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Andor - Watched the last 3 episodes this evening (so much for 1 a night!) - I often wait these days for whole series to be there before watching. But this one is as good as Star Wars gets.... stellar acting, fantastic sets, complex script.... and I bloody love K2-SO!


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Having read the book, I thought it was time to watch the video series. I began the seven part BBC mini-series, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I found it on Prime Video, and have so far watched the first episode. I think this adaptation of Susanna Clarke's novel ofthe same name is pretty true to the source material. So much so that I could identify some characters as soon as they appeared on screen. Of course one can count on the BBC to do an excellent job with a historical costume drama. This one has fantasy aspects that so far appear to be well done as well. It will be interesting to see if I enjoy this more than the book, which I had mixed feelings about.
 
Been watching Sherlock & Daughter ( weekly show on the CW network in U.S.), which I thought a few people here might find of interest, depending on how you feel about riffs on Sherlock Holmes; I've found it good fun. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show traveled through England, Holmes made the acquaintance of a Lakota woman in the show, and now her daughter finds him and asks him to help her find her mother's murderer. Holmes has some troubles of his own, and naturally, all threads intertwine. Again, this is good fun, with David Thewlis as Holmes and Dougray Scott as Moriarty, and Blu Hunt as Amelia, the American girl looking for his help. Thewlis is, as expected, excellent; Scott makes a good Moriarty; and Hunt is appealing as Amelia with a combination of pluck and grit. I hope this isn't the last we see of Thewlis as Holmes.
 
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Based on the good things I’ve heard, I just began watching Andor Season 1 on Disney+. Hopefully the journey won’t be too depressing as we know where the story ends in Rouge One.
 
Watched Mobland, the gang/crime TV series by Guy Ritchie - pretty good overall (and brutal at time). Tom Hardy is great.
 
I've been watching Channel Zero, a horror anthology which originated on Syfy channel, starting with Candle Cove. It's about a long forgotten children's TV program which influences children to commit crimes. It was an interesting idea but poorly executed I thought.

The second series is entitled No-End House, and despite the awkward-sounding title, is a much better story - very strange, very well made and quite powerful at times. It's about a mysterious house that appears overnight in towns around the world (a bit like the evil fairground in Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes) and contains an art exhibit. It lures young people in via social-media and re-creates people from the visitors' memories. Highly recommended, I really enjoyed this one.

I'll probably watch the third part of this collection at some point in the coming weeks if I get time. It's available on Amazon atm.
 
Started watching "Countdown" (on Prime) with a nearly unrecognizable Jensen Ackles. (Of Supernatural fame). Crime thriller with a Federal Task Force trying to find Russian fissile material being smuggled into Los Angeles. Only 3 episodes in, but a good show so far.
 
The Residence (Netflix)

A murder mystery at the White House in eight episodes:
1) The Fall of the House of Usher
2) Dial M for Murder
3) Knives Out
4) The Last of Sheila
5) The Trouble with Harry
6) The Third Man
7) The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb
8) The Mystery of the Yellow Room (note the brief use of the theme from Charade; and I bet there were other Easter eggs I missed)

The episodes play off the meanings of the titles, making the whole a love letter to mysteries, filmed and written. For instance, the first episode focuses on the head of the White House staff (Giancarlo Esposito, excellent as always).

With roughly 18 central characters and several more peripheral characters, most of whom have a scene or two to themselves, there are moments when the series feels a bit padded, a little awkwardly extended; but those moments are rare because the dialog is usually funny, the characters with their secrets and interactions and quirks are engaging and the mystery is complex enough from all those secrets and relationships that the solution is satisfying. What ties it all together is Uzo Aduba as Detective Cordelia Cupp, who embodies the character's intelligence and brings great comic energy to the series, either as setup for the other characters' comic moments, or as the one delivering the joke.
 
Like many here, I have been watching oldies. Watched the first two seasons of the (2005) Who reboot and intend to pick up more. Watched the first season of Torchwood. But both the main characters and the situations are nasty (beyond what I remembered). I will probably only continue with that one selectively.
Also watched several non-genre series that were diverting. Matlock and Equalizer for two.

But my particularly enjoyable experience was MURDERBOT. I admit to a snobby reaction to televised versions of books that I have enjoyed. At best I hope that they use elements of the original(s) but do not attempt to simply film the book. I ignored this one until I got some strong advocacy from a friend who had also read the books.
Well, the Weitz brothers did not attempt to simply film the first book. They follow the plot but give the characters depth and individuality difficult to achieve on the written page. They deal with the interior cynical, sarcastic monologue by Murderbot, an important aspect of the novels, deftly. It isn't the original but retains that basic aspect of the book(s). They have Skarsgard unmask frequently, a departure from the book, but probably a necessary one for a visual audience. Wells, the author, is the producer. I give her full credit.
As mentioned by ArtNJ above the short 22 min episodes do seem truncated. But it does make a quick dip into the series possible. Highly recommended.
 
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Dept. Q (2025) starring Matthew Goode, Chloe Pirie, Alexej Manvelov (Netflix)

I'm 5 episodes deep in this. The first two were interesting enough, but as it progresses it becomes addictive. DCI Carl Morck (Goode) is both arrogant and troubled: He survived being shot, during which his partner and best friend, James Hardy (Jamie Sives) was shot and paralyzed and a young constable was killed. Physically healed, he is ordered into therapy with Dr. Irving (Kelley Macdonald, showing once again she can go toe-to-toe with powerful co-stars) but avoids it, taking out his anger on his roommate, the stepson his divorced wife felt would be best left with him (it's fair game to wonder what the hell she was thinking and the show addresses that), and suspects in his latest case. His boss (Kate Dickie -- excellent) is given the option of starting a cold case sub-department which would bring a lot of money into her department as well as notoriety, politicos thinking this will distract from other problems, and assigns him as lead hoping to keep him out of trouble without firing him. The first case he chooses -- well, chosen for him by an associate -- is the disappearance four years earlier of prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Pirie). Viewers know more about this than the detectives; but even so there is still a mystery to be solved.

Excellent performances all around, and especially from Manvelov as Akram, a former Serbian policeman currently an IT guy, trying to get back into police work, and Leah Byrne as DCI Rose Dickson whose own issues have kept her doing paperwork for a few years.

I've seen Goode before, but except for Stoker he hasn't made much of an impression. He is very good (no pun intended) here, displaying intelligence mixed with rage and guilt; his therapy sessions with Macdonald are a highlight. The revelation for me is Manvelov as a man who's seen and done more than he wanted to but continues on; I suspect Akram is carrying a secret and I wonder if it will come out in the remaining episodes or in a later season.
 
Randy M. said:
Dept. Q (2025) starring Matthew Goode, Chloe Pirie, Alexej Manvelov (Netflix)

I'm 5 episodes deep in this. The first two were interesting enough, but as it progresses it becomes addictive. DCI Carl Morck (Goode) is both arrogant and troubled: He survived being shot, during which his partner and best friend, James Hardy (Jamie Sives) was shot and paralyzed and a young constable was killed. Physically healed, he is ordered into therapy with Dr. Irving (Kelley Macdonald, showing once again she can go toe-to-toe with powerful co-stars) but avoids it, taking out his anger on his roommate, the stepson his divorced wife felt would be best left with him (it's fair game to wonder what the hell she was thinking and the show addresses that), and suspects in his latest case. His boss (Kate Dickie -- excellent) is given the option of starting a cold case sub-department which would bring a lot of money into her department as well as notoriety, politicos thinking this will distract from other problems, and assigns him as lead hoping to keep him out of trouble without firing him. The first case he chooses -- well, chosen for him by an associate -- is the disappearance four years earlier of prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Pirie). Viewers know more about this than the detectives; but even so there is still a mystery to be solved.

Excellent performances all around, and especially from Manvelov as Akram, a former Serbian policeman currently an IT guy, trying to get back into police work, and Leah Byrne as DCI Rose Dickson whose own issues have kept her doing paperwork for a few years.

I've seen Goode before, but except for Stoker he hasn't made much of an impression. He is very good (no pun intended) here, displaying intelligence mixed with rage and guilt; his therapy sessions with Macdonald are a highlight. The revelation for me is Manvelov as a man who's seen and done more than he wanted to but continues on; I suspect Akram is carrying a secret and I wonder if it will come out in the remaining episodes or in a later season.
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My wife watched this and recommended it to me. Thanks for the review, I really need to get to this one.
 
Randy M. said:
Dept. Q (2025) starring Matthew Goode, Chloe Pirie, Alexej Manvelov (Netflix)

I'm 5 episodes deep in this. The first two were interesting enough, but as it progresses it becomes addictive. DCI Carl Morck (Goode) is both arrogant and troubled: He survived being shot, during which his partner and best friend, James Hardy (Jamie Sives) was shot and paralyzed and a young constable was killed. Physically healed, he is ordered into therapy with Dr. Irving (Kelley Macdonald, showing once again she can go toe-to-toe with powerful co-stars) but avoids it, taking out his anger on his roommate, the stepson his divorced wife felt would be best left with him (it's fair game to wonder what the hell she was thinking and the show addresses that), and suspects in his latest case. His boss (Kate Dickie -- excellent) is given the option of starting a cold case sub-department which would bring a lot of money into her department as well as notoriety, politicos thinking this will distract from other problems, and assigns him as lead hoping to keep him out of trouble without firing him. The first case he chooses -- well, chosen for him by an associate -- is the disappearance four years earlier of prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Pirie). Viewers know more about this than the detectives; but even so there is still a mystery to be solved.

Excellent performances all around, and especially from Manvelov as Akram, a former Serbian policeman currently an IT guy, trying to get back into police work, and Leah Byrne as DCI Rose Dickson whose own issues have kept her doing paperwork for a few years.

I've seen Goode before, but except for Stoker he hasn't made much of an impression. He is very good (no pun intended) here, displaying intelligence mixed with rage and guilt; his therapy sessions with Macdonald are a highlight. The revelation for me is Manvelov as a man who's seen and done more than he wanted to but continues on; I suspect Akram is carrying a secret and I wonder if it will come out in the remaining episodes or in a later season.
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Matthew Goode was excellent as the lead in "Discovery of Witches"
 
Randy M. said:
Dept. Q (2025) starring Matthew Goode, Chloe Pirie, Alexej Manvelov (Netflix)

I'm 5 episodes deep in this. The first two were interesting enough, but as it progresses it becomes addictive. DCI Carl Morck (Goode) is both arrogant and troubled: He survived being shot, during which his partner and best friend, James Hardy (Jamie Sives) was shot and paralyzed and a young constable was killed. Physically healed, he is ordered into therapy with Dr. Irving (Kelley Macdonald, showing once again she can go toe-to-toe with powerful co-stars) but avoids it, taking out his anger on his roommate, the stepson his divorced wife felt would be best left with him (it's fair game to wonder what the hell she was thinking and the show addresses that), and suspects in his latest case. His boss (Kate Dickie -- excellent) is given the option of starting a cold case sub-department which would bring a lot of money into her department as well as notoriety, politicos thinking this will distract from other problems, and assigns him as lead hoping to keep him out of trouble without firing him. The first case he chooses -- well, chosen for him by an associate -- is the disappearance four years earlier of prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Pirie). Viewers know more about this than the detectives; but even so there is still a mystery to be solved.

Excellent performances all around, and especially from Manvelov as Akram, a former Serbian policeman currently an IT guy, trying to get back into police work, and Leah Byrne as DCI Rose Dickson whose own issues have kept her doing paperwork for a few years.

I've seen Goode before, but except for Stoker he hasn't made much of an impression. He is very good (no pun intended) here, displaying intelligence mixed with rage and guilt; his therapy sessions with Macdonald are a highlight. The revelation for me is Manvelov as a man who's seen and done more than he wanted to but continues on; I suspect Akram is carrying a secret and I wonder if it will come out in the remaining episodes or in a later season.
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I watched this too - was excellent, recommended.
 
I'm catching up with most of you as usual, having just found Severance. What an amazing show! I'm on episode 4 and it's so much fun. It reminds me a bit of Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer. There must be plenty of other similar titles too but I haven't read them.
 
Ropie said:
I'm catching up with most of you as usual, having just found Severance. What an amazing show! I'm on episode 4 and it's so much fun. It reminds me a bit of Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer. There must be plenty of other similar titles too but I haven't read them.
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Severance is an amazing show. Just when you think it has reached amazing levels of weirdness, it goes into new quantum states of strange! It also has interesting characters, that have depths to discover.
 
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