I am Binging Vera on Amazon. Still good, altho her calling everyone- even the killers= “pet” and “love” gets a bit weird.
Good cast. Season 12.
Watched that too. It’s not the first anime I’ve watched involving adventurers cooking (and commenting on the flavor of) monsters (it’s about the fourth), but it’s the first where that was the main focus. Also: the comedy is promising thus far.
I just watched a UK show called Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, based on true events where the UK Post Office claimed multiple managers of small town PO stores had been stealing money, when it was really a fault in their lauded computerised system. It stars Toby Jones, Katherine Kelly, Shaun Dooley, and Monica Dolan, and it’s heart-breaking.
It’s not as spectacular a story as America would create from the same events, it’s typically low key British, but it’s still compelling viewing.
I mean, there are literally still subpostmasters in jail for crimes we know they didn’t commit. I hope the people responsible (as opposed to just “the Royal Mail”) get sued into oblivion.
I KNEW it sounded familiar – I searched this thread but did not think to search the rest of CS.
Brian
BTW, the reason for this is that the episodes are being released at the same time that they air in Japan instead of months (or years) later.
Ok, before we start, let’s just point out that the Royal Mail is not the Post Office. The Royal Mail (privatised in recent year, almost a classic example of privatisation destroying a company) picks up and delivers the mail. The Post Office (often with the word “Counters” appended to it), runs the shops which provide mail services, pickup, packages. They may well have been the same company when the computer system was provided, but it isn’t true now.
I by no means an expert on the subject of this though, I did work for Fujitsu Services on the Horizon system in 2007 for six months (after the technical stuff involved with the failures were long past) and I knew a few people on the original team, as I worked for Fujitsu (and as it was before, ICL) for 5 years in the 80s.
As a background, Post Offices were run by private individuals on the Post Offices behalf (some of the bigger ones were ran by them though), these were the ones who went to jail.
The reality is that the Post Office has the attitude that it’s Post Office owners were stealing from them, pretty much from the start, They were incredibly keen to prosecute, and assumed guilt, pretty much at a corporate level.
Now the system itself apparent had back doors and was hackable and it was known among the Horizon staff. The assumption then was that the PO Masters were using these back doors to steal from the Post Office, The fact that there were back doors, and there should never have been, seemed to be unimportant to the Post Office. Also it was known that there was failures in the overly complex accounting system, and the PO were uninterested in fixing these either.
Fujitsu, however, provided “technical experts” to testify that there were no back doors or accounting failures in the system. For this, they should be prosecuted. I’m assuming the actual experts were not experts, ie: incompetence over lies.
The Post Office management should be prosecuted en masse too for the culture of assumed theft and guilt, and requiring technical experts to lie on the stand.
And yes, there are still Post Masters in jail, a lot of them, Some prosecuted committed suicide too. This has been continuing for years, and the trial has been gojng on for a long time. Yet, it takes a drama on the television to have justice in the UK now. But I’ve regarded as justice as something which barely exists in the UK in the last ten years. Televisation might also work in the US if you want to keep a democracy too.
A good series. I think the “pet” business is a language tic of those who live in that northern area of England.
This week I finally got around to watching Stranger Things.Binged the entire first season and the first few episodes of the second yesterday. It’s been on my list of shows I gad never watched for some reason but kept hearing good things about.
In an odd coincidence, this morning I watched an episode of Robot Chicken which included an alternate view of the scene where Nancy goes upstairs with Steve and leaves Barb by the pool.
We finished the Netflix series “Who is Erin Carter?”. It appears to be a single season ‘Limited’ series.
The show is about a suburban mom who gets caught in a grocery store robbery, has to defend herself and her kid, and it appears that she isn’t exactly who she said she was. I won’t say more than that. Interesting show. It doesn’t all work and it’s a little slow in parts, but the mystery is interesting. Mild recommendation.
Ooo, a new season of Hilda on Netflix. A charming little animated show with a Scandinavian folklore sort of flavor (trolls and such). This season has Margo Martindale, and you can’t go wrong with her.
Thanks for the reminder. I watched the first two episodes, then somehow got distracted by something shiny.
We binged season one of Loudermilk. We almost dropped it a few times due to things being too unbelievable, but overall funny. Obviously the main character gets away with his obnoxious behaviors with the audience as those are offset by his helping people. We will probably go for season 2 at some point .
I actually just started watching Hilda. It is really good.
Still very enjoyably working my way through Newhart, as mentioned before. I’m still impressed by some of the writing. I’m now in the 8th and final season, and I agree with the ratings that this is the weakest season of them all. At this point they seem to be running out of ideas, but it’s mostly still pretty funny.
The series ran between 1982 and 1990. Sometimes when watching an old series like this I like to play “where are they now?” with respect to the major actors. There’s a fair amount of sad news here, which is ironic considering what a cheerful and upbeat series this was. Mary Frann (Joanna) died suddenly at the relatively young age of 55 of an undiagnosed heart condition eight years after the series ended. Peter Scolari (Michael) died of leukemia just recently at 66; he had been in the cast of the current mini-series Evil. Julia Duffy (Stephanie) is now 72 and still working. Bob Newhart is still with us, but he didn’t age well in his later years; now at 94 he’s virtually unrecognizable.
Finished S8 of Shetland the other night. It was good, but just not the same without Jimmy. And I guess by the end of the series I expected Ruth to be his official replacement, but they kinda left that hanging. Also, what happened to Rhona? I didn’t really like the new boss much.
We started watching Death in Paradise last night, which I’m sure was mentioned upthread somewhere. Yet another “fish out of water” detective show but I like the Caribbean island setting.
I’ve watched the first 3 seasons of Grantchester. Is it worth continuing?
Fool me Once 8 episode miniseries on Netflix. It’s based on a Harlan Coben book of the same name.
Fairly interesting thriller, with a variety of twists and turns concerning a couple of murders, police investigation, wealthy powerful family. I thought the main character was pretty unsympathetic, and in hindsight there are a few gaping plot holes that only become clear after the chain of events is uncovered.
I liked it well enough, especially the Geordie character, who had some depth. A good actor, too.
My wife and I are currently binge watching Murdoch Mysteries. That show is so far over the top that it is hilarious.