Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, July 20th, 2022

Here are five lesser-known streaming shows you should be watching.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday July 20th, 2022.

FIVE LESSER-KNOWN STREAMING SHOWS YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING
I spend a lot of time ranting about marketing and PR efforts - especially when it comes to shows produced outside the United States and Canada. And not surprisingly, I end up getting a lot of email from readers along the lines of "Okay, smart guy. Then what shows do you think we SHOULD be paying attention to?"

So I'm taking a bit of a break today from talking about macro streaming industry issues to focus on five streaming shows that deserve a bit more love from viewers. It's a mix of genres and countries of origin. But I suspect there are at least one or two shows in here you haven't heard of that you will really enjoy:

1) Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix)
While this South Korean show has yet to break big in the American cultural zeitgeist, it is a huge series in its home country as well as across Asia. A release from Netflix yesterday touted that the show "has been the #1 series in Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English TV charts for two consecutive weeks. It also leapt to the same spot in the Top 10 charts in South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, and featured in 14 other countries' Top 10 lists."

Park Eun-bin plays Woo Young-woo, a young woman who becomes South Korea's first lawyer with Autism. I have a teenage son with autism, so I am an extremely tough critic when it comes to how people with autism are portrayed on the screen. Especially when the actor isn't autistic. 

But I shouldn't have worried. Every note of the character is perfectly captured by Park Eun-bin. From her obsession with whales ("I was just thinking that this murder weapon resembled a sperm whale. Have you ever read Moby Dick?”), to her struggles to keep true to herself while also fitting into an emotionally complex workplace. She's charming and awkward and it's easy to see why as many people she meets want to protect her as reject her. It's an absolutely impressive effort by everyone on the show and mere words can't capture the magic of Eun-bin's performance. There are so many moments in the show where I see behavior that is familiar to me and it makes me love the show even more. 

Extraordinary Attorney Woo is currently airing on linear television in South Korea and Netflix picked up the show to air across most of the rest of the world. New episodes are released on Wednesday and Thursday, but it hasn't broken big here. In part because while the episodes do have English-language subtitles, they don't include an English-language audio dub. I suspect because there isn't enough time to create them between their TV and their Netflix premieres. But even if you don't love subtitles, this delightful show is worth the effort. It's truly one of the best shows I've seen this year.

2) Joe Pickett (Paramount+)
Based on the series of books by CJ Box, this series has the dubious distinction of having been mostly ignored by audiences on both Spectrum and now Paramount+. I had previously written about the shows episodes being dumped onto Paramount+ one episode at a time, but with the Spectrum premiere dates attached. So to people stumbling across the show, it appeared to be nothing but a few random episodes that are months old. 

All of which is too bad, because the show's premise is a real sweet spot for me. Michael Dorman plays Joe Pickett, a new Wyoming fish and game warden who gets caught up in an angry dispute with poachers that quickly escalates to a murder. The show has a familiar tone to viewers who loved other Western Plains shows such as Longmire. Although Joe Pickett has a surprising amount of humor in the show (at one point, Pickett is wrestling with an Emu at a farm called "We Second That Emu-tion"). Plus, the cast includes Sharon Lawrence and David Alan Grier, so there is a lot of scenery being chewed up in every episode.

The success of Yellowstone has shown there is an audience for Western-based chows, although television and streaming have been slow to embrace the trend. In part because it's a genre that is challenging to pull off with authenticity. But Joe Pickett doesn't have that problem, and it deserves to a bit more attention.

Obviously the show has some level of viewership, given that Spectrum and Paramount+ have picked up the show for a second season. But whatever the number of people viewing it, I can almost guarantee that those viewers didn't find because of any marketing or PR efforts.

3) Vigil (Peacock)
This BBC series broke ratings records when it premiered in the U.K. last summer, but (pardon the pun), it seems to have sunk without a trace when it debuted on Peacock last December. Suranne Jones plays Det. Chief Inspector Amy Silva, who is sent to investigate a murder onboard H.M.S. Vigil, a Scottish-based nuclear submarine out on patrol. She isn't the ideal person for the role, given that she's claustrophobic and hates being under water. But duty calls and this taut six-episode season is packed to the gills (I'm sorry, I can't help it) with red herrings and even more murders.

The best British crime shows have a certain distinctive energy and flow that make them a delight to watch. Vigil has all of that and if you're looking for a great crime show with some unusual twists, this is for you.

4) Visitors (HBO Max)
I mentioned this French series briefly a couple of weeks ago, but at the time hadn't had the opportunity to watch all of it. But if you can imagine a mash-up of Reno 9-1-1 and The X-Files, you'll have a pretty good sense of the crazy energy of this series from Simon Astier. Besides creating and directing the series, Astier plays Richard Garcia, a comic book store owner who decides to take a job as a small town cop. And unfortunately for him, an alien ship crashes into the nearby woods during his first day on the job. 

I can barely describe how odd and at the same time funny this show is to watch. There used to be an old joke about how people in France believed Jerry Lewis was a comedy genius. I'm not convinced that's the truth, but some of Lewis's peculiar comedic influences can be seen all through this show. It's wacky, scary and often unpredictable. I love watching shows that are unlike anything I've ever seen before and Visitors certainly fits that description.

It was produced by Warner Brothers TV and it became HBO Max's first French-produced original. But that doesn't seem to have motivated HBO Max to promote the show to any extent I could see.

5) The Knights Of Castlecorvo (Disney+)
To be honest, Disney+ seems to have struggled to find traction for any original series that isn't part of the Star Wars or Marvel universe. Which is too bad, because the streamer has had a few shows premiere over the past year or so that deserved a wider audience. One of them was this YA series, which was the first Disney+ series produced for the platform in Italy. It follows the adventures of Riccardo, Giulia, Betta and Matteo, four kids that have taken an oath: to be the Knights of Castelcorvo and save the children kidnapped by the fearsome 'Stria'. It's goofy and light-hearted in that way that you would expect for a Disney Channel show and despite a few cultural differences due to the setting, I suspect most kids in the Disney Channel demo would enjoy the show. There is plenty of action, goofball humor, teen angst and a Disney-appropriate level of young romance. 

In fact, Disney+ continues to release international shows on the U.S. version of the service with very little notice. Two more debuted today, including the Latin American series Siempre Fui Yo (It Was Always Me), which stars Mexican actress and singer Karol Sevilla.

Honestly, I could have made this list much longer without any problem at all. There are a lot of great international shows being produced by all of the streamers and it's a shame that as an industry we haven't figured out how to get them in front of the right viewers.

ODDS AND SODS
* The 13 job secrets of celebrity publicists.

* The Duolingo owl wants to teach you even more of Game of Thrones' High Valyrian. Duolingo’s expanded High Valyrian course also features over 700 new sentences directly related to House of the Dragon, and the company is set to begin rolling out a series of ads across the US featuring the language meant to test people’s skills.

* The anime streaming service Crunchroll is dropping the subscription price for its Crunchyroll Premium membership in nearly 100 countries. But no, not in the United States.

* GAC Media announced GAC Family will be renamed Great American Family and GAC Living will become Great American Living.

TWEET OF THE DAY 

WHAT'S NEW FOR WEDNESDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

Animals Decoded (Smithsonian)
Bad Exorcist Series Premiere (Netflix)
Dickie V (ESPN)
Grown-ish Season Premiere (Freeform)
Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi (Netflix)
Siempre Fui Yo (It Was Always Me) (Disney+)
The 2022 ESPYs (ABC)
Tudo Igual... Só Que Não (Disney+)
Virgin River Season Four Premiere (Netflix)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU THURSDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.