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Vol. 2 · TV · Inspiring
Chapter Two

The Inspiring Files

True stories and tales of triumph against the odds.


These 40 films have been quietly catalogued into a collection the editors call, simply, “Inspiring.” They are not ranked by box office. They are not sorted by release. They are arranged by something harder to measure — a shared emotional frequency, a kinship of mood. What follows is the reading list. Begin where you like. Read until you find the one that looks back.

  1. 01.
    The Rough Ride

    The Rough Ride

    1985·Created by Yau Kar-Hung·10.0

    The Rough Ride is a TVB television series, premiered in 1985. Theme song "Me and You, He and Me" composition and arrangement by Joseph Koo, lyricist by Wong Jim, sung by Anita Mui.

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  2. 02.
    Chernobyl

    Chernobyl

    2019·Created by Craig Mazin·9.3

    The true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history: the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl. A tale of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.

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  3. 03.
    Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story

    Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story

    2020·Created by Hansal Mehta·9.2

    Set in 1980's & 90's Bombay, Scam 1992 follows the life of Harshad Mehta - a stockbroker who single-handedly took the stock market to dizzying heights & his catastrophic downfall. Being directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Hansal Mehta, the series is based on journalist Debashis Basu & Sucheta Dalal's book "The Scam".

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  4. 04.
    The Loyal Pin

    The Loyal Pin

    2024·Created by Mon Maew·8.9

    The story of the prim and proper Lady Pin and the naughty but charmingly lovely Princess Anilaphat. The two are brought together by fate and have since grown up together.

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  5. 05.
    When They See Us

    When They See Us

    2019·Created by Ava DuVernay·8.8

    Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.

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  6. 06.
    Fighting Spirit

    Fighting Spirit

    2000·8.8

    Makunouchi Ippo is an ordinary high school student in Japan. Since he spends most of his time away from school helping his mother run the family business, he doesn't get to enjoy his younger years like most teenagers. Always a target for bullying at school (the family fishing business grants him a distinct odor), Ippo's life is one of hardship. One of these after-school bullying sessions turns Ippo's life around for the better, as he is saved by a boxer named Takamura. He decides to follow in Takamura's footsteps and train to become a boxer, giving his life direction and purpose. Ippo's path to perfecting his pugilistic prowess is just beginning...

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  7. 07.
    I, Claudius

    I, Claudius

    1976·Created by Martin Lisemore·8.8

    Acclaimed blackly comic historical drama series. Set amidst a web of power, corruption and lies, it chronicles the reigns of the Roman emperors - Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and finally Claudius.

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  8. 08.
    Narcos

    Narcos

    2015·Created by Chris Brancato·8.7

    A gritty chronicle of the war against Colombia's infamously violent and powerful drug cartels.

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  9. 09.
    Battlestar Galactica

    Battlestar Galactica

    2004·Created by Glen A. Larson·8.7

    When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies, the crew of the aged Galactica protect a small civilian fleet - the last of humanity - as they journey toward the fabled 13th colony, Earth.

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  10. 10.
    1 Litre of Tears

    1 Litre of Tears

    2005·Created by Takao Kinoshita·8.7

    1 Rittoru no Namida is a Japanese television drama for Fuji Television about a girl who was diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease at 15, but was able to continue her life until her death at the age of 25.

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  11. 11.
    Twenty Five Twenty One

    Twenty Five Twenty One

    2022·Created by Jung Jee-hyun·8.6

    In a time when dreams seem out of reach, a teen fencer pursues big ambitions and meets a hardworking young man who seeks to rebuild his life.

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  12. 12.
    Veneno

    Veneno

    2020·Created by Javier Ambrossi·8.6

    Adored for her charisma and her free, explicit and fun way of expressing herself, La Veneno gained popularity thanks to her television appearances in the 90s. However, her life and especially her death remain an enigma.

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  13. 13.
    All Creatures Great & Small

    All Creatures Great & Small

    2020·Created by Colin Callender·8.6

    The heartwarming and humorous adventures of a young country vet in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. A remake of the 1978 series.

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  14. 14.
    The Crown

    The Crown

    2016·Created by Peter Morgan·8.6

    The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

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  15. 15.
    Dopesick

    Dopesick

    2021·Created by Danny Strong·8.6

    The story of how one company triggered the worst drug epidemic in American history. Look into the epicenter of America's struggle with opioid addiction, from a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA, and to the opulence of "one percenter" Big Pharma Manhattan.

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  16. 16.
    Yell

    Yell

    2020·8.6

    NHK's 102nd morning drama depicts the life of a famous composer. Koyama Yuichi with his wife Oto. They meet each other through music and overcome hardships together. Yuichi composes songs that became "Yells" for people all over Japan in the Showa Era (1926-1989) in which radical changes were going on. 

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  17. 17.
    The Offer

    The Offer

    2022·Created by Michael Tolkin·8.6

    Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s never before revealed experiences of making the iconic 1972 film The Godfather that Francis Ford Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo.

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  18. 18.
    My Brilliant Friend

    My Brilliant Friend

    2018·Created by Saverio Costanzo·8.6

    When the most important friend in her life seems to have disappeared without a trace, Elena Greco, a now-elderly woman immersed in a house full of books, turns on her computer and starts writing the story of their friendship.

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  19. 19.
    Lovely Runner

    Lovely Runner

    2024·Created by Kim Bbang·8.5

    Right after Ryu Sun-jae, a top star, ends his life, Im Sol, his top fan, somehow ends up at a time when they were in high school and tries to protect him. A fantasy romance unfolds where people who missed each other in time finally meet.

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  20. 20.
    The Queen's Gambit

    The Queen's Gambit

    2020·Created by Scott Frank·8.5

    In a 1950s orphanage, a young girl reveals an astonishing talent for chess and begins an unlikely journey to stardom while grappling with addiction.

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  21. 21.
    Mea culpa

    Mea culpa

    1993·Created by Carlos Pinto·8.5

    Anthology series based on real criminal cases, featuring an interview with the actual perpetrator at the end of each episode.

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  22. 22.
    Snowfall

    Snowfall

    2017·Created by Eric Amadio·8.5

    Los Angeles. 1983. A storm is coming and its name is crack. Set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it, the story follows numerous characters on a violent collision course.

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  23. 23.
    Formula 1: Drive to Survive

    Formula 1: Drive to Survive

    2019·Created by James Gay-Rees·8.5

    Drivers, managers and team owners live life in the fast lane — both on and off the track — during each cutthroat season of Formula 1 racing.

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  24. 24.
    Time After Time

    Time After Time

    2015·Created by Elizabeth Jhin·8.5

    Livia and Felipe are in a forbidden love story doomed to end tragically. A century later, they both have a new chance to make their love real again. “Time After Time” is an innovative romance set in two different eras in which characters hold the opportunity to make up for their mistakes, come to terms with the past and write themselves another story.

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  25. 25.
    American Crime Story

    American Crime Story

    2016·Created by Scott Alexander·8.4

    An anthology series centered around some of history's most famous criminal investigations.

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  26. 26.
    Mr Bates vs The Post Office

    Mr Bates vs The Post Office

    2024·Created by James Strong·8.4

    The story of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

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  27. 27.
    John Adams

    John Adams

    2008·Created by Kirk Ellis·8.4

    Adapted from David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, this lavish seven-part miniseries chronicles the life of Founding Father John Adams, starting with the Boston Massacre of 1770 through his years as an ambassador in Europe, then his terms as vice president and president of the United States, up to his death on July 4, 1826.

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  28. 28.
    Hanzawa Naoki

    Hanzawa Naoki

    2013·Created by Jun Ikeido·8.4

    Hanzawa Naoki works as a loan manager at the Osaka Nishi branch of Tokyo Central Bank. One day, Hanzawa makes a loan contract for 500 million yen with Nishi Osaka Steel Company. Hanzawa didn't want to approve the loan, but he had to due to the branch manager's order. Nishi Osaka Steel Company seems financially stable, but the company actually hides massive amounts of debt through fraudulent accounts. The company is caught. Three months later, Nishi Osaka Steel Company goes bankrupt. The bank's branch manager is Asano. He is an ambitious man and tries to shift the blame to Hanzawa. Hanzawa then attends an inquiry about the loan failure at the bank's headquarters in Tokyo. Hanzawa denies fault and promises to retrieve the 500 million yen loan. He did this because it's the only way for Hanzawa to survive as a banker.

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  29. 29.
    The Tiger and Her Wings

    The Tiger and Her Wings

    2024·8.4

    In the early Showa era, Japan’s first women’s law school opens, and the protagonist, Inotsume Tomoko (Ito Sairi), gains nationwide attention as one of the first female lawyers in the country. However, after facing wartime Japan’s harsh realities and losing everything, she becomes a judge with her legal knowledge and dedicates herself to establishing the family court. She stands passionately for the hardships that politics and economics cannot solve.

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  30. 30.
    All Creatures Great and Small

    All Creatures Great and Small

    1978·Created by Bill Sellars·8.4

    The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

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  31. 31.
    ERASED

    ERASED

    2016·8.4

    Satoru Fujinuma is a struggling manga artist who has the ability to turn back time and prevent deaths. When his mother is killed he turns back time to solve the mystery, but ends up back in elementary school, just before the disappearance of his classmate Kayo.

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  32. 32.
    Wounded Love

    Wounded Love

    2016·Created by Nuran Evren Şit·8.3

    Azize finds herself with her 3 children and mother-in-law in a difficult fight. She raises her children while fighting the difficulties of the war period and her husband's absence whom she loves more than anything. It's about war, love, greed, treason and sacrifice.

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  33. 33.
    This Is Going to Hurt

    This Is Going to Hurt

    2022·Created by Adam Kay·8.3

    The unvarnished truth of life as a doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology.

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  34. 34.
    FEUD

    FEUD

    2017·Created by Ryan Murphy·8.3

    Anthology series of famous feuds with the first season based on the legendary rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford which began early on their careers, climaxed on the set of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and evolved into an Oscar vendetta.

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  35. 35.
    Unbelievable

    Unbelievable

    2019·Created by Susannah Grant·8.3

    A teenager is charged with lying about her rape allegation, but two determined investigative female detectives discover a far more sinister truth.

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  36. 36.
    Narcos: Mexico

    Narcos: Mexico

    2018·Created by Doug Miro·8.3

    See the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel as an American DEA agent learns the danger of targeting narcos in 1980s Mexico.

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  37. 37.
    Maid

    Maid

    2021·Created by Molly Smith Metzler·8.3

    After fleeing an abusive relationship, a young mother finds a job cleaning houses as she fights to provide for her child and build them a better future.

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  38. 38.
    Julia

    Julia

    2022·Created by Daniel Goldfarb·8.3

    Through Julia Child’s life and her singular joie de vivre, the series explores a pivotal time in American history – the emergence of public television as a new social institution, feminism and the women's movement, the nature of celebrity and America's cultural evolution.

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  39. 39.
    The Glory

    The Glory

    2022·Created by Kim Eun-sook·8.2

    Years after surviving horrific abuse in high school, a woman puts an elaborate revenge scheme in motion to make the perpetrators pay for their crimes.

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  40. 40.
    Welcome to the N-H-K

    Welcome to the N-H-K

    2006·8.2

    Sato is a tangle of anxieties and conspiracy theories, believing that the nefarious N-H-K wants to turn society’s misfits into a mob of hopeless recluses. Mysterious Misaki might be able to help Sato overcome his phobias—if she can pull him out of his existential foxhole and get him to face the world.

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— End of Chapter —