Vent: I saw a 'best shows' list at a coffee shop in Portland and it was all the same old stuff

It had the usual streaming hits from the last five years, nothing under the radar. Has anyone found a truly hidden gem lately, maybe from another country?

3 comments

3 Comments

karenlane1mo ago

I gotta push back on this a bit. I see people say this all the time, but most of the time the "hidden gems" from other countries turn out to be just as overhyped once they get a little attention. I tried watching that Icelandic miniseries everyone raved about a couple years ago and it was just a slow burn with a twist I saw coming from episode two. And then you have to deal with subtitles that feel clunky or missing cultural context, which takes you right out of the show. I think @singh.jessica is right to be skeptical because half the time you end up googling and hitting dead ends anyway. Plus, those festival winners often get picked up by the big streaming services eventually, so you're basically just watching the same stuff earlier. Sometimes the popular shows are popular for a reason, and digging for underground content just means watching a lot of meh before you find one that actually works.

daniel_knight3mo ago

Ever try looking up festival winners from smaller countries? I got into some amazing Korean dramas and Icelandic miniseries that way, stuff that never hits the big streaming menus. It totally broke me out of that same ten shows cycle.

singh.jessica3mo ago

Yeah, those lists are so safe it hurts. Daniel's festival idea is smart, but how do you even find that stuff? Like, do you just google "Icelandic TV festival 2023" and hope for English subtitles, or is there a better way to track down what actually won awards? I tried once and just hit a wall of sites not in English.