When the star of the show is the setting

I have been watching many shows from British Commonwealth countries during the past two years.  Often the biggest treat to these shows is the way they show the settings in which they take place.

Here are some examples:

Death in Paradise.  This BBC series takes place on the fictional island of Saint Marie, a Caribbean island near Guadeloupe and Martinique.  It is shot on Guadeloupe.  The format is a bit formulaic and even hokey, as the chief detective always gathers the suspects together at the end and reveals which one of them them actually committed the murder; however, the scenery and the glimpses into the native culture more than make up for this slight drawback.

The Last Post.  This BBC series takes place in the city of Aden, and depicts life on a British army post during the last years of the British occupation of Yemen.  There are two main themes here; one is the relationship of the British soldiers to the native people, and the other is the depiction of the bored lives of the soldiers' wives, who are stuck there with little to do, amid the sexual revolution of the 1960s.  Oddly, the show is shot in Cape Town, but the visuals accurately reflect the Aden location, with the desert, coast, mountains, and colonial architecture. The show is said to accurately reflect the lives of the British families in Yemen during this turbulent period, in which an active guerrilla movement was underway to drive the British out of the the country.  (Britain did in fact leave the country in 1967.)  The last episode is quite gut-wrenching in its depiction of a court-martial of an officer for disobeying orders by negotiating with terrorists for the release of a hostage.  The court-martial fell apart when it was shown that the British Secretary for Colonial Affairs was similarly negotiating with the terrorist leader, even as the official British policy remained opposed to this.

Mystery Road.  This is a six-episode mini-series, with all episodes dealing with a single case.  It is set in the Australian outback, and deals sympathetically with the problems of the native (Aboriginal) people, as do all the shows listed in this post.

The Brokenwood Mysteries.  This is set in a fictional small town in New Zealand.  It is shot in various small towns north of Auckland, with the town of Warkworth doubling as Brokenwood.

Broadchurch.  This three-season series is a crime drama set in a fictional English town.  The setting is stunningly beautiful, with the English coast and cliffs playing a large part.

Vera.  This excellent British TV crime drama is filmed in the county of Northumberland, the northernmost county in England, located on the Scottish border. It is also the most rural county in England, with only 62 people per square kilometer. The show showcases the beauty of the rural landscape. The setting, in fact, has become so popular that there are now "Vera tours", in which you can take a bus tour of many of the locations from past episodes.

This is only a small sampling of the many series which give us a glimpse of faraway places and cultures.  I strongly recommend all of them.