I've watched both the American and European versions of the Borgia, and found the American version to be better strangely enough. I thought the acting was better and didn't bring plot in just because it was "shocking" like the European version did. One bonus the European version has is its ending though. The American version was canceled in season 3 when it was supposed to be four seasons long.

Below are some dramas I've seen from Asia. I tend to go for more historical route (as I like learning history), but so many of those dramas tend to be crazy love stories with concubines that try to murder everyone. Dramaaa. Below are less intense stories good at getting into Korean and Japanese TV.

Japanese TV
Yae's Sakura - In the mid-nineteenth century in Aizu, a samurai-in-training, Yamamoto Kakuma and his sister Yae learn the ways of the Western world as the West begins to open up Japan.

1 Litre of Tears - This is a melodrama and extremely depressing, but it is really good. The actress is incredible. 15-year-old Ikeuchi Aya was an ordinary girl, the daughter of a family who works at a tofu shop, and a soon-to-be high schooler. However, odd things have been happening to Aya lately. She has been falling down often and walks strange. Her mother, Shioka, takes Aya to see the doctor, and he informs Shioka that Aya has spinocerebellar degeneration - a terrible disease where the cerebellum of the brain gradually deteriorates to the point where the victim cannot walk, speak, write, or eat. A cruel disease, as it does not affect the mind in the least.

Nobuta wo Produce - A drama about friendship, not romance. Shuji Kiritani, the popular guy in school, teams up with another guy, Akira Kusano, to turn the often-bullied Nobuko Kotani to a popular girl as a testimony of her youth. What starts out as a mere attempt to do something different in their high school turns into an epic friendship as they get to know each other in depths they don’t reveal to anyone.

Korean
Coffee Prince - One of Korea's most popular dramas, this romantic comedy tells the story of Han Kyul, the handsome son of a wealthy hotelier family who is set in his bachelor ways and constantly deflects his family’s attempts to make him commit. The constant pressure to get married drives him to hire a goofy young delivery boy Eun Chan to pretend to be his gay lover to scare away his family’s set-ups. Trouble starts when Han Kyul begins to get to know the hardworking and lovable Eun Chan, and begins to develop real feelings for him? only to discover that “he” is actually a girl disguised as a boy.This drama is freaking hilarious.

 

I agree. Those are quality tv shows. And speaking of Father Ted...

The Graham Norton Show is hands down the best talk show ever. With multiple guests at the same time ranging from local (often British) guests to Hollywood stars, you'll never know what's going to happen.

Like the surreal episode where Miriam Margolyes mentions that she's never met a black guy before Will.i.am.

Or the one where Norton embarresses British singer Olly Murs, not once, but twice, in front Mila Kunis and Jennifer Aniston.

Favorite though is the one with Matt Damon, Bill Murray and Hugh Bonneville. It's funny, they're drunk, and they enjoy themselves immensely.

 

My personal favourite Graham Norton moment was a drunk David Attenborough hitting on Jessica Chastain.

 

I'll second Blackadder and Black Books as two of the funniest shows ever produced. About the only thing that competes in my eyes is The Thick of It. If you like the American comedy Veep, definitely check it out as its made by the same creator and has a similar comic style, although I'd say The Thick of It is a lot more vicious thanks to Malcolm Tucker.

For drama, Top of the Lake is a fantastic self-contained one-season mystery show that manages to be intensely creepy while still maintaining a degree of realism.

 

I didn't keep track of it past the first series, but Mongrels was hilarious. You can't go wrong with a show with songs like Ugly Women Are Beautiful Too, Breaking Up Is Such A Faff, and of course, Middle Class is Magical.

 

I've always loved Doctor Who, and of course there's always Downton Abbey that recently wrapped up. Both great and very different from each other

 

I haven't finished it yet, but I'm really liking the Death Note tv drama that aired in Japan last year. The characterization of Light is a lot different than in the manga/anime and quite a bit more sympathetic, but I'm surprisingly okay with that in this instance. I'm not much of a fan of this incarnation of L or Near though, so I'm definitely rooting for Light.

 

I could always add to the ever growing list of British TV shows and I probably will. But for now:
Orphan Black is Canadian and pretty good.
The Bridge is a Swedish TV show and apparently good if my girlfriend is to be believed.
Wallander is also Swedish. Had a British remake too with Kenneth Brannagh so two for the price of one there.
Danger 5 is a quite hilarious Australian comedy with time travel and Hitler. That's always good.
Just to quickly add to the Korean drama list: My Love From The Star is essentially a short form soap opera romance and a very good guilty pleasure if that's your jam.

 

Fuck yes. That show probably has one of the best written (and subsequently best acted) female protagonists in kdrama. She owns it. I've never seen a shallow character given such depth/hilarity before.

I do believe the show was highly praised at the time for being the one closest to dancing around the idea of gay relationships in kdrama. I could see their attempt at making an attempt, I suppose. But yes, the gender bender reveal cheapened it, regardless of the depth of emotion that prefaced the revelation.

Gender benders and rich boy; poor girl plots. Ah, kdrama.

it's amazing how kdrama has not actually improved as a whole when it comes to scriptwriting. Kim Eun-sook still creates mainstream hits, even though her characters are stereotypical, shallow, and flat. Her plots are nothing fantastic either. But she sells, because her work is always a guaranteed mega-hit, and she gets the hottest actors of the moment.

A lot of manhwa adaptations are becoming kdrama hits, but they tend to fail. Cheese in the Trap was a notable example. Great start, great actors, great execution... and then it fell victim to what kdramas are most famous for: shitty final episodes.

Honestly, at this point, I'm convinced that only crime/revenge kdramas have any merit. Vampire Prosecutor and Bad Guys (same writer) were excellent. TVN's recent Signal was fantastic.

Oh. Yes. Liar Game. The Korean adaptation was really good. They completely altered the plot, but kept some of the games/characters. The villain is chilling--same guy who played the villain in You From Another Star/My Love from the Star.

One of the series I follow from time to time is Running Man (the Korean one). Freaking hilarious, though they're losing their touch.

 

Agreed. Other talk shows are only interesting to me if they have guests I want to hear talking. Graham on the other hand always mixes them up in highly entertaining ways making every episode worth watching. Giving them alcohol helps too, unless it's Mark Wahlberg.

Bad Guys is fantastic, but I couldn't get into Vampire Prosecutor. A kdrama really worth watching that is neither crime, revenge or romance is Misaeng.

 

You could try Vampire Detective, which is currently ongoing, but I honestly haven't watched more than a single episode yet myself. (Different writer, too.) It's supposedly the channel's response to a lack of Vampire Prosecutor 3.

I've been withholding on Misaeng for now, because office life/slice of life isn't quite my thing. I've heard excellent reviews, though. And I know it certainly did better in execution than The Producers, which dropped their unique quirky/experimental/western comedy style the moment they had an audience lashback to the stylistic choice.

 

Guardian: The Lonely and Great God.

Or simply Goblin.

Arguably the best K-Drama of 2016. It starts with a historical battle straight from the cinema films or Game of Thrones, goes into a royal court drama, adds fantasy elements and becomes a show about romance and bromance across time and lives.

All of it works because of a good writing and an excellent cast that with wonderful chemistry between them. The already mentioned (supernatural) bromance between two male leads is definitely a highlight of the show, but I especially liked the female lead who could easily be the most annoying character, but was simply delightful.

Despite quite few sad and tragic moments, pretty much given in any K-Drama, it's the show that in the end will lighten the viewer's mood.

 

Seconding the Goblin recommendation.

The show has some pretty great visuals and music but in my opinion it's main strength lies in the actors, their characters and the dialogue. The show is filled with interesting characters and excellent and entertaining interactions between them.

The show is well worth a watch, at least if you like K-dramas.

 

I like a Canadian cop shot 10-2, it is one of the best shows on tv.
There are also shows from the UK such as Line of Duty and Suspects.

 

Spoilers, because I had similar reservations, but everything was nicely dealt with in a way that makes it all work out.

Spoiler

Firstly, her not being an adult and being depended on her aunt is how her life was before meeting Goblin.

After that it starts to change, partially because of his influence, partially because she reaches her adulthood. By the end of this part, she's a young woman who managed to get into university of her choosing and is even financially secured because of her mother's will.

Then, without going into details, there is 10 years timeskip when Goblin disappears and when they meet again she's a successful 29 years old woman who (magically) doesn't recall who this strange man is and for a time being their relationship is reversed, with him pursuing her and her being mostly aloof about it.

 

To be completely honest I mostly agree. I was pretty unconvinced by the main couple and their romance. I found the rest of it fun enough to stick around however.