able to do the right thing. I think enough were swayed, however, to upset the election results. But that is just my opinion.