TV Shows What are you currently watching?

Currently going through Grimm again. Almost through season 2.

 

Ludvig (with the Mrs) - we really enjoyed season 1, just started season 2...

Ted Lasso, s4 - loved the original three seasons, and thoroughly enjoying the new one. Not all the new characters are great, and it might not be as good as the original arc, but it's still seriously good feel good TV!

For All Mankind, s5 - having binged through from s1, took a break for Ted Lasso s4, but its solid sci-fi; even if the latter seasons feel like they've developed technologically a bit too fast to allow the same characters to remain active...

 

On Amazon Prime: HIP (High Intellectual Potential): a French odd-couple police procedural in which an rather ADHD single mom who happens to have a genius level of IQ (but a real problem with authority) becomes a police consultant and is teamed up with an unwilling partner who works by the rules.

Because she has a problem with authority (never explained) and she comes from a working class background, her exceptional ability was never recognised, honed and disciplined and therefore never actualised. As such she makes a living as a night-time office cleaner at a.o. the police station, during which she spots a whiteboard with an unsolved murder, on which she then casually annotates the solution to the crime. This, of course, draws the attention of the police and she eventually is hired as a consultant. Her antipathy towards authority notwithstanding (fuelled by people's prejudice towards her appearance and thus totally underestimating her intelligence) it pays better than being a cleaner and is less boring besides, and she needs their help finding her fiancé who mysteriously disappeared 15 years ago, so she accepts.

It's fun; a bit like 'Panda' (Walter Presents; Channel 4), another French odd-couple police procedural in which a hippy zen master former cop ends up returning to the force to work with a colleague who doesn't buy into any of that New Age crap, or 'Astrid' (Walter Presents; Channel 4), another French odd-couple police procedural in which an Autistic savant who works in the police archives ends up working with a somewhat disorganised but warm-hearted colleague. But unlike those other shows, the main character seems a bit poorly drawn. Sure, she spots the relevance of apparently trivial details fast (although sometimes such obvious ones that it makes you wonder if she is not super-smart, but the rest of the force just a bit subnormal), has a lot of random knowledge and has flashes of making tangential connections, and when she explains things you see flashes of documentary footage which is entertaining and informative and I wish they'd lean a bit more into that, but she doesn't seem obsessively curious and bored enough. She is portrayed realistically enough as a smart person who doesn't realise how smart she is but wonders why other people are so slow to grasp what is so obvious to her, but HIP people are above all very easily bored. They are a fountain of trivial information because they're always curious and hungry to know more.

Of course her loud, casual demeanour and neon-pink platform heels may be the result of her trying to blend into the working class environment she grew up in, where geeks are generally not well accepted, and when you grow up amongst adults who appeal to their authority as adults while significantly dumber than you, you may well develop a problem with authority (I'm not projecting here, honest), but all in all you just don't nearly see enough of the high-IQ genius underneath the façade (I've met a few IRL).

I hope that they work a bit more on that.

 

Also on Amazon Prime: Neagley. A spin-off from 'Reacher' based on one of the recurring characters (in the novels and the series), Neagley is the former colleague, protégé and best friend of Reacher when they still worked in the Military Police 110th Special Investigations Unit, and now a private investigator. In many ways portraying a female version of Reacher --a punch-first-ask-questions-later kind of crusader for justice and a loner-- the Danish(!) actress Maria Sten does a decent job of nailing the character but unfortunately the character suffers from Hollywood's insufferable girlification of strong female protagonists. In her own series she has feels now, worries about her dying father, wears her upset on her sleeve, takes things personally and also does some spectacularly stupid things (for instance she discovers her flat has been broken into and there are most definite forensic traces of her boss having been killed in it while his murderers were waiting to ambush her, but on her way out she still grabs some cereal and milk to go for lunch. Bitch, you still trust that food?!?). The Neagley we know from the novels and her occasional appearances in 'Reacher' doesn't do any of these things. That Neagley is contained, maintains professional and personal distance and is always switched on.

On the upside, the whole murder conspiracy mystery is done well, the characters are largely sympathetic, and the cardboard cut-out baddies (standard David Koresh model cult leader, standard Patrick Bateman model corporate sharks, standard Scandinavian model professional assassins and standard model dumb thugs) get the sticky ends they deserve. So if you liked 'Reacher', you will probably like 'Neagley'.

 

Just finished the new season of the gentleman, enjoyed it very much.

 

Lioness, series 3, very back and forth story telling with jumps back in time before the main event of the series, but still solid and worth watching.

Vigil, Series 2, better than 1 for still pretty much showing UK TV up as a very bargain basement budget knock off Hollywood that it is.

Vigil, Series 3, again low rent, and cheap feel, but not too bad, right up until the last episode where everything needed wrapping up in the last 15 minutes

The Gentlemen https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13210838/ the series not the film.

By jiminy , it's slow, ponderous and overly contrived, understandably so I suppose, trying to go to a series format from a 2 hour film, but its more Last of the Summer Wine with shotguns and drugs than a proper gangster bit of telly

 

PSA - Horses are now Slow once more.

 

Oh yeah, enjoyed the first one of these. And Mobland (Paramount+) was okay as a kick-off for the new season, but Mirren and Brosnan reaaallly grate.

 

Oh, I didn't know the US version (High Potential) was a remake. Not that it should surprise me.

 

There are a lot of remakes, apparently: also a Greek one (IQ 160), a Slovak one ( Výnimočná Nikol), a Czech one (Případy mimořádné Marty), a Hungarian one (A renitens) and a Croatian one (IQ 160).

 

Ah yes, The Gentlemen. Descriptions of Guy Ritchie as a British Quentin Tarrantino would be unfair only in that Ritchie is, frankly, much better. Not to be confused with his 2019 film of the same name which is set in the same universe and has similar themes but a different cast and characters altogether.

The whole conceit is only too credible, the characters well drawn, and the storyline of the inevitable descent (return?) of a noble family into a dark and monstrous world of organised crime and deep personal moral corruption compelling.

The main character is Lord Edward Horniman (wink wink), the 13th Duke of Halstead and a former British Army captain who saw actual military conflict, heir to a proper old upper class noble family with a lineage going back to the Domesday Book. With his title as lord of the manor, inherited from his recently deceased father, he is unpleasantly surprised to find out that he also inherited the mantle of crime lord of a drugs empire (only to supplement his noble family's financial struggles, you understand, those big estates demand a big upkeep). And although initially reluctant, as the seasons progress he starts taking to this new career all too well. Because the venerable ancestors of today's upper classes were all robber barons, feudal warlords and slave owners, make no mistake.

His partner in crime is Bobby Glass (deliciously hammed up by Ray Winstone) the head of a large criminal drug enterprise, who is currently nominally doing time in prison (with his own personal quarters, servants, chef, sauna and other luxuries that a few brown envelopes per month to the chief warden can procure) for tax evasion, and whose daughter, Susie Glass (a deadpan performance by Kaya Scodelario), acts as the main liaison and executive officer.

What elevates this whole series from an ordinary crime family drama to a masterful and compelling piece of TV storytelling is that it makes for a sharp and unflinching social class commentary. Susie and Bobbie Glass are clearly working class, and clearly very intelligent (in fact Bobby Glass, for appearing rather eccentric and speaking with a broad working class drawl, frequently turns out to be the smartest criminal mastermind in the sauna) but also clearly were only able to achieve their current wealthy and influential standing in life through embracing a career in crime. In contrast to her dad, Susie's rather elaborate (and subtly sarcastic) turn of speech betrays an underlying anxiety not to be seen as just some dumb lass from the sink estates, and underneath her contained exterior simmers a constant frustration in having to deal with criminal associates --usually men-- who are dumber than **** but think themselves so much smarter than her because, well, they're men. (In that respect it is interesting to note that her father treats her as no less capable for being a woman and in fact entrusts the daily running of the enterprise to her rather than her younger brother (who, though a bit of a lad, appears generally quite sensible and also respectful of women. Bobby Glass may be a working class criminal, but he is an enlightened one). It is clear that Susie's attraction to Eddie is based in that he treats her as an equal in both intellect and status.



I mean, they even dress the same...

Because Eddie, for all his flaws, is not an idiot, unlike his unreliable, coke-addicted screw-up older brother Freddie, who for those reasons was passed over in old dad's will for inheritance of the title and the estate, and who harbours a grudge towards Eddie for that ever since (underpinned by an older grudge that Eddie is everything their father wanted in a future heir while Freddie, well, is not). Freddie is very much the stereotype of many upper classes: narcissistically self-absorbed, over-entitled and fundamentally incompetent at anything he does.

Not that Eddie is not over-entitled. Eddie Horniman's refined gentlemanly manner hides a brutish capacity for callous violence which he finds all too easy to rationalise and shrug off (he was a soldier, after all), and an increasingly burning hard-on for reclaiming everything that his family once conquered and stole owned but lost through bad investments and gambling. Of course he never reflects on the fact that his ancestors fundamentally acquired all those riches by much the same corrupt and immoral enterprises by which he now plans to re-acquire it, therefore how entitled were they to it in the first place? But no: his birth right is being denied! In that respect he is much like his older brother, and interestingly it is this quest that starts to drive a wedge between him and Susie. "You're turning into a monster, Eddie" she warns, this coming from a woman who has calmly had people killed herself. Her father sees it more philosophically: Eddie is growing, evolving, becoming who he is destined to be. He may become a monster or a man, how much difference is there between the two anyway?

His groundskeeper (played by Vinny Jones) is a loyal thug, kind-hearted but certainly capable of unquestioned ruthless violence, and the family, comprising of his mother who has a Lady Chatterley's kind of understanding with the groundskeeper, and his sister who just married his best army mate and equerry to the King of England (welcome to the family, and BTW please pay no attention to the subterranean giant greenhouses of cannabis) all turn a blind eye to his criminal enterprise out of expedience. They need the money, after all.

So the distinction between upper class and working class criminals becomes very thin indeed. There are people who achieved power and status by being prepared to do what others won't, and there are layers of opportunist accomplices, loyal servants and mercenary thugs below them maintaining and facilitating this hierarchy. The truth is: you become a lord by being the bigger monster. Whereas the likes of Bobby Glass make no pretentions about that, the upper classes turn the blind eye of denial and calls it social class, heritage and tradition. It's all Country Living magazine. This becomes even more obvious in season 2 when the Italian family gets involved; all old money, venerable titles and honourable tradition lounging in beautiful ancient palazzi, full of beautiful masterful artworks. Elegantly gliding through beautiful estates, in beautiful shiny sports cars red as freshly shed blood. And you may ask yourself: where did it all come from? It was sustained by large-scale criminal enterprise, come sempre, come sempre. Whereas Lord Eddie takes to it as a duck to water, comfortable in his natural habitat, Susie Glass moves amongst them confidently but never comfortably, knowing she will never be accepted as one of them although they are no better than her, her presence reminding them of that very fact.

This may be Guy Ritchie's best work to date. A must see. 10/10.

 

On that note: Holland's Hope. A Dutch TV series, on Amazon Prime; in Dutch, but don't worry, there's English subtitles (which I, as a native Dutch speaker, can testify to provide a good translation). Created a decade before The Gentlemen it is clearly where Guy Ritchie got his inspiration.

However Holland's Hope is very much its own story. Around the time his estranged father dies, Forensic Psychiatrist Fokke Augustinus, father of three and in a struggling marriage, is sent on leave with burn-out (realistic portrayal of mental health services here). He learns that his father has left him a farmstead named 'Holland's Hoop', in Groningen, a very northern, very agricultural part of the Netherlands (then again, most parts of the Netherlands are). He is reluctant to travel up to deal with the funeral and the estate, but his wife sees it as an opportunity for a family holiday to restore his mental health and the strained marriage relationship, so off they go in their Volvo Estate.

On arrival, the family is delighted by the picturesque if somewhat dilapidated 19th century red-brick farmhouse set in an idyllic landscape. Fokke is surprised and dismayed to discover that the picturesque if somewhat dilapidated 19th century farm turns out to hide a --you guessed it-- booming illegal cannabis growing enterprise, one small part of a much larger drugs empire run by an Eastern European criminal organisation, with the knowledge and involvement of several influential Dutch people in the village, who are all keen to continue with Fokke the business relationship they all had with his father. TIRED: fields of wheat; WIRED: fields of wiet (which is incidentally sold on the streets and in coffee shops under the name 'Holland's Hope', real subtle like).

Fokke of course wants nothing to do with this. He doesn't like farming, he certainly didn't like his dad, likes him even less now he knows his God-fearing puritan hypocritical ass was involved in an illegal drugs business, and he wants to just sell up the whole farm and move back to the big city to resume the slow falling apart of his life in peace. However at the sharp end of the kind of motivational techniques that Eastern European career criminals are known for, he agrees with them to continue the business for one more year's harvest to give them time to seek greener fields elsewhere (so to speak), while trying to keep things hidden from the authorities and his own family, in a misguided attempt to protect them. Of course things turn out way more complicated than that and Fokke is, well, royally fokked...

There's the question what happened to all the money his father ostensibly made as part of this deal; how come the farm is struggling when it's running a profitable weed enterprise? Did he hide the money, and if so where? Both Fokke and his dad's criminal associates are keen to know. And did his father really die of natural causes?

He also finds himself at loggerheads with local farmers who are resisting an attempt by local government to permit redesignation of the area from agricultural to industrial use, thus making the land much more profitable to sell but also sounding the death knell for many (also struggling) farms in the area; and working with a bunch of Eastern European sociopathic/drunk/prone to violence criminals is an exercise in frustration and patience that requires all the forensic psychiatric skills he has. His oldest teenage son, not inexperienced in the ways of (and dealing) weed himself but dumb, naive and impulsive as only teenagers can be, gets wind of the enterprise early on and wants to be involved --Fokke, not inexperienced in the ways of (and dealing with) criminals, very much wants him NOT to be involved.

And then there is one of his patients, a man who killed his own father and cut off his head, who has developed a strong attachment to him (to be fair, as a professional in the field I must say that Fokke managed that dynamic badly), has broken out of the secure unit and followed him to the farm, only to get caught up in the various events happening there...

The characters are well done. Fokke garners sympathy as a flawed man trying hard to do the best by his family in a difficult situation; his oldest son annoys by being such a monumental ****-up, causing at least 50% of the problems they have to deal with, made worse by his total lack of self-reflection on the consequences of his recent life choices. In that respect it is remarkable that his father the psychiatrist never sits him down and has a good conversation with him about that. But as skilled in communication he is as a professional (and in wrangling his criminal associates), as inept he is in communicating with his family, and this is a thread through the whole series. The family does not communicate. His teenage daughter is happy to just ride the horse she has finally got, and unaware of the unwelcome attention she attracts from several unreconstructed male criminals and her father has to bat off. His wife is mostly oblivious, a bit self-involved and keeps drawing the wrong conclusions (thinks he is unfaithful because she was unfaithful herself) and Fokke keeps sinking deeper into ludicrous lies to keep her unaware of what is really going on. Their little daughter remains admirably calm and composed in all the chaos.

There is a good mystery around who exactly is involved and how and how his father died, and the pace of the story is good --never too slow or too fast, it plot twists and reveals at just the right times. A nice conceit is that each episode starts with a brief flash-forward to the latest WTF sticky situation, to then go back to the beginning and slowly reveal how it came to be.

If you liked The Gentlemen, you will DEFINITELY like this.

 

Two lengthy and welcome treatises, thanks @Nexxo

We're part way through The Gentlemen S2 and have enjoyed the whole thing, served with a great dose of dark humour.

I'll mention HH to my wife, it could be a nice follow on after something else in between.
Back from holiday, so time to finish S2.

I have S2 of Vigil to finish having watched S3 at home before the holiday. With an episode and a half to go, it's not wrapping up as straightforwardly as initially thought.

I'm really looking forward to starting the new Slow Horses series, I think it's some of the best TV in years.
It's beautifully filmed and put together, a visual treat on top of the stories and characters.

We started S3 of Silo and it's not grabbed us, some series need to be closed and not dragged on milking it endlessly.

Lost did that and really should have finished after S2

 

But disappointing finale, good episode but totally missed it was supposed to be the finale, came away feeling incomplete, it had neither closure or cliff hanger.

 

Good lord, are you after @boiled_elephant‘s crown or something?

You two should start a newsletter/blog instead of fighting it out like this

 

What can I say? I like to pontificate.

I was also going to write a review of Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway and its sequel Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe but the Gundam mecha franchise is probably a bit niche for a general audience. They are weird animes. Beautifully drawn, with some interesting takes on the genre, but unsure about where the narrative is going. The main protagonist seems a bit whiny (get over yourself already, dude!). The femme fatale actually seems the most heartbreakingly tragic figure of all the characters involved. But with the Japanese you never know whether that was intentional or not.

 

Just finished series one of Mobland, it has its problems, predominantly the main mob boss and how Brosnan plays him, however in my opinion it makes for a more believable rouge gangster program than The Gentleman, which I will dip back into later down the road once Mobland S2 has fully been released and watched.

In the mean time I'll get Falling Skies rewatched as it's been a while and I need something to watch on my lunches whilst waiting for Tulsa King & Landman to come back

 

Currently watching Star Trek Voyager for the first time.

 

Very much an unfairly maligned series, IMO. Like all Star Trek series(es?) it takes a bit of time to find its feet, but it’s got a lot going for it and it’s quite a strong cast. Kate Mulgrew in particular came in for a lot of stick at the time, and she certainly didn’t do herself any favours when Jeri Ryan came on board. But IMO she’s fantastic in the role and makes a great Star Trek captain.

 

Wow, enjoy! Agree with Byron.
The show has some amazing single episodes and story arches and some terrible ones like all Star Trek shows.
If you enjoy VOY and enjoy Jeri Ryan's character and haven't already, watch Star Trek Picard, a great development for her character