Category: TV

Ted Lasso – 3 seasons

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment
  • Season 1 – surprising and charming
  • Season 2 – disappointing
  • Season 3 – … some good episodes and scenes

When Ted Lasso first emerged as a sleeper hit in the summer of 2020, it was the gentle hug audiences needed in the middle of pandemic lockdown, a familiar fish-out-of-water tale about a nice man infecting the cynical world around him with his niceness. …

Atlantic – Ted Lasso Has Lost Its Way

Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent was shocking, profane, and hilarious. My favourite character.

Click PLAY or watch a great scene on YouTube. As a coach, I’m proud of Roy Kent here.

Brendan Hunt as Coach Beard was weird and wise.

Nick Mohammed as Nathan “Nate” Shelley, the team’s former kit man turned assistant coach super likeable and relatable.

Like nearly everyone, it was one of my favourite TV shows of 2020.

Season 2 was … BAD. What a letdown. Nate becoming the enemy makes no sense. It’s not believable in any way.

Happily, season 3 did have some good scenes. It was worth watching again.

Hannah Waddingham as Rebecca Welton is now someone I want to know.

Juno Temple as Keeley Jones is much more interesting a character than at the start.

I’m sure every writer NOT working on this show is certain they could do better. It has tons of potential.

Some of the absurdism worked. But there were plenty of scenes that were simply dumb.

I do hope there’s a season 4 with Roy as manager.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s challenging to END a TV series. But the wrap-up of season 3 was well done. I enjoyed it.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

On By Rick McIn books, TV1 Comment

Death at La Fenice (1992), the first novel by American academic and crime-writer Donna Leon, started the internationally best-selling Commissario Brunetti mystery series, set in Venice, Italy. 

I read it while in Tuscany.

Slow paced. Brunetti flawed. I’m enjoying the books. Five, so far. And I’ll read more.

  1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
  2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
  3. The Anonymous Venetian / Dressed for Death (1994)
  4. Venetian Reckoning / Death and Judgment (1995)
  5. Acqua Alta / Death in High Water (1996)

    A world-famous German opera conductor has died at La Fenice, and Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti pursues what appears to be a murder investigation without leads.

    wikipedia

    There was a German adaptation of the book.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    In fact, Donna Leon is an American who lived in Venice for decades.

    She wrote the first book as a lark. When successful, she wrote dozens more.

    Brunetti and his family don’t age. Each book uses 1990s technology. No mobile phones, for example.

    Her books have been translated into many languages — but NOT ITALIAN. 😀

    She’s convinced her Italian friends will be more critical if they could read them in their first language.

    Ted Lasso at the Van Gogh Museum

    On By Rick McIn philosophy, TVLeave a comment

    This comedy is very philosophical.

    Normal People – miniseries

    On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

    Excellent TV.

    On Rotten Tomatoes 91% “Certified Fresh”.

    Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne Sheridan is awesome as the self-declared High School social outcast.

    AND she was terrific later as the lead in Where the Crawdads Sing.

    Count me a fan.

    Normal People (2020) is an Irish romantic psychological drama limited series … is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Sally Rooney.

    The series follows the relationship between Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal), as they navigate adulthood from their final days in secondary school to their undergraduate years in Trinity College.  …

    Critics praise the subtle performances, directing, writing, aesthetics, and portrayal of mature content.

    Sarah Greene as Lorraine Waldron, Connell’s single mother, is terrific. The character to admire in this drama.

    After all that rah rah … I must admit I only made it through the first 6 episodes. I got to depressed with how Marianne lets her life be ruined. And that Connell lets her.

    Detectorists – season 1&2

    On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

    A most British comedy. 😀

    Bad teeth and all.

    96%+ on Rotten Tomatoes.

    … The plot revolves around the lives, loves and metal-detecting ambitions of Andy and Lance, members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club. …

    The show ran for three series from 2014 to 2017, including a 2015 Christmas special. A further Christmas special aired in 2022. …

    Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times “can’t recommend it enough”, saying: “Like the ordinary lives it magnifies, Detectorists has the air of seeming to be small and immense at once, to be about hardly anything and almost everything. It is full of space and packed with life.” …

    Wikipedia

    Diana Rigg had a funny role in this series. Sadly, she died in 2020.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    New Tricks – season 1

    On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

    Randy and Val watched all 107 episodes (12 seasons) of a very popular British TV series.

    So far, I’ve managed only the 1st season. Entertaining.

    In episode 7, for example, the old timers must do their annual physical evaluation. 😀

    I admire British TV for including actors that don’t look like actors. And older actors. These could be real people you’d see on the street.

    New Tricks (2004 – 2015) focuses on the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) – a fictional division within London’s Metropolitan Police Service tasked with re-investigating unsolved crimes.

    UCOS primarily functioned with a senior police detective overseeing the work of three retired police officers who would handle each case, and who could bring in police support when needed.  …

    … devised the title of the programme around the proverb “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks“. …

    The theme tune of the programme is sung by cast member Dennis Waterman. The song is “It’s Alright” (written by Mike Moran). …

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    The Other Two – season 1

    On By Rick McIn humour, TVLeave a comment

    FUNNY

    R-rated.

    The Other Two … follows two floundering millennial siblings who must grapple with their 13-year-old brother’s overnight fame. 

    A gay aspiring actor, Cary (Drew Tarver), and his sister Brooke (Heléne Yorke), a former professional dancer …

    Chase Dubek (a.k.a. ChaseDreams), a teen pop sensation who’s declared as the “Next Big White Kid” (Bieber) in music after his homemade music video, “I Wanna Marry U at Recess,” went viral on YouTube. 

    I was won over when the family rented Justin Theroux’s Fake Apartment in NYC.

    Hilarious.

    Here’s Justin’s boot closet. 😀

    I understand he was OK with the joke.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    The Leftovers – season 3

    On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

    Critics love this TV series for its originality and courage.

    Frontal nudity.

    But I find it embarrassingly weird for weird sake at times.

    In season 3 the most compelling character is Scott Glenn as Kevin Garvey, Justin Theroux‘s (Kevin Garvey) father. He’s great. Very believable.

    Inexplicably, the show moves from Texas to Australia a week before the seventh anniversary of the Sudden Departure when 2% of the world’s population had disappeared without explanation.

    Season 3 does have some super memorable scenes. I’ll never forget the hotel room book burning in episode four. Film students need study how that was done.

    This is a show that’s impossible to end — wrapping up all the loose ends. Yet the finale was one of the best scenes of all. Well done.

    Overall, however — I’d say season 3 is weakest. IF you wanted to watch this show at all, season 1 would be best.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    Dead Lions by Mick Herron

    On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

    Dead Lions (2013) won the Crime Writers’ Association 2013 Gold Dagger award.

    It’s #2 of Mick Herron‘s Slough House series, which have been adapted for the Slow Horses TV series.

    I’d say the TV show is better than the book — but they are both good.

    London’s Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers.
    The “slow horses,” as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Maybe they messed up an op badly and can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. …

    Now the slow horses have a chance at redemption.

    An old Cold War-era spy is found dead on a bus outside Oxford, far from his usual haunts. The despicable, irascible Jackson Lamb is convinced Dickie Bow was murdered.

    As the agents dig into their fallen comrade’s circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets that seem to lead back to a man named Alexander Popov, who is either a Soviet bogeyman or the most dangerous man in the world.

    How many more people will have to die to keep those secrets buried?

    Good Reads

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    Son of a Critch – season 2

    On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

    An endearing Canadian sitcom based in Newfoundland.

    It’s based on the school days of comedian Mark Critch who’s age-48. I’m quite a bit older but still get nostalgic over some of the news stories of the day featured in the show.

    Critch plays his father (Mike Critch) in the series, while child actor Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays the young Critch.

    Malcolm McDowell is a treat as Patrick “Pop” Critch, Mark’s grandfather. Turns out he once worked running Rum for Al Capone during prohibition. 😀

    I’ll be watching season 3 next year.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.