For reasons I no longer recall, I set my dvr to record a series titled Wallander, which showed on MHZ. (MHZ is a foreign cable channel -- has news from India, Russia, Germany, France, and various other things.) I wish I could recall what prompted the recording -- the three episodes I have so far are in Swedish, English, and then Swedish again. At least I think it is Swedish -- the story seems set in Sweden. But the episode in English is set in Denmark. (My speculations are confirmed by Wikipedia -- of the clever one.) The English and Swedish versions have different actors, but the plotting and characterization seems very close, if not identical. Every once in a while a US channel picks up something from UK and tries to redo it. Some succeed, like The Office (which, at least in the UK versions I saw was far too close to life to be funny) and some fail (miserably in the case of Coupling -- the US version used the identical script and was still absolutely awful). But, getting back to it, the Wallander stories all seemed to fit together. I am assuming it was originally Swedish, because there were twice as many, and the English version was not even set in the UK. Aside from the curiosity of it, it was a nice reminder of parochial thinking and assumptions. Borrow from the nearby nations?! My god, such a thought! And for those of in the US (let alone Zion), it is so rare that it is a shock. It is one (of a number of reasons) I read some British journals. They have reviews and essays about apparently well-known folk I have never heard of, the obvious whole culture out of my sight. (The audacity!) It is a good thing to run into that with some regularity. It wold be even better if, after these several years, it was al still a bit of a surprise to me. Perhaps a board to get through the thick wit.
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