HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: TV, anyone? We just watched DOWN CEMETERY ROAD, every single bit of it, and at one point I said to Jonathan, wow I love this, but, what again? Is the point? I completely don’t understand it. Eventually it was all made clear, ish, kind of, and some loose ends were not tied up, but it was really fun to watch. Rhys, it’s Emma Thompson’s hair you need to see. Go for it.
PLURIBUS, yes yes yes, fabulous. Thought-provoking, fantastic. Would you trade away your individuality if you could be happy and know everything? Ah, I don’t want to describe too much, but it is about (to me, at least) the dangers of AI.
SLOW HORSES continues to be wonderfully entertaining. (Mick Herron wrote Cemetery Road, too.) And we just started watching HIJACK, with Idris Elba.
I know I am leaving something out. How about you, Reds and readers?
HALLIE EPHRON: I’m in RE-watch mode with SHERLOCK. Remembering how fabulous Benedict Cumberbatch was and how smart the writing was. But honestly there’s nary a single clue or red herring that I remember from having seen these before. The solutions are SO complicated, and sometimes I”m not even sure exactly what the crime is. Doesn’t matter… I do love Sherlock and Mary and Watson and Mrs. Hudson.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: We’ve just finished the final episode of STRANGER THINGS. We found this last season a little confusing, especially since it had been so long since the previous one, but we loved the way they wrapped everything up. It was such fun to see all the lovely kids grow up over the course of the series.
Also, we watched the ERAS tour documentary, which was fascinating. The technical side of the productions was just astounding, and the effort and dedication the tour took, not just from Taylor but from all the dancers and singers and musicians and crew, was incredibly moving. I only wish I’d had the experience of seeing it in person.
JENN McKINLAY: We are currently watching THE LOWDOWN, starring Ethan Hawke, and it is excellent - we are only two episodes in, however. Before that, we watched THE CHAIR COMPANY…um…wildly entertaining and yet soooo bizarre. We loved, loved, loved, NOBODY WANTS THIS. We also caught the movie MARTY SUPREME and it was utterly bonkers and very entertaining.
RHYS BOWEN: We haven’t been watching much because we had family around and then John was in hospital. When I’m in de-stress mode I watch the tennis channel and right now there are some good tournaments going on in Australia. It is also nostalgia for me because it reminds me of times in Australia, watching those tournaments with my mum.
But we did start one of the new Agatha Christies the other night. The Pale Horse, which was one of her really good stories. But Agatha writes in a way that is calm and genteel. No gore. No sensationalism. This rendition was horrific and we turned it off after about twenty minutes. And retreated back to old favorites. Recently discovered a Maigret with Rowan Atkinson. They are really good and it’s fun to see him playing a deep and serious character.
LUCY BURDETTE: As you know, I am the world’s fussiest television watcher. By the way, Jenn, we went to see Marty Supreme. I hated it! About 2/3 of the way through, I mentioned to John that this was hard to take. He said he didn’t like it either and let’s leave. And so we did. But then we saw Song Sung Blue, which was sad but so excellent! Now I am looking forward to watching another new one about a stand-up comic who is getting divorced. It’s called Is This Thing On?
On the television front, nix on Cemetery Road. And I haven’t gotten hooked by Slow Horses, though I know I’m in the minority. We did watch the first episode of the new season of Shetland and absolutely loved it. We also watched episode one of the new season of THE PITT. John loves it, I will give it another try. Fussy.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m also in a TV funk. I don’t feel like anything dark, but most comedies aren’t my cup of tea. I watched WAKE UP DEAD MAN when Youngest was home and we both adored it. I’d love for more series or movies in the traditional Agatha Christie vein, but it’s getting hard to find one I haven’t already seen! Happily, a new adaptation of The Seven Dials Mystery was released on Netflix yesterday, so that’s going to be my weekend watch. Now, if PBS will just let us know when MARBLE HALL MURDERS (third in the wonderful Moonflower Murders series) is being released, I’ll call myself good for the month.
HANK: Oh, yes Seven Dials, looking forward! But somehow...I think all those look to campy for me. But hope persists! And anything by Anthony Horowitz, I'm totally in. And oh, the Lincoln Lawyer is coming up. Yay.
How about you all, Reds and Readers? Whatcha watching?
The big thing here was watching the figure skating and seeing who would be selected for the Olympic team . . . .
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to The Lincoln Lawyer . . . .
Yes, the figure skating--who is that skater? The man who does the flip? He is incredible. And yes, agree, Lincoln Lawyer, cannot wait.
DeleteI’ve been watching THURSDAY MURDER CLUB again on Netflix. No idea why I’m not in the mood to watch new movies nor television shows these days.
ReplyDeleteWhen I’m in the mood, I’m going to look at your screen recommendations.
Lately I’ve been learning British Sign Language and several languages on Duolingo. And now that I’ve recovered from whatever I had, I’m back to the writing process.
British sign language..I've never thought about that. Fascinating!
DeleteThe return of "All Creatures Great and Small" on PBS last Sunday evening had me once again happily curled up on the sofa in my jimjams with a cup of hot tea and a White Chocolate/Strawberry Milano cookie. :-) For the next six Sundays all will be right with the world and all troubles and cares packed away. One solid hour of respite from the reality of life and global chaos. And right behind it is a new series called "Bookish". A show about a character named Gabriel Book who owns an antiquarian bookshop called Book's (Books) in post WWII London. The very talented Emmy Award Winner Mark Gatiss plays Gabriel Book whose sideline in addition to collecting rare books is helping the police solve murders. Gatiss also wrote and directed "Bookish". Oh boy, the next six Sunday nights on PBS are going to be fabulous! P.S. Hank ~ Mark Gatiss also was the creator behind the more contemporary (and very clever) "Sherlock" you liked starring Benedict Cumberbatch. With only 3 episodes per season I was left with always wanting more. Of course, the Winter Olympics is also on the agenda ~ the skiing as well as the skating are our favorites.
ReplyDeleteP.S. My mistake and my apology. The "Sherlock" comment was meant for Hallie who mentioned she was once again watching the series. A classic case of not paying attention or proofreading. Perhaps it being 2:00 in the morning is another reason for being so sloppy. And Rhys ~ I LOVED Rowan Atkinson's portrayal of Maigret. I wish he were still doing that series. Okay...Off to bed before I get something else wrong. :-)
DeleteI, too, absolutely loved Rowan Atkinson's Maigret. But unlike comments made another day by many of you, I didn't dislike the new Maigret that was out recently. Not as good as Rowan Atkinson but certainly good enough to watch, I thought. And I was unaware that Mark Gatiss was the creator of "Sherlock"!
DeleteI second the recommendation of "Bookish". I loved the first episode!
DeleteI loved Sherlock, too! And eager to see Bookish!
DeleteNow that my husband has his reading mojo back, we haven’t been watching much TV, so my TBW note on my phone just gets longer and longer! We did binge a chunk of House Hunters International the other day, which is our go-to when we don’t want to think too much.
ReplyDeleteHouse Hunters--what is that?
DeleteWe’ve binged on Landman with Billie Bob Thornton, only the finale left to go, and it’s excellent. Deb, take note. It’s set in Midland. What a dump!
ReplyDeleteAnd yesterday we watched KUMIKO, a lovely beautiful poignant bittersweet Japanese film (Netflix) that is tres Coen Bro-esque. Think Fargo
It's one of those films I so often miss, low budget but extremely well done.
(No wood chippers were harmed nor even involved in the making of this movie)
HA! Love Fargo.
DeleteI'm judging books for a publisher competition so my TV watching has slowed down, but I did watch HIS & HERS on Netflix.
ReplyDeleteHis & Hers looks really good, Dru. Thanks for the tip.
DeleteWhat did you think of His & Hers? (BTW, her new My Husband's Wife is fantastic. Amazing. I don't know how she did it. It just got optioned, too.)
DeleteI liked it and that twist at end, didn't see that coming
DeleteI’m not much of a TV watcher, and other than our regular Verizon cable we only have Netflix. I watch PBS and we can choose from the 2 Boston channels, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire! Lucky us! Sunday started the new season of All Creatures Great and Small which give me an hour of perfect fantasy. And there’s a new Netflix series with Matt Damon (be still my heart) and Ben Affleck. Glad to know The Lincoln Lawyer is coming back!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the new Matt Damon?
DeleteAs the likely TV-aholic amongst the JRW community, I'm watching LOTS of stuff. The networks are all starting back to new episodes after the holiday break so I'm having a lot of those shows pop up again. New seasons of The Rookie and Will Trent have started too.
ReplyDeleteI watched the first episode of the new Miss Scarlett season but as much as I like the series, I thought the episode was a bit weak.
Doing rewatches of a lot of different TV shows including ER, The Last Ship, Married with Children, Babylon 5, Rookie Blue and a host more. Finished a rewatch of the 1 season Bones spinoff show The Finder.
And sometime over these next few days, I'll watch the premiere of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
I could give a full list of everything I'm watching but I'd probably run up against the character limit.
Jay, I found Miss Scarlett without The Duke to be weak sauce, and pretty much abandoned it. Should I have stuck with it?
DeleteHa! Will Trent, I forgot!
DeleteWe are on our one mystery a night winter evening schedule. The mystery is surrounded on both sides with educational things – usually from BBC Selects or PBS Docs. Mysteries currently being enjoyed: All Creatures (PBS), Bookish (PBS), reviewing Night Manager in prep for season 2 (Prime), Old Lynsey series – hate the new one, Shetland (Britbox) and St Pierre (CBC). Currently in the middle of The Art of Russia (BBC Select) which has been surprisingly good, interesting and beautiful. Neither of us are really art lovers, but enjoy looking at architecture (lots of it here) art in any format not necessarily paintings and views of the countries. It made me want to go and look for a book with lots of pictures on Faberge art, and did you know there was a Queen Elizabeth in Russia who is the creator of all the gold and bling in decorating the winter palace – now in part the Hermitage – built by Peter but decorated by her.
ReplyDeleteWe have run out of nature programmes, cooking programmes, and 30-minute funny programmes. May have to break down and get Netflix.
The NIght Manager--I forgot about that!
DeleteAll Creatures Great and Small on PBS.
ReplyDeletePeople We Meet On Vacation based on the book by Emily Henry on Netflix.
Also looking forward to Marble Hall Murders and The Lincoln Lawyer.
The people around me are buzzing about 11.22.63 on Netflix which is a time travel story about preventing the JFK assassination, starring James Franco. I haven’t watched it myself.
11-22-63 is based on a Stephen King novel! I had no idea they'd made a movie of it. Thanks, Brenda.
DeleteSUCH a terrific book..and yes, they've started really promoting that movie a lot. But isn't it a few years old?
DeleteYes, Hank, it came out in 2016. I haven’t seen it, but consider 11-22-63 one of my all-time favorite books. I don’t like horror so had never read anything by Stephen King before, but now know why so many people love his writing. — Pat S
DeleteA couple people mentioned Bookish, which I have been watching via PBS Passport. Smart and funny, with an original set of characters and actors.
ReplyDeleteWe have also been watching New Tricks on Britbox, an older series from the early 2000s. A disgraced female DI is given a group of retired police officers to help her solve older open crimes. It is great fun, because the "old guys" are not only all old pals, but each one is quirkier than the next. Amanda Pullman plays the "guv", who you might recognize from Good Karma Hospital, and the mother of the canon on Acorn's Murder Before Evensong. I don't know if I can stick to it for 12 seasons, though.
And the new season of Shetland is underway, with a terrific storyline. The combination of Ruth and Tosh is golden.
Oh, New Tricks sounds great. ANd what a perfect title.
DeleteHank, the theme song is sung by one of the actors on the show, the guy who plays Gerry.
DeleteWe've largely been in re-watch mode lately. We have gone back through all of The Chelsea Detective and cherry-picked episodes of Brokenwood. And we've started re-watching the most recent season of Professor T. Midsomer Murders recently released four new episodes which we ran through in no time, and we've been waiting for more new episodes of Shetland to land before we start on it. (We're not usually binge watchers, but it is nice to have the option of adding an episode right away if one leaves us particularly curious for what happens next.) We just started watching Bookish, too, and enjoyed what we've seen so far. If anyone hasn't yet watched the new season of Karen Pirie (released last fall) I definitely recommend it!
ReplyDeleteOn our less cultured front, we still watch NCIS and its two spinoffs, NCIS Sidney and NCIS Origins. The original is a mere shadow of its former self but we can't quite bring ourselves to drop it. Sidney is much more light, in an action adventure style. And Origins, once we finally got past the fact that the actor playing the young Gibbs looks physically NOTHING like the actor who played Gibbs for 20+ years, is surprisingly good. The writers do an artful job of expanding on the canon of the original series. But I doubt any of them would appeal to me withough the investment I made in NCIS over all those years.
*without the investment. Sigh.
DeleteYes to Karen Pirie! Loved the first season. Haven’t started the second one yet because I like to have a few to watch in one sitting.
DeleteSusan, we loved the CHELSEA DETECTIVE and have watched all episodes and waiting for the new season which is in production. PROFESSOR T is brilliant!
DeleteI;ve heard so much about Karen Pirie, but I have never seen it. Thank you!
DeleteKaren Pirie was so much better than I expected! I have seen both seasons now, and can't wait for the next one.
DeleteThe third season of BLUE LIGHTS and the tenth season of SHETLAND, both on Britbox. BLUE LIGHTS gets better and better, set in Belfast, outstanding acting and screen plays.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Blue LIghts?
DeleteA Northern Ireland police procedural. Excellent.
DeleteWhile I did enjoy DOWN CEMETERY ROAD, I kept getting two characters mixed up, which I later realized was probably deliberate. Loved seeing Emma Thompson even though I never much cared for her before. Based so many recommendations for SLOW HORSES I have been watching but never really got into it. Until the latest season, that is, which finally made sense to me and I understood almost everything.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure whether or not I'll continue with MISS SCARLETT; I just don't seem to care. But I did enjoy the episode with Moses.
Loving SHETLAND but it is so hard to wait from one week to the next. When all of the episodes are finally all available I'll watch them again all at once.
Looking forward to BOOKISH and a couple others mentioned above. I better write them down or they'll be gone from my head.
Ohhh, you think it was deliberate? Oh, that's interesting. (yes, writing them down is a good idea...sadly....:-) )
DeleteLoved WAKE UP DEAD MAN. Watched "Chad Powers" on Hulu and enjoyed it - but it ends in a really weird place. I wonder if six episodes were all Glen Powell had time for. Watched a movie "People You Meet on Vacation" the other night and it was charming. I kept thinking I should know Tom Blyth, but no. Never seen anything else he's been in.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have Apple+
Watched the first episode of "Seven Dials" last night and we'll binge the other two tonight, I'm sure. Very well done. Hank, not campy at all. Helena Bonham Carter is a hoot!
Oh, looking forward to "The Lincoln Lawyer," although we're nervous. We generally don't like it when the protagonist becomes the suspect in a criminal investigation. But...Mickey Haller.
DeleteOkay, great, cannot wait! Seven Dials, it is this weekend!
DeleteI watched the first two episodes of "Best Medicine" on Fox and liked them, and somehow DH sucked me into "The Traitors" on Peacock.
ReplyDeleteTraitors. Jonathan will NOT watch it. :-)
DeleteI am not into dark mysteries. Recently we've enjoyed watching the detective show SHAKESPEARE AND HATHAWAY (BritBox) again. I say again because initially we started watching it but didn't like it. This season must have different writers and directors because it is charming and sweet. It is a contemporary show with two private detectives with famous names.
ReplyDeleteWe've also been enjoying BEYOND PARADISE (Acorn) a spinoff of Death in Paradise because even though it is a mystery/murder show, lately no one is killed but a crime gets committed. So for those who want mystery-light shows these two are great choices.
Oh, thank you! xx Good choices!
DeleteI show add to my recommendations above ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL (PBS) and MADAME BLANC (Acorn or BritBox?)- a contemporary mystery set in a small community in France.
ReplyDeleteOh, I do not know of Madame Blanc! writing it down....
DeleteThe other day I wrote down all the shows I could find that we want to watch. It took up a whole page on a pad! Because we’ve gotten so into the shows on streaming platforms, I had to make a note of the network shows we like (sadly, not many) so we don’t forget them.
ReplyDeleteWe just finished Down Cemetery Road. We both love Emma Thompson, though I think I prefer her a little nicer than this character. Tonight we’ll finish The Beast in Me (Netflix). We’ve been watching Astrid on PBS which is the French (with subtitles) original version of Patience, also on PBS. Both are about a neurodivergent woman who helps the police solve crimes. Looking forward to watching The Lincoln Lawyer, Will Trent, Guilt (we missed the most recent season), The Game (BritBox), and continuing to watch Van der Valk, All Creatures and the new-ish version of Grantchester, all on PBS, I think. — Pat S
Movie-wise, we watched Hamnet and LOVED it. Sad in parts, but so well done. I missed the John Prine documentary, which bummed me out, and I hope I can find it elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteOn TV we watched all of Ballard and realized we'd never watched Bosch. I got a free one-month Prime subscription so we have to finish at least season two before it's time to cancel (neither of us wants to give Bezos a dime...).
I am not a big tv viewer, but I did watch the first episode of the new season of All Creatures… It is worth watching for the scenery alone. Years ago I took a one day tour called James Herriot’s Yorkshire in which we visited the locations which appeared in the original series. It was interesting to see how the house that represented the vet practice was part of a bustling town on tv was, in reality, just a block long.
ReplyDeleteI watched Bookish. the jury is still out on that since I didn’t really understand some of it but because it immediately follows All Creatures I will watch it again this Sunday and see what I think about it.