Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a Medium Cool Free-for-All about the shows we’ve been watching.
Tonight, there’s a twist. Don’t just tell us what you’ve been watching. Please tell us more than that!
- what you’ve been watching
- the premise of the show
- where it’s streaming (or at the library)
- favorite or worst thing about the show
- any favorite actors that are in the shows
- anything else you want
- be sure to rate the show in whatever fashion strikes your fancy
Is it a 5 cookie show?
5 giraffes on a scale of 5?
Or perhaps less than one cookie? (But on what scale?)
In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.
billcinsd
PSG’s triumph over Inter Milan in the Champion’s League final was a 5 cookie performance
Dorothy A. Winsor
We’re watching Good Girls on Netflix. It was NBC series for a couple of year maybe 5 years ago.
It’s about 3 suburban women who all wind up needing money and decide to rob a grocery store. They’re quite bad at criming, and keep getting themselves in deeper and deeper trouble. It darkly funny.
I don’t know the actors. I never know the actors. We both find it unexpectedly watchable.
Mr. Bemused Senior
I thank whoever here on BJ recommended Ludwig (on Amazon). Very enjoyable 6-episode comedy/mystery. The premise is that Ludwig is a master puzzle setter and his twin brother, a Detective Inspector has disappeared. His brother’s wife cajoles him into masquerading as his brother to try to find a clue. Meanwhile they keep sending him out to solve murders.
Gloria DryGarden
I was quite enrapture$ by Simon baker as patrick jane, in the mentalist. I binged the whole series in a few weeks when I first got Hulu. I go back and watch some episodes again.
I like his quirky mischievous character, how his mind is so fast at connecting clues, and how’s he’s playful even while serious.
5 stars, sure. Not always ideal as a going to sleep video, a bit too exciting.
worse, though fun to watch, we’re elementary, about Sherlock Holmes, and house, with Hugh Laurie. Too much adrenaline and excitement during each show, but the interplay of characters has been intriguing.
WaterGirl
@billcinsd: who is PSG?
Craig
Mobland. Streaming on Paramount.
Title says it. Blood feud kicks off between two London gangs. Tom Hardy stars as the fixer for the Irish Harrigan’s led by a very good and right terrifying at times Pierce Brosnan as Conrad . Helen Mirren is his bonkers wife Meave. She’s a lot. Paddy Consadine is Conrad’s son, a teenage friend of Hardy’s Harry Da Souza. Geoff Bell is Ritchie Stevenson. Tremendous performance from him as a right villain. His portrayal of Ritchie is nuanced evil. Toby Jones sneaks in and does another great role in his box full of great characters. Janet McTeer, the lawyer from Ozark, slides in and delivers in a small, important role. Nothing ground breaking here, but solid English gangster story. Tom Hardy really excels at this shit, and his Harry is charming, and can be incredibly menacing, and of course when pushed beyond menacing completely ruthless. First episodes are work for hire direction from Guy Ritchie. I found it kinda interesting that Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren were both in legendary 80s gangster film The Long Good Friday. 4 bullets
WaterGirl
@Mr. Bemused Senior: That sounds fun. 4 dark-chocolate covered apricots out of 5?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@WaterGirl: yes, at least 4.
emjayay
Luna and Sophie on PBS. A police (nonuniformed) procedural with two 30something women doing most of the investigations and several guys in the office doing research and also joining in. In German, set in Potsdam.
It turns out it’s the first four seasons of SOKO Potsdam, one of a number of SOKO franchises that go back years, like the CSI franchises here. After the first four seasons the leads moved on so it wouldn’t be Luna and Sophie any more.
I don’t know what the other and older ones were like, but this one is really well acted and directed with very uncopish characters of different types who act and dress like people I would know. It’s the least presentational and theatrical and most real show of its kind I’ve seen (assuming some German police investigation offices are really casual and not traditionally German at all). But Germans I know are like that too today.
Of course like all of these kinds of shows crimes get solved by brilliant noticing some details, internet researching and adding things up, all within each show, along with misdirection and the cops maybe coming up with wrong hypotheses first. Like most it sometimes goes into the personal lives of everyone in the office, and their personal lives impact their work. Also a bit of a comic edge at times.
All on a low budget- a lot of scene setting drone and street shots of Potsdam (former residence of Prussian kings and the the German emperor until 1918 near Berlin). But it’s actually otherwise shot someplace else in Germany, and of course the office is a studio set.
On broadcast PBS (maybe not everywhere) and their pay online service and also PBS or Masterpiece or whatever they call it on Amazon Prime.
hoytwillrise
Women’s college world Series; also Rebus on Britbox (old show). somewhat good but npot too much like the books.
eclare
@billcinsd:
Absolutely! Beautiful to watch.
eclare
@WaterGirl:
Paris Saint-Germain. They won the match 5-0, which is a blowout in metric football.
Ruckus
I have zero idea what’s new on TV, I watch Netflix or DVDs, mostly older shows and a few newish, and I don’t watch for long per day. Use to be addicted to TV, got over it. By being addicted to it I got bored so now if I turn it on it’s maybe for an hour, hour and a half a day.
Suzanne
I’m not currently watching any shows! The last show I watched was The Residence, and I greatly enjoyed it. I watched Mike Birbiglia’s new special last night, and Sarah Silverman’s last weekend, both while doing chores. Both specials were quite bittersweet, about their parents experiencing health crises, and in Sarah Silverman’s, their deaths. Both specials were great and I recommend.
Comedy specials are really all I watch.
JoyceH
@Gloria DryGarden:
Ooh, love The Mentalist! Love Simon Baker!
I’m currently rewatching Stargate Atlantis. It’s a spinoff from Stargate SGI, and sends a team to another galaxy in search of technology of The Ancients. I’m just in the mood for smart, nice people doing highly technical things in a distant galaxy.
Gin & Tonic
Last series I watched was the NBA Eastern Conference Championship. Unfortunately, the series ended early and poorly.
eclare
The first episode of And Just Like That (successor to Sex and the City) was released on Thursday, and I watched it. After the first two seasons were borderline ridiculous, reviews for this season look good. Plus Che, one of the most unlikable characters in the past few years, is gone. I think the producers really underestimated how much the audience liked Steve with Miranda.
JoyceH
A new show I’m watching (all caught up) is Dr. Odyssey. It’s about a doctor on a cruise ship, and it’s not as fluffy as it sounds. Yes, there’s plenty of beaches and babes in bikinis and umbrella drinks by the hot tub, but they wind up with medical issues I’ve never heard of (all life-threatening, natch), and get into some heavy issues. Man, the wedding episode was DARK.
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: Omnes is going to pie you for asking that!
mali muso
Just finished bingeing North of North on Netflix for the second time. The episodes are short and snappy, so it’s easy to pop one on before bed without having to commit to a long watch.
The premise is a young Inuk woman in a small town in the far north of Canada starts to want more out of her life. The plots follow her efforts to find her way, get a job and find her place within the community that she loves. The tone is light, funny and very authentic. And it shows off a culture and way of life that we don’t see featured often.
Steve in the ATL
@JoyceH: so Love Boat meets Fantasy Island?
Barbara
@Gloria DryGarden: Simon Baker is underrated. I loved The Mentalist — he is also outstanding in a movie called Margin Call about the 2008 meltdown. He is not the star, but in some ways his character’s amorality defines the whole movie, and he has in my view the very best scene in the movie.
I haven’t been watching much. Will read recommendations here with interest!
I will amend — I started watching a Canadian series on NBC called Transplant. I will try to keep watching. The acting is good, but it seems a lot like ER.
eclare
@Steve in the ATL:
I even got my 94 yo aunt to watch by telling her, “if you want to see true fanatics, forget Eagles fans, watch this match!”
WaterGirl
@Craig: Loved the descriptions. LOL on the 4 bullets that are perfect for the subject matter!
Craig
The Studio. Apple TV+
Seth Rogan is Matt, the newly minted head of Continental Pictures. He is a guy with an almost childlike love of cinema. He fucking loves movies. Lives for them. Ike Barinholtz is his ladder climbing buddy. He wants big hits, while Matt really wants to make timeless art. Kathryn Hahn soars as a deranged PR director, she nails it. Catherine O’Hara steals every scene she walks into as Matt’s mentor whose job he took. Brain Cranston is a lunatic as the Studio Chairman who needs Big Hits. Normally I hate this kind of thing, but it short episode lengths and commitment to the absurd really sucked me in. Seth Rogan is perfect as the bumbling enthusiastic Matt. Tons of guest stars from Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Sarah Polly, Charlize Theron. 5 statues.
WaterGirl
@eclare: Never heard of them. But wowser on the score!
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Has Simon Baker been in anything since The Mentalist? (which I loved, though some of the Red John stuff got pretty creepy for me)
zhena gogolia
@Mr. Bemused Senior: That was me (or at least I did recommend it)! We loved it.
Now watching Tina Fey’s The Four Seasons on Netflix. We’re in the last episode. The first half is stronger than the second half, but quite a few laughs. Colman Domingo is amazing.
NeenerNeener
Watched “Dept Q” on Netflix. Gritty British cop show with Matthew Goode, Kelly Macdonald, Jamie Sives and “Moaning Myrtle” herself, Shirley Henderson. Plus a bunch of other Brit character actors that you usually see in other British cop shows. Goode and Sives are cops sent to the scene of a murder, and they are ambushed at that scene and shot themselves. That’s just the first 5 or 10 minutes. When Goode gets out of the hospital he’s told he’s taking over a new “cold case” unit and his boss keeps throwing road blocks at him. Although he’s supposed to be a department of one other cops keep asking to join his team. The cold case they pick to work on first is bizarre.
Five scones with fresh raspberries and butter!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@zhena gogolia: Ah. My thanks again.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: You forgot to tell us who the star is! I loved him on Nash Bridges. The episode where someone (maybe someone’s mom?) thought the pot was maybe some italian spice and was totally stoned was so much fun.
I think I tend to like buddy movies.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: Don’t tell him!
zhena gogolia
@NeenerNeener: I wanted to watch that because I adore Shirley Henderson, but the NYT review made it sound too violent for my taste.
I’m thinking of trying Death Valley on Britbox. Timothy Spall in Wales, and somebody compared it to Ludwig.
zhena gogolia
@Mr. Bemused Senior: You’re welcome!
WaterGirl
@mali muso: ooh, that sounds interesting. I was really sorry when they cancelled Alaska Daily which also shared some sense of that life. Not to mention how important it is to draw attention to missing and murdered Native women.
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
I hate how violent most everything is these days. I really want to see Sinners, because it has Michael B. Jordan (poor Wallace from The Wire) who is an incredible talent, but I’ve read that it’s very violent.
NeenerNeener
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, it’s definitely not in the same cozy mystery league as “Sister Boniface” or “Father Brown”. It’s probably closer to “Wire In the Blood” on the “gritty, violent” scale.
I did a rewatch on “Wire In The Blood” last week because I hadn’t seen it since the early 2000s and I’m a Robson Green fan. I’d forgotten just how violent that show was. Val McDermid writes some pretty dark stuff, although she seems to have abandoned her “Tony Hill and Carol Jordan” series. She left them in very annoying situations with no resolution. Maybe she wrote herself into a corner and can’t think of a way out.
Pauline
I was poking around on Netflix last week and stumbled across The Great British Bake Off. It’s always been on that mental list of shows that I want to watch, so I started clicked on it. I didn’t realize it before, but this is exactly the show I need right now as the antidote to all the daily craziness that’s been happening in this country. Five perfectly crisp biscuits.
WaterGirl
@Craig: Sounds really great. 5 statues, you guys are good at this!
@Pauline: @NeenerNeener: I am really enjoying the descriptions and especially the ratings! :-)
NotMax
Catching up on A French Village on MHz Choice. Available either subtitled or dubbed.
Multi-season series about resistance in (duh!) a French village in WW2 occupied France.
4½ out of 5 Maxies.
;)
Liminal Owl
@eclare: There is quite a bit of violence—more than I might have tolerated until recently—but it’s still stunningly good.
The Thin Black Duke
The Green Glove Gang, on Netflix. Imagine The Golden Girls cosplaying as modern-day Robin Hoods, set in Poland. What sets it apart from the stereotypical roles that older women are squeezed into in Hollywood, these amazing women are smart, sexy and fearless. Their wrinkles are tribal tattoos, and they wear them proudly.
Just look at that parking lot
Watched the Paul Reubens documentary, Pee Wee as Himself, on HBO the other day. Enjoyed it a lot, especially see his growing up in Sarasota and how much he loved the Ringling Brothers atmosphere. Hope to see episode 2 soon. I rate it 4 1/2 “I know you are, but what am I”s.
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke: Earlier this week I was wishing you might get back to the kinds of posts you used to do on Medium, about culture-related things, even if you’re not up for posting about political stuff at the moment.
I miss you on the front page!
lee
A second vote for ‘Dept Q.’
We binged watched it over the weekend and loved every minute of it.
Another suggestion: “High Potential”
It is a detective show in a similar vein as “Psych”, “The Mentalist”, etc. Very fun to watch.
NotMax
If you’re into an addictive period series, every season of Lark Rise to Candleford is available on the Roku Channel (with ads). Promo spot.
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: You need to see Tim Heidecker‘s movie reviews. “Five bags of popcorn and two sodas!”
eclare
@Pauline:
At least five biscuits! I love how the contestants don’t try to sabotage each other, like they do on other reality shows. Another plus is a really diverse group of contestants each season. I subscribe to Netflix for one month each year just to watch that show once all the episodes are released.
Percysowner
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Ludwig is actually on Britbox. It hasn’t hit Amazon, at least not yet. It is great. Subscribing to Britbox has given me lots of nice, cozy British mysteries that take my mind off of the world. I’ve enjoyed Shakespeare and Hathaway as well.
On PBS Grantchester is going to start a new season on June 15. I’m a PBS subscriber, so I’m hoping my money can keep PBS alive, at least for a while.
Pauline
@NotMax: Lark Rise is one of my most favorite series ever! It’s also on Britbox.
JoyceH
@WaterGirl: I haven’t seen anything newer than The Mentalist. But a good older show is The Guardian, where Baker is a hot shot lawyer in a pricey law firm and gets mixed up with drugs and awarded a lengthy community service period where he winds up as court appointed child advocate.
Oh, he’s also in a great rom-com, Something New, as the sexy landscape architect (AKA fancy gardener) who’s fixed up on a blind date with the high-powered female black executive who’s looking for the Perfect Black Man, which in her book is also a high-powered executive.
Oddly, he plays a lot of Americans though he’s Australian.
Pauline
@eclare: Exactly! The lack of sabotage is so refreshing. And the diversity is also much appreciated.
NotMax
@NotMax
Should add it is not necessary to have a Roku device to access and watch stuff on the Roku Channel.
Citizen Dave
@Gin & Tonic:
This Hoosier gives the Eastern Conference Finals a 14/10. The 1990s hard edge is gone. No Knicks vs Hicks. I’m very very sorry about native Yinzer/now Hoosier Pat McAfee. Native John Mellencamp issued the apology. Both teams seem to have mutual respect (though for me Brunson remains annoying)
Pauline
@Percysowner: Britbox is the only streaming service that I pay for by the year because I watch so many shows on it.
Gloria DryGarden
@JoyceH: he’s very sexy in something new. He’s got several Aussie movies out, acting, directing, producing. I have “high ground” cued up on Hulu, but I did watch Breath, a beautifully filmed movie about surfing and coming of age, based on a book by a beloved Aussie author. There’s another Aussie movie of his that I’ve seen parts of, I can’t recall if it’s on YouTube or Kanopy.
Jay
@mali muso:
Seconded. T loves it, it’s available on both Netflix, Gem and APTM. APTM runs weekend binge watching.
APTM is “our” (Canadian) Indigenous TV/Cable/Streaming service.
persistentillusion
Welcome to Wrexham, it’s been around for awhile. It’s on Hulu. Rob Mcilhenney and Ryan Reynolds bought a down at the heels Welsh football team, the Wrexham Red Dragons in 2021. The show focuses on the run from, what in American terms, would be less than Triple A b-ball, through their promotions to leagues above – back-to back-to back. Now they’re looking at promotion to the Premier League (NFL in Am terms). You get to know the players, obvs, their families, the townies and a really interesting mix of folk in a north Wales town trying to re-invent itself to survive.
Gloria DryGarden
@WaterGirl: if you google him, there are many movies and some tv shows. I have to look him up, can’t remember the names of several of his movies. He’s delicious in most everything. His Aussie movies about racial history he plays serious characters, though. Not light watching.
@eclare: just their ads disturb me. How can they put ads for horror on late at night? I won’t be watching sinners
Craig
The Residence. Netflix.
A death has occurred in The White House during a state dinner with the Australian Ambassador. Giancarlo Esposito as Chief Usher A.B. Wynter is dead. This thing is so slick that I was initially turned off, but it’s barrage of jokes within jokes, wacky characters and homage to the Consulting Detective invented by AC Doyle won me over: Holmes is probably my favorite fictional character. Through some convoluted procedural regulations the DC Metro Police end up with jurisdiction. The bring in Consulting Detective Cordelia Cupp. A genius character played with effortless style by Uzi Aduba. So many sight gags, she wears tweeds, she carries a ‘magic’ bag that holds whatever she needs to pull out of it. Love her performance. Tons of talented, if not famous actors. A hilarious cameo of Al Franken as a Senator chairing a committee. Told in flashbacks while Cordelia trys to finger out what happened, and of course whodoneit. There’s a great little homage to Rashomon. Little shout outs to tons of mysteries. Cordelia is an avid birder who never misses a chance to whip out her binoculars to see the local avian population. I feel there is a joke about birds and bees since Holmes was an admirer of bees and retired to care for and study them. Esposito is amazing as AB, a man who lives for his job and the House that defines it. Giancarlo Esposito is the greatest actor of his generation. You look at his IMDB profile and he’s just grinding it out, new experiences, new kinds of roles, then when given a chance to shine he grabs hold of it and rides like a champion. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, so 5 Ovals.
Gloria DryGarden
@persistentillusion: isn’t it also about the community rebuilding itself because of the ball club?
Citizen Dave
We started with Apple + a few months ago to join the Severence bandwagon. I enjoyed it. 5/5 (though some season 2 episodes are very slow.
I’ve watched The Studio. I like Seth Meyers, Katherine Hahn, Catherine O Hara. But…liked this series less and less as it went on. The ‘oners’ are impressive in a technical sense, but I’m realizing lately how much I really enjoyed the semi-improvisational style of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Also watched Apple’s Your Friends and Neighbors. Star is Jon Hamm. I like him a lot. But for me, same as above, I liked this less and less as it played out. Overall am getting tired of watching characters way way richer than me fuck around with no consequences.
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: I’ll look up to find out if I can access that. I thought I had to pay for the service. I’m so behind on tech stuff.
Has anyone watched Sherlock , starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and bilbo baggins ( Martin freeman?) and Andrew Scott? I don’t like Moriarty, Scott’s character, of course not, but he’s such a fine nuanced actor, I’d watch him in anything. The whole series was fun to watch. Five pieces of chocolate dipped ginger.
rekoob
@Craig: Seconding “The Studio” on Apple TV+! Lots of fun, and several Easter Eggs for vintage car lovers.
rekoob
“Hacks” on HBO continues to deliver. I was concerned that it was heading in a dark direction in Season 4, but it turned out better than I expected. On to Season 5!
schrodingers_cat
Just started watching Shogun on Hulu. Its intriguing. Only one episode in.
I am creating my own series; Watching documentaries and movies about the partition. I am particularly interested in the interwar era in British India.
Also thinking of watching Freedom At Midnight. I have to subscribe to Sling TV.
Its based on Collins and LaPierre’s book by the same name.
Just watched Partition in Color, a documentary by Channel 4
There is Gurinder Chaddha’s Viceroy’s House again based on Collins and Lapierre’s book and a memoir of foreign service officer.
And a Hindi movie called Garam Hawa (Hot Air) and a miniseries made by India’s PBS couterpart called Tamas (Darkness)
The immediate reason for this interest was the short lived Indo-Pak skirmish after the Pahalgam attacks. But this has been a long term interest of mine.
rekoob
@Gloria DryGarden: Watched “Sherlock” in its entirety, liked it all (although the last season was odd), and Andrew Scott is an interesting actor. Have you seen him in “Fleabag”?
eclare
@rekoob:
FYI season five is supposed to be the last season. I haven’t started season four yet because I want to binge it. I’ll do that in the next few days. Jean Smart is just perfect as Deborah Vance, a Joan Rivers type comedian. I’m glad to see her get so much recognition and several Emmys.
zhena gogolia
@rekoob: It was great! Five bags of popcorn and six sodas.
pajaro
I finished with the second (and last) season of Andor a week or so ago. It’s on Disney# I believe. It’s very well done, It’s definitely Star Wars for grownups; to put it mildly, the themes they deal with bear on our current condition. It’s structured like a play, in four Acts of three episodes each. If you have a general knowledge of the Star Wars saga, you know how the movie fits in, and the ending is therefore not a shock, but it still is suspenseful enough. I’m not sure how it would play if you were totally unfamiliar with the back story, sorry to say. Also, if you are an elder like me, I recommend enabling the close captioning, as the dialogue in the first episode in particular sped by me pretty quickly.
zhena gogolia
@Gloria DryGarden: Sherlock is a classic, although I didn’t like the last season. I loved the wedding episode.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: The last season was too clever by half. I am purist I prefer the original. Same with Christie.
Brannagh’s Poirot is unwatchable.
Craig
As with Gin and Tonic I’ve been watching basketball. With the Warriors out I don’t have a dog in the fight, but always happy to see Boston lose. For me the excitement has been in the last days of The NBA on TNT. NBA ended it’s 30 some year association with TNT, so after yesterday it’s all over and NBC picks it up. Sucks for basketball. TNT had developed the best version of basketball on TV by a mile. Yesterday’s court side team is incredible. Mike Harland is the play by play guy. He’s got ‘the voice’, he talks with this great pace, always describes what you’re seeing in a helpful manner, always has the players names flowing out of his mouth effortlessly. Joined with ex coach Stan Van Gundy and superstar Hall of Famer Reggie Miller as expert analysts the show files way above anyone else. The respect they each have for each other’s lanes is impressive. They never step on each other’s toes and I learn a lot about the teams play, and the game in general. Add in halftime and post game with Inside The NBA with analysis from Ernie Johnson, Shaq, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley and you have a full package of basketball enjoyment, education, and entertainment. Inside is simply the best sports program ever produced. The relationship that the stars on screen have between themselves, and with the crew is unprecedented. Producer Tim Kiely has developed a freeform madcap, but extremely professional formula where you never know what you’re going to get. A whole segment might go off the rails and have nothing to do with the game till the next commercial break. I was sad when it was going to be over. Luckily ESPN stepped up and is licensing the show lock stock and barrel. Same studio, same crew, same show, also unprecedented. If you have MAX there is a documentary called Going Inside that’s about this last year. Happy and Sad. 5 Championship Trophies.
rekoob
@eclare: That’s what I’ve heard, too. Jean Smart has done a tremendous job, and I’ve watched the “Behind The Scenes” extras after the episodes to learn more about the thinking behind the characters and the story arc. Hannah Einbinder has a lot of gears — I’m looking forward to her next project.
Gloria DryGarden
@rekoob: just parts. Have you seen him in sea wall? It’s a monologue play, available on YouTube. Stunning.
And he’s in an early nicholas galatzine movie, forgot title. And in that recent movie with Paul… about two gay men, and he revisits his dead parents through some time travel hallucination movie device, and makes peace. Have just seen clips of it, Name of movie escaping me. I’m on a different track right now.
dmsilev
Currently, Murderbot on AppleTV+. It’s an adaptation of the book series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, and the first season (about half of which is released so far) is a fairly faithful adaptation of the first book, All Systems Red. Alexander Skarsgard stars as the titular character, a part robot/part human(ish) ‘Security Unit’ who is going through what amounts to an existential crisis. All it really wants, it claims, is to be able to sit around and watch the futuristic equivalent of trashy soap operas (which the tv adaptation gleefully shows). But then stuff happens.
Comedic with a core of seriousness. The books are great, and so far I’ve been enjoying the show.
Craig
@rekoob: The Hot Priest in Fleabag is awesome. I love the super power he has over her and how it affects ‘our’ relationship.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I’ve never heard of that, but that sounds really fun!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
We just started the first season of Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne. She’s on the run after solving the murder of a friend, which gets her in hot water with a casino owner/monster. The premise is she can always tell if someone is lying. So she’s hiding by drifting across America on a shoestring budget solving murders along the way. We’re only two episodes in but I’d give it 5 giraffes so far. Streaming on Peacock.
We’re also working our way through Columbo – also on Peacock – which definitely holds up and is worth 5 Giraffes for sure.
A new show we like on network TV is St. Dennis Medical. It’s a mockumentary comedy set at a hospital – in a recent episode they showed a quick shot of the statue of St. Dennis out front of the hospital and it’s headless – the body is holding the head in it’s hands. They made the post martyr statue of the saint. I thought that was funny. Stars David Alan Grier and Wendy McLendan-Covey. I’d give it 3.5 giraffes – not an all time great sitcom but definitely deserves a couple more seasons.
Craig
@schrodingers_cat: unwatchable is being kind.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: The Guardian! I had forgotten all about that. I loved that show.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: where is something new streaming?
Gloria DryGarden
@Gloria DryGarden: “all of us strangers” w Andrew Scott. To clarify prev comment.
Craig
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Natasha Lyonne does the world’s best Peter Falk impression, I love her. Waiting to watch season 2
Gloria DryGarden
@WaterGirl: YouTube has it.
Chris
Well, here goes:
Timeless. Available on Prime. Pulp sci-fi show from a decade or so ago where the heroes keep traveling back in time to try and stop history from being changed by a bad guy… or is he? Only actor I knew in it is Goran Visnjic, who plays the bad guy. It’s mostly fun if you enjoy seeing U.S. historical events and characters played with; of course, that will also occasionally be the worst part of it if you actually know any history. (The show mostly avoids this kind of crap, but it’s hard not to cringe when the Alamo episode shows some black people in the Alamo, calls them “freed men,” and takes pains to remind you that slavery was abolished in Mexico… without ever mentioning that the rebels reestablished it as soon as they seceded). I give it 7.21 gigawatts out of 10.21 gigawatts.
Andor. Available on Disney Plus. Everyone knows it, but for the few who don’t, it’s Star Wars doing antifascism from a point of view much closer to the ground than we usually get (though we still get to spend plenty of time among the high and mighty). Worst part of the show? Extreme scarcity of aliens, to a point that almost feels like the producer resents his setting. Best part of the show? … literally everything else. Seriously, it’s not just the best Star Wars show but the best show I’ve seen this decade, period. I give it 10 pitchers of blue milk out of 10.
Warrior. Available on Netflix. A martial artist from China arrives in 1870s San Francisco in search of his sister, while also having to pay his passage by working as an enforcer for a Triad, only to discover that she’s risen pretty high up in the rival Triad and has no interest in going home with him. Only one episode in so I honestly can’t rank it, but it’s fun so far. If nothing else, the fact that the series opens with him showing up at the docks and beating the shit out of the proto-ICE thugs hazing the Chinese immigrants as they get off the boat is worth the price of admission.
Elementary – been slowly working my way through that one for a few years and got about a season left to go. Available on Hulu. It’s Sherlock, except good (sorry, was that harsh?) It’s mostly an excellent modern adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but one of the highlights for me is portraying an extremely close friendship between a man and a woman that nevertheless remains completely platonic. (I’ve read it argued that Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu’s portrayal of their characters are more platonic than most of the versions of the story in which they’re both men, which is funny enough as well). I give it 5 orange pips out of 5.
The Rockford Files. Available on Prime. The commentariat skews old enough that I assume it needs no introduction, but just in case: James Garner as a put-upon private detective plying his trade in the then-current world of 1970s/1980s Los Angeles. No one’s ever beat James Garner when it comes to the persona of “look man, I want to help, I really do, enough that I’ll probably get sucked into this even despite my better judgment, but I do have bills to pay!” Not a lot of shows in this genre do the Working Class Hero thing as well as this one did. Columbo was a police detective; he worked hard for it and he’d never get rich doing it, but he wouldn’t have to worry about where his next meal came from and he had 5,000 brother officers to help him and look out for him. Magnum was a perpetual couch-surfer living in the basement of an absentee billionaire who let him play with all his toys. The A-Team were outlaws, if their client couldn’t afford to pay them, they could and would take it out of the mark’s hide. MacGyver was the golden boy of a first-tier think tank and government contractor, not to mention that no one with such an extraordinary skillset would ever be wanting for employment. Even Robert McCall had his tense but mutually beneficial relationship with the CIA to keep him warm. Jim Rockford was the rare TV hero that you really felt could be the guy next door, and who wouldn’t just help or sympathize if you vented about your problems with your job or your landlord, but really empathize because he had several dozen stories of his own just like yours. Final score? I’d say it’s worth at least 200 dollars a day, plus expenses.
Gloria DryGarden
@JoyceH: he lived in the USA for 20 years, raised his family, acted with American accents, then moved back to Oz.
rekoob
Having shilled for “The Studio”, I’ll note two other multi-season shows on Apple TV+ with good reviews/concepts, as I see it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinking_(TV_series)
As always, YMMV.
Gloria DryGarden
@Chris: I enjoyed elementary as well. Binged right through it. It’s rare, to have a friendship stay platonic and yet stay so close, in their interesting standoffish way. Lucy liu is great in it.
why do you prefer it over Sherlock?
WaterGirl
@Chris: 5 of everything for those reviews!
WaterGirl
@rekoob: I am really enjoying shrinking.
Marc
Be aware, though, there’s a good bit of violence. Sooner or later someone will “accidentally” knock another’s bake on the floor, or Noel will release a real stinker of a joke.
NotMax
@eclare
If you’ve never seen the season of Fargo starring Jean Smart, hie thee hence.
WaterGirl
@Marc: shocking!
Chris
@JoyceH:
There’s a big nostalgia value to Stargate simply in terms of how we see our institutions.
It’s crazy that as late as thirty years ago, it didn’t seem completely crazy that if something like the Stargate fell into the hands of the United States government, they wouldn’t completely fuck it up. They might; the show was candid about that too, both by showing us alternate timelines where everything went to shit, and by showing us that there were a lot of assholes gumming up the works even in the good timelines. But there were enough good people in government and military service too that that wasn’t a foregone conclusion. And then you get to Atlantis, where instead of one government it’s at least a dozen, and still they make it work.
Today, it’s basically unthinkable. There’s basically no version of the 2025 universe in which the rogue NID/Kinsey/Trust faction doesn’t grab the Stargate very quickly and fuck everything up six ways to breakfast, like “Earth-shattering-kaboom” fuck everything up.
rekoob
@WaterGirl: Here’s my prediction — Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso/Shrinking) and Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) will put together a killer dramedy in the next 5 years on whatever becomes of Apple TV/Netflix/Google/Paramount-Skydance/Amazon…
Heck, throw Hannah Waddingham in for good measure! They’ll poach writers from John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” and turn it into a commentary on contemporary society.
Chris
@NotMax:
I gotta watch A French Village sometime.
Word is it was one of the inspirations of the guy who wrote Andor. Though having seen the latter, I can’t compare the two.
Craig
@Chris: You’re right, Rockford is the best. I remember the tiny printing press he used to make up fake business cards. He gets by with help from his friends. Dennis his old cop buddy. Beth his lawyer and maybe romantic interest. Angel his jail buddy who always sucks him into trouble, but Jim just can’t abandon. His awesome dad. With occasional help from Isaac Hayes as his cranky former cell mate Gandy. What a great show. 5 Firebirds
NotMax
@WaterGirl
I dunno, Once you drop below four feet, everything to do around the house.becomes more than a bit of a PITA.
;:
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Craig: Yes it’s giving me a real Columbo vibe, which Columbo deserves an homage – it’s long overdue.
Craig
@Chris: he got a lot of inspiration from Battle of Algiers. I watched that after I finished S2 Andor, and it tracks. I’ll have to watch French Village.
BlueGuitarist
@Mr. Bemused Senior: agree re Ludwig
@zhena gogolia: Thanks for the Ludwig recommendation!!!!
(4 ! Rating)
Craig
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: totally. Same story structure where you see the murder at the beginning. Even the typography comes straight out of Columbo. Both are such great fun.
Trivia Man
@Chris: another vote for Andor. For anyone just a little curious, do what i did – skip ahead and watch just the last 3 episodes of season 2. Then immediately watch Rogue 1. Then A New Hope. That is the best trilogy of the SW universe.
I gave gone back now and watched some (not all) of the earlier Andor episodes.
rekoob
Deleted, out of context.
BlueGuitarist
@Craig:
@Suzanne:
loved The Residence!!!!!
Andre Braugher died after filming 4 episodes, Giancarlo Esposito did a fabulous job replacing him. (first time I saw either of them was Homicide: Life on the Street)
Trivia Man
Fisk – quirky Australian lawyer lady. Great characters, funny, light and fluffy.
Lincoln Lawyer – rewatching season 1 before watching 2 and 3. Clever writing, i enjoyed the plot twists, likeable leads, but made be too many tropes about HOW he is so super capable and almost magically good.
RevRick
@Craig: MrsRev and I have been watching it together. We can not get over how Matt (Seth Rogan) never can seem to get out of his own way. Who knew neurosis could be so hilarious?
Chris
@Gloria DryGarden:
Less infatuated with its title character, or so it seemed to me. The other big advantage that Elementary has over it is TBF just down to the format; a series with twenty episodes a season gets to build a much richer world and tell a lot more stories than one that only has three long episode a season.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: more series, these i didn’t finish.
AP Bio. Sone funny jokes, decent writing, but it just keeps trying to get more extreme like it wants to be Poochy. Harvard prof id teaching high school and enlists his class to help torment his rival. Some of the kids are fun characters.
Man on the Inside – ted danson goes undercover in arrest home to solve a string of thefts. Ok, but i got bored. I hate characters trying to ve deceptive and they just jeep making dumb errors.
Travellers – sci fi, future travelers take over bodies in the present day. Wife gave ip cause it got too weird, i plowed through to the end. Was ok with finishing it but wouldn’t have minded if i just dropped it.
Upper Middle Bogan – Australian family comedy, lots of quirky characters. Best part is that they take sitcom tropes but usually land them in a poignant or satisfying way,
Trivia Man
Love, Death, snd Robots – anthology of animated sci go short stories. None terrible, a few fantastic, all entertaining.
Black Mirror – mostly dystopian sci fi anthology series. Lots and lots of concepts to think about. Very well made.
RevRick
@Chris: I completely agree with your assessment of Andor. It ranks up there with The Wire, as far as I am concerned. It’s gritty and real. I, too, noticed the lack of aliens in the series, but I have a different take: that Andor wants us to confront the real source of evil: the worst of us doing the worst imaginable.
The Red Pen
Murderbot: Really like it but the episodes are too fucking short.
Haven’t watched Andor because I’m not sure I can absorb more on the topic of fascism.
I ended up watching the new Matlock because I like Cathy Bates. It’s silly and melodramatic but it’s really good for a broadcast TV show.
I’ve also been rewatching The Good Place. Another broadcast TV show that’s easy to watch, but very well done.
mayim
Pointless, the quiz show equivalent to The Great British Baking Show. Picture Jeopardy crossed with a reverse Family Feud. Contests are trying to find the survey’s least mentioned correct answer. Wrong answers get 100 points and the pairs competing want to avoid becoming members of the 200 club by both giving incorrect answers, while being pointless is the goal. Almost a gentle parody of the game show genre ~ but not quite: contestants get to play 2 or 3 games <depending on the season>, the host does scoring commentary like on sports broadcasts, and so on. Available on YouTube. Zero [pointless] stars.
Time Team. Another British show available at YouTube. Archaeology with a side of comedy ~ host is Tony Robinson, who was in Black Adder and sets the tone for the show. Lots of ‘character’ with the archeologists ~ Mick the professor, John the techie geophysicist, Stewart the landscape archeologist whose observations often contradict John’s technology, Phil who just wants to stop talking and use his shovel, among others. Three day digs, usually trying to answer a specific question about a site. Digs all over the U.K. [including Windsor Castle] covering the Bronze Age to WWII. Twenty year run, so it’s fun to see the changing technology. Patreon-sponsored new episodes are currently available as well. Five [out of a possible five] dusty towels, plus one Phil Harding hat.
BlueGuitarist
@NotMax:
Agree re French Village!!!!.
Well worth seeing. lots of memorable events/episodes.
there’s an episode based on the
November 11, 1943 defiant patriotic demonstration
that inspired Churchill to escalate support for the French resistance
(and also resulted in Nazi reprisals).
Public protest can be inspirational beyond the hopes (or even knowledge) of the participants.
eclare
A completed season that I thought was really good is The White Lotus season three. It’s fairly believable, as opposed to the other two seasons. Plus Parker Posey, Michelle Monaghan, Walton Goggins, and a surprisingly effective Patrick Schwarzenegger star. I say surprising because I’m always suspicious of nepo babies, but he showed no fear. It’s on HBO Max, easy to binge.
Chris
@Trivia Man:
Rewatching Rogue One right after finishing Andor, it defintely does enhance the effect.
That moment where Cassian’s taking Jyn through the city on Jedha and mutters “this town’s ready to blow.” It takes on a whole new meaning once you’ve seen Ferrix, and Ghorman. Cassian knows exactly what it looks like when a town blows, and why you don’t want to be there when it does.
The whole little power struggle between Tarkin and Krennic. In fact, Krennic’s attitude through the entire movie. The fallout from the ISB security breaches towards the end of Andor give it context; it’s already destroyed Dedra, it’s already destroyed Partagaz, and Krennic’s desperate to make sure it doesn’t destroy him. Unsuccessfully.
Saw Gerrera and his rift with the Alliance. Once you know that he’s an actual junkie who’s been huffing fumes for so long that it’s slowly killing him and driving him paranoid, it’s a lot easier to understand why Mon Mothma and the others don’t want to work with him unless they have to.
I love the fact that two of the chickenshit politicians who bail on the Alliance in Rogue One show up again late in Andor being about as useful. Quitting the Alliance really is the best thing those guys ever did, isn’t it? I mean fuck, can you imagine trying to regroup after Hoth with those two idiots hobbling you every step of the way?
Not about Rogue One, but it’s funny that the ISB goes from being the core of the Imperial counterinsurgency effort in Andor, to being completely absent in the original trilogy. The people who actually run the Empire clearly took one look at how they’d been handling the Rebel problem, decided “okay paintballers, time to go pro,” and handed over the problem to people who actually knew what they were doing. That being the military and Darth Vader.
eclare
@The Red Pen:
The Good Place was so well done and pursued weighty topics. It was surprising for network TV. It also had one of the best series finales I’ve ever seen. I think Ted Danson was nominated for an Emmy, but I don’t think he won, which was a shame.
Chris
@RevRick:
The Wire, man, that’s a show I really need to sit down and watch someday. I’m twenty years behind the times on that one.
Craig
eclare
@Chris:
OMG! I’ve watched the entire series three times, and each time I notice something new. Season four will break your heart.
RevRick
Five series that helped MrsRev and I get through the pandemic were Burn Notice, Suits, The Wire, Dexter, and The Expanse. Their main virtue for us was the plentitude of episodes. In the long months between April 2020 until Christmas of 2021, when we finally decided to get together with our family in a non social distancing way, they provided us with something to look forward to and talk about. Yes, we both read books during that period, but reading is a solo experience. The fact that there was some high quality entertainment in these shows was a bonus.
Also, Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), Donna ( Sarah Rafferty), and Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo)
RevRick
@Chris: Yes, do it. Watch The Wire. Omar and Stringer Bell and Bunk and sheeeeit.
eclare
@RevRick:
Clay Davis is a great character on The Wire. He plays a politician: I’ll take anybody’s money as long as they givin’ it away.
Steve in the ATL
@RevRick:
Woody Allen?
Craig
@Chris: I watched it in December with my mum- an 85 year old Scottish woman. She watches lots of detective shows so I said fuck it: ‘ we should watch this, it’s one of the best TV shows ever. It’s full of violence, and foul language, but it’s great’. She was in. She thought McNulty was an idiot, but got sucked in by his roguish charm. Loved Kima Greggs as everyone should. She was fascinated by Stringer Bell. She’d seen Luther, so I could see the violence in The Wire wouldn’t faze her. She thought it was funny that I didn’t know Idris Elba was British when I first saw it. When Lester and Omar each enter I said, ‘ watch this guy, he’s gonna surprise you, and everyone else. Omar, I was ‘this is one of the most interesting characters in Television History. She loved it. Watched S2 without me. I find it wild the world has changed so much. No payphones, no pagers. Wiretaps are hard. So worth another watch.
Craig
@eclare: He’s excellent in The Residence
eclare
@Craig:
I put that on the list for when I resubscribe to Netflix.
RevRick
@Steve in the ATL: I saw his movies so long ago that I have completely forgotten what they were about. They are about as memorable as what I had for lunch last Tuesday.
Chris
@Craig:
I remember watching an episode of MacGyver, where at one point he tells the guy with him to go to a pay phone and call backup. The guy says he doesn’t have any change. Mac just looks at him like he’s slow and goes “just dial 911! It’s free!”
I was watching this as a teenager in the 2000s, when pay phones were already on their way out, and it was the first time I’d heard it. It felt crazy that in just the ten or twenty years since the show was made, something like that had gone from “everybody knows this” to “so out of date no one ever bothered to teach me.”
BlueGuitarist
@Chris:
The Wire is brilliant!!!!
It can be daunting at the beginning.
Alan Sepinwall has 2 fine sets of commentaries on The Wire – for veterans (with spoilers) and Newbies (no spoilers).
link for Sepinwall’s reviews:
https://uproxx.com/tv/the-wire-links-for-reviews-to-every-episode/
Chris
@Craig:
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Everybody picked up on how Poker Face was Columbo for the twenty-first century, which it definitely is. It’s surprising to me how few people have commented that it’s also The Fugitive for the twenty-first century. Main character being somebody on the run who keeps getting drawn into other people’s problems and having to help make them right while still somehow staying ahead of the people chasing him/her.
The status quo changes a few episodes into Season Two, but Season One was definitely that. (I’ll be surprised if the story doesn’t revert at some point too).
Craig
@Chris: there’s a bar in Vegas that has a payphone booth that you dial1 and it turns into a photo booth. A hot dog joint in NYC that has a payphone to dial and get let into a bar. There’s old hotels in SF that still have beautiful wooden booths sans phone, but you can use it for a private cel call. I always loved the scene in Neuromancer where ‘Mute is trying to contact Case in an airport and as walks by each of the long line of payphones each one rings as he passes. I thought was just so cool, and now, nope, not gonna happen.
A Streeter
I’ve been watching the Equalizer films (not the TV-type series of the same name) starring Denzel Washington. I watched Equalizer 3 first, possibly fed by the Netflix algorithms, and liked it enough that spouse and I watched the other two in reverse order. Washington stars as a retired CIA agent who repeatedly needs to use his unusual skill set to help acquaintances who are enmeshed with serious organized criminals and their gangs. It didn’t hurt that E3 is set on the Amalfi Coast of Italy, which I visited a couple years ago. The films involve extreme violence, sometimes quite clever (I would not have expected a very Improvised Explosive Device, in E2, to be so elegant and so appropriate to the situation that I laughed when it was, as intended, unwittingly detonated by one of the bad guys). I give E3 and E2 (both on Netflix) four of five bong hits, E1 three of five. Apparently all are on Netflix, but we had to pay for E1 while E2 and E3 were free with our basic Netflix subscription.
Craig
@Chris: hmmm. I never really watched The Fugitive, and didn’t care for the movie. I can see what you’re saying though. I’m going to commit heresy and say that Tommy Lee Jones is not a good actor. If you want him to do his thing great, hire him, but he’s super limited. He’s basically the exact same in The Fugitive and Double Jeopardy and Ashley Judd is a lot cuter to me than Harrison Ford. Pretty good movie with Bruce Greenwood perfect as a scumbag.
The Red Pen
@rekoob: Two more thumbs up for For All Mankind and Shrinking.
Gretchen
I just watched Sirens on Netflix. It’s one of those rich people summering on Cape Cod things. I meant to watch one episode, sat through 4 of the 5 at once wanting to see what happened next.
I loved Nobody Wants this, about a sex podcaster who falls in love with a rabbi, who is considered a very eligible bachelor by his congregation. It’s very sweet and funny. I watched it over again just after the election to cheer myself up.
narya
Agree on The Residence, Man on the Inside. Working my way through Sherlock w Cumberbatch and Dark Winds, and binged all but last two episodes of Sirens this weekend. Sirens has a whole raft of unreliable (so far) narrators, and Kevin Bacon, and the guy from AP Bio, through which I’m also working. And Top Chef (I’m not caught up so no spoilers!), which is my favorite.
Looking forward to several mentioned above, but with F1 and IndyCar in full swing, there’s a lot of racing to watch too. Five flowery dresses (because of Sirens).
hitchhiker
@Craig: I love so much about The Wire. So. Much.
The shock of finding yourself suddenly among the white guys working at the docks, and slowly getting how that’s part of the story. The moment when that detective tells the union guy that he’s better than them he got in bed with.
Idris Elba unzipping that girl’s jacket.
Every minute of the season about school.
eclare
@hitchhiker:
Amy Ryan was so good as the detective in Season Two of The Wire.
Darkrose
Best $5.99/month I’ve spent lately has been my subscription to Dropout TV. When College Humor was up for sale, chief creative officer Sam Reich, son of former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, bought it. Sam’s a nepo kid using his power and money for good, providing a platform to showcase diverse actors and comedians.
My favorite shows are Make Some Noise, prompt-based improv, and Dimension 20, live D&D games. I just finished watching season 1 of Dungeons & Drag Queens, where four former contestants from Ru Paul’s Drag Race (including the amazing Bob the Drag Queen) and DM Brennan Lee Mulligan, done up for the occasion, ran a fabulous campaign. I literally cried at points, when I wasn’t yelling out loud, “Nat 20! You go girl!”
Gloria DryGarden
@hitchhiker: haven’t seen. But the thought of seeing idris Elba unzipping …
it sounds like a moment of interesting tension. Sometimes when I rewatch things I tell myself over and over, these are actors. They’re only actors. They make things feel and seem so real..
rikyrah
Just finished watching DEPT. Q on Netflix
Crime series about a difficult cop thrown the bone of a Cold Case unit after he returns to work following being shot.
Had me on edge
Craig
@NeenerNeener: Thanks for the rec.. Started watching Dept Q tonight. Solid storytelling from the guy that ran Queen’s Gambit. But I was in when I saw it had Kelly McDonald. Nice that it’s set in my hometown.
rikyrah
British show called LUDWIG
twin brothers
One a cop
The other a severe introvert, puzzle solving genius
Cop brother disappears, and the introvert becomes the cop brother to find him.
Excellent show
eclare
@Craig:
Kelly McDonald was so good in No Country For Old Men. When I resubscribe to Netflix for GBBS I’ll also watch Dept. Q.
NotMax
@rikyrah
Vaguely reminiscent of the Canadian series Endgame. Bonus clip: blind checkers.
Socially fragile chess master reluctantly goes detectiving. Formerly available on Netflix and elsewhere, comes back to streaming June 4 on the Roku Channel.
Cathie from Canada
We just finished the 10 episodes of Mobland, a Guy Ritchie series on Paramount+, with Tom Hardy as the mob fixer. Pierce Brosnan is the British mob boss and his evil wife Helen Mirren has a wonderful time chewing up the scenery.
We liked it very much – great acting, fascinating plot with a couple of “red wedding” moments.
My only criticism is that most of the other women in the cast are “just wives” and they are are a charmless bunch – except for the illegitimate Brosnan daughter played by Mandeep Dhillon whom Mirren tries to get killed, and a late appearance by Janet McTeer as the boss of a rival mob (McTeer played the evil lawyer in the Ozark series, and she was great in that too).
They haven’t announced yet whether there will be a season 2 of Mobland, but it seems to be expected to happen.
eclare
@Cathie from Canada:
Janet McTeer was also in an older movie, Tumbleweeds, where she was excellent. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. It’s on Amazon Prime and YouTube and Fandango, both of those for a small fee.
Craig
@eclare: she’s always Diane in Trainspotting to me. When you get back to Netflix she’s also in Giri/Haji a Tokyo/London crime drama that is excellent. It gets pretty weird, and the nuanced family interrelations mellow out the sudden spikes of violence.
eclare
@Craig:
Thanks!
JoyceH
I recently finished The Good Doctor, about a young autistic man who’s just finished med school and starting his first internship. He’s Brilliant (of course) but also very blunt, so comes across as rude and callous. Mentored by Richard Schiff, Toby from West Wing. Great show.
zhena gogolia
@Craig: She’s great in Gosford Park.
Sis
I just watched all eight episodes of Paradise on Hulu last week. Incredible! Back when it came out at the first of the year, I read a bad review and crossed if off my must-watch list. But my sister watched it and finally convinced me to give it a try – and boy was I wrong!
I’m not going to mention too much about the premise to avoid spoiling it for people who haven’t watched, but you should know that Sterling K. Brown is brilliant as a Secret Service agent and loving father and James Marsden is equally brilliant as the President he protects. Julianne Nicholson is amazing, and she plus some excellent writing give real depth and complexity to a character which could’ve easily been two-dimensional. It’s suspenseful and keeps you guessing. The seventh episode in particular is just heart-stopping and had me Googling to see if the events depicted were actually possible. Highly recommend.
Sis
@Chris: Love Rockford and have recently been watching on Prime’s live TV. I always love the answering machine messages at the beginning!
Chester
We’ve just rewatched S1 of the Devil’s Hour so we can start S2 soon. It’s a perfect season of TV.
Five waking up nightmares at 3:33!
Nancy
@dmsilev:
I’ve read the books more than once each. I don’t know how I’d do with the show. I have trouble if the characters aren’t like what I imagined when reading.
I have to make the transition to believe that these are different characters in a different world and then it’s OK.
That was necessary for enjoying “Bones” and “Will Trent,” both quite good shows. The characters didn’t match up with the written characters. (If you’ve only watched Will Trent, you might struggle to recognize his written character, who is blond and 6’4″).
currawong
@schrodingers_cat: You’ve got a real treat coming with Shogun. I read the novel my James Clavell when it was published. Loved the 1980 series with Richard Chamberlain and was absolutely blown away with the new series. IMHO, Episode 9 is the best hour’s television ever made.