UKH

I don't normally participate in TV threads, let alone start them, as I don't watch much television - mostly movies. 

However I recently treated myself to the 1970s "anthology" series "Thriller". I am too young to remember it from first time round and I only recently learned of its existence, it seems to be forgotten/overlooked/neglected. 
Each episode is a standalone self contained story, like a 1 hour film. No connection between episodes. 
It's British, created by Brian Clemens, and follows a bit of a formula. Often an American guest "star", often quite swanky locations (posh houses, flashy cars and offices etc) and often a "twist" ending to the mystery. All quite grounded, no supernatural stuff (although there was an ambiguous daft one where a car seemed to have a life of its own).
It's excellent, it has a strange effect wherein even a weaker episode still feels good and worthwhile. 
And all the 1970s clothes, decor, hair and cars are fabulous to behold. 
Also you get young versions of actors who later became much more famous. Robert Powell, Helen Mirren, Stephen Rea. 
And the one that has George Chakiris as the American import, features Jenny Agutter possibly at her absolute pinnacle of loveliness (and, predicting An American Werewolf in London, someone actually says "you could become a nurse" to her )
It is way better than the similar and near-contemporary (a bit later though) Hammer House of Horror TV anthology that I've also been dipping into, and although it's a long time since I've seen Tales of the Unexpected, I'd say Thriller created a template that TotU failed to live up to. 

Cheated and watched the entire final series of Spiral on I player.

Definitely the best of the foreign BBC4 Saturday night shows and a worthy rival for stuff like The Wire and The Shield. Very sad to see the last of it, hoping for a legal type spin off ......

Did you not think things were a little too coincidental? I gave up on Spiral a while ago because of that, and because I couldn't stand the woman's posturing and posing. They always seemed to just turn up in time, or just miss out by seconds. Maybe I'm too fussy

I found the Bridge the same, but liked Borgen and The Killing, even better.

I hadn't noticed Laure posturing but Maitre Karlsson can pose for me all day if she likes.

Another vote for Thriller-fantastic quality all round-scripts, acting, production values-a definite high point of TV drama.

David Tennant and Michael Sheen are back with a second series of their 'lockdown' comedy 'Staged'.  Anyone who didn't seen it would probably be best watching the first series first.

The second series is a bit 'meta' - they acknowledge that the first series was fiction and talk about it as if this one is real, whilst playing more or less the same fictionalised versions of themselves.  There are more 'guest stars' this time, and as before they're all playing versions of themselves too and clearly enjoying it.  (It's almost impossible to say anything about them without spoilers though.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p08dnl67/staged

Oh and...
I started a thread about this already but it sank without trace.  I realise how ridiculous it sounds but Worzel Gummidge is really good.  Mackenzie Crook writes, directs and plays the eponymous scarecrow.  This has a lot in common with Detectorists: it isn't edgy and there's precious little excitement, it's slow, gentle, affectionate, witty and warm.  The entire cast are superb, particularly the kids.

There were two episodes last year, Covid restrictions meant that they only managed to film one this year (the original plan was to do two).  Crook originally wrote six scripts and says he's hoping to make the remaining three next year.

'Saucy Nancy' the latest one is ridiculously sweet but stays just the right side of outright schmaltz.  After four series of Detectorists and two previous episodes of Worzel Gummidge, Mackenzie Crook finally snapped and couldn't resist putting The Unthanks in front of the camera.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000cskw/worzel-gummidge

The Investigation

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p09343kb/the-investigation

I can remember following this on the news at the time.  This dramatization is outstanding.  It is up there with the best Scandi-drama's with the added knowing it actually happened.  Extremely well acted and treated in a very moving way.

It might be one of those things that once you notice you can't un-notice, hope I haven't fooked it up for you. I thought there was a lot of posturing the  bloke that play Roban got on my nerves and Gilou too. Anyhow, each to their own.

This is out of date but I finally got round to binging the final series of Spiral on iPlayer so I thought I'd add my tuppence worth. I was very impressed and think comparisons with The Wire are justified. I found the end-of-series resolutions moving, well-earned and beautifully shot. That's what actually impressed me most about this series: it was often more genuinely cinematic than some of the recently released films I've watched on streaming platforms: strikingly framed and composed shots; lovely variation of colour palette; very clever variation of focus. I got quite carried away muttering "look at that" "ooh that's clever" etc, not having the behavioural conventions of public cinema to shut me up. I can be very annoying.

Been doing that since Series One whenever Maitre Karlsson appears on the screen

I enjoyed White House Farm on Netflix. Dramatisation of a true crime mass murder that happened in rural Essex in the 80's. I actually did a detour on a recent bike ride to West Mersea to see the place but was presented with a sign saying "trespassers will be prosecuted" so left it and rode on.

Quite a good drama and added to the intrigue I've always felt that Bamber should have amassed such a following. I notice that the police are now being blamed for shooting his sister's already dead body by accident.

I may have mentioned it in a December thread, can't remember...but I slowly (deliberately - I was rationing it) finished the anime "The Woman Called Fujiko Mine" (a spin-off from the long running Lupin III series of manga / anime) 

I think it’s the only “self contained” anime I’ve really seen....and it was excellent. Very stylish and sexy of course, but also with great action sequences, humour, a large variety of interesting characters and a very intriguing overall story arc across the 13 22-minute episodes (quite a few of the earlier episodes are reasonably standalone but the last four or five tie things up in an increasingly bizarre and clever way)

Just finished it.....it was slow moving but so compelling. It was also a sign of the lockdown times that I had binged on so much Scandi stuff that the actors are becoming familiar. 

when you start recognizing the actors it makes it a bit easier to remember who everyone is as you try to read the subtitles

Agree with the quality of both Spiral & The Bridge being excellent. Just watched Frantz at the weekend, a lovely understated film mostly shot in b&w. A joint French/German production set in 1919. You don't quite know where it is going. Just started on Torn, another French drama with one of the Spiral actors in the central role.

Are you fluent in Scandi? 

Tak

I also thought that series was excellent. I remembered the case in the news but only vaguely. What stood out for me, (apart from the incredible job in actually finding and recovering evidence from the seabed), was the refusal to concentrate on the killer and to focus on the victim and the impact of her death.

My kid's into anime and has gone from the Kimitsu no Yaiba (Dragon Slayer) series into the Yakusoku no Nebarando (Promised Neverland) series so I've seen a fair bit of them both.

Cool stuff, but holy f*ck, it's not Barbie's Dream House.

It's probably wise to give the Urotsukidōji anime a wide berth...

I think it'll come up eventually.