>When I grew up in the 80s/90s, American shows were better than local ones because European actors were very bad at acting.
I don't know where you grew up, but this is demonstrably untrue. Maybe you're referring to some low-budget domestic "shows", but French, Italian, German, Polish, Scandinavian, etc. cinema was on par with Hollywood in terms of acting talent.
I'm not quite sure about most other European countries, but German cinema is famously bad. There is the occasional comedy that is at least watchable to pass the time if nothing else is on. But other than that, formulaic, badly acted drivel that is just produced to grab state film subsidies. The only German production I would call good is "Das Boot", and that is decades old by now. With lots of squinting maybe "Lola rennt".
As for German TV shows, there is a bunch of bad soaps and "Krimis", badly acted, formulaic criminal investigation stuff. Usually with the police as universal good guys working through some tough midlife crisis problems, a token dialect actor from the region that episode is supposed to be set and a story that makes your brain bleed. With a raised finger moral point du jour to educate the stupid plebs out there as to how they are misbehaving. You would have to go back to "Raumpatroullie Orion" to even get science fiction, not to mention any other genre that is popular with non-old-people (Yes, Netflix is definitely an improvement there).
Yeah, German TV in general is just pathetically bad, however the documentaries produced by NDR ("die nordreportage") and some others of the "Dritte"/"Spartensender" [0] are really quite good most of the time.
Interesting topics, rarely any fluff or artificial tension, almost no overly dramatic music just for the sake of it, just all around well produced programmes.
An interesting programme from one of the "Dritte" called WDR was e.g. "Feuer & Flamme".
On the topic of "Krimis" (crime drama type shows) however I have to agree with the other commenters that it's just formulaic trash.
"Tatort" for example is by many regarded as a good or even excellent show, from when I tried watching it a few times over the years, it was often just the "moral education packaged in flat drama" with a very see-through "current issues" topic selection. Just pathetic.
Don't get me wrong, I also rewatched some less recent American crime dramas like NCIS etc. and especially in one episode of NCIS LA (really lame spin-off IMO) it was very much "How dare you be a hacker and government whistleblower, don't you know how that hurts Our Troops(tm)?" with the black bald guy saying that to and then assaulting that suspect. YAY, moral panic!
[0]: for foreigners, these are the state-run/-sponsored TV channels for different large parts of Germany, like NDR for the northern part etc. Basically smaller regional parts of the ARD/ZDF.
True!! We did get some German police shows and I know exactly what you mean. Like Derrick and Der Alte.
But maybe it was also the way that there was always this bleakness in it. Whereas US series had the opposite thing, they were more colourful. Thinking of Miami Vice with their neon lights and blue skies at night.
I grew up in the Netherlands... Most shows from my youth were pretty poor, I thought. Very strong overacting (especially the older actors), very poor decors etc.
All the old actors have this "toneelschoolstem" (acting school voice) which is horrible for realism.
I don't know where you grew up, but this is demonstrably untrue. Maybe you're referring to some low-budget domestic "shows", but French, Italian, German, Polish, Scandinavian, etc. cinema was on par with Hollywood in terms of acting talent.