Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Republicans got rid McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

A consequence of cucumbers

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Bark louder, little dog.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The new temporary speaker of the house is a spiteful little shit.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Crossing Lines and The Brokenwood Mysteries

Crossing Lines and The Brokenwood Mysteries

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I have been catching the show Crossing Lines on Ovation, and it is now one of my favorite shows, even if it did first air in 2013.

There are 3 seasons of Crossing Lines, 12 episodes per season.  They show 4 episodes every Thursday night and we are halfway through Season 2.  I’m sorry I didn’t think to mention it before, but better late than never, I guess.

They are not afraid to kill off regular characters on Crossing Lines, which adds to the realism, I suppose, but I wish they would check with me first before they decide to kill someone off.  I won’t say more than that, but I hate the spoilers on Google.  You start to type in something innocuous, like “is so-and-so” and they offer the suggestion “is so-and-so really dead?” or “why did so-and-so leave the show?

Google obviously doesn’t care, but I am well on the way to hating them lately.  For a company whose early motto was “don’t be evil”, they are really fucking evil.  Okay, back to TV.

Last week Ovation advertised a series called The Brokenwood Mysteries.   I watched the first episode of the first season this evening, and I think it could be a good show. It’s from 2014 and I had never heard of it.  Has anyone watched it?  If you have, what did you think?

The detective in The Brokenwood Mysteries has a rumpled, disheveled appearance that reminds me of another detective from a show that was on a few years ago.  Backstrom.  I googled to make sure I remembered the name correctly.  Apparently there is a Season 2 of the show after all, but it’s the Swedish version of the show that’s on Acorn, not the US version.  I wonder if that one is any good.

I don’t mind older shows, how about the rest of you?

Totally open thread.  Talk about these shows, TV, music, politics.  Anything goes. (well, maybe not full frontal nudity – Cole would likely frown on that.)

 

 

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    Roger Moore

    well, maybe not full frontal nudity – Cole would likely frown on that.

    A man who shares his naked mopping adventures on his blog has no right to criticize.

  2. 2.

    hells littlest angel

    To best enjoy The Brokenwood Mysteries, turn on subtitles. New Zealanders use a completely different set of vowels than the rest of the English-speaking world.

     

    ETA: It’s a good show!

  3. 3.

    sdhays

    I remember watching Backstrom and wanting to like it, but I just found the gross disregard for people’s rights very off-putting. Sure, disregard for the rules is a long-running toxic theme in American detective dramas (which is why I don’t like most American detective/crime dramas), but I recall feeling Backstrom took it even farther than usual, especially for current times. Also, they never really figured out, in my opinion, how to make Backstrom be a jerk and still have some redeeming qualities. They made him too much of a jerk and a loser, so it was hard to understand why he still had a job.

    I wasn’t surprised when they didn’t make a second season.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    Robin Givhan’s articles are often quite good. Here, she writes about the Vogue cover story on Jill Biden:

    The story, written by Jonathan Van Meter, is a fashion love song and a political treatise. In every turn of phrase, every admiring riff, there’s a subtle excoriation of the previous administration and an unsubtle mash note to the current one. Vogue has a crush on Biden, but her predecessor was never photographed for the magazine during her tenure in the White House.

    This refusal is never fully discussed in the August story. Biden is not placed into the context of this Trumpian void, which means that the full weight of Biden’s presence in the magazine is not made plain. This is Biden’s moment, but the narrative of this first lady is just one chapter in a story that began long before she was born and will presumably continue after she is gone.

    Trump’s omission from Vogue was a cultural statement more than it was a political one, which may be why it antagonized her supporters — as well as her husband — so much. The fashion industry, with its liberal leanings, was quick to voice its displeasure with the former administration. That animosity only grew over time. The former first lady was never acknowledged by an industry that still has the capacity to set beauty standards, validate gender norms, underscore feminine power, document fame and sate the ego with a portrait sitting that makes one look really, really pretty for the public record.

    No one thought she could keep teaching,” Van Meter writes. “But as I traveled with Dr. Biden through much of April, I saw just how much time her day job took up: In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the entire retinue of staff, Secret Service, and press held at our hotel until well into the afternoon, when the motorcade finally hit the road for a nearly three-hour drive and a long evening of events in Arizona — because Dr. B was teaching her classes over Zoom.”

    In one image, the teacher is at work, dressed in a Ralph Lauren skirt and blouse, a pencil clenched between her teeth as she sits hunched over a laptop in a work-from-home posture — an image that makes one wonder if the only ergonomically-sound desk in the White House is the one in the Oval Office.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    @sdhays: That’s kind of how I felt about Backstrom, too.  I wanted to like it, but I wasn’t altogether sorry when it wasn’t renewed.  I think Steeplejack liked it, if I recall correctly.

  9. 9.

    sdhays

    @dmsilev: When I initially read this, I literally bristled that they had not photographed Michelle Obama. My brain just will not accept the idea that Melania is Jill Biden’s predecessor as First Lady.

    She’ll always be the Third Lady to me.

  12. 12.

    Ha

    I like Brokenwood Mysteries.  People are kind and there’s a whole cast of people who repeat, including several Maori actors.  It’s cozy mysteries, so no thrill killers a la Hannibal Lector, nothing grim.

  14. 14.

    frosty

    Ms. F is a fan of Brit and Commonwealth mysteries. My favorite was Foyle’s War. Brokenwood is good too. And the one with the blonde DCI and the three geezers working for her trying to solve cold cases. (New Tricks).

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @AliceBlue: The article said there have only been 3 first ladies on the cover of Vogue.  Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Jill Biden.  Michelle was apparently on the cover three times!

    But every first lady (except the orange wife) has had photos on the inside of the magazine.

    I, too, had heard that the third lady had refused an interview where they got to ask anything they wanted.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    @AliceBlue: I believe it. I also recall reading that she insisted on being paid, basically treating it as a modeling gig. And then getting pissed when Vogue declined.

  19. 19.

    SkyBluePink

    Brokenwood Mysteries is one of my favorite shows!   Show has a pleasant vibe and beautiful scenery.

    Agree with the assessments of Backstrom- only watched a few episodes and don’t know if I will continue.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    And one bit from the actual Vogue article:

    She already misses her students, who were, for whatever reason, mostly men this semester. “Maybe two months ago they said, ‘Hey, Dr. B…. Can we ask you a question?’  ” I said yeah. They said, ‘When we write in our journals, can we curse?’  ”

    They were worried it was inappropriate because you’re the first lady?

    “I don’t know what they thought! We never said the words first lady ever. So I said, ‘Yes, you can curse.’ Because I tell them they can write anything. And here they are, these young men, like, ‘Yes! We can curse!’ I loved that. After that class, I felt…good. I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve: They see me as their English teacher.”

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    @dmsilev: Thank goodness we don’t ever have to think of that creature again.  Totally suited to her husband.

    Just like Barack and Michelle are the perfect match, so are T**** and the third lady.

  23. 23.

    debbie

    I want to thank whoever it was who recommended News of the World. Just watched it. I’ve also watched Moonlight and Spotlight this week. I should be caught up in maybe a decade. //

  30. 30.

    Nelle

    I love Brokenwood.   I just finished the final season, final episode in tears.  It has a fair bit of Maori in it, which has a sound and rhythm familiar to New Zealanders, even if they don’t speak it themselves.    New Zealand has three officoal languages, English, Maori, and Sign.

    For that episode, the two most important words are whanau (family) and mokopuna (grandchildren).  And it really needs to be in Maori.

    I really thought i would continue to be popping back and forth between the States and New Zealand,  but first i had health issues and then, when i was about to book my flights in 2020, i began reading AL’s morning updates and decided to wait and see what would develop.   Quite proud of my other country and the way they have handled this.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    any NYers in the house tonight? how fucked up is the mayor’s race now?

  34. 34.

    FelonyGovt

    I love Brokenwood Mysteries. Nice lead characters with no skeevy vibe between the older male and the younger female officers. Interesting, recurring secondary characters. Pleasant and enjoyable.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @dmsilev:   Good article about Dr. Jill. If I see Vogue on a newstand, might have to buy a copy.

    And:  the WaPost has a phenomenal interactive feature on how the Surfside Condo tower came down.  Don’t know why yet, of course.  Worth a click.

    Video, images and interviews deepen questions about role of pool deck in condo collapse

    Best of all:  to illustrate a controlled implosion (which part of the collapse resembled), there is footage of Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City coming down.  Over and over in a loop.  LOL.  Well done, WaPost.

  37. 37.

    Darkrose

    In preparation for Leverage: Redemption next week, I’ve been rewatching the original. I’d forgotten how good it was, and how cathartic but infuriating at the same time. Almost all of the storylines were based on fact but toned down. The difference was that the team always got the mark in the end, but in real life, the white-collar criminals got away with it.

    Reading about the asshole from Tennessee funding the South Dakota National Guard deployment to the Texas border really, really makes me want to unleash Parker, Hardison, and Elliot on somebody.

  38. 38.

    Amir Khalid

    Some disappointing news for those following my GAS affliction: another online vendor has cancelled on me. My remaining options are to acquire either an Epiphone ES-335 at full price (RM2,405) or an Epiphone Dot (almost the same guitar, but RM500 cheaper and with dot inlays instead of block ones). Sigh. I had my heart set on block inlays.

  39. 39.

    Royston Vasey

    Brokenwood Mysteries, a New Zealand export, has been running for 7 seasons (since 2014), with the latest season finishing up in May 2021.

     

    RV in NZ

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    This was new to me:  possible six minute to nine minute interval between when pool deck and garage area first collapsed and last part of building came down.  Collapse may have begun between 1 and 1:14 am.  It was not the three minute collapse it appeared to be, in the first widely available security footage from a neighboring building.

    WaPost:

    Sara Nir, a resident, told The Post that shortly before 1 a.m., she noticed loud “knocking” noises that she assumed were caused by construction work. Around 1:14 a.m., she heard a noise that she thought sounded like a wall crashing down, and she left her ground-level apartment [lucky duck] to complain to a security guard in the lobby.

    She estimated that about a minute later, while she was in the lobby, she heard a very large boom and saw that part of the surface-level parking area — and part of the pool deck — had collapsed into the underground parking garage. She and the two of her children who were home at the time then ran from the building.

    Nir’s son called 911 at 1:19 a.m., he said, a time that he said he confirmed by checking the time stamp on his phone. About a minute later, a dispatcher with Miami-Dade County Fire and Rescue called for an engine to respond to an alarm at the building, audio shows.

    According to additional EMS audio, the building collapsed between 1:24 and 1:25 a.m. while Engine 76 was en route.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    he is, apparently, a junkyard billionaire– does nobody remember Born Yesterday? Stay away from this guy– who has decided to enjoy his money and his sunset years marinating in Tucker Carlson, or worse

    “They should make them go through the right channels, not let every nation walk across our borders when men died to protect America,” Johnson said, referring to border crossings.

    Johnson went on to call Biden an “idiot,” saying that the President “just wants to do everything that Trump didn’t try to do — he doesn’t care if it’s right or wrong.”

    So far, Florida, Nebraska, and Iowa have pledged to send law enforcement to Texas and Arizona.

    “People don’t respect nothing unless they work for it,” Johnson said, referring to the Biden administration’s policies.

    “You’ve gotta work for what you got, and you’ve gotta respect what other people has — but not shooting and killing and lying and raping and doing other kinds of stuff because they’ve got free money,” he added

    and like most trump fans, he’s deeply concerned about Covid

    “Everybody is tied down from COVID-19 but they let them come over with no shots, no nothing, no coverings over their face,” Johnson said. “They ship them out to all the states, like I’m in Tennessee, they ship them out to Tennessee and they don’t ask the governor.”

    “They just spread ’em everywhere and they don’t care about COVID-19,” he added.

  42. 42.

    swbarnes2

    @sdhays: Between House, Backstrom, and Sherlock, at the time, there seemed to be a surfeit of dramas where the character was a white male who treated everyone around him appallingly badly, but the show wanted us to think it was fine, because he was just so smart, and the cases would never be solved without him, so everyone just put up with it.

    It’s like a whole bunch of writers and showrunners wanted to say “see, if you are smart enough, this behavior is fine”

  43. 43.

    Splitting Image

    Just a side note: You can do your blood pressure a big favour by removing all of those helpful suggestions that appear when you do a Google search.

    If you have AdBlock Plus, you can do this by starting a search to open up the list, then choosing “Block Element” while the list is open. Choose one of the items in the list and block it. It may take a couple of tries, but you can make that entire list permanently disappear. Other adblockers will have the same function, but I’m not as familiar with them. You can use this to get rid of tweets and “People Also Search For” lists from Google searches too. Highly recommended.

    Google will still be evil, but your mental health will be better.

  44. 44.

    VOR

    Some detective shows I’ve enjoyed in last couple years:

    • Hinterland – BBC show, on Netflix. Set in Wales
    • Bordertown – Finnish, on Netflix
    • Deadwind – Finnish, on Netflix
    • Bodyguard – BBC show, on Netflix
    • Paranoid – stars Indira Varma, on Netflix
    • Lupin – on Netflix. Haven’t watched second part of first season
    • The Sinner – AMC. Liked season 1, season 2 not as much despite Carrie Coons, and season 3 not at all, the characters actions were nonsensical IMHO.
  45. 45.

    VeniceRiley

    @AliceBlue: Melanie knows she would have been punished for any cover that did not also have TFG prominently featured flatteringly both on the cover and in the article.

  46. 46.

    JoyceH

    @AliceBlue: ​
     

    I’ve read that Melania never got a Vogue cover because she wouldn’t agree to a cover story.

    I just read an article about that, and the source was that ex-friend of Melania’s who was thrown under the bus over the inaugural brouhaha. Melania was offered the same thing that Jill accepted, and that every other first lady is offered – an interview and a photo shoot with Annie Liebowitz.

    Melania, unlike all the other first ladies, turned them down because they refused to GUARANTEE that she’d get the cover. Apparently, it’s not a done-deal that the first lady spread gets the cover – Hillary did, Laura Bush didn’t, Michelle did, Barbara Bush didn’t. But since she didn’t have an iron-clad guarantee that her mug would grace the cover, Melania said no. And got really pissy about it on the phone with her then-friend.

  48. 48.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Following up on my emergency room adventure mentioned in a previous thread, turns out I have appendicitis. My first surgery ever will ensue. Apparently I’m a late bloomer when it comes to things medical. I’m waiting for my next dose of morphine, which does a lovely job of pain management.

  55. 55.

    frosty

    @Amir Khalid: Block inlays are a big deal!! – that’s why I went with an SG Standard instead of a Special. Sorry for your broken heart, it’s very tough when the GAS attack is stifled.

  56. 56.

    Craig

    Just want to hype the Kanopy App some more. Access via your library card-they also help you get a library card. Tons and tons of classic American and International cinema, lots of TV and Documentary. All free. Just added to my List- Sherlock Jr., Spring Breakers, and Dark Star.

  58. 58.

    HumboldtBlue

    I’ve already mentioned it, but I can’t recommend High On The Hog on Netflix enough. Excellent four-part series on the influence and history of black cuisine. Episodes three and four in particular were impactful for me.

    I’m in episode three of Manhunt about the search for the Unabomber. Also on Netflix. Very interesting.

  59. 59.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @frosty: 

    For very different type of NZ mystery series you could do worse than Wellington Paranormal.

    From this side of the ditch, for lots of murder without much mystery there is Mr Inbetween.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    Sigh. Fumble fingers fixed.

    Was in the mood for a heist film the other day. Didn’t feel like rewatching something already seen, so poked around and found one from Hong Kong on Prime, The Adevnturers (maybe 40% in English, 60% not). While wouldn’t categorize it as first class in that genre, twisty and turny enough to hold my interest as popcorn entertainment.

    @frosty

    the blonde DCI

    Amanda Redman. More often than not worth giving a series she’s a regular in a glance.

  62. 62.

    piratedan

    if we’re talking police procedurals, here are some that I found entertaining

     

    MI-5/Spooks

    DCI Banks

    Hamish MacBeth

    River

    sometimes these rotate off of or onto various streaming platforms

  64. 64.

    Feathers

    My standard mystery recommend, Babylon Berlin, has full frontal nudity, male and female, but I’m gonna recommend it anyway. I used to be a huge mystery buff, but I now find serial killers tiresome, so it takes something really original to get me watching. I find myself preferring the self contained episodes. Currently doing a Poirot rewatch.

    The Shedunnit podcast is highly recommended if you like the classic mysteries of the 20s and 30s. Young Englishwoman hosts, does great in depth research, goes beyond the standard topics, and has a lovely, soothing voice that is nice with a tisane at bedtime.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    @JoyceH:

    Interesting. Your list says that the three Democratic FLOTUSes all got the cover, but the three Republican ones did not. Is anyone accusing Vogue of partisan bias?

  66. 66.

    Delk

    I liked Brokenwood. As mentioned, the reoccurring characters really add to the show.
    New Tricks started out well and went downhill as characters left the show.

  67. 67.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Amir Khalid: Or, y’know, maybe Vogue knows their readership *grin*.

    Speaking of, I observed the Victoria’s Secret model changeover, and thought to myself: “Huh, women buy lingerie, too”.  Gotta believe that’s what’s behind this changeover: once that creep [the one who was in bed with that pedophile Epstein] divested the company, they did the math and realized “gee, maybe we should try to sell these things to women, instead of to their lecherous hump hubbies/BFs?”

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    It’s made the rounds (here one month, gone the next) of various streaming services but if you’ve never caught it, note that Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day will pop up once more on Prime July 16. Nothing spectacular, just a nice unpretentious outing.

  72. 72.

    sdhays

    @swbarnes2: I have to admit, I enjoyed House for the first few seasons. I think it was a combination of the novelty of the approach (mystery is the disease) and just where I was at the time. When I’ve tried to watch it years later, I can’t stand it.

    And Sherlock. I found the first season ok (I think – it’s been a long time), but when they started with the ridiculous terrorism intrigue, I just stopped. To me, when you need terrorist bombs (or whatever it was – the whole thing was so stupid I can’t even remember it all) to make your story interesting, you should just stop. You’ve run out of ideas, and it’s best to just move on. I was hoping for a modern take on the original stories, but no. The writers decided that they knew better.

    If I want to watch Sherlock Holmes stories, I’ll just go back to the old Jeremy Brett versions. Jeremy Brett will, for me, always be Sherlock Holmes.

  74. 74.

    Chetan Murthy

    @sdhays:

    I have to admit, I enjoyed House for the first few seasons.

    I enjoyed the first 4 seasons.  After that …. too much of the House/Cuddy story just turned me off.  To me it worked as the story of a pretty messed-up guy, but who had this superpower: he really, really cared about his patients, and could heal them.  But outside of that?  Wow, what a messed-up guy.  I think Hugh Laurie played him for laughs, and that worked.

    Sherlock?  It was like an MTV video mash-up of Sherlock Holmes stories: too frenetically moving from one-to-the-next.

    And you’re right about the Jeremy Brett series.  Damn, so great.  Though, I do like Elementary …. until the very end, at least.  I couldn’t finish that last episode, it was so …. mawkish (to me).

  76. 76.

    sdhays

    @Chetan Murthy: I never got into Elementary. I think I watched a bit a few years ago, and it struck me as offensively American. As in, required to follow very tired American television formulas. Maybe I didn’t give it enough of a chance.

    I did enjoy The Mentalist. They had a great cast and they usually wrote things with a good blend of entertaining silliness and darkness. The last season was completely fan service (I believe they’ve explicitly admitted that), but there’s nothing wrong with that.

  77. 77.

    Chetan Murthy

    @sdhays:

    As in, required to follow very tired American television formulas.

    Yup.  You’re not wrong there.  One reason I liked it, was that it involved a male and female team, that, it was clear, were very close, but were never gonna bump uglies.  That alone was pretty novel.  And well-executed.

  78. 78.

    JWR

    @Amir Khalid: My personal preference would be dots, probably because the first one I ever played had dots. Also, if you’re going for a more vintage look, I think the earliest versions had dots. But you’re a B.B. King kinda guy, so trapezoids for you! Also, I’ve never owned one, so my opinion don’t mean squat. ;)

  80. 80.

    Cathie from Canada

    We loved Crossing Lines – it was on a channel here in Canada several years ago (CBC? SuperChannel? Can’t remember) — and yes, it was NOT predictable.

    Hey, there’s a new “Sopranos” TV movie coming out this fall, starring James Gandolfini’s actual son Michael playing Tony as a teenager. I just watched the trailer and it looks like it could be good.

  81. 81.

    Feathers

    Realizing I did not mention my fave current mystery show, Vera. Seasons are split between Acorn and BritBox. Brenda Blethyn solves crimes in Newcastle and Northumbria, and is rumpled, smart, weary, but always caring deeply.

    For a fun mystery, Jonathan Creek is showing on BritBox and for free on PlutoTV. It’s from the late 90s and although it never really showed in the US, it had a huge influence on TV writers here. Monk’s writers said they were inspired by it. It’s sort of an anti X-Files where a mismatched man and woman solve locked room mysteries, proving that nothing supernatural was involved. She’s an investigative journalist who looks into crimes for defense lawyers. He’s a nerdy genius who lives in a windmill and builds stage devices for magicians. They solve crimes.

  83. 83.

    Feathers

    @Feathers: Need to add that after the third season, they dumped the original actress who was co-starring and it really went downhill after that.

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    Damn it. Eyes blearier than I realized and screwed sumthin’ up. Again. Fix.

    Speaking of Kiwi series, The Almighty Johnsons was goofily addictive if only to see what top it would go over next.

    More mainstream from NZ, Step Dave was innocuous and quite watchable, without falling into a sitcom rut. Same holds for Nothing Trivial.

  89. 89.

    JoyceH

    @sdhays: I loved The Mentalist, but I got so so so tired of the Red John plot line. I was thrilled when they wrapped up that arc at the end of the next to last season and allowed the final season to be completely Red John-free.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    @HumboldtBlue

    Gillette received the stamp of approval from Arthur Conan Doyle, and successfully played the role on stage on and off for like 35 years. That’s a fairly strong argument.

  91. 91.

    HumboldtBlue

    @NotMax: ​ 

    Arthur Conan Doyle never saw Jeremy Brett.

    It’s not even a close shave between Gillette and Brett.

  93. 93.

    James E Powell

    @frosty:

    @Amir Khalid: Block inlays are a big deal!! – that’s why I went with an SG Standard instead of a Special. Sorry for your broken heart, it’s very tough when the GAS attack is stifled.

    I think I would want block inlays on any E-style Gibson or Epiphone because I like the look. Or even the parallelograms. Or whatever that is on the Epiphone Sheraton II. But if I found a guitar at the right price, maybe I wouldn’t care. It’s such a personal decision.

  95. 95.

    lurker

    @WaterGirl:

    @NotMax:

    stumbled on the almighty johnsons years ago one late night, initially having to check out the name and then realizing the girl from Whale Rider was in it (seemed like she had disappeared and apparently she kinda had – there are definitely some interesting turns in the life of Keisha Castle-Hughes).  Got sucked into at least the first two seasons, not sure I ever watched all of it.  It was definitely over the top and also very New Zealand for someone who has only a passing connection to the country.

  96. 96.

    lurker

    @O. Felix Culpa: so this is being taken as good news on this end, just because I know of no recent issues with an appendicitis for anyone in my recollection – I figure that means the medical types have it figured out.  there are no guarantees with any health issue, but these days most things that are well understood seem to go well.  pulling for you here – hope you come through well.  enjoy the morphine or whatever else they do to ease things through for you.

  97. 97.

    lurker

    @WaterGirl: so does this mean you can read swedish? not really sure of what to do with that … Or just that it would be in swedish and that would be a problem?  Interesting either way.

    In terms of subtitles/closed captioning, I discovered some time ago that all of the actors who mumble through their lines need not require rewinding several times with the sound way up to figure out what they actually said, you can read what the captioner thought they said and they are close enough most of the time.  Sometimes with hilarious results when they are clearly off.

    The kids watch some anime which both has subtitles (in English) and is dubbed (into English), and the gist tends to line up, but the translation in the subtitles is often hilariously different from the dubbed in english vocals.  Word choices, entire sentences, meaning of statements sometimes.  And that is before you get to any closed captions.

  99. 99.

    opiejeanne

    @O. Felix Culpa: I’m a late-bloomer too, I was about 65 when I had my bout with it. Woke up with the pain on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, had it out starting at 8pm.  I had to wait for a place in line for the surgery because I wasn’t critical and other people were. Went home the next morning, napped on the couch while everyone else made the food, except I got up and made pie dough and rolled it out for the pumpkins and pecan pies, and went back to dozing on the couch. We had dry-brined the turkey the day before my trip to the hospital, and it was possibly the best I’ve ever had.

    Enjoy the drugs; I really did while I waited my turn.

  103. 103.

    Emily68

    @AliceBlue: Malania should never be in Vogue because of her fashion choice when she wore that coat when she went to “inspect” the children at the border.

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    @lurker: That was in response to this comment from hells littlest angel:

    Yi’d hev figgehed et out ivinchelly.

    My comment that I can read swedish was a joke, because the line above isn’t actually swedish

    edit: wow, this might just be a personal record for me!  5 comments on an (apparently) dead thread.  JR in WV better watch out, i may have to claim his crown.

  109. 109.

    Kenneth Krasity

    I’ve watched all of Brokenwood on our library’s Hoopla service. I like it a lot and it gets better and better as it goes on, with quirkier humor (less of the talking to the murder victims) and ongoing character relationships. Also, pretty much everyone from All Mighty Johnsons makes an appearance at some point.

  110. 110.

    LauraW

    I loved Crossing Lines – unfortunately I can’t get Ovation so I can only rewatch season 1 on my dvds.  I absolutely love Brokenwood.  My sister and I rewatch it constantly.  Another fun mystery series is The Mallorca Files. There are 2 seasons on Britbox – the scenery is beautiful!.  a grittier New Zealand series is The Gulf – available on Sundance Now through AMC+.

  111. 111.

    Fraud Guy

    The detective in The Brokenwood Mysteries has a rumpled, disheveled appearance that reminds me of another detective

    Columbo?

  115. 115.

    LauraW

    I forgot to mention Death in Paradise – streaming now on Britbox. Set in the Caribbean it is a wonderfully enjoyable detective series.

  116. 116.

    lurker

    @WaterGirl: tried to kill this thread off last night.  Not sure of what I did/started/restarted/reanimated(?!)

    the idea of a swedish version of a show, subtitled/captioned in swedish, and therefore still potentially frustrating to the viewer seemed amusing in my tired state at the time.

  118. 118.

    sherparick

    @hells littlest angel: It is little bit like Vera & Midsomar Murders (particularly as some of the methods of murder are a bit strange), set in a small New Zealand, with some of “Top of the Lake’s” darkness added and recurring characters (& suspects) as one could expect in a small town. I love it.

  119. 119.

    stayinginside

    Hubby and I loved Brokenwood, especially the down-under country music! Also loved the accents, having never traveled to that part of the world.

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