The Sopranos – season 1

“I have a semester and a half of College. So I understand Freud.”

I finally got around to watching one of the greatest TV series of all-time.

And I see the appeal. The cast is excellent. The dialogue real and compelling.

The opening credits montage and theme song are fantastic.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Still, I’m not motivated to carry on to season 2.

I get the idea.

24: Legacy

I never watched 24 with Kiefer Sutherland.

But on a plane I watched the first two episodes of this sequel. Somehow got hooked.

It’s silly, for sure. But there is something compelling about the split screen simultaneous action sequences.

It was cancelled after season 1.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Consisting of 12 episodes, the show follows the life of war hero Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins) using real time method of narration.

Miranda Otto plays Rebecca Ingram, the former head of the now revived Counter Terrorist Unit in Washington, D.C.

Set three years after the events of 24: Live Another Day, it adheres to the real time concept of covering the events of a 24-hour period and begins and ends at 12:00 pm.

Bosch – season 5

I’ve read pretty much all the books. And Amazon Prime binged the most recent season.

Still good.

The show’s cast is a big part of what makes Bosch work.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

New evidence in an old case leaves everyone wondering whether Bosch crossed the line by planting evidence. Simultaneously, a murder at a Hollywood pharmacy exposes a sophisticated opioid pill mill …

93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Season 6 is in the works.

A Darkness More Than Night – Michael Connelly

Sadly I’m running out of Michael Connelly novels. This one from the early days when Harry was darker was excellent, as usual.

A Darkness More Than Night (2001) is the tenth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly; it is the seventh featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, and the second featuring FBI profiler Terry McCaleb, with reporter Jack McEvoy (The Poet) also making an appearance in a supporting role. …

Harry is being framed for murder by a movie director.

The story seems so familiar that I’m sure the plot was used in the TV series.

AMAZON

Travelers – season 1

Travelers is a Canadian-American science fiction television series …

In a post-apocalyptic future, thousands of special operatives are tasked with preventing the collapse of society. These operatives, known as “travelers”, have their consciousnesses sent back in time and transferred into the “host” body of present-day individuals …

… each traveler must maintain the host’s pre-existing life as cover for the rest of their lives, while carrying out missions …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s OK. An interesting premise.

Patrick Gilmore as David Mailer is my favourite character.

I wasn’t hooked enough to download season 2.

Handmaid’s Tale – season 2

What can be said that hasn’t already been said?

It’s fantastically well done.

Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne must win every acting award.

Madeline Brewer as Janine should win the rest. And Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia, of course.

In season 2 I could finally relate to Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy Waterford. Her backstory is fascinating.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… That all said, I’m not sure I can continue with season 3. It’s too violent. Too sad. Too believable in an age where a potential leader of the Gilead theocracy is VP. ☹️

Justified – season 1

Love it.

A Western set in modern times.

It reminds me a bit of Firefly.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The series … based on Elmore Leonard‘s novels Pronto and Riding the Rap and his short story “Fire in the Hole”.

Its main character is Raylan Givens, a deputy U.S. Marshal. Timothy Olyphant portrays Givens, a tough federal lawman, enforcing his own brand of justice in his Kentucky hometown. … 

TV Guide critic Matt Roush:

“The show is grounded in Olyphant’s low-key but high-impact star-making performance, the work of a confident and cunning leading man who’s always good company …”

The rest of the cast is consistently good too.

It’s 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s set in rural Kentucky and takes every opportunity to make fun of white, trailer trash rednecks.

All that said, I’m quitting now. Too much glorification of gun violence.

National Geographic’s MARS season 1

We have to go to MARS.

I’m convinced. Our species could easily go extinct on this planet.

National Geographic’s MARS blends elements of real interviews with a fictional story of a group of astronauts as they land on the planet Mars in 2033.

Though reviews have been mixed, I feel it’s a brave and important TV show.

I was also convinced (by Elon Musk) that man should try to merge with machine sooner rather than later. If our species is to survive long term, that will be the way.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – Elon Musk wants to live on Mars, even if it kills him

Bosch season 4

I watched season 4 on Amazon Prime Canada.

As good as any of the first 3 seasons, this one is 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

… when an attorney is murdered on the eve of his civil rights trial against the LAPD, Bosch is assigned to lead a Task Force to solve the crime before the city erupts in a riot.

Bosch must pursue every lead, even if it turns the spotlight back on his own department. One murder intertwines with another, and Bosch must reconcile his past to find a justice that has long eluded him.

Season 5 is in the works. This is Amazon’s longest running series so far.

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton died in 2008 at age-66.

I’d read most of his books.

Dragon Teeth was written beginning in 1974 and published posthumously in 2017.

I enjoyed it. And a National Geographic TV version is planned.

… set in the American West in 1876 during the Bone Wars, a period of fervent competition for fossil hunting between two real-life paleontologists noted for their intense rivalry, Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope.

The plot follows the protagonist William Johnson, a Yale student who works during the summer alternately for the two paleontologists. …

Don Oldenburg of USA Today gave the novel four stars, describing the book as “Plain and simple, it’s Crichton fiction — a fun, suspenseful, entertaining, well-told tale filled with plot twists, false leads and lurking danger in every cliffhanging chapter.