TV TIME in MAY 2021

"I've Tried them all and the station still doesn't change!!!!"

Some April leftovers. Amazon Prime has been premiering Season 1 episodes on Fridays of Invincible. Episode 8, which came out on 4/29 concluded Season 1. We finally learn what Invincible’s dad, Nolan Grayson aka Omni-Man (voice of J.K. Simmons), has been up to. Just as son Mark (Invincible, voice of Stephen Yuen) and mother Debi (voice of Sandra Oh) are shocked, so I’m sure would/will be the viewing audience. Mark looks less than Invincible, as does humankind. See for example the subway scene, which probably alludes in a macabre way to the first Spiderman movie with Tobey McGuire. The end is of the “New Hope” convention that it inherits from Star Wars, but the situation looks far more dire. It’s been compared to Amazon Prime’s The Boys (I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of that one), but the tone is much more teen age angst-y.

My cable service has been doing a “Watchathon” the past week, i.e. a week of free access to various subscription channels. I’ve been binging series currently on Acorn, to which I once subscribed. Allowed me to catch up on a couple episodes of the New Zealand police procedural The Brokenwood Mysteries (Season 6). It’s comedy crime, even lighter than Midsomer Murders, good for unwinding. I just find kiwi accents to be inherently amusing, though my favorite character Gina Kadinsky (Cristina Serban Ionda) is Russian (with the exaggerated accent it’s possible she is playing a Russian). Gina’s the local pathologist with odd social skills always chasing after DCI Mike Shepherd (Neil Rhea) at every opportunity. Mike is fat, forty, and loves, jarringly, country music, of which we hear quite a lot. Watching the shenanigans with a jaundiced eye is DCS Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland). Her only quirk is she makes terrible coffee. Season 6 introduces a new character, DC Chalmers (Jarod Rawiri); not sure if he’s playing the token Maori. Chalmers is taking over for red-head DC Breen (Nic Sampson) who has taken a new policing job in the Solomon Islands. A recurring character is the coffee vendor Frankie “Frodo” Oades with an iffy background who helps the cops with contacts from his former life of crime. Murders occur and are duly solved.

Continuing with Acorn, binged Bloodlands (2021), all of 4 episodes. Takes place in Northern Ireland, with a lot of undercurrents from The Troubles. This one was very dark. DCI Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) is assigned a kidnapping case of a haulage owner whose business was based on gun-running profits made during the civil war. The CSIs (SOCOs in the UK procedurals) discover an odd clue, a postcard pointing to an assassin code named Goliath who played both sides during the civil war & who was never captured. There’s reason to suspect that Goliath, considered responsible for 4 murders, came from inside the police department. The murders took place as the peace talks were concluding, so for political reasons the investigation was hushed up. Turns out the kidnapping was intended to re-open the Goliath case. Things are still quite tense in the district (a police car is firebombed just outside the station) and the Protestant chief of police is replaced by a Catholic from the Intelligence Service with political know-how, a friend of Brannick, though the new chief Jacky Twomey (Lorcan Cranitch) may have been responsible for the original cover-up . Oh, and: one of the 4 people assassinated was Brannick’s wife, who was working for military intelligence during the war. Brannick raised his daughter Izzy (Lola Petticrew) as a single parent, and she is starting medical school. Why does someone want the case re-opened? And who is Goliath? Is Goliath police? Brannick’s second, DS Niamh McGovern (Charlene McKenna), the one person who was not part of the original investigation, finds her suspicions moving from one character to the other. Reminded me a bit of the Kevin Costner 1987 movie No Way Out.

Bäckstrőm (2020). Via Acorn, 6 episodes. Swedish police procedural with subtitles. Opens with an armored car robbery that will have some loose ties to the story. Evert Bäckstrőm (Kjell Berkvist) is a detective with a reputation for solving impossible crimes. B. is a publicity hound who tends to push against the envelope of ethical behavior. He is introduced at the beginning of a TV program confronting a criminal lawyer, Tomas Eriksson (Jens Hulten). Backstrom gets a call about the robbery, but he blows it off since only homicides are worth his attention, and he passes on the job to his second, Ankan Karlsson (Agnes Lindstrom Bolmgren). Later his neighbor, 9 year old Edvin (Elvis Stegmar), whom B. is mentoring, brings him a skull he found on a small island where he was temporarily marooned during a Sea Scout excursion. Further examination indicates murder. But DNA analysis indicates the skull belongs to a woman who died in the Thailand tsunami years ago. This all leads up to a long ago Sea Scout friendship, a visit to Thailand with a friendly Thai cop & his family, a prosecutor assigned to the investigation who is also the daughter of the man who was in charge of identifying Swedish victims of the tsunami, and B.’s love affair with a celebrity PR person. This last intersects with Ankan’s investigation of the robbery, in which B. gets inadvertently entangled. What’s unusual is that there is no satisfying resolution – B. and the prosecutor have evidence but apparently not enough to convict. And significant loose end: what did B. use the bribe money for? Almost thought it was missing a final episode.

PS. Also on Acorn caught 2 recent episodes of Midsomer Murders that haven't as yet been added to my Britbox subscription channel.

Watched one of my favorite series Vera most enjoyable, our leading lady Brenda Blethyn plays a great Vera.

>3 aussieh: I loved the series and all of the books. I own all the series on DVD. Never get tired of them.

>4 Carol420: Carol

I am reading my first novel by Anne Cleeves Telling Tales and shall be following up with others. In this novel Vera is described as "the ugliest person ever seen" which I found strange, as our TV Vera does not fill that description. However the banter and sharp conversations are hers. Also the term "pet" is our lady and the wink of the eye.

>5 aussieh: I never understood why Ann Cleeves did this in her novels. She took away any personality that poor Vera might have had but Brenda Blethyn gave it back to her in spades. I always thought that Brenda Blethyn made such a good "Vera". She wasn't a sexy, slinky actress but she was attractive and so good in the role. I enjoyed the books more after seeing her in the part because I could just picture Brenda and not the character that Ann Cleeves wanted us to see. Funny...you hear the word "pet" in all British movies and TV series. Even the bad guy gets called "pet".

SBS TV watched the final episode of Deadwater Fell starring David Tennant, a very good series.
I am looking forward to a new series coming up in June Bloodlands starring John Nesbitt.

Just starting The Underground Railroad on Amazon Prime. Unlike Invincible, doled out at an episode per week, the whole 10 episode series was released on Friday. I can't imagine binging the new series -- the individual episodes could be a night's viewing, but it was hard to put down. Director is Barry Jenkins, who directed Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk. Haven't seen either, but on the basis of episode 1, I need to take a look. Based on the novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead, which I also need to take a look at. Atmosphere reminds me of a novel I haven't finished yet, Kindred, by Octavia Butler. Also reminds me I haven't finished viewing the last episode of The Good Lord Bird on Showtime cable, also based on a novel I read some time ago. In the first episode, slave Cora (Thosa Mbedu) is unwilling to escape to the north from a Georgia plantation with Caesar (Aaron Pierre). But a horrific punishment for an escaped slave seems to have been the ignition point that sets her off on a surreal escape. Eager to move on to episode 2, but I need to take a look at the films of Satyajit Ray before TCM drops them from the queue (a festival of his films celebrating what would be his 100th birthday).

ABC TV.. Two new series, The Durrells and Sanditon

Mare of Easttown episode 5. Whew!

>10 featherbear: I think I'm going to wait until it's finished. I'm due a good binge. The same goes for The Handmaid's Tale. I just finished a three-parter about serial killer Dennis Nielsen Des. David Tennant was spectacularly good as the looney-tune who flushed body-parts down the drain and then told the landlord he'd withhold the rent if the blockage wasn't fixed.

>11 .cris: Two more episodes left.

I have lost interest with the latest Handmaid's Tale screening on SBS.

>13 aussieh: I've read other people's reviews that say they had also lost interest. Sounds like somebody needs to reevaluate.

>14 Carol420:

I really enjoyed the earlier few series, I think I would say now enough is enough.
I will miss Aunt Lydia.

>15 aussieh: I hate to get attached to a character or a player in a series. I have done this big time with Matt Bomer that was Neal Cafferty in White Collar. I've found other movies that he was in so he;s not really gone:)

The World Wars (2014)
This was a fascinating 3 part nonfiction documentary on WWI and WWII. One of the best documentaries on that time period I ever saw!

The Nevers. 6 part series. I watched the whole lot over two days. Set in Victorian times, mostly women are "Touched" by an alien craft and are left with special abilities. An unusual slant on the "goodies" versus "baddies" scenario. Episode 6 left me completely baffled....but nothing new there! I liked it.

El Inocente. 8 part Spanish crime drama. "An accidental killing leads a man down a dark hole of intrigue and murder. Just as he finds love and freedom, one phone call brings back the nightmare." (IMDb). Twisty and turny. Entertaining.

55 Degrees North. 2004. 2 series of a cop show set in Newcastle. It's suitable for granny's granny. I really enjoyed it. It was back in the day when race was mentioned, but it was just a side issue. One for Brit cop crazy Carol, I think.

>20 .cris: Thanks. I've seen the DVD's at the library but have never seen it. I love British detectives.