I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one. I’d seen a few luke-warm responses on here (or at least, I’m fairly sure I remember a few) so my hopes weren’t too high. For those unfamiliar, this is set in the LA world of Harry Bosch, but centres around another police detective, Renee Ballard (Maggie Q), introduced in the final season of Bosch: Legacy, who has been assigned (relegated?) to run an underfunded cold case unit, staffed by volunteers and reserve cops.
I liked it. The support characters could do with a little fleshing out but I enjoyed their dynamics and Ballard is a protagonist I’d like to continue to know more about. The central murder plot, which runs parallel to a few other cases, kept me thinking and I didn’t see the twists coming.
Also, it’s got John Carroll Lynch in it who is great in everything, so there’s that.
S2 must already be confirmed because s1 ends on the standard cliffhanger.
My wife and I are working our way through Vera on Britbox (through Prime). We just finished S7 earlier in the week and went to start S8E1 last night, but I noticed Amazon wanted to charge us for the episode or season. I checked all the other seasons and they all say “Included with your Britbox subscription” except for S8. So someone somewhere seems to have screwed up. I just jumped ahead to S9, figured we could jump back to S8 if it ever gets straightened out.
My wife did some digging and it seems everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else on this Vera thing. ITV vs BBC, Acorn vs Britbox, and Prime saying “not my circus, not my monkeys.” And apparently some people are not getting Vera S7 while others (like us) are not getting S8. Very weird.
I’m watching the Korean show Genie, Make A Wish (13 episodes) on Netflix. It’s a mostly unfunny unromantic romantic comedy, but the plot is weird enough to keep me watching.
Iblis is a rebel jinn who made a bet with God that all humans are corrupt, which he proves by offering mortals 3 wishes. In 1040 AD, he met a girl named Ka-young who only made selfless wishes so, as punishment for losing the bet, he is imprisoned in a lamp. After centuries pass, he begs for a second chance so he awakens in 2024 and he gets the chance to corrupt Ka-young’s latest reincarnation: a woman who has no ability to experience empathy. Will he corrupt her? Will they fall in love? How will granting wishes affect the other residences of the small town? Why am I watching this?
The Last Frontier on Apple+. Cops in Fairbanks, AK trying to chase down a planeload of convicts after the plane crashes. Good set shots of the area, but it was filmed in Canada, of course. The first episode held my attention, although this thing is full of memes.
We tried two new Acorn shows last night: Murder at Evensong and The Art Detectives. We like them both. Evensong follows a rector (Neville Longbottom) in a small village where a murder occurs. It appears to be a one murder per series/season show. Tons of suspects. His widowed (and annoying) mother moves in with him. But the best part? He has dachshunds!
For a change of pace The Art Detectives solve each case in one episode. Stephen Moyer and his South Asian partner have good chemistry, and it’s an interesting take on a somewhat tired genre. Although I have as much art knowledge as Moyer displayed in the first two eps, so I’m hoping a little bit more esoteric stuff comes up.
I started watching Wayward on NetFlix last night. Made it halfway through Epi 1 before I gave up. Unless somebody can convince me that it’s get better, I won’t resume.
Spenser For Hire, the 80s ABC action/detective series w/the late, great Robert Urich in the title role, from complete series on Warner Archive MODs; have finished 1/3 of it (1985-86), and have finished one disc in the second go (1986-87).
From what I’ve seen so far, Urich’s Spenser character (the show being based on the Robert B. Parker books; got a 10-book lot of them from EBay, which just arrived yesterday, and am on the second book [very quick reads]) really was committed to seeing through every case he took on in every outing; I really so far have been enjoying Susan (Barbara Stock playing her), and am getting accustomed to Boston ADA Rita Fiori (Carolyn McCormick, from Midland, TX, who, from what I’ve heard of her and her character, doesn’t sound all that Texan).
In essence, it’s apparently got enough that I might press through and finish it (I’d like to).
I still think he was almost completely wasted on Deep Space 9. I don’t mean drunk, I mean they rarely utilized his acting ability and often just wrote him as “generic leader guy”.
Year of The Rabbit. Do you like Matt Berry and that thing he does? Then this is a show for you. Do you dislike Matt Berry and that thing he does? Then you will not like this.
That said, the rest of the solid cast also lean into the vibe and the writing occasionally kicks out some absolutely laugh-out-loud lines, some of which go by so quickly you might miss them. It’s not a show for everyone but at four episodes in I’m enjoying it immensely so far.
I enjoyed Year of the Rabbit somewhat, but absolutely LOVE Toast of London (and sequel, Toast of Tinseltown), both Matt Berry, in case you haven’t seen them.
I had been searching for something new to get into. I came across a list of the best series, and the only one I had never seen or heard of was Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2012), a British comedy series that has an 8.2 rating on IMDb. So I tried it out. OMG! I could barely get through the first episode. The lead had two words that she must have said 1000 times - “daaahling” and “sweetie” in a half hour. I couldn’t take it. Maybe it gets better, but I’m not going to find out.
Nice night to watch Planet Earth 1 …standard Blu Ray but still very good and picked it up for $5.
Not quite up to the 4k Planet Earth II but at 3m viewing position it’s very good and the HDR on the new screen is useful enhancement, maybe even upscaling.
In the future will only buy 4k Blu Ray for special movies - will buy standard Blue Ray used for other titles. Getting a very tired of the constant pay to view offers inside Netflix and Prime.