BEST IMPORTS OF AMERICAN TELEVISION

Lately I find that every new TV crush I have has been imported from some far away land. Here is a list of the best 'import-casting' decisions they are making on American television. Enjoy.

Colin O’Donoghue

Origin: Ireland

Import date: He was on The Tudors but his big break on American TV was the second he stepped foot on the enchanted/cursed forest on Once Upon a Time and we all went “WHO is that?”

Currently available at: Once Upon a Time as Captain Hook

You just gotta love Once Upon a Time for coming up with all these new twists on the classic fairy tales. Yes, they are changing some of the things that we were told as kids, but so far I have loved all the changes! Red riding hood being a werewolf, Belle in love with Rumpelstinsky and Dr. Frankenstein crossing over from bookland using the magic hat are just some of my favorites. I was wondering how they would re-imagine Peter Pan and Captain Hook and boy did I love their new take. Hook is no longer a bearded, ugly, ridiculously dressed old pirate; rather he is a smoking biker-like bad boy. Greatest addition to the cast, if you ask me! Colin O’Donoghue is perfect for the role; you completely believe him as the bad guy but don’t care in the least, we are too busy with his hotness. His chemistry with Emma is great and I just love not knowing on whose side he is. On top of how great he is on the show if you do a quick Google search of him, you can’t help to fall more in love with him, because you’ll find out that he has a rock band and a cute dog that he dresses up with an eye-patch and a tiny hook… that is just criminally cute. This marks the first time everyone wishes they could hook up with hook.

Charlie Hunnam

Origin: England

Import date: Sons of Anarchy

Currently available at: Sons of Anarchy as Jackson ‘Jax’ Teller

I can’t say this enough times, Sons of Anarchy has the best cast. Every single actor is perfect for the role he plays. The premise of the show rested on this Hamlet-like character (Jax) who is complex, morally ambiguous and oftentimes violent. It was a hard task to make this character likable and realistic at the same time. Casting the right actor for Jax was fundamental for the show’s success. Charlie Hunnam is absolutely the perfect choice. He is disarmingly charming and tough at the same time. I have watched him commit every imaginable crime, cheat on his girlfriend, kill people and hit women and I still sorta wish to marry him… So wrong and so good at the same time, he is the ultimate bad boy.

Alexander Skarsgård

Origin: Sweden

Import date: He had a part in Zoolander, but went back to Sweden after that. His first big role on TV was on HBO’s Generation Kill (2008), and True Blood after that.

Currently available at: True Blood as Eric Northman

Who better to play a Viking vampire than this actor? That was a great casting decision. Eric is one of the most entertaining characters of True Blood and Alexander looks and acts exactly as Eric is described on the books. Plus he has that Nordic air that goes perfectly with his back story.  As much as we love (loved?) Bill, Eric’s appeal is undeniable. Along with Pam, Eric is probably my favorite True Blood character.

Jay Ryan

Origin: New Zealand

Import date: He was on three episodes of Terra Nova and before that, I am just finding out, he was on one episode of Legend of the Seeker

Currently available at: Beauty & the Beast as 

The Beast (yeah right) A.K.A. Vincent Keller

This is just another way to try to redeem myself from my previous backlash of Beauty and the Beast, a show I have to confess I kind of love now (in a guilty-pleasury-way, but still…) and the ‘beasties’, as they call themselves, are a great  supportive fan base, so I just wanted to give them a shout-out. I’ve already explained the reasons why I think people should watch BATB, but one obvious reason is to watch it for the eye-candy in the form of Jay Ryan. He is clearly very handsome, but the problem with really hot guys is that they tend to be very one-note with their performances and we end up wishing they would just shut up and look pretty. Luckily that is not the case for Jay Ryan, he is able to act tough but show vulnerability when needed and his performance is pretty nuanced overall.  Plus we wouldn’t want him to just ‘look pretty and shut up’ because he has one of the most amazing voices! His real accent is sexy enough, but something happens when he does the American accent that makes his voice sound especially raspy. If for nothing else, we should hope they don’t cancel BATB just to get a weekly dose of hotness.

Joel Kinnaman

Origin: Sweden

Import date: The Killing

Currently available at: The Killing as Holder

The Killing has had a tough path, cancelled and then uncancelled… My first reaction when I heard they were bringing the show back for a third season was “I’ll only watch if Joel Kinnaman is back”… and he will be! I was not familiar with Joel’s work before The Killing, but from episode one I absolutely loved his performance! We weren’t getting much information about Holder, but Joel was totally milking all of his scenes. He incorporated so many character traits into his rich performance, he had a careless casual vibe with some secret tortured past all wrapped up in some surfer/stoner package. Amazing.  He looks quite shaggy on the show, but if you Google him, he is actually pretty good looking. Also, if Alexander Skarsgård hadn’t been cast as Eric, Joel is probably the only other actor that could pull off that role and not just because he is Swedish.

Jonny Lee Miller

Origin: England

Import date: He was in that movie Hackers with Angelina Jolie to whom he was actually married for 3 years! But then he went back to England and came back to American TV with the short-lived Ray Liotta’s Smith and subsequently Eli Stone and Dexter.

Currently available at: Elementary playing Sherlock Holmes. Funny fact I just found out, he is actually friends with Benedict Cumberbatch.

I am one of those Sherlock fans that keep complaining about Elementary. I can see how it can be annoying, but can’t help it, sorry! Nevertheless, I think Elementary creators had perfectly good sense with the casting decisions. I love Jonny Lee Miller, and love him even more when he uses his British accent. If Benedict Cumberbatch (here I go again) was not in the picture, Jonny Miller would probably be my favorite Sherlock (yes, over Robert Downey Jr. I like my Sherlocks British). So, although I will never say Elementary is a better show than Sherlock, I do love to have Jonny Lee Miller on the screen for presumably many years to come.

Stephen Amell’s abs

Origin: Canada

Import date: Stephen Amell has been around for a while on shows like Private Practice, New Girl, Hung, 90210, CSI, The Vampire Diaries (when was that?!) and others, but we were intimately introduced to his abs on Arrow.

Currently available at: Arrow

I am not even going to post a full picture of Stephen Amell (face included) because we don’t care about Stephen Amell, we care about Stephen Amell’s abs. I am not even going to say anything about the show or the character of Oliver... it is completely irrelevant. They should just give up on the whole comic book story, re-title the show “Abs” and roll with it.

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TVEmpress

The TV Empress is a Media Management graduate, screenwriter in the making (and financial engineer in the meantime). She has serious plans to take over global television. You can follow the TVEmpress on twitter @TVRepublik