5 Shows to Stream in the UK This Winter

We’ve covered what to watch on streaming services before here at Cultured Vultures. As winter approaches though, we thought we’d offer even more sage advice on what to watch over Britain’s coldest, darkest months. If all goes well you might achieve a state of television based mental transcendence.

Right now there are a whole lot of interesting TV shows streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime. The pair are slowly becoming big time players in the television industry and popularising the idea that you don’t need to sit down at 9pm exactly every Tuesday to catch your favourite show. Who’s even got time for that anymore?

Consider this your cheat sheet, and make sure you know what’s cool first so you can tell everyone else about how right you were.

 

Into the Badlands

In a world where humanity seems to have descended back into feudalism, Into the Badlands follows a fighter called Sunny (Daniel Wu) as he navigates the dangerous politics of his leaders. From the trailer there’s a definite sense that humanity has regressed several hundred years, in terms of clothes and weaponry as well as social structures.

There seems to be several factions all vying for power, one of which has an army of ‘Clippers’, sworn to protect their leader with fancy swords, heavily stylised fight choreography and absolute loyalty.

Airing on the same network as The Walking Dead in America, the show will hit Amazon Prime an episode at a time. The thing that could make this show great is the attention given over to making the fights look interesting. Daniel Wu, a veteran of the Chinese film industry, seems to be bringing some expertise over to America for this series. The whole thing looks gorgeous, but comes with a distinct and sinister slave plantation vibe to it.

Into the Badlands premiers on Amazon Prime UK on November 17th.

 

Continuum

Sometimes you don’t quite get the breadth of a show’s ambition from its first episode. Continuum might be one of those shows. In a future run by a global corporate congress a group of anti-corporate terrorists are sentenced to death, only to travel back in time to 2012.

The show’s protagonist, Kiera Cameron, is a corporate police officer who also winds up back in time. Hooking up with the local police and a teenage genius she recognises as a future corporate leader, Kiera spends the early episodes solving crimes-of-the-week. As things get going though, everything that looked black and white turns to shades of grey

In a twist to how these stories usually go Kiera is zealously loyal to her corporation fuelled future. This is the question hanging over the series that makes it so compelling. Who are the bad guys? Are there even any good guys? The show’s creator originally envisioned something like ten seasons to answer this question, but has had to make do with only four.

The first three seasons of Continuum are available on Netflix UK

 

Dreamland

Anyone who’s enjoyed the BBC series 2012 and W1A will feel right at home with Dreamland (called Utopia in its native land of Australia). Set in a fictional government office in Australia called the Nation Building Authority, the show drops in a pair of genuinely sensible people and surrounds them with every shade of idiot under the sun.

Tony and Nat, the number one and number two in the office, spend their days trying to get much needed national infrastructure projects off the ground. At every turn, however, they are frustrated by the PR department, fire drills, meetings about new logos and endangered species of grass.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a large organisation will likely nodding along to this. Every office worker will recognise some of the characters here, partly because they’re likely to have already met them. With subtle but relatable humour Dreamland lampoons the way big bureaucracies often work so dysfunctionally.

The first two seasons of Dreamland are available on Netflix UK

 

Master of None

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bFvb3WKISk

Aziz Ansari, most famous for his role in Parks and Recreation, is a comedian on the rise. If you’ve never seen him in an actual film or TV show you’ll likely at least recognise his face. Master of None is his new Netflix based sitcom, and it’s surprisingly mellow and likable.

Ansari plays Dev, but who are we kidding? He’s basically playing a version of himself. We see Dev’s life as a struggling performer in New York, and early episodes deal with hang ups about his lifestyle and life choices. The big twist though, is that Master of None is really a romantic comedy.

We’re not talking about 90s RomComs like You’ve Got Mail or She’s All That. Master of None feels more like Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist or No Strings Attached. While Ansari is definitely the lead here, comedian Noël Wells kicks it out of the park as love interest Rachel. Set against the back drop of a distinct and diverse New York, Ansari manages to come of distinctly likeable in a way many who’ve seen him before won’t expect.

Master of None is available on Netflix UK as an original series.

 

Mr. Robot

With a distinctly unorthodox lead character, Mr. Robot might be one of 2015’s unmissable series. With it’s first series airing in America over the summer it very quickly became a water cooler TV show state side. So what’s all the fuss about?

Elliot is a genius with computers (there’s a lot of jargon, but you’re not expected to understand it all) with severe social anxiety and paranoia. He works for a cybersecurity firm contracted to protect the worlds most powerful company E Corp (or Evil Corp, as he’s trained his mind to think). Not exactly at peace with what Evil Corp are doing, Elliot is recruited by a mysterious hacker called Mr. Robot as his inside man.

If you’re looking for something light hearted this is not for you. Mr. Robot is dark – moments of black humour pepper episodes and almost from the start we get the sense that despite his genius Elliot is in far over his head. Despite all this the computer heavy world it builds is utterly compelling.

Mr. Robot is available on Amazon Prime UK.