I’m focusing more on the English speaking countries here so Britain and Australia bubble to the top of the list.

Here’s some of my favorites:

1) New Tricks – A funny cop drama where old coots are brought back to solve cold cases.

2) Life on Mars – A Detective Chief Inspector is hit by a car, is he in a coma or has he really been transported back to 1973?

3) The IT Crowd – Don’t worry, it’s not a lot of tech jargon. It is gut busting funny though. Supposedly a U.S. version is in the works but I’m not so sure it’d work.

4) Torchwood – The spinoff from Dr. Who. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I never watched the original Dr. Who. It just left me cold, I was much more a space sci-fi nut, still am. But Torchwood is very interesting.

5) The Librarians – This is an Australian Broadcasting Company production about a totally dysfunctional library staff headed by a neurotic. Having worked with library and archives folks I have to say the humor in this one is top shelf.

So there we have it, some very good stuff that isn’t on U.S. television. Fortunately if you follow the links it’s all online now.