Happy Friday! This week’s “global TV to watch” focuses on Bordertown and Midnight Diner, two excellent TV series that are leaving Netflix.
While we normally offer up a trio of programs for you to explore (or re-watch) in this space each Friday, this week we only have two, Bordertown from Finland and Midnight Diner from Japan, because they are leaving Netflix after several years, and I really hope you watch them before they go bye-bye.
Bordertown
For a dark, intricate, and engrossing Nordic noir crime drama, Bordertown is one of the binge-worthiest ones around (until it isn’t around anymore). With the exception of one single-episode story, the series consists of dark, gritty, multi-episode stories that follow the police investigations into a variety of crimes, such as a series of drug-related deaths, the discovery of a preserved fetus at a daycare center manager’s home, and the murder of a man at the retirement home where he lived. And this is the tame stuff.
Folks who’ve been watching Euro TV programs for a while will recognize Bordertown‘s lead actor, Ville Virtanen, from his roles in series such as the fantasy drama Nymphs (the first series from Finland I ever watched), political thriller Occupied, and crime dramas Jordskott, Norskov, Rebecka Martinsson, The Truth Will Out, and most recently Transport. (As an aside, all of these titles, except Nymphs and Norskov, are currently available for streaming in the US.)
Anyhoo, Virtanen plays Detective Inspector Kari Sorjonen, one of the most respected officers at the National Bureau of Investigation in Finland. Like many cop characters on television, Kari is devoted to both his job and his family, but work usually wins out when it comes to where he spends more of his time. When he nearly loses his wife to brain cancer, he knows things need to change, so he has the idea to move his family away from Helsinki to live a quieter, more peaceful life. After discussing it with his wife, they head to Lappeenranta, a seemingly idyllic small town near the border of Russia, where Kari gets a new job as the lead investigator with the Serious Crime Unit. Kari’s plan was a good one in theory, in reality not so much, as his life in rural Finland kicks off with a murder case, and later his daughter becomes the prime suspect in a homicide.
All three seasons of Bordertown are leaving Netflix on Wednesday, May 10.
(The feature film spinoff, Bordertown: Mural Murders will still be available.)
Midnight Diner
Of the countless TV series I have watched over the years, Japanese drama Midnight Diner is my all-time favorite. I have binged all three seasons, plus both seasons of the sequel/reboot Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories, multiple times, and they never get old. I even bought the Blu-ray of the two Midnight Diner movies, because I wanted to watch them but they weren’t streaming anywhere. Like both series, the films are fabulous, and I have binged both several times, too.
#Japanese series #MidnightDiner & sequel #TokyoStories are brilliant, full of heart, humor & wisdom. I love them so much, I treated myself to the Blu-ray set of the two films (not streaming anywhere), also wonderful. Check out the series on #Netflix if you haven’t already. pic.twitter.com/SALHUL41aS
— Global TV Gal (@BritEuroTVPlace) April 9, 2022
Based on the manga by Yarō Abe, Midnight Diner is set at an unnamed diner that is open from midnight to 7am in Tokyo’s Shinjuki District, where the proprietor, a handsome (even with the long scar across his left eye), unassuming man referred to only as “Master” (Kaoru Kobayashi, Kyûka), is literally the chief cook and bottle washer. He has just one dish on his menu (excluding beverages), although he will make whatever a customer wishes to eat as long as he has, or the customer brings, the ingredient(s). Speaking of, his customers are quite an eclectic bunch, from the cross-dressing gay bar owner and the man-of-few-words yakuza boss, to the trio of gossipy, trash-talking BFF office workers and the philosophizing mystery man who always sits at the far right end of the U-shaped dining counter.
The half-hour episodes almost always revolve around one character (and feature a related dish), like the pompous food critic who transforms into a humble man because of a bowl of butter rice and becomes one of Master’s weekly customers. Most episodes end with a character breaking the fourth wall to give the viewer a pointer or two about the featured dish, even one as simple as butter rice. While you may not see yourself in characters like the stripper, the wannabe manga creator, or the gangster, their stories are near universal, such as being in an abusive relationship, failing to achieve one’s goals, and loving someone no matter what.
(There doesn’t seem to be a proper trailer for Midnight Diner, so here’s the one for Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories, which has the same format and feel as the original series.)
All three seasons of Midnight Diner are leaving Netflix on Wednesday, May 31.
(Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories will still be available.)
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