I mentioned up thread that I was watching The Big C on Hulu starring Laura Linney. I finished it last night. What a great series, it was funny, sad, and touching. I highly recommend!
Beautiful scenery!
Errors- so far- in the opening scene she is wearing a short sleeved shirt so she gets cuts on her arms due to brush. Most of the rest of the episode- long sleeves. She carries a pack, yet somehow she does not have the requisite extra layer part of the 10 Essentials (or anything else, she just crouches down during a rainstorm). Anna also does not have a poncho- hell on day hikes I carry one, light weight, fits in a pocket. The cougar acts totally unlike any wild cat- but Okay, I will give them that for drama. Oh, and she would not go out there all by herself. That is just in the first few minutes.
Beautiful scenery, however.
I watched the first two episodes of Reacher season 4 last night. So far I am enjoying it a lot more than Seasons 2 and 3.
That wouldn’t be difficult, from what I’m remembering.
Person of Interest
Peacock
I watched it originally on NBC ten years ago. I liked the first two seasons when it was a crime show.
The idea of using future knowledge to save someone’s life or prevent a serious crime has been tried several times.
Remember the tv show with the guy that receives Tomorrows newspaper a day early? That gave our hero a day to change history. IIRC the show only lasted a season or two.
This time the premise is a vast network of surveillance cameras and computers that provide a SSN of someone that will soon face a pivotal moment in their life. It could be committing a crime or their death.
Person of Interest changed in Season 3 into big brother/sci-fi. (Crime fighting became secondary.) I lost interest and stopped watching. I’ve never liked Orwellian movies or tv shows.
Lokking forward to rewatching Person of Interest. I may even give season 3,4 another chance.
I lost interest after that too, although IIRC the last episode of S3 finished with a spectacular use of a Radiohead song so it’s worth hanging on until then. After that - up to you.
My wife and I often like things that people like. We love Battlestar Galactica, LOST, Firefly, and many other shows.
We did not like Person of Interest, even when it shifted towards A.I. computer that talks to you stuff. In fact, we found Jim Caviezel(sp?) to be the dullest actor on television, especially to be the lead.
We ended up watching episodes here and there and jumped to the final few episodes.
Meh.
It is creepy how the main character is under surveillance. They even draw a red box around him in the pilot. The Machine is aware of his activities.
Knowledge of the future is an interesting dilemma. It was explored throughly in Early Edition. (Guy gets tomorrow’s newspaper today).
People don’t respond well to warnings that they’ll die in a six car pile-up tomorrow. 
It requires an alternate approach. Puncture a tire early the next morning. So the person can’t leave on schedule.
Early Edition took a lighter approach than Person of Interest. This show gets dark.
I must confess that I’m getting sucked in to watching more episodes. If you can get past the stereotyped idealized main characters, the plots are generally quite well written. It’s all the more remarkable because you know that they all have to end with Perry Mason’s client innocent and vindicated despite a mountain of evidence implicating them in the crime (usually a murder).
I used to watch it as a kid, but my recollection that it was mostly a courtroom-centered series, with only about 10 minutes or so out of 55 to initially set the scene for the crime, was apparently wrong. In what I’ve seen so far (mostly Season 1) dramatic events outside the courtroom dominate the action; indeed, I think there was one episode where there were no courtroom scenes at all.
I was also surprised at the degree to which Perry is portrayed engaging in active sleuthing, along with his ever-faithful secretary Della Street, despite having super-detective Paul Drake working for him, too. I was also surprised to see Perry engaged in legally questionable activities, with Lieutenant Tragg and/or the DA sometimes threatening Drake with license suspension and Mason with disbarment! Apparently in the original books, Perry Mason was something of a scoundrel, but got considerably rehabilitated for the TV series.
Early Edition lasted 4 seasons. I enjoyed the show. And I can’t help but always remember it for the episode where they used cost as an excuse for Gary to not have a cellphone, because a cellphone would definitely make some of his problems go away. It’s an interesting snapshot into the era in that regards - in how writers were dealing with technology changing plots and tropes. It probably couldn’t have done that that throw-away line to dismiss cellphone use if it debuted a couple years later and wouldn’t have needed to if it debuted a few years earlier.
I seem to recall a pretty big shift even within the first few books, but its been a while since I read them, and I only read a few. I just think I recall that in the first book he was all “I’m a paid gladiator and fight for my client regardless of guilt” while a little later it was “I’m not just a paid gladiator” - of course, he was lying in the same conversation as the first one, as I recall (said he didn’t hire private investigators and did the work himself when, in fact, he hired Paul). But like I said, I might be misremembering. But yeah, I agree there were multiple instances of less than legal behavior.
Finally finished The Last Ship. It’s actually pretty entertaining.
He also never used a car to get to places on time. The unnecessary obstacles he put in front of himself was one of the more frustrating parts of the show.
I know they’ve tried to reboot Early Edition a couple of times, and I think the cellphone issue is why they had to give up. Unless they set it in the 70s or something, which isn’t the worst idea.
I stumbled across a UK comedy series on Tubi: Twenty Twelve.
It’s about an organization that is involved in running the 2012 London Olympics, but the games are not part of it. The organization has no important function other than coming up with schemes to build excitement. It’s a satire of bureaucracy, with endless meetings with people who are beyond their level of competence.
It stars Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as Ian Fletcher, Head of Deliverance and Olivia Colman (who shows up everywhere these days) as his personal assistant, who clearly has an unrequited crush on him. Jessica Haynes is Siobhan Sharpe, Head of Brand, who speaks in fluent bland cliches. David Tennant narrates.
The humor is sly and sneaks up on you. The lines requires a second’s thought to see the joke. One of my favorite was “Why hire a coach if he’s going to tell you what to do?” Another is an acting coach who’s credentials are that he auditioned for a lot of shows. You have to pay attention, but it will be rewarded.
There are also some subtle sight gags. One has Ian and Siobhan checking out one of their spokesperson giving a presentation. We first see the audience filling all the seats. After a couple of disastrous minutes, we see the audience. Siobhan is missing. A few minutes more and Ian is s gone.
The show ran two seasons. Bonneville starred in a couple of sequel series l.
It’s on Tubi.
There was a continuation of Twenty Twelve called W1A, if you liked that.
Twenty Twelve is unfortunately a direct rip-off of the Australian show The Games, so I refuse to watch it.
There’s also Twenty Twenty-Six about the World Cup.
Continuing my Apple TV binge…
Margo’s Got Money Troubles I actually loved this. Top-notch acting across the board - Michelle Pfieiffer was great, Nick Offerman stole the show as always, and I think this was Nicole Kidman’s best role in years. They did a good job of some absurd humor mixed in while dealing with some heavy subjects. I almost don’t want there to be a second season because I really don’t want them to screw this up.
I finished the first season of Slow Horses last night. I didn’t really know what to expect going into it other than several of you here highly recommended it. And you didn’t let me down! This one grabs you from the beginning and never lets up. Another incredibly well-acted show with lots of twists and turns. It’s also hilarious - I couldn’t stop laughing at Gary Oldman signing “I’m Gonna Be” by the Pretenders.
I’ll be starting season 2 of that tonight and I’m really looking forward to it.
I also highly recommend that once you’re finished, watch it all a second time. It helps clear up any confusion you might have had and you see things you may have missed first time around.
Yeah there’s already been several times I’ve found myself rewinding a scene or even going back to a prior episode because I feel like I’ve missed something.
I like that they don’t lay it all out neatly, you’ve got to work at some of it a bit.
The Proclaimers I think you mean.