Not sure I can recommend this acclaimed British TV series.
It’s 94% on Rotten Tomatoes — but I found it somewhat confusing.
To be fair, however, Erin Doherty deserves all the acting awards. This is a challenging role.
A mystery about obsession, deceit, identity, and grief …
A lonely twentysomething, Becky Green, becomes obsessed with the suicide of her estranged childhood friend Chloe and assumes a new identity as Sasha to investigate how Chloe died.
Becky starts an affair with Chloe’s widowed husband, Elliot; whereas the rest of the group including Elliot’s mother disapproves of their relationship.
Becky is a confused, unreliable narrator. Her web of lies painful to watch.
Other candidates that year included Ian Rankin and Louise Penny.
Krueger was raised in small town Minnesota. The same age as the 13-year-old narrator of this book.
My main takeaway — at the end — is that two of the characters I’d include in my list of best all time. Frank’s father, Nathan, a Methodist minister. And Frank’s younger brother, who eventually also becomes a minister.
If you asked me to name great Christians in fiction, I’d include those two.
New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack.
It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.
Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family— which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother— he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years. …
Book #3 in the series featuring Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges, master chef, devoted oenophile, and, most important, beloved chief of police in the sleepy village of St. Denis, France.
This story deals with crime and murder in the truffles trade.
The 13th in the Inspector Gamache series (2017). Excellentwriting, as always.
BUT I am fed up with the absurdity of her plots.
This nonsense must be the most unlikely yet.
Gamache is now the Head of Surete du Quebec — yet finds himself in court risking perjury. Why is never made clear (to me) though it seems to have something to do with saving young Quebecois. From drugs.
Every less likely is a mysterious masked person in black standing in Two Pines. For a couple of days.
Could drugs be smuggled through a tunnel in the church basement? Right after a murder in the same basement?
On October 21, 2020, it was reported that Purdue had reached a settlement potentially worth $8.3 billion, admitting that it “knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with others to aid and abet” doctors dispensing medication “without a legitimate medical purpose.” Members of the Sackler family will additionally pay US$225 million and the company will close.
Arthur Sackler (born 1913) was an impressive person in many ways. The eldest son of Jewish grocer immigrants in New York.
“No single individual did more to shape the character of medical advertising than the multi-talented Dr. Arthur Sackler. His seminal contribution was bringing the full power of advertising and promotion to pharmaceutical marketing.”
He did many, many things. But the Sackler empire was mostly built on how Arthur popularized dozens of medicines including Betadine, Senaflax, Librium, and Valium through direct marketing to physicians during the 1960s.
I have more respect for the direct competitor in 2022 ➙ House of the Dragon on HBO. Though it can be hard to watch, I feel Dragons justifies the cost: under US$20 million / episode, far less expensive than Games of Thrones. Far less expensive than Rings of Power.
It begins during a time of relative peace and covers all the major events of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, and the last alliance between Elves and Men.
These events take place over thousands of years in Tolkien’s original stories but are condensed for the series. …
The final episode was disappointing. Though I did like the resolution of Meteor Man, aka the Stranger. That was original and surprising.
Rick McCharles 