# Netflix  Recomendation : Happy Valley



## MarkinPhx (Sep 19, 2016)

I just finished the second season and it's just as great as the first season. It is a British show about a middle aged female sergeant in a small British village. Word of warning though...many British shows with that description tend to be on the light side with many eclectic characters. This show is dark and gritty and deals with heavy topics. Catherine Cawood is great as the lead actor but the rest of the cast is very good also. Both seasons are only 6 episodes so it is easy to binge through the series in a week or so.


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## Butterfly (Sep 20, 2016)

I just finished watching Marcella, and I liked that one, too.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 20, 2016)

Actually the Happy Valley lead's name is Sarah Lancashire. Her character's name is Catherine Cawood. I like her quite well and enjoyed her role in Last Tango in Halifax too. I enjoyed Marcella even more than Happy Valley as well as River, which starred Stellan Skargaard and the wonderful Nikola Walker (who was also in Last Tango).

I love this genre, the list is long, and I can't get enough of it.


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## debbie in seattle (Sep 20, 2016)

New season of Longmire starts Friday.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 20, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> Actually the Happy Valley lead's name is Sarah Lancashire. Her character's name is Catherine Cawood. I like her quite well and enjoyed her role in Last Tango in Halifax too. I enjoyed Marcella even more than Happy Valley as well as River, which starred Stellan Skargaard and the wonderful Nikola Walker (who was also in Last Tango).
> 
> I love this genre, the list is long, and I can't get enough of it.



My bad !


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 20, 2016)

Marcella was very good too. I'm finally getting around to watching the second season of The Fall.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 20, 2016)

Looking forward to watching Longmire also sometime down the line. Too many things to watch these days


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## Butterfly (Sep 21, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> Actually the Happy Valley lead's name is Sarah Lancashire. Her character's name is Catherine Cawood. I like her quite well and enjoyed her role in Last Tango in Halifax too. I enjoyed Marcella even more than Happy Valley as well as River, which starred Stellan Skargaard and the wonderful Nikola Walker (who was also in Last Tango).
> 
> I love this genre, the list is long, and I can't get enough of it.



I LOVED River, and for the longest time couldn't get that main song out of my head.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 22, 2016)

We watched the first two seasons of Happy Valley and happy to hear there will be a 3rd.


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## Bobw235 (Sep 22, 2016)

Watched the first 10 minutes of Happy Valley last night and liked what I saw. I'll give it a go.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 22, 2016)

A BBC series we've enjoyed (must have been on Netflix) was Inspector George Gently.  The setting is Northeast England in the 60's and I think into the early 70's.  Ran from 2007-2015 I think.  I love the accents!


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 22, 2016)

I'm looking forward to watching The River. Looks like something that is right up my alley. Thanks for the suggestion about George Gently. Sounds interesting !


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## bluebreezes (Sep 22, 2016)

I agree about George Gently, and thankful there are so many seasons on Netflix.

If you search for BBC or British mystery on Netflix, you'll get a good number of results. With a few exceptions for US TV shows, I much prefer the BBC and PBS shows when given a choice.  Loved Endeavour and of course this past summer the last season of Lewis. There's also Broadchurch, Wallander (although I prefer the Swedish original series with Krister Henriksson), Sherlock, Hinterland, Grantchester, Top of the Lake, and the Worricker Trilogy (sigh, Bill Nighy) to name a few. I have the PBS channel as a separate channel set up on my Apple TV, although it's frustrating how quickly shows expire.

A couple times a year I'll subscribe to AcornTV for a month to watch what's not yet offered on Netflix. On Netflix, I just watched a couple of comedies, Very British Problems and W1A that were both a hoot.

I love TV and feel that this is where the action is these days and not in movies, although occasionally there's a good movie. Just rented A Bigger Splash with Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes, which I liked quite well.

I'm reading one of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley books too (With No One As Witness), and I wish Netflix had more of the Lynley series available.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 22, 2016)

Sorry I got a bit carried away there ...


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## Ameriscot (Sep 23, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> Sorry I got a bit carried away there ...



No problem!    Any suggestions of good programmes always welcome!


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## Bobw235 (Sep 23, 2016)

Okay, my wife and I have officially gotten hooked on Happy Valley. Just watched five episodes over the course of the evening. What a powerful show! My wife is really enjoying it too. Reminds me of when I got hooked on Breaking Bad in the first season and we ended up watching a ton of episodes while on vacation.


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## Myquest55 (Sep 24, 2016)

From Debbie in Seattle:  << New season of Longmire starts Friday.     >>

I was going to post that too!  We watched the last episode of last season to refresh now my husband wants to binge-watch ALL the new episodes this weekend.  We did last year then had to wait an entire year for new ones!!  I hope I can persuade him to spread them out. 

We thought last season - the first one produced by Netflix - was the best one!  REALLY looking forward to this new run.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 24, 2016)

Bobw235 said:


> Okay, my wife and I have officially gotten hooked on Happy Valley. Just watched five episodes over the course of the evening. What a powerful show! My wife is really enjoying it too. Reminds me of when I got hooked on Breaking Bad in the first season and we ended up watching a ton of episodes while on vacation.



We watched all 62 episodes of Breaking Bad in two weeks!


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## bluebreezes (Sep 24, 2016)

Ameriscot said:


> We watched all 62 episodes of Breaking Bad in two weeks!



LOL, you are a hard core binger! I bet it was fun too.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 24, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> LOL, you are a hard core binger! I bet it was fun too.



When we find a series we like we might watch 5 episodes in one night starting with at dinner time.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 24, 2016)

I'm all for it and this is probably the only place I'll admit to doing the same, although sometimes I like to binge two series and alternate nights. I'm currently rewatching all of 30 Rock.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 24, 2016)

I noticed that season 3 of The Fall is coming to Netflix at the end of October. Something to look forward to. Thanks for all the suggestions for the other shows ! And my current binge is season 4 of Wentworth.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 25, 2016)

MarkinPhx said:


> I noticed that season 3 of The Fall is coming to Netflix at the end of October. Something to look forward to. Thanks for all the suggestions for the other shows ! And my current binge is season 4 of Wentworth.



Ohhhh Wentworth is back on??  I'll have to check on that.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 25, 2016)

I hadn't heard of Wentworth so will definitely check it out, as well as Longmire from the other thread. This is so fun to have all of you to talk with about good shows.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 25, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> I hadn't heard of Wentworth so will definitely check it out, as well as Longmire from the other thread. This is so fun to have all of you to talk with about good shows.



The closest show I can compare Wentworth to is Orange Is The New Black. I prefer Wentworth because the story is tighter. 

One a side note I just watched the new show Kiefer Sutherland is in. I usually avoid network shows these days but this one has potential. The pilot was scattered storyline wise but it is promising. Name of the show is Designated Survivor. I don't think it's going to be a "must see weekly" type of show so I'll probably just wait until it comes out to Prime or Netflix. Only "must see" shows I keep up with at the moment is Halt and Catch Fire and soon, The Walking Dead.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 25, 2016)

MarkinPhx said:


> The closest show I can compare Wentworth to is Orange Is The New Black. I prefer Wentworth because the story is tighter.
> 
> One a side note I just watched the new show Kiefer Sutherland is in. I usually avoid network shows these days but this one has potential. The pilot was scattered storyline wise but it is promising. Name of the show is Designated Survivor. I don't think it's going to be a "must see weekly" type of show so I'll probably just wait until it comes out to Prime or Netflix. Only "must see" shows I keep up with at the moment is Halt and Catch Fire and soon, The Walking Dead.



Wentworth is a drama and is different from OINB.  Much less sex and nudity and not humorous. 

I really liked Designated Survivor.  We are getting it the day after on Netflix in the UK.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 25, 2016)

I was just trying to come up with a comparison for Wentworth. OINB is the show that came closest in my mind. Agree about the differences although there is some humor in Wentworth. Just not as broad as in OINB. I hope that Designated Survivor does well because I do like Kiefer Sutherland. I liked the TV series Touch but apparently I was one of the few who did !


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## Ameriscot (Sep 25, 2016)

MarkinPhx said:


> I was just trying to come up with a comparison for Wentworth. OINB is the show that came closest in my mind. Agree about the differences although there is some humor in Wentworth. Just not as broad as in OINB. I hope that Designated Survivor does well because I do like Kiefer Sutherland. I liked the TV series Touch but apparently I was one of the few who did !



Yea, can't think of any other women's prison shows.  We've just started season 4 and I can't remember much laughing watching this.  

Several of us on this forum like Designated Survivor.  Looks like an edge-of-your-seat show.  I don't like watching anything once a week so we'll wait a few weeks and then binge.  Might even wait till the end and watch them all.  I think there are only 6 or 8?


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## bluebreezes (Sep 26, 2016)

Okay, we have to promise not to post any Designated Survivor spoilers for those of us who won't see it weekly.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 26, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> Okay, we have to promise not to post any Designated Survivor spoilers for those of us who won't see it weekly.



Thanks!  Or post that the thread contains spoilers and I'll stay out.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 26, 2016)

That's a good idea. I'm going to be behind on watching it too since I don't have cable and have to wait until ABC broadcasts it for free (usually a couple weeks later).


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## Ameriscot (Sep 26, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> That's a good idea. I'm going to be behind on watching it too since I don't have cable and have to wait until ABC broadcasts it for free (usually a couple weeks later).
> 
> I wonder if it's possible to get a Netflix UK account in the US? I might check to see.



We switch back and forth between Netflix UK and US.  However, Netflix tries to stop this.  Works most of the time though.  We use a programme called unblock.us.  Small monthly fee.  https://www.unblock-us.com/  but you can often get a free trial to see if it works for you. Sometimes hubby has to fight with it because Netflix sometimes figures out what country you're in.


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## Butterfly (Sep 26, 2016)

I love all those British mysteries, Inspector Morse, George Gently, Rosemary and Thyme, Agatha Raisin, Foyle's War, Vera, etc, etc.  That's why I'm so enamored with Acorn TV -- it's all British programs and movies -- and only $4.99 a month.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 26, 2016)

Oh yeah Vera's another one I really enjoyed. I watched an older PD James' Inspector Adam Dagliesh adaptation and it had a young Brenda Blethen. So cool to see her in her earlier days. I see that Acorn TV has now raised its price to $7.99/month, so maybe your rate is grandfathered.

EDIT: It was Death of an Expert Witness from 1983


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 26, 2016)

I try my best to by spoiler free when discussing TV shows with my friends. I talked my friend into watching The Wire and she is hooked on it now. I have to refrain myself from talking about it with her because it's been awhile since I last watched it and am vague on when certain key moments happened. 

Acorn is a great deal. I stopped my subscription and subscribed to HBO GO for awhile but now that there is currently nothing of interest to me on HBO I think I'll sub up with Acorn again. Thanks for the reminder


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## bluebreezes (Sep 26, 2016)

That's what I do too Mark, I subscribe for a month or so to one service and then stop it to subscribe to another. It's so easy to do now that there's no commitment. For affordability, I only subscribe to one at a time.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 26, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> That's what I do too Mark, I subscribe for a month or so to one service and then stop it to subscribe to another. It's so easy to do now that there's no commitment. For affordability, I only subscribe to one at a time.



I do find it easy to forget to unsubscribe at times though, especially when I do sign up for a free month trial offer. I once signed up for Showtime just so I could binge Penny Dreadful and forgot about the subscription until I looked at my credit card statement a couple of months later !

On a side note, I was at the library today and picked up the first season of Deutschland. It's about an East German agent who is sent to West Germany to do undercover work . It  aired on the Sundance channel and got great reviews from critics I trust so I thought I would give it a shot.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 27, 2016)

bluebreezes said:


> That's what I do too Mark, I subscribe for a month or so to one service and then stop it to subscribe to another. It's so easy to do now that there's no commitment. For affordability, I only subscribe to one at a time.



I got my sister in the US hooked on Outlander which I have to watch on Amazon Prime UK.  In the US it's on Starz (as they produce it), so my sister subscribed to finish watching it.  She has cancelled it now and will resubscribe when the next season comes on next year.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 27, 2016)

Ameriscot said:


> I got my sister in the US hooked on Outlander which I have to watch on Amazon Prime UK.  In the US it's on Starz (as they produce it), so my sister subscribed to finish watching it.  She has cancelled it now and will resubscribe when the next season comes on next year.



It's nice to meet others who are as much into quality TV shows as I am.  I have a couple of friends over on FB who I discuss shows with but it is always nice to meet others with similar tastes. The Sopranos kick started me back into watching TV shows again and since then I have spent more time and money watching similar TV shows over going out to the movies or watching movies at home.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 27, 2016)

MarkinPhx said:


> On a side note, I was at the library today and picked ...



Speaking of libraries as a source, yes! Our statewide library system has so many good series available. I don't know how other states do it, but here we can go online and reserve DVDs (as well as books and ebooks) from any library throughout the state, and get an email when it's available at my local library. The only limitation is that we can't reserve a whole series, but only an individual episode. I've found some older BBC series (like Inspector Dagliesh) on YouTube.

I'll look for Deutschland. We're not seeing spy stories as much anymore and I miss them. I have mixed feelings about the remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I recently re-watched The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and it was great to remember how good that genre can be.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 27, 2016)

Phoenix has a great system set up also with a large variety of shows. I thought that they might be a little selective with some of the titles but I can find most anything that the studios allow the libraries.

I started Deutschland and I am putting it on hold for right now for a very stupid reason. I know I will enjoy it but I am currently catching up with The American's and am keeping current with Halt and Catch Fire so I am kind overloaded with the 80's theme. All three shows seem to use the same songs to capture the 80's feel which is great, but kind of overbearing at the same time. The show has similar vibe to The American's . It's focus is on the Cold War and the threat to  both East and West Germany . I won't go any further but after watching 2 episodes I know I will comeback to it sometime down the line.


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## bluebreezes (Sep 27, 2016)

Halt and Catch Fire was really fun to watch, although I can't remember on which service I saw it.

I know what you mean about too many in the same genre. It can give a person weird crossover dreams!


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 27, 2016)

The first two seasons are on Netflix. I am watching the 3rd season weekly only because I discovered a great podcast which covers each episode after it is aired. Always fun to listen to the podcast after I watch the episode. I've found a few good podcasts that cover shows that I have enjoyed and go back and listen to them while driving or taking walks. It gives me a different perspective on each episode and has caused me to go back and watch specific episodes of different shows sometimes.


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## Cookie (Sep 27, 2016)

I'll give Happy Valley a try, as I'm often looking for something good to watch.

Just finished watching 2 really fun movies on Netflix -- Doc Martin and Doc Martin Legend of Cloutie, lots of fun and I highly recommend it. 

Also watched British Doc Martin TV show (7 seasons binging) really good too - some on U-tube and some on another online channel.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 27, 2016)

Cookie said:


> I'll give Happy Valley a try, as I'm often looking for something good to watch.
> 
> Just finished watching 2 really fun movies on Netflix -- Doc Martin and Doc Martin Legend of Cloutie, lots of fun and I highly recommend it.
> 
> Also watched British Doc Martin TV show (7 seasons binging) really good too - some on U-tube and some on another online channel.



I loved Doc Martin. I haven't checked out the latest one though. Thanks for the suggestion !


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## Bobw235 (Oct 13, 2016)

Just circling back to say a big thank you for the Happy Valley recommendation that started this thread. What a wonderfully gritty drama with some excellent acting. My wife and I just finished watching season 2. WOW! Can't wait for the next installment in the series.


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## Ameriscot (Oct 13, 2016)

Bobw235 said:


> Just circling back to say a big thank you for the Happy Valley recommendation that started this thread. What a wonderfully gritty drama with some excellent acting. My wife and I just finished watching season 2. WOW! Can't wait for the next installment in the series.



Not sure about a season 3    The star says she doesn't want to do another one.  Hope she can be talked into it.


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## Bobw235 (Oct 13, 2016)

Ameriscot said:


> Not sure about a season 3    The star says she doesn't want to do another one.  Hope she can be talked into it.



You and me both! That would be a shame if they stopped after two seasons. The star of the show was great. She shows so much with her facial expressions. A world-weariness of one who has had too much pain for a lifetime, and yet soldiers on. I felt so badly for her in the final scene.


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## MarkinPhx (Oct 13, 2016)

It does look like there will be a 3rd season but we will have to wait awhile : http://www.movienewsguide.com/happy...ed-sarah-lancashire-to-blame-for-delay/275005 .


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## Butterfly (Oct 21, 2016)

MarkinPhx said:


> I just finished the second season and it's just as great as the first season. It is a British show about a middle aged female sergeant in a small British village. Word of warning though...many British shows with that description tend to be on the light side with many eclectic characters. This show is dark and gritty and deals with heavy topics. Catherine Cawood is great as the lead actor but the rest of the cast is very good also. Both seasons are only 6 episodes so it is easy to binge through the series in a week or so.View attachment 32182



I'm just starting this one.  Question -- who is the man that the lead character sleeps with sort of off and on?  He's some guy who has just lost his job or something.  I can't seem to figure out who he is.  Maybe her ex-husband?


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## Bobw235 (Oct 21, 2016)

Butterfly said:


> I'm just starting this one.  Question -- who is the man that the lead character sleeps with sort of off and on?  He's some guy who has just lost his job or something.  I can't seem to figure out who he is.  Maybe her ex-husband?



Her ex-husband. They divorced after their daughter committed suicide, causing the lead character Catherine Cawood to go into a deep depression.


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## Butterfly (Oct 22, 2016)

Thanks.  Sometimes starting these shows it's hard to figure out who's who in the beginning.  Part of the problem is that I don't generally just sit down and watch something, but have it on on my kitchen TV while I'm cooking, folding laundry, feeding the dog, eating, etc. and sometimes I don't catch all the nuances.


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## Ameriscot (Oct 22, 2016)

Butterfly said:


> Thanks.  Sometimes starting these shows it's hard to figure out who's who in the beginning.  Part of the problem is that I don't generally just sit down and watch something, but have it on on my kitchen TV while I'm cooking, folding laundry, feeding the dog, eating, etc. and sometimes I don't catch all the nuances.



Some programmes or films you need to just sit and watch or you get lost.  Then others I find I can be online and watch tv and not get lost.


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## MarkinPhx (Oct 22, 2016)

Agreed ! No such thing as casual watching for a lot of shows these days ! If i have the TV on for background noise these days I usually put on an older show that I have watched before such as the X-Files.


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