https://t.ly/lBaRk

1

This is a really good TV show.

But it’s on BritBox.

I know, I know, you’re sick of having to subscribe to another streaming platform, and I am too, but I was running out of blue chip shows.

As you know, I won’t watch week to week. Therefore I won’t pay for Apple TV+. And the interesting thing is when the series ends, I usually don’t go back and sign up to watch it straight through. I noticed this happening with movies a few years back. I’d make a notation to stream it when it came to television, but when it was finally available, I just couldn’t create the inner oomph to partake. And my point here is never, NEVER hold back anything from the audience today. You might think you’re winning, you might think you’re building water cooler buzz, but the joke is on you. If you don’t make something readily available, the masses will just move right past it, you’ll miss the target and not even know it.

Kinda like the Hawk Tuah girl. Are we going to be talking about her a year from now? Three months from now? Strike when the iron is hot. You think everybody is paying attention, everybody is hungry for your product, when in truth most people are just shrugging if they are even aware of it.

But there are a limited number of good series out there.

This is what purveyors will never acknowledge. That most of what they’re selling is mediocre, in a world of plenty. And if someone finds something good, they’ll tell everybody they know about it. And oftentimes it’s the left field that even the purveyor did not see as a hit that succeeds. Like “Squid Game.” And “Tiger King.” (Forget the backlash against the latter, the bottom line is these people were so whacked, you couldn’t stop watching them.)

As for “Blue Lights”…

It’s a BBC production, so if you live in the U.K. you’re probably aware of it.

And if you’re in some country other than the U.S. it might be available on a service you’re already paying for, channels are different in Canada, and Australia, and…

But in the U.S. you have to pay extra for it. Which even though it’s de minimis, $8.99 for two seasons, twelve one hour episodes, a deal when you compare it to going to a two hour movie, it’s hard to get people over the transom, so I don’t expect “Blue Lights” to be the talk of America.

Then again, how much do people know about Belfast? The Troubles?

I’ve been there. Pretty amazing.

But “Blue Lights” is set in the present. And it’s all about emergency services patrolling the landscape, trying to put out fires, both metaphorical and physical. Where half the people hate the peelers. (They’re called that after Sir Robert Peel, who formed the first modern police force in London in 1829, and that’s also why cops in Britain are called “Bobbies,” get it?)

There are certain areas where the peelers are afraid to go. The residents don’t need no stinkin’ police people, they’re the enemy, and not only will they not cooperate, they’ll fight back, with sticks and stones and bones might be broken.

2

I know, I know, you’ve seen enough cop shows. And I must say, “Blue Lights” is not a revelation. And it is not as good as “Spiral,” the pinnacle of the genre, but compared to what’s on American television, what the algorithm serves up, it’s far superior.

You see you’ve got peelers on probation. Are they going to make it? Are they going to stay on the street or move higher up?

And all policing is about compromise, bending the rules. To what degree do you go along to get along and to what degree do you stand your ground?

And this isn’t the weathered male police force of 1970s New York. Half of the peelers are women. Can women and men work alongside each other with no sexual tension? That’s a question that’s asked here.

And so many underlying issues. What’s it like to be biracial where everybody is not? Can you lift up a community or is it basically Chinatown? Should you take the law into your own hands? Does it always come down to intimidation and raw force?

All these questions and more are asked.

You can watch the typical TV fare, but if you want something deeper, I recommend “Blue Lights.”

And now that I’m paying for BritBox for a month, I’m looking for another show on the channel.