@lookingforward,I think we have similar tastes and you’ve passed on plenty, too.
I’m intrigued by Kari in Bordertown. I find myself watcing him closely as he thinks/processes. 
It’s really a lush script, many characters to watch/try to figure out. There are some shows where it takes a while to commit to watching, you don’t get an early sense of what you’re dealing with. This one, like other favs, had me from the start. So far, satisfying. Again, thanks.
Adding: right now, the plan is to go to Borderlines next. But I’m hoping to find a German language noir, if anyone has sugestions. (Besides Babylon Berlin.)
@JHS. Thank you for so well articulating the Bechdel test failure of Stranger Things. I do love the show and it’s maddening that in this day shows still utterly fail to manage to get two women/girls talking about something other than men/boys
I thought this was particularly insightful “
“The strong, central female characters are 100% boy-oriented. They only talk to, and hang out with, and care about, boys. (That goes double or triple for Joyce.) I attribute that to the show being the artistic creation of two barely-legal ex-boys. It’s not that they don’t pay attention to women and respect them. They clearly do. But they see women in relation to themselves, not to each other”
Thumbs up for “The Chalet” on Netflix, in French with subtitles. Creepy and some intriguing plot twists & characters. Only six episodes.
Claire Foy finally gets equal pay as the Queen!
All of season 7 of Homeland is out now and available for binge watching. Reportedly there is only one season left. I would say that parts of season 7 seem to strain one’s credulity. But, then you look at reality…
I didn’t realize episode 12 was the season finale. Now we’re in for another of these long waits.
12 episodes is very generous for Homeland. Many shows only give you 8 or so.
The actor who plays Yevgeny was also in White Princess, wasn’t he? The rebel York guy?
I didn’t see White Princess, so I don’t know the answer. But he’s also a regular in The Americans.
I am trying to watch the Chalet. Confusing to me. Many characters appearing simultaneously. It also goes back in time adding more characters. I had to make a chart who’s who.
I’ve started it as well, @Iglooo, and have only watched the first episode. Interesting but yes confusing with the jumping back and forth in time. I’m going to stick with it, though. I think I need your chart!
Killing Eve knocks my socks off with each episode…each one better than the previous…BBC does such a great job…
Westworld is back on…the episodes are dense…
Was going to start Borderline, but it would not load last night so I started Chalet instead. Really hard to follow in episode 1, but it fell in to place as I continued to watch through episode 3 last night. I also read a few reviews (no spoiler;) and that helped to understand what was going on.
I also started Unforgotten, which is on Masterpiece/PBS. It is a British police procedural and each season is 3 episodes. Season 2 just started. Each season is based on a cold case. This and Killing Eve are very enjoyable.
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve watched two BBC conspiracy-laden crime dramas on Netflix: Collateral and London Spy. Neither is a 100% winner, but Collateral (at under 4 hours) at least is worth watching.
Collateral was a high-prestige project, written by A-list playwright David Hare, and starring Carey Mulligan. Ostensibly, it’s about a young, newly promoted Detective Inspector trying to solve what looks like a professional assassination of a random pizza delivery boy. But it quickly expands to take in a host of characters with a host of trendy issues. The acting and filming are superb. Mulligan is just great, and so are Jeany Spark as a troubled female military officer and combat vet and Nicola Walker as a priest facing a dilemma between her heart and her mission. Really everyone is great.
The script, though, is constantly becoming preachy, mainly about immigration, but also class, gay liberation, sexual harassment, intelligence-service ethics, child neglect, opioid addiction. And more. All the preaching leaves little room for crime-solving, so it’s great that the main character has infallible hunches and is skilled at manipulating people. Even then, it takes a lot of plot holes and coincidences to bring everything to a conclusion in four hours. I watched this in part because it was relatively short, but it needed to be longer to do justice to its characters and its story.
For all its preachiness, too, it was remarkably nuanced. You are never in doubt about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, and who, maybe, are innocents caught in the middle. But there were lots of cracks in the wall of certainty it presented. At the end, when some of the baddest of the bad guys refuse to disavow their role, you can’t help but think, "Wait a second, maybe that’s right . . . "
London Spy was very frustrating. It, too, has great actors doing what great actors do. Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, and someone I hadn’t noticed before named Edward Holcroft. It, too, involves vast conspiracies, conflict between the police and the intelligence services, gay rights, and tons of class issues, not to mention high-quality, arty cinematography. It’s about a young, attractive gay man – something of a whore-with-a-heart-of-gold character – who falls in love with a posh, Aspergersy investment banker, with terrible consequences for both of them. It should be great. But the first three hours proceed at a snail’s pace, each plot development pillowed in Art. At one point, just after a devastating twist, we’re treated to about five minutes of the main character swimming laps, then playing around near the bottom of the pool. So then it takes senseless, inconsistent plotting to resolve the central mystery and to let us know what really happened within the series’ 5-hour limit. This one could have been more effective in much less time, but it would have taken much tighter writing.
There are some great, great moments though. Here’s the best; I’ll do it in “spoiler” mode even though it isn’t much (or any) of a spoiler: [spoiler]The main character listens to a long explanation of how his lover was a trained, highly skilled sexual manipulator who played him. He is being patronized, and he looks crushed. Finally, he raises his head and says, “You know, I haven’t read many books, and I haven’t been many places. But I have f***ed a lot of people. And there’e one thing you can’t fake: inexperience. Your muscles don’t react right, things hurt that should be pleasurable. Alex was a virgin when I met him. I know that in my body like I know my fingers are holding this glass. What I don’t know is what is making you go to such lengths to lie to me?”[/spoiler]
Re: Chalet, Yes, it would have been much easier to watch if they used an ‘aged’ effect for the flashback scenes, as was done in the Masterpiece series Unforgotten.
Watching ‘Charite’ now, German production about the famous hospital. Too many graphic surgeries etc., bleh, but somewhat accurate historical representation of the key personalities.
Having finally finished Person of Interest (loved it) we are back to watching Bosch. I like the characters, don’t always follow the plot lines!
Yevgeny plays Oleg in “The Americans.” Costa Ronin. In one, he’s a good-guy nice guy spy. In the other, he’s a mean, bad guy spy. He’s good in both shows, but if I were his agent, would I get him in two big concurrent shows playing a Russian spy? It’s a little weird. I love both shows, but HL is running close to empty lately. Still…
Last Tango in Halifax; a great British drama! Once a year, I set aside an ENTIRE DAY to watch each new season of Grace & Frankie with Lily Tomlin and Jane FondaI I love it!
Just finished “The Crown” last night. Maybe I’ll try “Bosch” next.
We just finished season 2 of The Travelers, anyone watch that one? We’re going to watch the new season of Bosch next.