What Are We Watching?

There *are* other media besides books... So what's good?

I happily finished the 4th and final season of Jack Ryan last night. I thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Nice!

We’re gonna hit the second season of Reacher soon. The first was great!

I'm about to finish the last season of 'Endeavor'. And we watched the first episode of 'Anika' last night, but I'm not sure we like the direct address or the somewhat forced sarcasm. We'll see how it goes.

We are also continuing to watch the original 'Dr. T'. I would probably binge it but Jim likes to take it slow, and that makes it last, anyway.

We saw the film American Fiction, an excellent film about writing.

Started the second season of Reacher last night. We’re also watching the latest season of Virgin River.

>4 ffortsa: The direct address gets less grating as it goes on, imo

I just started the 4th and final season of Great Canal Journeys with Timothy West and Prunella Scales on Amazon Prime Video. I have really enjoyed this series so far. I've always been fascinated by canal boats, and these British actors are entertaining travelers!

Watched Black Adam tonight. I was not super impressed. Conceptually it was okay but I felt the execution was lacking.

We've watched a couple of episodes of The Sandman and enjoyed them, although the first episode felt very slow. But it's picking up. The visuals are gorgeous and it's a very rich viewing experience.

>3 drneutron: Now mid-way through the second season of Reacher (they're dropping once a week...) and loving it. So much better than those awful Tom Cruise movies...

I just started season 3 of Vera on BritBox and I'm halfway through season 2 of Candice Renoir on Acorn. I love Candice Renoir, but I can only watch it when I'm able to pay close attention to the subtitles. Knitting doesn't seem to interfere with it too much, so it's a go-to series to keep me company while I knit.

I've also watched a couple more episodes of Great Canal Journeys in the Netherlands and on the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

I rewatched the first episode of Darby and Joan last night with a friend. It's an Australian crime series/road trip with Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi available on Acorn. The scenery is something else!

I've also watched the first couple of episodes of Black Snow, another Australian series on Acorn. I don't know what I think of it yet. It's about a cold case from 1994. The lead detective seems creepy, and there are hints from very early in the first episode that he could have some connection to the crime.

I started watching Call the Midwife this year, and am now part way through season 2.

We’re on season 3 of a revisit to Cicily, Alaska, with Northern Exposure on Amazon Prime. I had forgotten just how funny the show was!

>14 drneutron: I love that show!

I’ve been warching the new season of True Detectives. So far really good.

We started watching Grimm from the very beginning and I am enjoying re-learning things I had forgotten.

>8 cbl_tn: I loved that series - it's all so interesting! And I remember Prunella Scales from Fawlty Towers.

We just finished both seasons of The Bear and loved it.

An FYI for those of you who stream films for free on Kanopy (or would like to through your local public library system) and would like to share that experience with others, let me direct you to @LolaWasser's thread here on LT.

For those of you who have never heard of Kanopy, check it out on kanopy.com ~

My partner and I are streaming a South Korean horror/historical fiction series called "Gyeongseong Creature", but if you're in the mood for a great mystery, I highly recommend "A Murder at the End of the World" on Hulu.

I ended up finishing Black Snow. I warmed up to the detective after two or three episodes, but he will never be a favorite.

I've also been watching Vera and Shetland (both of these Britbox series are based on books by Ann Cleeves), Monsieur Spade (new series on Acorn), New Tricks (BritBox). When I'm not watching crime drama, I enjoyEscape to the Country on BritBox, which is like HGTV's House Hunters except the prospective buyers may not buy any of the three homes on offer.

I just watched the film Hunt for the Wilderpeople on Kanopy. This was the first film I've ever seen that was filmed in New Zealand and had New Zealand actors. The cinematography of the bush country was amazing. There was a dramatic car chase scene near the end of the movie that had me holding on to my desk for dear life! I guess this was supposed to be a comedy, but so many comedies are dramatic and emotional for me as was this movie. The then (2016) child actor Julian Dennison (playing Ricky Baker) was great as was Sam Neill (playing Uncle), as both tried to hide from authorities as long as they could in the New Zealand bush.

Anyone watching the new adaptation of Shogun? I think we might give the first episode a try tonight.

On Kanopy, I watched a Chilean movie called The Club (El Club) (2015). It was a very intense and disturbing movie about a seaside residence in which four ex-priests and an ex-nun were housed after they were banished from serving the Catholic church for various unpardonable sins, many of which are revealed to us during the movie. Skip this film if you cannot bear to see animal cruelty. I told myself that this was "just a movie". Parts of the plot eluded me so that did I look up a synopsis of it after seeing the film to clarify some details I earlier did not understand. It's a well done movie, but very troubling.

>24 SqueakyChu: I will definitely pass on that one.

>23 SuziQoregon: I am! I saw the first episode and part of the second!

I stopped watching True Detective because the racism toward the indigenous people really bothered me.

>26 torontoc: Well the fact that you went beyond the first episode gives me hope ;-)

On Kanopy, I watched Past Lives (2023), a bittersweet story about friendship and a very close relationship of two Korean youth who met again after 24 years apart. It was moving in a beautiful, quiet way and left me thinking about choices we make in our relationships over the many years of our lives. It's a story that was rooted in the writer-director Celine Song's personal experience and is her directorial debut film.

On Kanopy, I watched the film Ida (2013) which was set in post-WWII Poland and was the story of a young woman, raised as an orphan in a convent and about to take her vows as a nun. However, the mother superior found out that the novice had a living relative, an aunt, and told the young woman to spend some time with her relative before taking her vows. Immediately after the novice met her aunt, we learn their family was Jewish. Most of the story involved how the two women tried to discover how their family disappeared. The movie was worth watching, but I felt disappointed in the ending which seemed a bit quick for the depth of the story.

On Kanopy, I watched A Walk in the Woods (2015). I loved this book by Bill Bryson so much and thought I'd enjoy the movie. It's the story of Bill Bryson's experiences while hiking the Appalachian Trail with his friend Stephen Katz. The author was 44 years old when he actually did the hike. In the movie he was played by Robert Redford, and Katz was played by Nick Nolte-- both pretty much senior citizens at the time this film was made. The movie was wonderful. It was hilariously funny. I just loved it! The scene with the bears...it made me laugh uproariously! Be sure to both read Bryson's book AND see this movie. Both are terrific!

>30 SqueakyChu: I saw Ida at one of the film festivals. Yes , it was quite grim!

>32 torontoc: Yay! I finally saw a film you saw, Cyrel! I was hoping that would happen. :)

On Kanopy, I watched the movie The Whale (2022) starring Brendan Fraser. In it, he portrayed a man who left his wife and daughter for an affair with a young man who had been his student. After his lover died, Charlie over-ate to the extent of morbid obesity which confined him to his home. This film told the story of what happened to Charlie when, years later, his daughter re-emerged into his life. The story was very powerful, but deeply sad. For his moving performance as Charlie, Brendan Fraser won an Oscar.

I want to give a shout-out to a new program that showed up on Acorn in the last week. Britain by the Book is a travel show with actors Martin Clunes and Mel Giedroyc visiting places in Dorset with literary connections. Lots of Thomas Hardy. Also Enid Blyton, Raynor Winn, and a poet whose name I can't remember. I was so taken with Raynor Winn's story and her reading of an excerpt of The Salt Path that I've checked out the e-audiobook and started listening to it this afternoon.

On Kanopy I watched the movie The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002) about a young priest who fell in love with a teenage girl in his parish in a rural town in Mexico. It was so hard to watch the hypocrisy of the Catholic church in this film, but I loved watching the young and handsome Gael García Bernal in the starring role. :)

On Kanopy, I just watched Boulevard (2014), the last movie starring Robin Williams before his tragic death by suicide. I always loved this actor, both in his funny roles and in his serious roles. This was a movie about a married man finally coming to terms with his being gay. In his moments of anguish in the film, I could only think about the end of Williams' life in real so I probably was more deeply moved and saddened by his performance in this movie than I might have been otherwise.

I’m watching the first episode of The Devil’s Hour with Peter Calpaldi.

Watching:

We just finished the first season of Poker Face. A bit hit or miss but we liked it. A kind of riff on Columbo, with an engaging lead and an interesting guest star list. It is on Peacock.

We are also watching Mr and Mrs. Smith S1, on Prime. It has been a fun show. Much different from the silly 2005 film. I am solo watching Feud: Capote vs. Swans. The leads are excellent but I think 9 or 10 eps is going to be excessive. It is on Hulu.

Watching:

I just finished watching an hour and some minutes of the murder case of Warren Barnes.

Im also watching a few episodes of Kitchen Nightmares.

>39 msf59: By silly film, you mean the 2005 one and not the 1941 film, right? (I don't stream.)

>41 ReneeMarie: Yes, I clarified it.

>42 msf59: Whew. One of these days I may activate my PBS Passport, but so far I haven't bothered.

Currently watching BBC Holiday Comedy Collection (Xmas, not Easter) on DVD. My Life Is Murder series 3 is up next.

I’m watching stuff on SVT Play (on-demand streaming service for Swedish public service TV) that are about to be taken off-air. Right now I’m watching The Road with Vigo Mortensen, previously this weekend I’ve watched Amour, a French film about an elderly couple where the wife has a stroke and becomes debilitated, Howards End with the always fabulous Emma Thompson (it was really good!) and a documentary series about wildlife in India.

On Kanopy, I watched the film Leave No Trace (2018), a story about a former military man suffering PTSD who lived deep in the woods with his teenage daughter. A mistake by the daughter led to the discovery of their living in the wild and social services removing them from their only home. This film was based on a book which had been based on a true story. The acting was beautiful, but the story was deeply sad. So much mental anguish must have been in the dad's mind at all times.

We’ll be finishing up Gentleman in Moscow tonight. It’s been excellent. It’s making me want to listen to the audiobook again.