Category: TV

Luther – season 5

On By Rick McIn movies, TVLeave a comment

We were worried the excellent TV show would end after season 4 because Idris Elba was too much in demand elsewhere.

Happily, after a long gap, season 5 dropped in 2019. I finally saw it on CBC GEM in Canada.

It’s only 4 episodes.

85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I’d rate it even higher. Believable and entertaining dialogue.

Smart.

Psychotic killer and love interest, Alice Morgan, is back. There’s a lot of blood and gore.

Luther’s old adversary George Cornelius is the bad guy.

Dermot Crowley as DSU Martin Schenk is excellent in that role. As is new recruit DS Catherine Halliday as a bizarrely upbeat cop.

There will be no season 6. But there is a follow-up movie called Luther: The Fallen Sun, released 2023. It should end up on Netflix.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Leftovers – season 2

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

The Leftovers is a supernatural drama TV series that aired 2014 – 2017. …

… begins three years after the “Sudden Departure“, a global event that resulted in 2% of the world’s population disappearing. …

Despite receiving average Nielsen ratings throughout its run, the series has developed a cult following. …

This show is skillfully done. It’s surprising. Never cliche.

Season 2 takes place a year after the first season, centering around the fourth anniversary of the Departure.

It’s weirder than season 1. Perhaps slightly better.

I still don’t like any of the characters aside from Reverend Matt. His belief is inspiring.

While some scenes take place in Mapleton, New York (the first season’s setting) and other locations, the majority of the season takes place in Jarden, Texas, also known as Miracle, a town from which no one departed. …

… multiple storylines, notably the ideological battle between those who believe Miracle is special and those who do not,

Kevin and Nora’s relationship being tested by Kevin’s increasingly erratic mental state, the Murphy family’s search for their missing daughter, and Matt’s attempts to prove the existence of a miracle only he witnessed. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz

On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

Point Blanc is the second book in the Alex Rider series, written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2001 …

Weirdly, a teen is recruited by MI6 to infiltrate the Point Blanc Academy in the French Alps.

It’s something like a teen 007 saving the world through an incredible series of unlikely events.

It didn’t work for me.

I liked more the TV adaptation called Alex Rider. BUT didn’t get through all of season 1.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Leftovers – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

The Leftovers is a supernatural drama TV series that aired 2014 – 2017. …

… begins three years after the “Sudden Departure”, a global event that resulted in 2% of the world’s population disappearing. …

Despite receiving average Nielsen ratings throughout its run, the series has developed a cult following. …

Following the event, mainstream religions declined, and a number of cults emerged, most notably the Guilty Remnant, a group of white-clothed, chain-smoking nihilists, …

This show is skillfully done. It’s surprising. Never cliche.

That said, there was not one character I could cheer for.

Not Justin Theroux as Kevin Garvey, Mapleton’s troubled chief of police. Theroux is just as unlikeable in a later series – The Mosquito Coast, based on the novel by his uncle Paul Theroux.

Ann Dowd is excellent, as always. A role something similar to how she played Aunt Lydia Clements in Handmaid’s Tale. Not likeable.

Liv Tyler as Megan “Meg” Abbott is beautiful. But I did not like her.

Paterson Joseph as Henry “Holy Wayne” Gilchrest is somewhat interesting as the charismatic leader of another cult. Ultimately a bad guy.

Perhaps the one character I partly related to was Christopher Eccleston as Matt Jamison, a Reverend.

I’ll probably continue with the next 2 seasons as they are considered better. In fact, Leftovers was  the highest ranked show of the 2010s by Metacritic’s aggregate.

The Unusual Suspects – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

Not great. But there are some things to like in this Aussie heist comedy.

The music is good.

A 4-episode miniseries that seems not be renewed.

It’s in both English and Tagalog as the characters are Filipina and Aussie.

The target is a multi-million-dollar necklace. The thieves hilariously incompetent.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Party Down – season 1

On By Rick McIn humour, TVLeave a comment

Party Down season 1 is an American sitcom with  Paul Rudd, Adam Scott, and Jane Lynch.

FUNNY adult humour.

… follows a group of caterers in Los Angeles as they hope to make it in Hollywood. …

Starz canceled Party Down on June 30, 2010. While the show was warmly received by critics, its Nielsen ratings were very low. …

Surprisingly, November 2021, a six-episode revival of the series was ordered by the network.  The third season premiered on February 24, 2023.

My favourite character is Lizzy Caplan as Casey Klein.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Last of Us – season 1

On By Rick McIn human rights, TV2 Comments

Fantastic. Original. Painful to watch, at times.

The Last of Us is the bravest TV production ever.

It should win all the awards for 2023.

The main script writer is Craig Mazin, best known for creating the HBO miniseries Chernobyl. Mazin was college roommates with Ted Cruz — whom he now despises.

Episode 3 was amazing. One of the greatest in TV in history.

Mazin watched if over 200 times — and cried every time.

I’m thinking Nick Offerman as Bill, a gay survivalist, and Murray Bartlett as Frank, the love interest, are the roles those actors will be associated with for the rest of their lives.

Murray is gay. But Nick’s wife had to talk him into doing the role. It worked.

I listened to an interview with the video editors. The goal of this TV series was to emphasize the relationship between the characters, and treat the zombie action sequences as secondary.

Bella Ramsey was a genius choice to play the critical role of Ellie. Quirky and potentially violent. Over 100 others were considered for the part. I’m sure her weirdly compelling role as 10-year-old Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones won her the job.

Episode 7 was partly shot at my alma matter – University of Calgary.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Consultant – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

An oddball horror? Black comedy?

WEIRD is what it is.

Weird and surprising enough to keep me going.

The Consultant is based on the novel of the same name by Bentley Little. …

The series follows the employees of a mobile gaming company whose leadership is taken over by a sinister consultant, played by Christoph Waltz, the Academy Award winner for playing evil villains.

In fact, without Waltz this show wouldn’t work. He can really sell evil.

He calls himself Regus Patoff — a shortened form of Registered US Patent Office.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Shrinking – season 1

On By Rick McIn humour, TVLeave a comment

Funny dialogue.

These writers must have been having a great time.

I’d give him housing in my … V or A. 😀

A therapist, Jimmy Laird, dealing with severe grief, begins to breach ethical barriers by telling his patients what he completely thinks, resulting in massive changes to his and their lives. …

Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a B+ and described the series as “a funny, brainy grief-com about the power—and dangers—of radical honesty.” …

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, John Anderson stated, “The overall sense is a little like laughing at a funeral; the human impulses are familiar, a little perverse and somehow comforting.”

wikipedia

Harrison Ford? A comic? Who knew? 😀

I do find the show to be unnecessarily profane. In fact, I finally QUIT on episode 4. That much swearing in a TV show is simply lazy.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Strike season 5 – Troubled Blood

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, human rights, TVLeave a comment

Quite good. Better than I expected.

I’ve not yet cancelled J.K. Rowling though her legacy won’t be Harry Potter — it will be her weird transphobic attacks on transgender people.

I say weird because for most of her life Rowling has advanced philanthropic causes. The charity Lumos. She worked for Amnesty International documenting human rights issues.

In fact, 95% of her works have been for the greater good.

Why ruin that attacking transgender people?

Weird.

I’ve read some of Rowling’s complicated statements claiming she’s not attacking and harming trans people. Clearly she is ➙ Is J.K. Rowling transphobic? Let’s let her speak for herself.

I thought the book Troubled Blood was least good of the first five.

But the 6th book — Ink Black Heart — was dreadful. I didn’t finish it.

So … how is the TV adaptation of Troubled Blood?

Dark. But quite watchable, actually.

Strike is marginally less annoying. Robin is lovely, as always. Nobody can understand what she sees in Strike.

There is some good acting from the rest of the cast, many of them elderly.

Some touching moments.

The cold case murder mystery didn’t do much for me. Though the ending was well done.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Independent – Strike: Troubled Blood review – This drama should be cherished. It’s the BBC at its best