I've been enamored with Astrid et Raphaelle, French TV series about an autistic woman (Astrid) and her relationship with a police commander (Raphaelle). Three seasons so far. If anyone has a link to season 4 please post it.
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I've been enamored with Astrid et Raphaelle, French TV series about an autistic woman (Astrid) and her relationship with a police commander (Raphaelle). Three seasons so far. If anyone has a link to season 4 please post it.
Star Trek Picard, which finished a couple of months ago. Was great to see the old TNG cast back together.
Jeri Ryan was still hot. hotter than in Voyager. a true milf.
https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/file...en-of-nine.jpg
One of my favorites as well.
Wolf (Directed by Krystoffer Nyholm, 2023)
This garbage is currently airing on BBC 1, but can be watched in it's entirety on the BBC iPlayer. It is a fusion of the slasher film Halloween, and Michael Haneke's abysmal film Funny Games, so not funny, and not original either. The music is even worse, employing the by now tired motif of the extended, declining chord, which I think was first assigned to the trombone in Act 1 of Shostakovich's opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which elevates this Wolf nonsense to a level it doesn't merit.
Shadow of Truth (2016-2023)
This Israeli documentary on the murder of a schoolgirl in a school toilet in Katzrin became notorious in Israel as a case of the police exacting a false confession from an immigrant from the Ukraine who is eventually released after 15 years in prison. The BBC version is in five episodes and has the most extraordinary documentary footage from the crime scene and the interrogations of the suspect as well as footage of attempts by a police informer sharing a cell to get the accused to confess. As to who did murder the girl, the later episodes concern allegations so bizarre you realize the fictional murder mysteries that pollute tv screens these days haven't a clue as to how weird reality can be, though the person accused refused to take part in the films. Compelling, recommended.
BBC iPlayer - Shadow of Truth - Series 1: 1. A Dark Overture
The Devil's Confession: the Lost Eichmann Tapes (aired on the BBC in 2023, link below).
This remarkable two-part documentary brings into the public eye or ear, the tapes of Adolf Eichmann not confessing, but boasting of his role as the 'functionary' who organized the European holocaust. It alternates between the tapes and the trial in Israel that followed Eichmann's abduction from Argentina where he lived among other ex-Nazis after the War. The article in the New York Times, linked below and not hidden behind a paywall is worth reading as a summary, not least because it touches on the still controversial issue of the fate of the Hungarian Jews, most of whom were rounded up and slaughtered by Eichmann's 'machine -other than some of the richer and well-connected Jews who were saved by a man called Kastner in what remains a darker story for Israel given the role played by David Ben-Gurion in the matter, a man who had also ensured that the ex-Nazi who served in Konrad Adenauer's West German government was not brought into court as at the time Israel needed German money and expertise in the development of a nuclear weapon. Another link refers to an article which argues that Ben-Gurion used the Eichmann trial, the first nationwide confrontation of Israel with the reality of the Holocaust, to offer a 're-narration' in which in contemporary Israel, the threat posed by the Nazis is transferred to the Arabs.
It is an astonishing two-part documentary, but what struck me most, was that Eichmann told a pack of lies to the Court for a simple reason -not to save himself, as he knew his fate was execution- but because he regarded Jews and the Israeli Court with absolute contempt and thus unworthy of the candid truth he shared with his ex-Nazi chums.
BBC iPlayer - The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes - Series 1: 1. The Hunt
Nazi Tapes Provide a Chilling Sequel to the Eichmann Trial - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Victimhood Nationalism in Israel: The Eichmann Trial’s Role in Israeli Foreign Policy Discourse | From the Ashes of History: Collective Trauma and the Making of International Politics | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
I'm going to have a look at that Stavros it won't be a comfortable watch I'm sure.
When I can I'm going to re-watch The Wire.
Apple+ "Invasion"...
After the Flood (ITV, 2024)
A body found in a lift after a flood in town was in fact a murder victim. Another dismal tv show that has some good acting, but is desperate to be clever and interesting. Are we not done with murder and corruption? Is there no other basis on which to make a compelling drama?
Reacher
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Vigil, Season 2 (BBC, January 2024)
The first series was based on a Royal Navy submarine, this one with the 'British' Air Force and their 'assistance' to a Middle Eastern regime (the filming took place in Morocco and the UK). The usual porridge of murder, corruption and lies, lots of money and evil people, and the lead detective who is in a relationship with another woman, about as interesting as, well, porridge on a banana leaf.
The mere fact Dougray Scott is one of the lead characters should set alarm bells ringing, he ruins everything he is in, for the simple reason he cannot act.
Let's hope there are no more vigils, not of this kind anyway.
Payback (ITV, 2024)
Scotland wahae! Hitchcock often made films about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations, usually involving crime. In this version, the nice if anxious mother discovers a dark secret about her husband and is swept up in a drama populated by Scotland's finest if relentlessly boring actors, though none as bad as Dougray Scott. It is actually quite watchable, though I had worked out some of the plot twists before they happened, as it is that kind of show. One also wonders if Scottish dramas would be better if they were based in Dundee, or Ayr?
True Detective season 4 on HBO starring Jodie Foster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryanferryfan2
Similar to Fargo?
Rave reviews in the UK, but complaints about the music.Quote:
Originally Posted by bryanferryfan2
Slow Horses, a quality espionage show starring the excellent Gary Oldman
Trigger Point (ITV, 2024)
The first series of this drama offered us a bomb disposal officer who is also a detective, a lover, a sister to a nutcase, and thus as remote from real life as can be made, just so we don't take it seriously.
The second season has enough bombs going off to maintain the interest, but I wonder how much they cost. It is currently airing weekly but I binged watched all six episodes. The main story in the end doesn't make much sense, whether you believe a billionaire is recruiting tech-savvy revolutionaries to make even more money than he has, or that a generation born after 2000 would take Paris 1968 as their model of behaviour, when, though less lethal, thank heavens, Extinction Rebellion have been more effective if just as daft as their Parisian avatars.
On one level this does spoil the drama, on the other hand I think these days we expect thrills and spills without any need to be truthful, and I guess it delivers for those who want to be entertained by political violence. How people now think of CCTV, which can be so easily hacked -?- or Drones, I don't know, or whether or not the power grid for a city can be shut down by terrorists. It ought to be the main political talking point, but it won't be given we have politicians so incapable that real issues are secondary to press releases and reputation management, or salvage.
The Americans (Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields, 2013-2018 )
This extraordinary drama series had a chequered history on UK tv -it was first shown on Saturday evenings on ITV until they changed the scheduling for the second series, and then dropped it. I had to watch it on the web using dubious sources, so I bought the complete DVD set to watch all six seasons with some interesting extras.
Although there were illegals in the US, they didn't do the very illegal things the Jennings couple do, and a lot of is on one level just tv drama not real life, but they followed the transition from Reagan to Gorbachev with the implications in Russia as well as the US and the Russian angle was one of the strongest with Russian actors rather than what the past would have given us, people with fake accents, though Matthew Rhys has quite a strong Welsh accent, and that made sense with him pretending to be American.
I think it is one of the best tv dramas ever, up there with The Wire, and the earlier series of Homeland, both of the latter two having outstanding credits, though others may disagree. Keri Russell was amazing throughout. I believe she is now married to Rhys but have not followed their acting careers.
The Way (Michael Sheen/Red Seam (The Way) Ltd, 2024)
Ten years in the making, but the key three letter word is not Way, but Why? It isn't even worth a description, it is just so hopelessly poor on every level.
Passenger (ITV, 2024)
The Gone (BBC, 2024)
I watched Passenger last week, but honestly cannot recall what it was about, only that it was dire, as is also true of an Irish-New Zealand drama, The Gone.
Nice young couple working their way through New Zealand -what could go wrong?, other than corruption, drugs, kidnapping, suicide, murder, and too much Maori singing. Kiri Te Kanawa it ain't. Even worse is the last scene, suggesting the man from Dublin won't be going home soon.
Red Eye (ITVx 2024)
Red Eye - Series 1 - Episode 1 - ITVX
So I got Red Eye binge watching every episode, and yet imagine the makers of this nonsense have red faces owing to the plot holes -not enough to fill the gaps in the Great Door of China, but still they mount up.
Drama overload has a plot and plots within plots featuring a Metropolitan police officer + MI5 + MI6 + CIA + Chinese Govt + Rogue actors + billion dollar nuclear power contract.
In episode 2 a main character is wearing glasses, which he loses, never needing glasses again.
He is a qualified doctor but drinks before he drives, hiring a car in Beijing which is uncharacteristically void of traffic when he is on the road.
Dead bodies left on a plane will, like all dead bodies, leak if the orifices are not plugged within a few hours of death, something airline companies might want to think about, not least because of the smell.
How easy it is for non-company staff to have access to every nook and cranny of an aeroplane I don't know.
I did not know that nobody is on 'British soil' until they have passed through immigration/passport control. So where are they?
How easy is it to get into the back garden of the Chinese Embassy in London? I suggest a wander around their building in Portland Place to find out -I used to work near there and it was not that accessible, mind you I never tried and I don't think the BBC would have protected me. Fun fact: I once saw legendary footballer Denis Law at a photo shoot on Portland Place, but was too timid to ask for a selfie.
In the end, the bad guys lose, and the good guys win. I hope I haven't spoiled it for anyone.
The Responder, Series 1 (BBC, 2022)
The Real Cops of Liverpule...hard-boiled, foul-mouthed, on the front line of the 'war' on drugs. The main character in this first series is dealing with being demoted from Detective Inspector to the night patrol, he is mentally in anguish, and in therapy but can't express himself, and thinks his life and career is in ruins, insisting to a probationer cop whose boyfriend locks her in cupboards (but not for kinky reasons) that he was not demoted for corruption.
Major weakness: the solution is there from the start: resign, take the pension, and get a cushy job in 'security' -but then there wouldn't be this tedious rehash of all the usual tropes about the dirty end of the drugs business populated by off-their-rockers teens, scheming wives, mentally challenged hard men, and so on and so on. They even made a series 2, so tragically unoriginal is the state of tv these days.
Inside No 9 (BBC 2)
A new series of the clever clogs duo who have an ability to take a genre or sub-genre and transform it, usually with good results, though I know some people don't like it. It is indeed clever to do what they do in just under half an hour, and they do get some of the best in acting to take part. I have always liked their approach. Probably too deep for Americans.
Mindhunter
Are they bringing this back for Season 3?Quote:
Originally Posted by MrFanti
Two posts on something called 'Mindhunter' but no description of what it is, let alone an opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by FionaFortune
Unfortunately, probably not....Quote:
Originally Posted by FionaFortune
Deadboy Detectives
Outer Range
Dark Matter
Umbrella Academy
Doctor Who
LOVED 'Umbrella Academy'!!! 8-)Quote:
Originally Posted by BlüeKarma
The Gathering (Channel 4, 2024).
If you have not tired of the Liverpool accent from The Responder, this new 6 part drama also set in Liverpool will offer a different, and more class-based view of the city and its environs, mostly in either Birkenhead or the Wirral. What starts out as an intriguing situation involving teens who compete in legitimate sports or not-so-rules based 'free running', sexting, flirting, getting drunk at raves, spirals out of control as the producers try to look at the background to a dramatic scene from the viewpoints of different characters, two of whom are in all honesty of little interest, and not acted very well, in contrast to the working class and middle class girls, two fine performances in a disappointing drama which in reality has little drama to get excited about.
Watch The Gathering | Stream free on Channel 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
It's a Netflix series about FBI agents who start psychological profiles of real serial killers. The show is about the psychology of killers and how it effects the agent lives.
Thanks for this. I don't subscribe to Netflix or any other platform. I guess Hannibal Lecter is making a comeback...in one way or another. Are the FBI on his tale?Quote:
Originally Posted by FionaFortune
What I like about the show is the use of some of the real life criminals and not some made-up characters....Quote:
Originally Posted by FionaFortune
Away (Andrew Hinderaker, 2020)
Away with the fairies would probably be more exciting than this 'by the numbers' space tedium. Tick the boxes: earnest American, cynical Russian, humourless Chinese, nerdy Indian, Black-Jewish Englishman with an accent so polished it would rival the diamonds on the late Queen Elizabeth's crowns- plus the inevitable moment in the space walk when it all goes wrong, and the hammer floats off into eternity, never to be seen again. Where this series belongs.
Nightsleeper (BBC, 2024)
If this is what the new generation of sleeper trains has to offer, it might be safer, and also more interesting to walk from Glasgow to London, or maybe hire a donkey.
This is a hostage drama in which the passengers and staff of a night sleeper train are held hostage by people who are never seen, and never negotiate terms (demands for Bitcoin are made as railway station announcements), for reasons that are not made clear until the last 20 minutes of the entire six episode series, though by then most people I think will be fast asleep. In the meantime, the hero is a nerdy looking lad who has the facial hair of a 14 year old, though he does look at least 16, with the acting 'skills' that make most amateurs look Olivier. On the side of national security is a lady from Wales who looks, and sounds like a supply teacher on her first day in a rowdy inner city school. If people like Hur (as the thick Welsh accent makes it sound) are in charge of our security, Putin will be in Buckingham Palace by Christmas.
Bad writing, bad acting, and that plot twist at the end? Let's just remind anyone who needs to know that you can find re-runs of the Teletubbies somewhere on the box, or online. And it would be a better watch.
Trump's Heist: President Who Wouldn't Lose? - Series 1: Episode 1 | Channel 4
This two part series aired on Channel 4 focuses on Arizona (Part 1), and Georgia (Part 2) and how Republicans in those two states resisted the attempts by Donald Trump to fix the vote in 2020 so that he won and Biden lost. It is a deeply depressing pair of shows owing to the utter rubbish presented as facts by people like Giuliani and the very, very weird Sidney Powell. When Speaker of the Arizona House, Rusty Bowers asked Giuliani what facts he had, he was told they had the names of thousands of dead people who had voted, but never showed them when asked, presumably because they did not exist.
John Eastman continues to defend his exotic interpretation of the Constitution, shared it seems, by nobody other then himself and Donald Trump, assuming the latter has a clue what Eastman was talking about.
The puzzle remains, as Eastman was teaching at the Chapman School of Law, ranked 106 out of 196 best law schools in the US, yet is claimed to be an esteemed expert on Constitutional Law. One wonders how someone few people had ever heard of was in the Oval Office not long after election day in 2020, the same with Powell, and also Cleta Mitchell, another 'expert' (not in this film) who on that notorious phone call to Georgia showed she did not know Georgia's election law.
There is a link in Eastman's case, as he once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (sponsored by Harlan Crow). Even Liz Cheney balked at grilling either Clarence or his political activist wife for the House Committee hearings. We may never know, and nobody I think has ever asked Eastman how he went from a low ranking college to the White House.
And to think this naked abuse of power could get even worse this year. But please, don't go out and buy enough weapons to run an army, you have enough of them already in America.
Mr. Mercedes
Just discovered this on Peacock and I'm loving it. Stars Brendon Gleason as a retired detective. He's happily drinking himself to death until the one mass murderer he wasn't able to catch starts contacting him with tormenting messages. Show is dark, weird and bloody. Gleason is in top form as an angry old bugger delivering biting remarks with his unique Irish wit.
I'm watching the IT crowd.
Another film on 2020, as per #316 above, not much new here other than some details no previously aired, but the main thrust remains: Trump could not, and does not accept that he lost, it is that devastating, for him and his bananas, and the American people.
Broadcast and available to stream today (23rd Oct 2024)
Trump: The Criminal Conspiracy Case - BBC iPlayer
Kennedy, Sinatra and the Mafia (David Harvey, 2023)
I saw this on Swedish tv when I was there recently. The documentary goes into the friendship between JFK and Sinatra, then veers into the theory that the Mafia had JFK bumped off because the Kennedy Administration were out to get organized crime- Sinatra was good for business, JFK was not.
There is little merit to the end game, after all, it wasn't JFK but his brother, Attorney General Robert who was the driving force to trash Cosa Nostra. Just as Lee Harvey Oswald has a walk-on part as if he really was the stool-pigeon, and there is no explanation as to why a known associate of the mob, Jack Ruby would then put the mob in the spotlight by killing Oswald -it suited the mob for Oswald to take the rap so all they needed to do was -nothing. So if the mob did it, why does nobody know who shot the President? It's not like these wise guys never boast about such high profile killings.
If you are that interested in a monotonous singer like Sinatra and his links to the mob, this might interest you. I guess a lot depends on how you wish to judge Sinatra -actor, singer etc, or not.