British primetime is amazing

Look at the stuff that airs on, say, a Sunday night on PBS in America: sophisticated nature documentaries, grownup dramas about complicated people in complex situations. This is what is considered niche in the U.S. Then look at what’s on the major broadcast networks on any given evening: idiotic sitcoms, straightforward crime procedurals. This is what is considered mainstream in the U.S.

When you look at British TV, everything is reversed. Right now -- 9:30pm -- I’m watching an amazing documentary on Channel 4 called The Elephant: Life After Death, which is about scientists in Africa turning hidden cameras on the wildlife that slowly devours the carcass of an elephant. Channel 4 is, on Sunday nights, two episodes into a fantastic drama about the Middle East called The Promise, which is split between telling the stories of a British soldier in Palestine after World War II and his tourist granddaughter getting caught up in -- and learning about -- current events in Israel.