SHOOTER with Ryan Phillippe.

Two episodes in and really digging it. Follows the very basic premise of the movie but is taking it into some very different directions so far.

Oh, and the Executive Producer? Mark Wahlberg.

I'm starting Twin Peaks over in order to be fully within the atmosphere for the third season.

Nothing beats the episodes focusing on James and the cougar.

I'm not aware how Spacey plays it, but Sir Ian Richardson (RIP) talks to the audience, more or less telling them what's going on - "Prime Minister's Question Time: a chance to do some damage" etc, and I don't think it's perhaps as mired in the political element as the US one might be. It's pretty straightforward once you understand the nature of any leadership challenge won and then held onto with an iron fist. I defy anyone not to be gripped by it. It's classic British drama.

Yes, the US version is full of cheap exposition too.

I ain't seen it, but the thing about the version I have seen, the BBC one, is that although it's politically-set, of course, it's almost more a backdrop. It's the inner workings of Francis Urquart's mind we see more than anything else; what he'll do to take and keep power, the things and the people he betrays, who he'll literally murder or have murdered to keep his grip on power. As I say, almost literally Richard III for the twentieth century.

I was answering your question about whether or not the US version copies how the original breaks the 4th wall (aka cheap exposition). But yes, I'm aware that it's about the ground breaking concept of a power hungry politician.

I was responding to your comment but the recommendation was more directed at Ped. I'm aware you don't seem to like the BBC version, but I think she might. If it's confusing or annoying her with all the politics, I was just pointing out that, in general, the BBC version doesn't rely quite as heavily on that as apparently the US one does. Put Urquhart in any other sphere, any place of power - corporation, union boss, police commissioner, general, pope - he would act the same, and so it's more about the man than about the position or the politics.

And those traits carry onto the American series, but go ahead and describe the premise of the show to me a few more times just to be thorough.

Once again, NOT talking to you. The information was for Ped. Not you.