Category: TV

Without Remorse by Tom Clancy (1993)

On By Rick McIn books, movies, TVLeave a comment

Without Remorse is long. Stephen King long.

…  Kirkus Reviews gave it a mixed verdict, stating that it is “twice as long as the two rather creaky storylines can bear …”

The writing is not particularly skillful.

Chronologically it’s the first in the Jack Ryan universe.

But I’d never gotten much into the Jack Ryans: Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, and John Krasinski. 

Jack Ryan is not an important in Without Remorse. This book introduces a more interesting character, John Clark, portrayed by actors Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber over the years.

Published 1993, it’s dated. Every marijuana users is EVIL, for example. And likely to die.

That’s the bad news.

But, surprisingly, I made it through.

I enjoyed learning about John Clark (real name John Terence Kelly), the former Navy SEAL. His particular skills are fascinating.

His main talent is killing people. Vigilante justice.

In any case, I’ll give Red October a try. Second book chronologically in the series.

Bosch – season 6

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Amazon’s first and longest running original series is one of their best.

Season 6 is based on The Overlook and Dark Sacred Night.

One of the many things I love about this show is how closely they stick to the feel of the books.

Great writing.

Great actors. An ensemble cast. Older and more believable than most American TV stars.

Troy Evans and Gregory Scott Cummins as Detectives Crate and Barrel steal the show every time they get on screen, for example.

It’s interesting to see Bosch’s daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz) get more important over the seasons.

Complex yet easy-to-follow multiple plot lines.

Bosch’s surprising yet perfect partner is J. Edgar, played by Jamie Hector.

Lance Reddick as Chief of Police Irvin Irving is always good. He gets married this season to Linda Park.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Season 7 will be the last in this series.  I was hoping they’d bring in a new character from the books: Renée Ballard. But rumours are she won’t be in the final season.

She’s a Bosch-like intense female detective working the night shift (“late show”) in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives.

related – Why Amazon’s ‘Bosch’ Is the Underrated Mystery Show You Should Be Watching

British TV – Bodyguard – season 1

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Bodyguard is a BIG HIT British police-thriller TV series.

I highly recommend it. 

… set around the fictional character of Police Sergeant David Budd (played by Richard Madden), a British Army war veteran suffering from PTSD, who is now working for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police Service.

He is assigned as the principal protection officer (PPO) for the ambitious Home Secretary Julia Montague, whose politics he despises. …

Madden played Robb Stark in the first three seasons of HBO‘s fantasy drama Game of Thrones …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

CCTV crime drama – The Capture

On By Rick McIn government, TVLeave a comment

The Capture is a British mystery crime-drama staring Holliday Grainger as hot shot Detective Inspector Rachel Carey of Homicide and Serious Crime Command.

She played Robin Ellacott in Strike, an even better recent British TV series.

Ron Perlman is excellent too.

A fascinating plot – the story starts with a soldier acquitted of a war crime in Afghanistan, based on helmet cam evidence.

But the most interesting part is CCTV video footage being manipulated. 

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is used for security as well as video surveillance around the world.  Facial recognition software is used, as well. Scary.

There is one surveillance camera for every 11 people in Britain.

I did think writers had trouble ending this great story. It was dragged out. And I didn’t buy the wrap-up.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

 

 

 

Absentia – season 1

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I’d like to recommend Absentia as it has a lot of promise, … but I fall in line with Rotten Tomatoes which has it at 70%.

Too much chase, not enough resolution of plot.

Stana Katic is FBI agent Emily Byrne who disappears without a trace while hunting one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers, and she is declared dead in absentia.

Six years later, she is found in a cabin in the woods, barely alive and with no memory …

She returns home to learn that her husband has remarried and her son is being raised by the new wife …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

 

Harry Bosch – book 2 in the series

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I bought both the first and second novels in Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series, both as good as any of the later novels.

The Black Ice starts with an apparent suicide of a narcotics officer in Los Angeles.

It was rumored that he had been involved in the selling of a new drug called “Black Ice”.

As the L.A. police higher-ups converge on the scene to protect the department from scandal, Harry Bosch inserts himself into the investigation.

The trail he follows leads to Mexican drug gangs operating across the border while he gets attracted to Calexico Moore’s widow as the case progresses. …

Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch in the TV series

The Stranger on Netflix

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The Stranger on Netflix is very bingeable.

The Stranger is a British mystery thriller series … based on the Harlan Coben novel of the same title. The miniseries premiered on Netflix on 30 January 2020.

A mysterious stranger tells a man a secret that has a devastating impact on his seemingly perfect life. …

It’s complex. But not so complex that you lose track of what’s going on.

Rotten Tomatoes 86%.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Harry Bosch – book 1 in the series

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I’ve read most of the Bosch books.

Black Echo is the 1992 début novel by American crime author Michael Connelly. … won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for “Best First Novel” in 1992.

Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch …

… debuted as the lead character in the 1992 novel The Black Echo, the first in a best-selling police procedural series now numbering 21 novels. …

Bosch’s mother was a prostitute in Hollywood who was murdered on October 28, 1961, when Bosch was 11 years old. …

In Vietnam, Bosch was a “tunnel rat” (nicknamed “Hari Kari Bosch”), with the 1st Infantry Division—a specialized soldier whose job it was to go into the maze of tunnels used as barracks, hospitals, and on some occasions, morgues, by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army. …

After his return from Vietnam and an honorable discharge from the Army, Bosch joined the LAPD …

Harry is astonishingly unchanged from the beginning nearly 30 years ago.

Titus Welliver in the TV series is quite true to fiction. Season 3 of the Amazon TV series, Bosch, is loosely adapted from this novel.

Russian SciFi TV – Better than Us

On By Rick McIn robots, TVLeave a comment

I’d enjoyed these similar TV shows …

… so tried something quite similar – Better than Us 

It’s the first Russian television series to make it to Netflix.

I made it through 8 of the 16 episodes before finally giving up. The pace too slow. The English dubbed audio hilariously bad.

Paulina Andreeva is shockingly realistic as a killer robot.

The little daughter in the show played by Vita Kornienko is fantastic too.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

In 2029, robots have become an ordinary part of human life – they help raise children, work as personal drivers, security guards, and lovers.

For most people, “Bots” are just soulless machines that perform routine work, but they also become capable of emotions.

A group of rebels, “The Liquidators,” reject life with the bots – and are ready to shed human blood in their war against the machines.

Sense8 – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

If you are looking for binge worthy TV, I’d recommend Sense8 on Netflix.

Plenty of sex. Nudity. Language.

It’s strange. Original. Brave.

Confusing at times. Plot line could be stronger.

Like so many American TV shows bullets never seem to hit good guys. Punches to the face leave no damage.

The show’s first season introduced a multinational ensemble cast … portraying eight strangers from different parts of the world who suddenly discover that they are “sensates”: human beings who are mentally and emotionally linked.

It was praised for its representation of LGBTQ characters and themes, …

To properly tell the international aspects of the story, filming for Sense8 took place almost entirely on location around the globe.

All 8 are good as are the supporting cast members.  But best of the best for me is Miguel Ángel Silvestre as Lito Rodriguez, a Mexican actor playing a Mexican actor.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.