Where To Start With Walter's Choice/Walter Presents

At the 2020 Oscars, Bong Joon Ho famously called out Americans specifically (and the English-speaking world at large) for "the bigotry of one-inch subtitles." However, there was already one man on the case. Walter Iuzzolino, the man behind the Channel 4 streaming anthology franchise Walter Presents, had started a mission in 2016 to bring the best of TV from countries worldwide and present them to English-speaking audiences in their original language. Iuzzolino initially attempted to launch Walter Presents as a stand-alone streaming service in the U.S. in 2017, but by 2019 had instead made a deal to bring his programs to PBS Passport under the slightly altered name of Walter's Choice.

Walter's Choice has been a massive success for PBS Passport, so much so the public broadcaster is now starting to offer the series for linear airing to local stations on Thursday nights, which hasn't had much success since Mystery! folded into Masterpiece at the end of 2006. Moreover, Iuzzolino has also started a production company Eagle Eye Drama, which is remaking some of the biggest series in English. With new viewers discovering these programs, either via their local stations, or the English remakes, it seemed like a good time to create a primer on where to start if you want to get into the Walterverse.