What To Watch On Netflix Instant: Edition #26

A Series Edition this time – here are 5 recent Netflix Series I enjoyed:

[amazon_link id=”B00WK6ZE26″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Witnesses (“Les témoins”, France, 2014)

This is a very atmospheric mystery-thriller series with two detectives in a small, sleepy, coastal French town trying to find the perpetrators of a bizarre crime.

Both the leads are fantastic – Thierry Lhermitte plays Chief of Police Paul Maisonneuve and Marie Dompnier plays detective Sandra Winckler. Once you start the first episode, it is hard not to binge through the entire season.

[amazon_link id=”B000AYEL6U” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]North and South (UK, 2004)

If you like historical period dramas no one makes them better than the BBC/Masterpiece Theatre. Also if you are an Elizabeth Gaskell fan, then this one is right up your alley. Netflix also has another Gaskell drama “Wives and Daughters” which I’d recommended in my last TV series recommendation post.

Anyway, North and South is a romance between feisty Margaret Hale and scruffy mill owner John Thornton. Margaret is a vicar’s daughter who’s been forced to move her home from the genteel south to an industrial mill town Milton, and she is adapting to the change in her surroundings. The hateful Thornton doesn’t make things any easier.

[amazon_link id=”B00EE3KMOI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]BroadChurch (UK, 2013)

This is another mystery series featuring two detectives – one female and one male, investigating a crime in a small, sleepy British town (both featuring steep cliffs, amazingly; cliffs are probably dramatic camera fodder) but this is very different from Witnesses.

Not as spine-chilling, Broadchurch is still quite fantastic – great, well-etched characters and solid mystery to investigate. Again, hard to not binge.

[amazon_link id=”B00HW3EXCE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Orange Is The New Black (US, 2013)

When this Netflix original series released it got so much positive press, that I always kept meaning to watch it. The premise seemed to be a little out there, especially because it was touted as “humorous”. It features Piper Chapman, a 30-something woman who is convicted of a decade old crime and sentenced to 15 months in prison. She enters prison tearfully leaving fiancé Larry, who promises to not watch “Mad Men” without her.

Prison life leaves her breathless, in a not-good way.

OITNB is very good, humorous, draws you in, although it can be a little hammy at times. Also this has pretty strong language/nudity/sexuality and lots of it, so it is only for mature audiences.

[amazon_link id=”B00CH3MAGU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]The Bletchley Circle (UK, 2012)

A group of women, who had earlier worked together at Bletchley Park during the World War, come together to track down a serial killer.

Beautifully done, and a must-watch if you favor atmospheric dramas with strong female leads.