Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
We’d like to introduce international television enthusiasts—currently binge watching shows from Acorn TV, BritBox, and Walter Presents—to another globetrotting streaming service, MHz Choice. Named after megahertz (the measurement of transmission frequency) but pronounced “M-H-Z,” the $7.99/month platform and Amazon Channel specializes in adaptations of best-selling crime fiction, which they also sell on DVD. Current subscribers can access about 115 series from 13 countries, approximately 2500 hours of programming. With the exception of Australian offerings, all of the shows star non-English speakers and are subtitled with care.
Launched in October 2015, MHz Choice is a subset of MHz Networks, an independent, non-commercial education broadcaster headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, that originated as a merger between two local TV stations. Today, MHz Networks consists of 12 digital broadcasting channels available near Washington, D.C. Eleven of those are occupied by “direct from the source” international news: MHz Networks were the first to air Al Jazeera English in the United States, and additional broadcast partners include Russia’s RT and China’s CCTV. The outlier is MHz Worldview, a compilation of highlights from the news channels and three hours of primetime MHz Choice fare each night. MHz Networks also has a pay per view component, which offers the same options as the streaming service, plus four Danish programs (including Borgen, a saga about Denmark’s fictional first female prime minister, beloved by Hillary Clinton).
Bringing a global perspective to Americans is a poetic and personal mission for MHz Networks CEO Fred Thomas, who spoke with Decider by phone. When Thomas’s father was the deputy director of the now-defunct United States Information Agency, he had the exact opposite task: showcasing America globally through print and electronics. Specifically, the elder Thomas oversaw production of a propaganda-leaning magazine called America Illustrated, which was sent to the Soviet Union in exchange for copies of Soviet Life. One issue of American Illustrated featured a black-and-white, staged photograph of the Thomas family (three children, dad, and mom, who was then eight months pregnant with Fred) watching television in 1958. The image achieved iconic status and is now part of the public domain. Growing up in an internationally-minded home near our nation’s capital—Washington, D.C. currently boasts 177 residential embassies for visiting dignitaries—led Thomas to look outward for content when he joined what would become MHz Networks more than 20 years ago. Today, Lance Schwulst—vice president of content strategy for MHz Networks—said their well-traveled audience “skews a bit older, and female, and incredibly deep-pocketed.”
Decider distilled MHz Choice’s catalogue into to five shows that’ll help you sound cosmopolitan while drinking your next Cosmopolitan.
'Detective Montalbano'
Based on the novels of Andrea Camilleri and known as Il commissario Montalbano in its native Italy, Detective Montalbano just aired its 11th season. Luca Zingaretti stars as Salvo Montalbano, the police department’s chief inspector in the fictional Sicilian town of Vigàta. Crusty to strangers much kinder to his inner circle (including his cook), when not solving cases, he’s dating a woman named Livia Burlando (who has been played by three actresses and voiced by a fourth), who lives far away in Genoa.
'A French Village'
Now in its seventh and final season, this French import (also known as Un village francais) unfolds in the pretend mountain village of Villeneuve, which is occupied by the Germans. “What’s interesting about it is it’s a World War II piece, but it doesn’t come from any sort of military perspective,” Schwulst says. “It’s about just normal people living their lives.” In later seasons, the villain is Heinrich Müller (Richard Sammel), a Nazi officer trying to derail resistance groups. “While the show’s subject may feel remote to Americans in 2016,” The Village Voice argues, “it’s hard not to be struck by the stakes: How do you go on when your way of life is under attack by an uncontrollable force?”
'Wallander'
Wallander is police officer Kurt Wallander, the best-known creation from the late Swedish author Henning Mankell. The son of a famous artist, Wallander is an opera-loving, vice-happy divorcee whose restless daughter (Johanna Sällström and Charlotta Jonsson) survived a teenage suicide attempt. Wallander is fond of circumnavigating his superiors, and he was once stabbed with a butcher knife while questioning a drunk man. When this program—which ran for three seasons, from 2005 to 2013—was remade for British TV, Kenneth Branaugh played the lead role.
'Crime Scene Cleaner'
A trope-heavy German black comedy in its sixth season, Der Tatortreiniger introduces audiences to Heiko “Schotty” Schotte, a high school dropout now possessing the glamour-less titular job. Most of the dialogue happens between Schotte and the unfortunates—from relatives to prostitutes—who find themselves where a murder just occurred.
'Beck'
Beck is another police procedural adapted from literature. In what The Guardian described as “one of the most remarkable writing collaborations in the history of publishing,” couple Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö crafted 10 precisely-paced novels about Martin Beck (played here by Peter Haber), a sickly Stockholm homicide detective and father of two. He works alongside younger, acerbic Gunvald Larsson (Mikael Persbrandt), who has a tendency to rough up suspects. Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane on Game of Thrones) co-stars in three episodes.
