Tag: UK-acorntv

1. This Close, 2019

This heartwarming comedy-drama is about two best friends in their 20s who are deaf. One of them is a graphic novelist going through a breakup and the other just got engaged but is hiding the news out of fear of making her friend feel bad.

The script is sharp and funny, and like any first big production from a minority group, it also feels fresh and original: the arcs are unlike anything seen before, and the characters are a joy to discover and watch.

The result is something that feels like an easy and fun story until it’s not: in the first episode, when one of them doesn’t immediately put their seatbelt on in a plane, the cops come in and restrain their hands (their only way of communicating) to drag them out.

The two leads are played by the creators of the show - the first deaf showrunners in TV history. When they were trying to find a title for the series, they landed on the sign 🤏, not a phrase, that captured the bond between the two friends. “We’re showing something that’s intertwined... [the “this close” sign is] a sign used for “best friends, “like this” or “this close”. So we came up with “this close” from that."

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Shoshannah Stern

2. Black Snow, 2023

Black Snow has the sleek style of a modern murder mystery, but its concern with Australia’s colonial past that sets this show apart. As a neo-noir series centered on a murder, the show has all the classic elements: the hardboiled detective, the suspicious townsfolk, and the murder. As the murder is set in 1994, nostalgic summer-tinged high school scenes make it easy to root for justice for the show’s young victim.

But the series stands out as it's always mindful of Isabel Baker, always concerned with her and her dynamics with her friends, family, and her South Sea Islander (ASSI) community. Supported by the strong performance of newcomer Talijah Blackman-Corowa, and even consulting the ASSI community personally in the show’s development and production, Black Snow is excellent not just as a murder mystery but also as a depiction of a community that's rarely portrayed on screen.

Genre: Crime

Actor: Alexander England, Jemmason Power, Rob Carlton, Talijah Blackman-Corowa, Travis Fimmel

Director: Sian Davies

3. Line of Duty, 2021

Though it may be self-serious nearly to the point of parody, Line of Duty is that rare hard-boiled police show that actually works because of its commitment to being cold and clinical. As each season focuses on a new case of corruption within the police, it chooses not to focus on character but on packing as much meticulous detail as possible into its investigations. The result is a slower paced drama that may take some getting used to, but it's one whose every additional clue or revelation makes the nature of this modern police work feel that much more draining to the soul—a great change of tone from the heroic police shows we tend to see on TV.Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Actor: Adrian Dunbar, Claire Keelan, Craig Parkinson, Fiona Boylan, Gina McKee, Gregory Piper, Jessica Raine, Kate Ashfield, Keeley Hawes, Kelly Macdonald, Lennie James, Martin Compston, Neil Morrissey, Nigel Boyle, Owen Teale, Paul Higgins, Saffron Davies, Thandie Newton, Vicky McClure
Rating: Not Rated, TV-MA