I’ve been rewatching Hustle on Tubitv. It’s about a team of con men (Leverage took the same concept a couple of years later). Terrific writing and plotting. Things are often not what they seem, with perfectly set up twists that keep you guessing. Robert Vaughn is among a terrific cast as the team’s “outside man.” “The Lesson” is absolutely brilliant and “Missions” (written by Howard Overman, later of the superb superhero show Misfits) is nearly as good. It’s given me some ideas for structuring stories.
I’m also watching Judge Dee’s Mystery on Netflix. It’s a Chinese production about a judge in ancient China who acts as a detective. Good characters and mystery.
Finally, I’m starting to watch Gargoyles. Great setup, but a little simplistic for me. I suppose it was originally meant to be for a younger audience.
Unforgotten - British police drama about investigating old cases, which inevitably stirs up lots of buried secrets. Pretty good, although it’s one of those British “absolutely everybody has done something terrible in their past” shows, so don’t expect a cheery ending ever.
I’m not an expert on the Fallout game canon, but my understanding is that in the alternate universe, the ‘promise’ of atomic energy was embraced post-WWII and the ensuing future by 2077 became the retro-futuristic version of 50s utopic visions of the future. Think an atomic-powered Disneyesque ‘Tomorrowland’ (up until that whole nasty nuclear war business, at least). That’s why you have old-fashioned looking vehicles and TV sets alongside robots. I think @Smapti said it very well in one of the Fallout threads:
Fallout 2 episodes in and I am loving it. It does a solid job of capturing the Fallout universe, which top down is a satire of our own and not a dystopia. The game typically does this with Vault-Tec charm and discovered backstory on computer prompts and whatnot, but the show does this with it’s character interactions (which never runs smoothly on the games multiple choice menu prompts). If it’s different, it’s the format, but so far I am impressed with this introduction to the universe for the uninitiated while being full of gravy for old skool fans like me.
I thought Borderlands had the screen locked up, but I’m looking at you again Fallout.
An eight episode series called The Spiderwick Chronicles has come out. From watching the first episode, it seems to be extremely loosely based on what I remember of the books, and the changes aren’t an improvement. So far it seems to be a bland generic horror series.
I feel for this show because it was shot, edited, scored, etc. and then buried to never be released. Roku Channel got it, but I know it won’t be getting any further seasons.
It was just barely saved from the “Batgirl” treatment of being totally buried.
Yeah, Nicola Walker in a show is a surefire way to get me to watch it. I even watched the Marriage series where nothing whatever happened (mild exaggeration).
I’m now only hate-watching Ellsbeth. I still am rooting for the murderers and hoping for a bad end for Ellsbeth. What an obnoxious yet boring character! I know some people liked her on the show she was spun off from (The Good Lawyer or something), but this show is a perfect example of why you don’t spin off the weird quirky characters and make them the focus of a whole show. About two minutes is enough. But, man, CBS sure is pushing it hard.
The character of Elsbeth was tolerable in The Good Wife and The Good Fight since she appeared only sporadically, but her quirkiness may be too much when she’s the feature character.
Watching Judge Dee’s Mystery, a series on Netflix about a Chinese judge in the Tang dynasty who solves crime using detective methods, and also does martial arts. It is loosely based on an excellent book series by Robert van Gulik, who based his character on an actual historic judge Dee who was renowned for his crime-solving abilities.
It is by no means a proper representation of the novels. Still, I find it fun, especially for the gorgeous representation of seventh-century China that the books only partially can convey.
I think they might have toned Elsbeth down a little bit by the 5th episode. It’s not bothering me quite so much. Plus, I just have to say, I love her clothes. So colorful and pretty. I’d dress just like that if I could afford it.
Again, the detectives arrested a guy becuase he said he wanted a lawyer. You can’t do that, unless you were gonna arrest him anyway.
And then the court case was bad- the eyewitness was poor and his was the only testimony, and more or less the only evidence. So after getting remand and keeping the dude in jail- they dropped the charges. Then they got a recording that the wife said she killed the guy. Except that the eyewitness IDed an old, fat, bald, white dude, not a skinny blonde woman.
They’ve also toned them down a little, too. At first, they were very clashy with lots of different, contracting fabrics and colors all worn together. They’ve got her a little more pulled together now. I dress very colorfully, so I can relate to that. I still hate all her bags. It’s lame and unfunny, and she never pulls anything out of them other than a small notebook or her phone.
I watched a couple of eps of Elsbeth yesterday. It was much better than I expected and I’ll tune in again. I too appreciate her wardrobe but not so much her ever present bags. Here I’ll admit that I had somehow conflated Elsbeth with So Help Me Todd and kept thinking “what happened to Marcia Gay Harden’s signature nose? And when did she start being funny?” The two lead actors, Carrie Preston and Marcia Gay Harden don’t really even resemble each other but my brain kept insisting it’s MGH.
Shogun. Started out so well, and went completely off the rails. Ends with basically a long exposition of “here’s the stuff that would have happened next if we had two more episodes”. The acting was great, the settings and cinematography was great, the writing… needed work.
Blue Lights - BBC police drama set in Belfast. The echoes of the Troubles are loud in this one. Pretty good apart from the “everyone is miserable” elements of every British police drama.
Beyond Paradise - A spin-off of Death in Paradise featuring Kris Marshall as Humphrey, now living in Devon with his fiancée. Sadly it has all the hallmarks of a spin-off show - all the other characters are flat and uninteresting, designed to make the main character look like a fish out of water. Also, instead of Harry the lizard, there is a duck. The mysteries are about the same but without the “gather everyone in the room” bit that was always so dumb about the main series. Worth watching if you like Kris Marshall, but otherwise - eh.
The two lead actors, Carrie Preston and Marcia Gay Harden don’t really even resemble each other but my brain kept insisting it’s MGH.