TV Shows...What are you following?

True Detective. Season 4 (2024)

Much as I like Jodi Foster, even when she is better than the films she has been in, this 6 part nonsense from Alaska was a big disappointment. There are two reveals at the end, one of which is underwhelming after so much effort, while the other taps into one of the themes of the season which relates to the way Inupiaq perceive the world they live (which doesn't appear to be the same as the world the rest of the State's population live in) and how to behave. Cue lots of obscure whispering, ghosts, people who live forever, and on top of lots of dark skies, snow and ice, a relentless diet of the most miserable pop music ever recorded that might have you too screaming for mercy. What a waste of money and what a terrible advert for Alaska, generally regarded as one of the most beautiful places on Earth, but one where, as in a superior murder-mystery in the snow (Wind River, 2017) the lnupiaq or whoever the local are, don't have a sense of humour, and never laugh, just walk around with looks of resentment and much worse.

True Detective has been a flop as drama, so why they do keep making it?

Only Murders in the Building

Until I Kill You (Nick Stevens, 2024, broadcast on ITVx)

A true story, told without much finesse. It is well acted and the script is often good too, but its matter of fact style meant I was not really gripped by it. I couldn't understand why the man involved, when on the run, didn't shave off his scruffy beard. Though true it doesn't rise much above the average cop/murder show, but it's not a bad watch if you have nothing else to do.

Until I Kill You (TV Series 2024) - IMDb

Passenger (UK)
Day of the Jackal (UK)
Sweatpea (UK)
The Penguin
Teacup
Hysteria

BBC Four - Sirius: An Apocalyptic Order, Series 1, Massacre or Suicide (2024)

‘Slapping therapy’ healer jailed for gross negligence manslaughter of woman | Crime | The Guardian

People who are dissatisfied with their lives, searching for some new experience, maybe even in pain, turn to a cult that offers them land and community where they can live as a happy family. They donate what they earn to two men who have convinced them that we are but temporary visitors to Earth, that when the time comes, we can 'transit' to a faraway planet called Sirius and live in eternal bliss. The two men don't work for a living, they take the money and spend it on luxury clothes, villas, foreign holidays in 5 star hotels. When the money ran out, they obliterated the several hundred followers they had, making their own 'transit' out of this life, to who knows what?

The tv series of 4 programmes looks at the events that took place in the 1990s and tries to understand what happened and why people commit themselves to a cult whose promises to most of us are absurd and scream 'Scam!' at every second.

The news report again asks who truly believes that slapping your body can cure illnesses? Not least when the man claiming it has no medical background, but a sufficient amount of charisma to fool people who don't believe in medical science, or worse, think it causes more harm than good. How many times must a slap the face of b before the word 'enough!' comes to mind?

Sad cases, but not uncommon. The tv series is worth watching.