Meine Monster und ich

I'm not certain why, but the Brits seem to give their kids some pretty good programming where US broadcasters just shove any old poorly-animated junk out and call it "educational". This British kids sitcom features your fairly standard dad/mom/older sister/young son family, but adds a trio of live-action monsters. Okay… they're giant puppets and people inside costumes, but they are handled pretty well. And, they are interesting to look at.

The humor is aimed at, I would guess, five through fifteen-year-olds but is actually kind of funny, even for this 55-year-old.

The nice thing is that this show doesn't talk down to kids like a lot of US programming does. I suppose that there is some educational content—such as learning to get along with those who are different from you, and living with a sibling that likes to make things hard on you— but it doesn't preach these concepts.

It is available on the CBBC channel weekday mornings (in late 2010). With luck, other world- wide BBC channels will get this soon.