On Netflix: 'Happy Valley' is 2014's Best New Cop Show

Sarah Lancashire as Sgt. Catherine Cawood in the miniseries "Happy Valley".

West Yorkshire Police Sgt. Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) charges onto the screen in just the first three minutes of the entire miniseries with her backstory. She's 47, divorced and has two kids (one dead, and one who doesn't talk to her). She has one grandchild, and her sister, a recovering heroin-addict, lives with her. That's how she introduces herself to a man, and us, who's threatening to light himself on fire at a playground after a break-up with his girlfriend.

Sgt. Catherine Cawood is the tough, yet fragile lead character in "Happy Valley", a BBC One production named after an area of West Yorkshire known for its drug problem. But drugs isn't the focus of this series. Instead, it toes the line of a "Fargo" storyline, with an extortion/kidnapping plot and a likeable female officer at the center. Though, this story doesn't have as much humor peppered into it as the Oscar-winning film.

On Netflix: English 'Southcliffe' is Grueling Account of a Massacre

Sean Harris portrays Stephen Morton, a man who goes on a shooting rampage in "Southcliffe".        Channel 4

Southcliffe (England, 2013, miniseries/drama. English, color, four episodes.) In a world where every place seems like a target for tragedy, the English miniseries "Southcliffe" takes a look at its effects on a small market town.

Recently picked up by Netflix - who erroneously calls it a Netflix Original - for streaming, "Southcliffe" delves into long accounts of a small town's ways of coping with the deaths of 15 people and the wounding of 20 more after a man goes on a random shooting spree in the small Kent town. Clocking in at just over three hours with four episodes, this miniseries focuses on the pain and heartbreak of loss, and not the act of violence itself.

At the center of the story is Stephen Morton, a man who takes care of his mum and likes to go on long runs while wearing a lot of Army gear. He meets Chris Cooper, a soldier home from Afghanistan, with whom he eventually takes on a mission practice that plays more like a deadly cat-and-mouse game in the woods. When it's learned Stephen's not a former SAS soldier as was believed, Chris and his uncle beat him in the woods.

The next morning, the rampage begins.