Hi everyone, welcome back to English with Max. In today's video I'm going to give
some TV show recommendations for advanced
English learners. About a year ago I did a similar video in which I recommended
TV shows that I thought were a bit easier to understand than others. If you
haven't yet watched that I recommend that you watch that first. You can either
click on the card above or the link in the description. In this video I'm going
to talk about some series which are a bit harder. So this video is ideal for
you if you have an advanced level of English, if you already understand most
of the TV shows that you watch, and if you want to challenge yourself. As usual
don't forget to subscribe and remember that you can also follow me on social
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English tips and useful resources, and you can unsubscribe at any time. I'll put
the link in the description. Okay, the first type of show I'd like to recommend
are period dramas. Period dramas, also known as costume dramas or historical
dramas, are stories that are set sometime in the past. Normally when we think of
period dramas we think of shows that are set in the 1950s or earlier. I'm a big
fan of period dramas probably because they're often based on books and I often
prefer to watch the movie or the miniseries than to actually read the book.
At least when it comes to old books. I love reading newer books, but yeah,
books that were published in, say, the 19th century or earlier tend to be
a bit of hard work. I particularly like period dramas that are set in the 19th
and early 20th centuries. But just to be clear, I'm not somebody who romanticises
the past. I think that life was probably quite shit during the 19th century, even
if you did have a lot of money. But nevertheless, I love period dramas.
I think that all of the ones I'm going to mention were made by the BBC. The BBC
makes a lot of period dramas. I should also say that you shouldn't watch these
shows if you only want to learn how people speak in modern-day life.
Watch these shows if you want to challenge yourself, or if you want to learn some
new vocabulary, or see how English has evolved over time.
My favorite period drama is without a doubt the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice.
It's a six-part miniseries by the BBC.
I think I've seen it, I don't know, six or seven times...? There was also a movie made
in 2005, which some people prefer... But well, it takes all kinds to make a world.
I wasn't a big fan of the movie, because I think it's a story that's very hard to
condense into two hours and another thing was that they really simplified
the language. In some situations I think using simplified language is great,
but Jane Austen (who wrote the book) was known for being very witty and clever with
language, and I think a lot of that was lost in the movie. I'm sure there will be
people arguing about it with me in the comments.
My second favourite is probably North and South, and in third place is Jane Eyre.
They've also made a few movies of Jane Eyre. I've seen two of them and again
I think the miniseries is much better. I've actually read all those books. Sometimes
we surprise ourselves. Some other ones I enjoyed were (I have a list) Sense and Sensibility,
Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, Cranford, Lark Rise to Candleford,
David Copperfield and Bleak House. But there are a lot more. If you
Google "popular period dramas", you will find them. Another type of series you can
watch are legal dramas. These can be quite difficult to understand if you're
not a native speaker because there's a lot of jargon. Jargon is words and
phrases that are used by a particular group of people. So in legal dramas
you hear a lot of words and expressions that are related to the law. My favourite legal
dramas are probably The Good Wife and the spinoff of that which is The Good Fight.
Two other options are Law and Order and Suits. I personally wasn't a big fan of
Suits - I think I watched one season of it - just because I found it very unrealistic.
I mean, none of these shows are very realistic - if they were they'd probably
be quite boring - but Suits is one of those shows in which everybody is very
attractive and looks perfect all the time and is always sounding really smart.
That's just my opinion. I know lots of people liked it. Again, if you want more
options, just Google "legal dramas".
You could also watch police and crime dramas.
Some of these are a little easier to understand than others, for example,
Broadchurch, which I talked about in my other video, but a lot of them are very
fast-paced and they use a lot of police jargon. Some police shows that I have
enjoyed recently are Happy Valley, The Fall, Unforgotten, Line of Duty and Death in Paradise.
Some other options are Sherlock (some of the dialogue in that is very fast),
Elementary, NCIS, The Killing and The Wire.
I only watched one or two episodes of The Wire,
it wasn't really my thing, but I do want to say that if you watch it, please don't
think that most native speakers talk like that. There's a lot of swearing, you
hear the f-word in every second or third sentence, and while most native speakers
sometimes swear, most of us don't swear that often. There are plenty of crime
dramas to choose from. If you have Netflix or another streaming service and
you search for crime or police dramas, you will find a lot. I also strongly
recommend that you read about these shows before you watch them, because some
of them can be quite violent and sometimes, even if you don't see things,
the characters talk about things which can be quite disturbing. We're all different,
we have different reactions to those types of things, I just thought I should say that.
Another option is medical dramas. Again, there's lots of jargon.
I'm not a big fan of medical dramas, so I can't personally recommend any,
but some popular ones are (or were) Grey's Anatomy, House and ER.
And finally some comedies. I know I said in my other video that comedies can be
quite hard to understand, but it depends. If you want some recommendations for
easier comedies, go watch my other video. For this video I've thought of some that
are more difficult. The first one is The Big Bang Theory.
There is also Young Sheldon, which is a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory.
That one can be a bit tricky
because it's set in Texas and lots of the characters have strong accents.
Another comedy is Gilmore Girls. This wasn't one of my favourite shows, but I
did watch the entire series. Gilmore Girls can be quite hard because there's
a lot of fast dialogue and there are a lot of cultural references, which even I
didn't get sometimes. Another one is Community. It's very different to Gilmore Girls,
but it also has a lot of very fast dialogue and a lot of cultural
references, which can be hard to understand if you didn't grow up in an
English-speaking country. One of my favourite British comedies is Fawlty Towers.
This was actually made in the 70s, but it's become a classic and lots of
people still love it. Another British comedy show that I like is Would I Lie to You?
This isn't a fictional story, it's a panel show. I think this video is
already getting quite long, so I won't describe it, I'll just let you Google it.
And finally I'd like to recommend an Australian series. Unfortunately this
only ran for one season, which I was very sad about because in general I don't really
like Australian TV shows. I watch a few Australian shows with political satire
and occasionally a reality show, but in my opinion Australia hasn't produced
many great fictional series. Sisters is actually a comedy-drama or a dramedy,
which basically means it's a drama that has some funny moments. It's available on
Netflix in Australia, so maybe that means it's also available in other countries.
That's it, guys. I hope you found this useful. Let me know in the comments if
you like to watch series and which ones, particularly if they're in English.
And as usual, if you liked the video, please hit the thumbs up
and share it with your friends. See you next time!
...dramas...
... just have to sear...
So...
It's hot today.
My cat's meowing. Monty, go away.
Oh shit, I left it running.
Read the movie... "Read the movie."