Not that I recall. YMMD.
Started watching The Recruit (NFLX) just for the hell of it. A new lawyer for the CIA gets in way over this head sort of thing. But I have to say it’s pretty well done, at least so far (ep.3). A lot of unknown (to me) actors doing a pretty good job of it.
Finished season 2 of The White Lotus. It was okay. Better than season 1. We also finished the last season of Resident Alien. It’s starting to show its age a bit, but it’s still hanging together.
I’m always looking for a light show that can be on in the background while I’m doing something else. Shows like Lucifer, Supernatural, The Blacklist… To that end I started watching Warrior Nun. It’s very Buffy-like, with a secret society of fighting nuns fighting against evil, with a charistmatic lead actress in the title row as a dead crippled girl brought back to life when the ‘halo’, the source of power for a killer nun, is put into her.
As I said, light entertainment. So far I’m on episode four, and it’s still enjoyable for what it is.
About 5 episodes into Season 2 of Alice in Borderland on Netflix Lots of good violent fun. I’m enjoying the games and the characters enough not to really care about the overarching mystery. They could just feature a new game every episode and I’d be happy.
We’ve been watching Willow, which drops one episode a week on Disney+. It’s only moderately interesting. This week’s episode just about put us off of it, however. Very little action or story development, just an hour of people talking about their feelings. Ugh! You’re on a quest, people. Get on with it!
We finished season 6 of Peaky Blinders, which is a fantastic show. Season 6 is apparently the last season, but a feature length movie is on the way. If you’ve never seen this show, I highly recommend it. Set in the post-WWI era Birmingham, it’s about a family of scrappy Romanis led by some WWI vets as they take over the criminial trade and get involved in politics and corruption. Fantastic from start to finish.
I watched the last 2 ina half episodes of the Santa clauses and it was great although the Xmas everyday trope and shots at amazon and the everything now culture was a bit trite and of course, the little girl who lost her mom a year or so before …
but it was just like the first 2 movies although I wondered if David Krumholz looked as bad in real life… But my main quibble was I didn’t see anything that couldn’t have been put in a 2 or 2 in a half hour movie i
Just finished the excellent mini-series Black Bird. Highly recommended. Developed by Dennis Lehane. I didn’t know anything about it ahead of time. Each episode led with “Based on a true story”, which you can usually take with a huge grain of salt. But not only was it based on a true story, it was actually done truthfully and factually. In fact, the only part that I thought was a cliche actually took place in real life.
It’s about prison inmate who’s offered a reduced sentence if he’ll transfer to a prison for the criminally insane to befriend a presumed serial killer and get a confession from him before the guy is released on appeal due to lack of evidence.
One of the 6 episodes was just included in a NYimes list of the 10 best episodes on TV in 2022, which is what prodded me to watch the mini-series. It’d been on my list for awhile but buried beneath other recommendations.
Ray Liotta had one of his last roles in it before he died, and he looks pretty bad. His character is supposed to look pretty bad. He plays the father of the undercover prisoner. It made the show extra poignant.
The actor who played the suspected serial killer was exceptional. All the actors were great, but he had the showiest role.
We started watching Somebody Somewhere on HBO. I like it. It’s about a woman who came back to her hometown to take care of her dying sister and now she is kind of stuck there. It’s fairly light-hearted considering the premise. In the first episode she joins a kind of secret queer show choir and gains a sassy gay friend. She rediscovers her talent and passion for singing while engaging in ridiculous shenanigans with her new friends. It reminds me a lot of the good parts of high school.
I like that the actress is fat and the show is not about her being fat. You don’t see that often on TV. And she’s great in the role. The other cast members are also just regular looking people or even people who might be outcasts. It’s definitely a show that feels like real life.
I love that show! I can’t wait for a 2nd season.
I loved it, too! I didn’t think I would, but it really grew on me. That party bus!
Thirded. My wife and I both loved Somebody Somewhere. Hilarious and grounded in reality.
We gave up on NCIS: Los Angeles a long time ago. Recently, we were going to give NCIS: Hawai’i a fair chance, but it’s pretty bad. They just can’t seem to duplicate the Gibbs-and-company mojo of the original show.
Loving the second season of Gangs of London. Some suspension of reality required people come back to life!! and it’s violent and graphic as hell, but I like it.
Binged all seven series of the classic run of Columbo, available on Prime in the UK with ads (which are annoying). Still holds up, they really do all feel like proper, well produced movies, and it was delightful to watch some episodes I hadn’t seen since I was a kid and had forgotten I’d even seen. There’s no way a lot of the cases would ever hold up in court though! Oh , just one more thing, I did notice though the audio recording was…patchy at times, almost like they didn’t bother to sort out the really pretty loud rustling from Columbo’s raincoat and other people’s clothing that comes through strongly at times. Funny what you notice.
Loved this show the first two seasons, then Kevin Spacey… Kevin Spacey’d… and never went back. However, it keeps coming up on my Netflix suggestions and, giving in, saw that Robin Wright has continued by herself for another 3 seasons. Therefore, out of respect to an actor who makes interesting decisions in her work, going to play House Of Cards, all 6 seasons.
I think he only missed the final one? I may be misremembering though.
I finished Season 2, which has a fairly conclusive ending to the series. There were a lot of corny soliloquies and long speeches before dying (boy does it take a lot to kill someone in Borderland!) but the games the characters were forced to play we’re just awesome and well thought out -a thinking man’s Squid Game…until a bucket of acid is poured over your head.
I wish this series had more recognition/hype , it was really heartbreaking and interesting. The actor that played the serial killer was also excellent in the short lived series Kingdom and also the movie about Richard Jewell. I thought Taron Egerton was going to be a lightweight in the the first two episodes but he really knocked it out of the park by the end. Really dark subject matter , not sure if I could watch it again but worth at least one watch, especially if you are into true crime
Yes! I really wanted to write more about it, but I didn’t want to give anything away. I’m glad I went in not knowing anything about it.