Show Spy is a TVSA column that takes a look at the latest new shows on the international TV circuit. The column will keep you scooped on the hottest, newest international trends in TV (without any spoilers!) and will also give our take on whether or not we think one of our channels should buy it for us.
The advent of TopTV in South Africa, not to mention the ever-increasing use of pirate downloads, seems to have spurred the broadcasters to life and South African TV viewers (those willing to pay, that is) now have more immediate access to international shows than ever before.
Two current series - The Event on M-Net and The Walking Dead on Fox FX - are airing mere days after the USA and many other shows are now starting well before they've ended in America.
There are three new shows that nobody appears to have booked yet, however, and it is our New Year's wish that someone does. We don't care who, but we do know which channels they would suit best.
Justified
There's been some discussion about this show on the TVSA Forums recently, largely due to its headline star: Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Damages) and from what we've seen (and heard) of it we'd like to see it in South Africa pronto.
The show is a modern-day western set in Hicksville, Kentucky (well, Harlan County actually), which follows Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens (Olyphant) on a wild bronco ride as he rounds up bad, bad men - or shoots them. Depends on them. As long as it's... Justified...
Justified is based on the short story Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard, whose novels and short stories have been made into several films including Get Shorty, Jackie Brown and Out of Sight. The TV series Karen Sisco was based on a character of his.
The show's title song - "Long Hard Times to Come" by Gangstagrass featuring T.O.N.E-z - is a bluegrass/rap mashup which sets the tone for the dirty, sweaty, rednecked themes of the show. It was nominated for an Emmy for best theme song.
Olyphant may be the eye candy and biggest bad-ass south of the Union line, but there is an amazing cast of supporting characters including Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins, The Shield), a hick who loves "blowing *bleep!* up" with industrial strength weapons like rocket launchers; his daddy Bo Crowder (M.C. Gainey, Lost), who controls the county's meth production; Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea, Dirty Sexy Money), Raylan's ex-wife who loves and hates him in equal measure; and Raylan's delightful father Arlo Givens (Raymond J. Barry, Cold Case), who despises his son so much he would sell him out in a heartbeat to cut a deal.
We think the show is a perfect fit for M-Net Action - the only wonder is that it hasn't been picked up yet. The second season is already in production. Since they've been so tardy - and the show airs on FX in the USA - it could also find a home on TopTV's Fox FX.
Either way, someone ought to get it before it rides off into the sunset.
Hellcats
You either like teen dramas or you don't - if you're a fan of Gossip Girl then you DO like teen dramas and WILL like Hellcats, set in the bitchy, catty world of American cheerleaders.
It's based on the book Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders by journalist Kate Torgovnick and if backstabbing, hotter-than-hell cheerleaders and their twisted love lives and interfering mothers sounds like your cup of tea then join us in calling for someone to pick it up here.
Hellcats is a coming-of-age story about Marti Perkins (Aly Michalka, Phil of the Future), a pre-law scholarship student at Lancer University in Memphis, Tennessee.
Marti is a hip, edgy townie with working class roots, whose world flips upside down, literally and figuratively, when her scholarship is cancelled and her well-meaning but irresponsible mother, Wanda (Gail O'Grady, NYPD Blue) neglects to inform her.
Broke and out of options, Marti realizes the only way she can stay in school is by repurposing her dormant gymnastic skills to win a place on the Hellcats – Lancer's legendary cheer squad – and the scholarship that comes with it.
It's not the deepest stuff around, but it's fun, light and a virtual visual orgasm.
Vuzu is the obvious channel that comes to mind - their line-up contains Gossip Girl, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek, among others - and we'll be gobsmacked if they don't get it. Sooner rather than later please, Vuzu.
And finally...
Boardwalk Empire
This sweeping HBO prohibition epic, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg and starring Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs) in his first leading television role, is undoubtedly the television masterpiece of 2010.
Renewed for a second season a mere 48 hours after the first episode had aired in September, the series received universal acclaim from critics and viewers like. Just as well, considering the budget for the pilot episode alone was $18-million (R128-million) and estimated costs for the entire first season range upwards of $65-million (almost half a billion rand).
When you see it - sorry, IF you see it - you'll understand why the cost was so high, and why it was definitely worth the money. The sheer sumptuous scale of it is unprecedented and the storyline and acting are exactly what you would expect from a cast of HBO stars.
Here's a description of the show, from HBO:
From Terence Winter, Emmy Award-winning writer of The Sopranos, and Academy Award Winning Director Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire is set in Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition, when the sale of alcohol became illegal throughout the United States.
America in 1920. The Great War is over, Wall Street is about to boom and everything is for sale, even the World Series. It is a time of change when women are getting the vote, broadcast radio is introduced, and young people rule the world.
On the beach in southern New Jersey sits Atlantic City, a spectacular resort known as "The World's Playground," a place where rules don't apply. Massive hotels line its famous Boardwalk, along with nightclubs, amusement piers and entertainment to rival Broadway.
For a few dollars, a working man can get away and live like a king - legally or illegally.
The undisputed ruler of Atlantic City is the town's Treasurer, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, (Steve Buscemi) a political fixer and backroom dealer who is equal parts politician and gangster and equally comfortable in either role.
Because of its strategic location on the seaboard, the town is a hub of activity for rum-runners, minutes from Philadelphia, hours from New York City and less than a day's drive from Chicago.
And Nucky Thompson takes full advantage.
Along with his brother Elias (Shea Whigham), the town's Sheriff, and a crew of Ward Bosses and local thugs, Nucky carves out a niche for himself as the man to see for any illegal alcohol.
He is an equal opportunity gangster, doing business with Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), Big Jim Colosimo (Frank Crudele), Lucky Luciano, (Vincent Piazza) and Al Capone (Stephen Graham).
As the series begins, Nucky's former protégé and driver Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) returns home from the Great War, eager to get ahead and reclaim his rightful place in Nucky's organization.
But when Jimmy feels things aren't moving quickly enough, he takes matters into his own hands, forming a deadly alliance with some associates of Nucky's that set the Feds, led by Agent Van Alden (Michael Shannon) on his mentor's tail.
Complicating matters further is Nucky's burgeoning relationship with Margaret Schroeder, (Kelly Macdonald) a local woman in an abusive marriage whom he tries to help out.
The show also stars Michael Kenneth Williams (The Wire) as Chalky White, the leader of the city's African-American community; Gretchen Mol as showgirl Gillian; Dabney Coleman as Nucky's mentor The Commodore; and Paz de la Huerta as Nucky's girlfriend Lucy.
Boardwalk Empire is inspired by the non-fiction book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City" by Nelson Johnson.
M-Net would be a good fit, but they can stick it on CNBC for all we care. At 2am. This is one show folks should not be dragging their heels on.
Those three shows would be top of our shopping list right now. Anyone got cash and a spare channel?