“Shetland.” “What We Do in the Shadows.”

“Shetland” (BritBox via Amazon Prime). Scottish crime drama series, based upon the novels of Ann Cleeves. 7 Seasons; 8th Season is upcoming but lead Douglas Henshall will not return as DI Jimmy Pérez. Mr Henshall won the 2016 BAFTA Scotland award for best actor and the series received the award for Best TV Drama. The stories take place largely on the eponymous archipelago, although some of the filming takes place on the Scottish mainland.

       Small town police drama is always very interesting, intriguing, and entertaining to me. “Vera,” “The Bay,” “Five Days,” all good. And British TV doesn’t spit out too much cussing, darkened interior photography, and overwrought sex scenes. My old grandpa grumpiness is served!  

       “Shetland” isn’t so extraordinary. In fact, it is so ordinary that it exudes poignant realism that is so accessible a binge-watch doesn’t render wearied brain cells. But I didn’t binge-watch on “Shetland.” I simply watched similar to reading tiny, community newspaper’s police blotter reports. DI Perez isn’t so bombastic; I do it my way kind of copper. He works by the rules and even leaves old-fashioned sentimentalism and moralistic yarns along the way. His crew are ordinary, everyday people as well. 

       Alison O'Donnell as DS Tosh McIntosh seemed like a clueless new college grad off a dental school, and Steven Robertson as DC Sandy Wilson is amateurish and can be unprofessionally emotional. But they get the job done so no problemo. 🎥📺📹

“What We Do in the Shadows.” (Hulu.) 5 Seasons. Mockumentary comedy horror, based on the 2014 New Zealand film of the same name, written by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Mr Waititi is also connected with another Hulu hit, “Reservation Dogs.” 

       Set primarily in Staten Island, New York City in New York, the series follows the lives of three traditional vampires, Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja; Colin Robinson, an energy vampire; and Guillermo, Nandor's familiar. The series revolves around the vampires clashing with the modern world, other supernatural beings, and/or each other, while in secret, Guillermo tries to balance his loyalty to Nandor with his dangerous family ancestry.

       My favorites are Nandor (Kayvan Novak, with a weird accent that is already funny as is) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou, ecstatically crazy but also sexy and erotic to me). I dug Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch, cool till S3 and S4) and his energy vampiric ways until they turned him into that stoopid little kid, which wasn’t funny at all; in fact, bizarre. 

       But “What We Do…” is a fine show for those who laugh for the mere sake of laughing. And the ghouls, monsters, and dark denizens are crazy, too. Awesome prosthetics, costumes, and stuff. Go try a few episodes and get hooked to Nandor’s “can’t place it” accent. 🎥📺📹

SOME that we/I gave up, midway:

“Rosemary & Thyme” (BritBox via Amazon) British “cosy mystery” thriller, features gardening detectives Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. The theme is murder mysteries in the setting of professional gardening jobs. “Cozy mysteries” or "cozies" are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur off stage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. 

“Station Eleven” (HBO Max via Amazon) post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction. Premise: Twenty years after a flu pandemic resulted in the collapse of civilization, a group of survivors who make their living as traveling performers encounter a violent cult. Not so enamored with this series yet. If it doesn’t grab me after this episode, I’d replace it with another sci-fi “Silo” (Apple TV+).