I have yet to determine what makes me write a whole post about some shows while feeling content to summarize others in a post like this. It certainly isn’t that I focus on the shows I love. But here we are again at another batch summary post while I have a different post queued up for later about one show I didn’t even like all that much. There is no logic, so let’s just go.
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Death By Lightning – Netflix
Hey, presidential assassination time!
Death by Lightning
Perhaps the best mini-series about late 19th century presidential politics ever made. It is awesome, you should watch it, and if you do not like it you are objectively and provably wrong in your opinion. Also, it is only four episodes. You can do this, it is worth it.
The casting, the performances, the costumes, the sets, the dialog… all so good I want to weep and howl in joy at the same time.
The era often gets caught up in Victorian legend of people being overly quiet and polite and uncomfortably dressed and very unhappy to sit on a chair where the body warmth of the previous occupant, but people drank, swore, had sex, and had loud opinions about things out in the world. So it was nice to see that embraced in the production.
Add in that the whole thing is about as historically accurate as one can hope from such a production… I mean it is this or obscure PBS documentaries.. AND it explores the events around the least well remembered of the 4 US presidential assassinations, back when that was just something people did, so what is not to love?
You still won’t remember the name Charles J. Guiteau after you’re done, but you’ll be like me and at least remember that you have forgotten it.
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Landman Season 2 – Paramount Plus
Less overt oil company propaganda and more… accounting?
Landman
Also, Paramount, could you put something in your press kit that has the season 2 cast on the title card? Jon Hamm died in season one.
Anyway, it is all still Taylor Sheridan being “You know nothing Jon Snow” about some group of people doing a job you wouldn’t want. This seaons we just spend a lot more time with the rich people, the oil execs, lawyers, and accountants, than we do with the roughnecks. And if you think rich people problems get sympathy… well, that was the eventual downfall of Yellowstone for me as well. And doubly so since most of the problems in Landman are due to Jon Hamm’s character who, as I noted above, died in season one.
The whole of season 2 of Landman would spin out of control, likely becoming an unholy mix of Hunting Wives and Succession, if it were not for Billy Bob Thorton.
But Billy Bob as Tommy Norris, holds the whole thing together and makes it worth the time. How much of that is his skill as an actor and how much the quality of the script I could not say, but it works… and is popular enough that there is a third season set up for sure.
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His & Hers – Netflix
A whodunnit murder mystery in six episodes, so no wasted time.
His & Hers
Well, mostly no wasted time. You could argue that the first 5.9 episodes are misdirection. But what murder mystery isn’t made up of that sort of thing? So it spends a lot of the first three episodes framing up somebody, splits to a couple other suspects for two episodes, then goes all in on a final suspect and starts wrapping everything up… and then, almost as an epilogue, tells you who did do it, showing you all the clues you missed so you feel like a chump.
Granted, those clues were tiny and unexplained, and mostly unexamined by characters in the show, so it edges close to a Broadchurch level of psych. But it works hard enough to convince you that you should have seen it coming that I’ll allow it… since none of the characters in the show actually solved the murder we’re at least on the level of the detective running the case. This is also a “limited series,” which means one season only. Yet there is talk of second season, though I don’t know how that would work at all.
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Run Away – Netflix
Another Harlen Coben mystery set in the UK.
Run Away Indeed
I mention this because… he is an American author and his novels are set in the US, but for some reason his “make a series about every single one of my books” deal had a clause in it somewhere that said they all had to be set in the UK or something. I don’t know why.
Also, Minnie Driver is the headliner here and appears in any significant way in maybe three out of the eight episodes. Anyway, James Nesbitt is off to find his missing drug addicted daughter and ends up involved in a murder and a drug gang and things happen.
I don’t want to be sour on Harlen Coben as I haven’t read any of his books. I have only seen the Netflix productions based on them, and whatever studio in the UK is doing them is turning them into bland, somewhat forgettable fare. I had to go look up what happened and we watched this ten days ago.
The most interesting character was played by Ruth Jones, the woman on the far left in the title card, who is a private detective looking… for something… but she was fun to follow and I would watch a series about her and her detective agency… except that… well… there was an incident.
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Down Cemetery Road – Apple TV
Hey, it turns out Mick Herron wrote something before Slow Horses!
Down Cemetery Road
I knew this as I had read the book on which this show was based because… I had read all the Slow Horses books and figured some of that magic might also reside in his first series outing.
It did not… to the point that I only remembered I had read the book when the series started to feel vaguely familiar, and even then I had to go check to see if it was on my Good Reads list. I gave it three stars there, but I think I was being polite or admitting that I don’t have to love everything. But I did not bother reading any of the following three books in the series.
So Apple TV, desperate for some more Slow Horses magic in the way I was, so rushed this into production and now we have a season of it.
On the plus side of thing, it does feature Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, whose combined acting talents carry much of the show.
On the down side, the shadowy government conspiracy is played for a few more laughs than strictly necessary and the plot is still vague and meandering and the actions of most of the players don’t withstand scrutiny. A lot of “that doesn’t make a lot of sense” in the whole thing.
Still, I didn’t hate it and we’ll probably watch season two when it appears. Maybe things got better with the second book… there being four in the series, so we probably have three more seasons coming.
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The Copenhagen Test – Peacock
This was a thing… about a secret spy agency that keeps an eye on our secret spy agencies.
The Copenhagen Test
Also, it doesn’t take place in Copenhagen, in case you were seeking glimpses of the capital of Denmark, the country we’ve been trying to start a war with for the last two weeks or so. Or was it even that long? The event horizon for international crises is so short these days with President Dementia running the show.
So Simu Liu, a former special forces operative, works downstairs at a secret agency doing normal secret stuff, but gets invited upstairs where the interesting stuff goes on. Only he has been compromised in a way that I cannot mention because it is a spoiler and it would sound ridiculous enough that you might think I was kidding.
Anyway, the whole plot is figuring out who is pulling the strings of the operation as those with the agency, who know Simu has been compromised, use him as bait to expose the overall conspiracy.
This get rolled up in the end, but it feels like this is a one season outing because what made it interesting at all was resolved. Another “not awful” level of effort, but it feels less like an Apple TV production and more like a classic network TV outing… which is probably how it landed on Peacock.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 