Trailer: https://t.ly/2cKBr

You're going to want to watch this show.

Unfortunately there are only two episodes of the second season available, but boy did they entrance me.

It's kind of like pornography, you know it when you see it, you know it when you experience it, your focus starts to narrow, the rest of the world is excluded, you're all in, invested, it's not so much that the story is real as you want to believe it is real, this is what you're looking for, top flight entertainment.

Now there was a previous season... All about the end of mining in Nottinghamshire. What do people do when all the jobs go away?

But even more it's about the people themselves, their relationships.

Now in the second season...

Lesley Manville stars. One of the best British actors. She's living alone now, deciding whether to sell her house and move on. And on one hand she seems like a sensitive flower, but... The ex-cop who comes by, he kinda wants to ask her for a date but can't quite screw up the courage, even though he's a big handsome guy. And she calls him out on it, gets into the details, lays it all out on the table, ultimately deciding to go on the date anyway, but making it all clear what is going down.

Then there's the sheriff. Who is not only a woman, but gay. Are people really that modern, do they accept this? Not really. How does she navigate the hurdles.

Does she want to approve a reintroduction of mining? The area has been through so much. The loss of jobs. The illnesses and death from black lung. Sure, there will be jobs for youths, but at what cost? And how long is this new mine going to last anyway.

And then there are those behind the new mine. Big thinkers. They exist in every burg. And no matter what they say, they're not altruistic, they're in it for themselves.

And underneath all this is...

The youth. With no future. Dealing drugs and...

There's a murder and this is when it gets interesting. Because it brings out the warring families from the woodwork. How are they going to handle this. Are they going to battle each other?

And it's the spouses of the two men who run the families who are so powerful, so riveting, so amazing. Monica Dolan as Ann Branson... They don't have actresses like this in American shows. Let's just say her body is not perfect, she's built somewhat like a barrel. Yet with a pretty face and a good blonde hairdo...which bucket do you put her in? Is she like the girl next door, is she the lower class girl you were always afraid of in high school, she can be warm and yet strong as steel and then...

There's her counterpart, Daphne Sparrow, played by Lorraine Ashbourne, she's...a bit worse for wear, her face is dried-up, lined...just like you'd picture someone from deep in the heart of England, who may not have eaten enough vegetables, who was exposed to too much pollution. She's thinking. She has a good streak, but really is she just bad?

And the police... Do they even know what is going on, are they trustworthy?

I'm telling you about "Sherwood" because what it delivers is what English TV does best but does not always achieve, a direct gritty truth. It's something that American TV just cannot capture. America just can't get gritty right. Even if the landscape is gritty, the actors are not, it's not believable. But you believe the people are who they are in "Sherwood." A mix of those living in the present and those lost in the past.

And I'm always on the outlook for great stuff. And when I see it I want to tell people about it, so they can share the experience.

There's a hierarchy. "Sherwood" approaches the top. I write about other series, "Rivals" is not in the league of "Sherwood." "Murder Mindfully" is ultimately a comedy, whereas "Sherwood" is dead serious.

I'm not telling you so you will tell anybody else, I just want you to have the same experience I did, sitting in front of the screen, in the dark, wholly engrossed, edgy, involved, knowing that TV when done right is oftentimes better than hanging with your friends, going out to dinner, it can be more real than real.

Like "Sherwood."


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