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Missions (Empreinte Digitale, 2017) Season 1

Two multi-billionaires (one French, the other American) compete with each other to put the first humans on Mars...sound familiar?

But what if, when they get there, they find something of cosmic importance, with the help of an 'historic' Cosmonaut and a re-location of the famed Atlantis?

If you can accept the plot holes and some boulevard acting, this French production will entertain you with its splendid visuals, but other than the core plot twist, never really asks why anyone today would want to set foot on a planet where they cannot breathe without a suit, where the storms will kill you if the food and the boredom does not.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...3964c/missions

Missions (Empreinte Digitale, 2019) Season 2

They went to Mars and lost their way....and it doesn't look like they will return for Season 3, even if the producers do find them....

Close to Me (Channel 4, 2021)

A menopausal woman comes to term with memory loss after falling down stairs. Like the cold case review, the person -usually a woman- who wakes up not knowing what just happened is a useful plot device for contemporary films and tv dramas, eg Flight Attendant (which I haven't seen).

Here, it covers the usual suspects -did her husband try to kill her? Was it her money he needed for a failing business, was it to support an affair, was it her own fault as a form of self-harm? By Episode 5 of 6 I really didn't care and watched it to the end to discover the big reveal was no more interesting than the first scene with its internal monologue/voice over. As is also the case in these series, the house is fabulous, at the end of wooded road, in well-kept gardens, but the dog it was that died. I am not sure if this works as a study of the menopause as I doubt most women who go through it experience life with the same level as trauma as this Danish Blue who has had a traumatic childhood that hants here -has it shaped her?

Another theme is that of the woman who marries a man who is less successful than she is, but the menopausal issue only, as it were, comes to the fore when the married couple need lubricant to have sex, which I suppose is meant to be frank and shocking for the blue stocking brigades, most of whom seem to have decamped to Texas these days (who remembers Mary Whitehouse now?).

Half-baked, hence the plot holes a irritating errors -patients in hospital have disposable cups not glasses for their water, why would Hastings which I assume must have high-end housing but is otherwise a depressed area of Sussex support four branches of the same estate agency? And so on. Six hours is a lot to ask of the audience, and it looks like it was too much for the actors. WHen the house is the star (as was also the case with the Scots drama, The Nest) you know there is something wrong

The Tourist (BBC 1, 2022)

This drama/comedy is currently on BBC 1. I watched all six episodes yesterday, though by Episode 3 out of curiosity rather than enjoyment. A man survives a car accident in the Outback but loses his memory. Over the course of the drama he recovers some of his memories but only with the assistance of a woman. The general themes of this drama are that that past will catch up with you in time, and that we may all be tourists in time. The attempt to play with time and reality is not clever so much as tedious, as are the references to Spielberg's The Duel, the Dollars films, and the choice of music.

This is not an advertisement for Australia but a warning. The men are blokes with a dry sense of humour, the Sheilas on the plump side. In both cases, intelligence is in short supply, so we are thinking more Xavier Herbert than Patrick White. The Greek-origin actors, presumably of Melbourne are gainfully employed, but one is left with the feeling the money spent on this excursion into the wilderness might better be spent renovating asylum seeker hotels, one could even take a cue from The Tourist, and call them Big Fuck, or Little Fuck.

It is still running so I won't spoil the plot, it spoils itself.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Missions ….never really asks why anyone today would want to set foot on a planet where they cannot breathe without a suit, where the storms will kill you if the food and the boredom does not.

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Presumably “because it was there” and scientific curiosity.

I enjoyed it, a bit different and strangely the fact it was in French gave it a more abstracted quality than some of the factory sci-if that dominates the television screen.

sex education

they have 2 non binary boys

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Originally Posted by Nikka

sex education

they have 2 non binary boys

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This is a contradiction in terms. There is no such category as 'non-binary boy'...

Trigger Point (ITV, Sundays at 9pm)

Well, the first episode went like a bomb...sorry. Though watchable, plot holes and obscure motives suggest this series has a lot to do in order to match Line of Duty.

Hidden Assets (Peter McKenna, broadcast on the BBC, 2021)

A drugs and diamonds caper that links Ireland to Belgium, or more precisely, Shannon to Antwerp, and not much of an advert for either. A well-dressed Irish detective teams up with a scruffy Belge -Flemish not Walloon, indeed French is noticeable by its absence here- and together they uncover a network of crime that unravels after a raid on the house of a criminal in Ireland. The script is not hiding any assets, nor do the actors involved appear to have any that are going to win awards. Shannon comes across as possibly the busiest airport in Ireland, and if you have been reading about the 'Parties'/'Gatherings' in Downing Street in violation of the Law of England, and wonder what a wine fridge might be, look no further. And is it just me, or do the homes of rich people look more like hotels than homes? And why, when the characters return home, do they open the wine fridge rather than make a cuppa? Ireland has come a long way since Father Ted. And to think I watched all six episodes!

I, Sniper: The Washington Killers (Arrow Pictures, 2020, broadcast on Channel 4 2022)

I watched all six episodes on the Uk's Channel 4, and was gripped throughout. The documentary pieces together the various murders which took place in 2002 that 'terrorised' the Washington DC area, but we now know began in Washington State, perpetrated by a man and a boy, the latter being the one who pulled the trigger that killed ten people and injured three. The documetary is based on recorded confessions of Lee Malvo, now 33, the law enforcement/FBI/medical staff involved, and the victims and their families, including two ex-wives of John Williams Muhammad.

If revenge is a dish best served cold, this was mass murder on ice, with both Malvo and Muhammad justifying their actions on the basis 'If they take it from me, I will take it from them' -meaning love, children, indeed, as the film suggests, childhood itself. The only real problem is that Malvo's testimony rationalizes his actions years after the event and presumably after some therapy, though he is in Solitary confinement in prison. Sort of apologetic, Malvo insists he was manipulated by the man he looked up to not just as a father figure, but as a lover too, but at the time neither man or boy had anything of consequence to tell the prosecuting offiicials in interviews before or during their trials. The point being they had nothing to say, they had made their point with the killings. The grief, one has to say of the victims and their survivors, is real, and is the heart of this grim record of history.

One moment stands out, in Episode One, where the gun merchant shows the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle of the kind Malvo stole, saying citizens have a Constitutional and a God-Given right to own such weapons -the first being wrong, the second preposterous rubbish. The Constitution of the USA does not give individuals the right to own firearms. And even if the man knows what God wants, and that is absurd, one wonders why God would put humans on the earth to live and then give them weapons to kill.

Lastly, the justification Malvo offers one could just as easily use to justfy Trump's domestic terrorists using violence to 'take back' what they think their enemies have 'taken away', and as someoene points out, to the extent that the US allows citizens to own a variety of weapons of human destruction, such violence is endemic in US culture, further backed up by several hundred years of it.

But as I think Chief of Police Moose also says, plenty of people have traumatic childhoods and don't take their revenge on society by killing innocent men, women and children. I watched all six back to back, but it was worth it.

Chloe (Mam Tor Productions, 2022)

I watched all six episodes of this drama, currently showing on BBC-1, so I won't offer any spoilers. I thought during episode 1 that this was about a working class woman who resents the success and wealth of others, and plots to inveigle herself into their world either to take what she can for herself, or just be nasty. As is often the case now, she has a mother with early onset dementia, but as the series unfolds her relationship with a particular group of people is less random than appears at first. Indeed, in one episode a plot hole as wide as the Grand Canyon all but wrecks this show, which had some promise and a fine acting performance from Erin Doherty. Three major weaknessess cannot rescue this from the dustbin -all those people online and constantly on their phones can't do a simple search on a certain person? The dialogue at times -too many times- seems to consist of 'Are you ok?' 'Is everything ok?' or 'Sorry'in various forms, and it isn't satire. Lastly, the main male character is supposed to be a local councillor and aspiring MP who doesn't live a life taken up by meetings, phone calls, dealing with constituency/ward issues, and never has people round to his £Million pound house to talk policy and strategy, and is acted with all the zest of a squashed tomato.

It has some intriguing scenes, but does not deliver anything substantial at the end that justifies its original premise. The music is dire. Also known as The Smiths.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Missions (Empreinte Digitale, 2019) Season 2

They went to Mars and lost their way....and it doesn't look like they will return for Season 3, even if the producers do find them....

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I have it wrong, as usual. Season 3 begins on BBC Four this evening, 25th April 2022.

"See"....

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Originally Posted by Stavros

I have it wrong, as usual. Season 3 begins on BBC Four this evening, 25th April 2022.

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I watched it to the end for the 'big reveal'...the things one does for art- to get nothing in return.

The Undeclared War (Channel 4 [UK], Peter Kosminsky).

Cyber attacks and the Russians are to blame. It is 2024 and the Russians have hacked the CCTV inside GCHQ which enables them to literally spy on the spies. Yes, the spies spend most of the day parked in front of three computer screens, analysing data -boring. So throw in a 'spectacular event' and the ability of a workplace trainee discovering how the Russians shut down most of the Internet -and add in that she is an attractive Muslim, and add the CIA placement in GCHQ who is Black and Lesbian, and add in the rebellious Russian computer genius whose father is a fabulously wealthy Arms Dealer, but who wants to be an Artist and who works, temporarily it seems, for the Russian Bot Factory which he, Vadim, believes is fomenting a real, rather than a Cyber War.....and you have your drama.

There are scenes so daft you realise this is not serious drama. The music, especially those wailing women, is so bad I kept turning the sound off to spare my nerves.

It actually deals with some interesting issues, but falls victim to current stereotypes, of GCHQ employees, though most probably are as boring as the ones we see, of Russians, and of pretty Muslim girls who are not that religious and are liable to try some gay sex. As for the Muslim girl's boyfriend, the less said the better.

3/10 for effort.

Locked down by Covid, from which I am now released, more cyber drama on the BBC in the form of The Capture, two seasons of hysterical drivel based on the concept of 'Correction'. In neither season did the Israelis make an appearance, even though they are pioneers in surveillance technology. The first season concerned a squaddie accused of murdering an injured Taliban in Afghanistan; the second season an MP -allegedly, as he never set foot in the House of Commons or have anything to do with his constituents. Ron Perlman as the world-weary CIA man wandered around with his hands in his pockets, mumbling, and being mostly irrelevant.

The BBC disgraced itself with Crossfire, a badly written, badly acted sequence of terror in Tenerife, probably the worst advert for this popular holiday destination for Brits.

Inside Man had Stanley Tucci as his usual laconic self, pontificating from death row while giving advice, Lecter style, to a naive reporter from the UK, where David Tennant, a 'fucking vicar' (minus the fucking, thank God), transformed a minor drama into an apocalypse with no Messiah on hand to redeem anyone in this preposterous rubbish.

At least in another BBC series we get to see Tucci travelling around Italy eating and drinking, though when I used to go there, I was also hunting the special ladies of the night who occupy notorious streets in Rome, Milan and Naples. Poor Stanley, stuck with so much Pasta and Provolone. He could have had so much fun, though I guess he is a boring married man who would never stray on the other side of the park.

Lastly, I put myself through six hours of Karen Pirie, a Scottish murder/detective drama. The book or books by Val Macdermid must be better than this 'shite', to go suddenly Scottish, with the by now tired resolution to the mystery being not so far from the office where two people review a cold case, because that's all it takes. Budget cuts in Scotland may explain why throughout the series, the detective only has two changes of clothes, and those are her chinos.

This hackneyed crap is a world away from the revival on BBC Four of The Sunset Song, the first part of A Scot's Quair, first shown in the 1970s with the radiant Vivien Heilbron. It was a beautifully done series, but no match for the trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, one of the finest works of literature in English ever written, a pompous remark much needed after the miserable, wretched failures above.

I just finished the final Season of Animal Kingdom. Great show for those who like Action shows that haven't heard of it. Now I'm watching the last season of Power, Book 3 raising Kanen Two episodes to go, then I want to watch the Reboot season of Dexter, late I know
Also I want to get into both the Game of thrones Prequel and the Lord of the Rings show can anyone give me advice on what is better of the two? Also I only saw two seasons of my Cobra Kai I have to catch up there, what a great show. It was hard to watch at first making me remember my youth too much but I can handle it.

I watched quite a few, but not all of the episodes in Married at First Sight UK. I wouldn't ban this offensive material from tv, but I do wonder why people apply to appear on these shows, if they are not determined, as some are, to not just 'be on TV' but be on tv forever, in any number of game shows, quiz shows and the like, with the ultimate aim of being on either I'm a Celebrity, or Strictly Come Dancing.

Ten couples are matched by three so-called 'experts' whose record by the end speaks for itself -one success, apparently, nine failures. This trio are some of the most offensive people on TV, consumed by their self-confidence, pretend psychologists, they don't just offer armchair comments on the behaviour and motivation of the couples, but offer them 'advice' in person in what to me is so patronising a tone that if it was me I would either get up and leave, give one of them a slap, or both. Their credibility as 'relationship consultants' is zero. Then the couples discuss their private lives in public and it is embarrassing and at times excruciating to watch.

I googled some of it but there is no evidence they are even paid to appear on this show, but I don't think even those desperate to be on TV would give up their jobs for a month or so without some financial compensation, and I don't know what happens to the children of the individuals who all say 'my children are the most important thing in my life' -ie, not the wife/husband they just 'married'! which isn't even a marriage just a tv stunt. To make matters worse, the people in this series are either vacuous or at times just plain 'orrible, with only one of the women apparently reluctant to expose most of her chest, perhaps because she is a butch lesbian. As reality tv shows go, this one needs to be binned, along with Love Island, as it does nothing for the human race except spell its doom.

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (BBC, 2022).

American actor Stanley Tucci's family is Italian on both sides, from Calabria on his father's side, and in this series he travels around Italy, eating, talking, and eating. As with most tv shows about food, he rarely if ever eats anything that is not delicious, or 'that is so good!'. If you know or want to go to Italy, this is an infuriating programme because the food is indeed so good, as are the ingredients, and I really must go some time in the next year. Be warned, most of the places Tucci eats in are either high end, or out of the way, there is plenty of rubbish on sale in Rome, Milan and other cities on the tourist trail.

The 4th episode features London, a) because Tucci has lived there for about 10 years, and b) it has one of the largest Italian populations outside Italy -though smaller than Buenos Aires and I think, Sao Paulo, and by origin, there are up to half a million in Toronto. Whatever. Because he is friends with Gennaro Contaldo he attributes him to changing the Italian food scene in London, which is nonsense as even Contaldo if asked would claim Antonio Carluccio did this with the Neal St Restaurant in Coven Garden, and there were well-established Italian restaurants before this, but, as noted at the start, what has changed is the availability of Italian regional cuisine rather than a basic staple of Minestrone-Pasta-Profiterole dinners.

So an entertaining programme by an amiable American, with so many outstanding breads, hams, cheeses, meats and fish the allure of the real thing is all but irresistible.

The Traitors, BBC 2023

The Traitors US, BBC 2023.

I watched both series, though I should point out all at once as I was away in Europe after the start of the UK version which was not available in Germany. Also, because I have no interest in the people concerned, I flipped through the discussions they had and the personal to camera moments and in the US case the Missions which were mostly the same as the UK ones.

The series encourages people to lie and scheme to win money, and is thus driven by selfishness and greed. Like most game shows, one watches to see who wins and loses, and the only real issue in both series, is the ease with which a mob mentality can shape the decisions people make and the reasons why. If it is this easy to fool people and get them to make the wrong decisions, we may understand how even intelligent people could vote for blatant frauds like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.

Scary, in its way, but smoothly done trash, with the only real star being Scotland, even when it looks wet and cold.

Alfa, broadcast in the UK as Grow (Denmark, Milad Avaz, 2020).

Another dose of Scandi drivel, this time from Denmark. Two brothers born into the family of Denmark's weed king. One joins the cops and never talks to his mum, the other becomes a stockbroker but can't afford to buy an apartment in Copenhagen, like I feel your pain, dude. So when he discovers a stash of hashish in his dad's garage he morphs into a crime lord with all that implies with regard to the Tattaglia's of this world. The cop has sex, at least, whereas his brother manages to go for the whole series without it, about as believable as the story. If you have nothing better to do and it's 3am then go for it.

NETFLIX: Physical 100

The Gold (BBC 1, Sunday evenings)

Currently broadcasting, but all episodes can be 'binged watched' -I started and got to the end of the second episode before deciding this drama, based on the real-life robbery at the Brinks-Mat 'Secure' Depot at Heathrow Airport, is not worth watching. The script is poor, the acting just as bad, and the people truly nasty. There was another drama last year -can't remember the channel- about a gang of men who go to steal some gear and end up with tons of gold, that was crap too.

I've just finished watching "the most dangerous show on Netflix" and quite enjoyed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgvaXros3MY

Learning about the archaeological site Göbekli Tepe lead me to the Turkish series Atiye (aka The Gift). It was OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvCfE9i-nhg

I first came across Graham Hancock when I read his book on the Arc of the Covenant, The Sign and the Seal (1992). The book mingles known facts with regard to the history of the Jews, with speculation that leads nowhere, or more precisely, to a chapel in Ethiopia which is where, it is claimed, the Arc of the Covenant is stored. The simple fact that nobody is allowed in to see it, and that there are no known photographs of the interior lead one to ask -why? Because it is fiction. Hancock has been pursuing these 'what if's' for decades and uses the unknown to assume a known without a shred of evidence.

Atlantis would be a good case of a place that either did not exist, or was an island that disappeared due to a tsunami as most archaeologists believe- the tsunami may also have dealt a fatal blow to the Minoan communities on Crete- though for what it's worth, my mother told me that having once been an inhabitant of Ancient Egypt, she was also at another time born in Atlantis, and who was I to spoil her narrative? She also believed Jesus was a time traveller who came from a galaxy far, far away -I kid you not (the German compose Stockhausen shared similar beliefs).

I see no need to give Hancock a moment more of my time, and I guess the documentary is entertaining, but let's not give the poor man any support for his unproven views.

The Dangers of Ancient Apocalypse’s Pseudoscience – SAPIENS

No, There Wasn't an Advanced Civilization 12,000 Years Ago - Scientific American

Well I'm on Graham Hancock's side. I think he'll be proven right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBJS7Td2Gdo

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Originally Posted by bruce_willy

Well I'm on Graham Hancock's side. I think he'll be proven right.

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What does it mean to be 'proven right'? Hancock has been doing this stuff for more than 30 years and has never proven anything. .

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Originally Posted by Stavros

What does it mean to be 'proven right'? Hancock has been doing this stuff for more than 30 years and has never proven anything. .

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Proven right as in:

1 - There was an advanced civilization
2 - Wherever they lived it was destroyed by a cataclysmic flood
3 - The flood was caused by a huge comet shower which rapidly melted the glaciers covering upper north America

-Batwoman S1
-Star Trek Picard S3
-The Last Of Us

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Originally Posted by bruce_willy

Proven right as in:

1 - There was an advanced civilization
2 - Wherever they lived it was destroyed by a cataclysmic flood
3 - The flood was caused by a huge comet shower which rapidly melted the glaciers covering upper north America

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Three claims for which there is not a shred of evidence. I think you might be taking the Michael, as they say politely.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Three claims for which there is not a shred of evidence.

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The "shreds of evidence" are in his Netflix series.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

I think you might be taking the Michael, as they say politely.

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I'm not. What about the evidence for the great flood in the Sahara about 12,000 years ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnqAauP7C9c

What about the new lost civilization found in the Amazon last year?

https://www.livescience.com/lidar-re...on-settlements

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Originally Posted by bruce_willy

The "shreds of evidence" are in his Netflix series.
--No, only speculation void of facts.

I'm not. What about the evidence for the great flood in the Sahara about 12,000 years ago?

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--What does the flood argument prove with regard to Hancock's claims of a civilization that existed more than 10,000 years ago? Archaeologists have argued there was a civilized presence in the Sahara, but not 10,000 years ago but cAD1-500 (Christian Era).
Lost Civilisation Discovered in Sahara | Archaeology | Sci-News.com

What about the new lost civilization found in the Amazon last year?
--Again, not 10,000 years ago or more as Hancock claims, but as your own link reports: "The findings indicate the mysterious Casarabe people — who lived in the Llanos de Mojos region of the Amazon basin between A.D. 500 and 1400 ".

I don't see anything to support Hancock's claims, and after more than 30 years it would surely be better for him to either prove his arguments with verifiable facts, or just shut up. It is inevitable that we will find 'lost' communities here, there and everywhere, and their disappearance will usually be explained quite simply and due to the inability to sustain life, ie, because of drought, famine, and so on. Hancock wants an advanced civilization whose existence has been suppressed by academics to protect their funded projects, but this merely relegates his books and videos to a giant conspiracy theory which he cannot prove because there is no evidence. It is tiresome, but it attracts people who think most of what 'we' are told is not true, when most often the truth is not just right there, but rather boring and therefore not good TV.

Better (Sister Films, broadcast on BBC 1, 2023)

A rising star in CID used an informant to make arrests and in return he has financed her husband's building firm. She has also helped eliminate his competition in Leeds so that when this series begins, he is a major drug dealer and the series charts the growing tensions she has with her former informant. I made it to the end of the second episode and I don't think I can take any more. Andrew Buchan dons a Northern Ireland accent to play Col McHugh, though he was born in England. The script is poor, and the acting so-so. One wonders given that Sergeant Cawood in Happy Valley is not in cahoots with local crime, how many more dramas about bent coppers we can take.

Not sure why it is called 'Better', and don't think people outside the UK can watch it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16867040/
Cunk on Earth
I really liked this and wish it was longer. Admittedly, watched it mostly stoned…but saw the trailer sober and still thought it was funny enough to lure me in. Now on Netflix.

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Originally Posted by fred41

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16867040/
Cunk on Earth
I really liked this and wish it was longer. Admittedly, watched it mostly stoned…but saw the trailer sober and still thought it was funny enough to lure me in. Now on Netflix.

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If you can find it in the US, Motherland is a light comedy with Diane Morgan and others that is constantly under-rated. It might be best you watch that stoned too!
Morgan is from Bolton (as is Ian McKellen) and the details are here
Diane Morgan - Wikipedia

Unforgotten, Series 5 (broadcast on ITVx.com, 2023)

The new series maintains the established format: in episode one a dead body is found and as the team organizes the forensics to determine who, when and how, we are introduced to 4 apparently random people from different background, whose links to each other do not become clear until later episodes. In this series, at least one of the four could have been left out and it would not have made a difference, The politics is tired by now, but the handling of dysfunctional families, drugs, alcohol and violence is quite well done. Martina Laird as Bele is the stand out performance of a damaged woman seeking real change and redemption, not bad in a cast of chronic liars.
The replacement for team leader Cassie who died in the last series, is an actor of limited ability, indeed if this is the best they can come up, Forgotten might be a better title and the drama series permanently laid to rest. I binged watched all episodes over two days

A more general gripe is the personal stories of the two team leaders-James and Khan. I am really not interested in divorced father of two daughters and his new partner, or Jessie James's failing marriage. Rather than being an accompaniment to the other failed -if not lethally so- families on show, I would rather see Detectives dealing with sordid issues at work, return to a happy family, the contrast being with something that works with something that doesn't. We have got to used to the 57 Varieties of Tec, from cynical often alcoholic, messy home/spartan home; loves opera or loves Jazz, has girlfriends/no friends and so on, I wonder if the only Happy Tec on tv over the years has been Colombo, and we never did get to see his wife.

Unforgotten - Series 5 - Episode 1 - ITVX

Little Dorrit (BBC, 2008 )

I don't recall seeing this at the time, and binged watched the whole thing in one day. It is a good rendition of one of Dickens most complex stories, though it suffers from the anti-politics that means people don't work their way out of poverty or that poverty is diminished by social and political change, but have benefactors, or sudden wealth equivalent to winning the lottery. It does also mean the concept of the Prison is found throughout the book, but it does have sharply etched characters that are a dream for actors, acting being Dickens first love before he began writing. Claire Foy is outstanding as Little Dorrit, though there are some dubious interpretations, eg Miss Wade. And while there is symbolic value in the collapse of the Clennam building, it is part of the Dickens melodrama. Worth watching though if you can see it in the UK, not sure if it is available elsewhere.

NCIS Hawaii.

Succession, Season 1 (Jesse Armstrong/Gary Sanchez Productions, etc, 2018 )

"Are we good?"
"Yes, we're good. How about you, you good?"
"I'm good. Are you good?".
"Yep, I'm good".

Unoriginal, much as JK Rowling poached her way through European literature to concoct Harry Potter, Jesse Armstrong has poached his way through numerous variations on the dysfunctional family theme, wrapped it in obscene wealth, and recruited at least two fine actors -Harriet Walter and Hiam Abbass. When people are this selfish, nasty and rude, it is hard, if not impossible to feel for them, so I bought this season on DVD and am in two minds about staying with it.

The music seems to be a mash-up of Schubert's song Ständchen (D899) and a below-par Keith Jarrett and sticks in the head for a long time, causing a nuisance. The only remedy is to go to the original, written shortly before Schubert died and which he never heard performed -sung here by the late Peter Schreier.

Schubert Ständchen (Serenade) Peter Schreier - YouTube

The White Lotus (Mike White, 2021)

I bought season 1 on DVD knowing nothing about it, and by the time I got to the end of episode 3 on disk 1 I had to ask myself, do I want to persevere with it? Well I bought it, so I did. I guess if you have seen Grand Hotel, The Love Boat, or Fantasy Island you will understand the concept. It is not done well. The script is as abysmal as the acting. It was filmed in a resort on the island of Maui, one to avoid at all costs.