Graceland: The Shows

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Shows

Rick and I usually have a BBC series that we are in process of watching. We are now looking for a new one. I thought I'd give a run down of what we've watched so far.

MI-5 (known as Spooks in Britain). Probably my favorite series from the BBC. I watched all 10 (?) seasons over several years. Rick came in on the last half and really liked them as well. Some people compared this to 24 in the US. I disagree. While not much happened in each episode of 24, each week of MI-5 was packed with politics, drama and action. Plus, Adam could kick Jack Bauer's butt any day. :) If anyone has watched this series start to finish I want to talk to you about the very last episode.

Ruth and Harry, my two favorite characters!

One of the best things about this show is that main characters leave and/or are killed off, so you never know what is going to happen. Most of the cast changed several times throughout the years.

Downton Abbey- I already did a whole post on this series. I can't imagine you haven't seen it, but if you are in the minority of Americans who haven't, just watch it. Great entertainment.

It has Maggie Smith and fabulous costumes, need I say more.

Bleak House - I admit that some of my draw to this was seeing Dana Scully in the role. This is an adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel. Classic BBC mini series. Well done. Both Rick and I loved it.

Sherlock- this is Sherlock Holmes in modern day. Fun idea. I enjoyed them, but found Sherlock a bit annoying. (Watson is very likeable though.) It prompted me to read some original Sherlock Holmes stories. I found that this series is quite true to the original books. Not that they are the very same stories, but they did have some of the exact same lines and a lot of similarities. I thought Sherlock in the book was more likeable than Sherlock in the series. This is worth watching if you like crime drama. Rick really liked it, and we've recommended to a few people who gave it positive reviews. Each episode runs about 1.5 hrs and is like a mini movie. Each season only has 3 episodes, which is a bummer. Season one is on Netflix, season two recently aired on BBC America. We are waiting on season 3. I read that a version is being made in the US, set in modern day NYC and Sherlock is a female. Interesting.

Foyles War- there are several seasons of this available on DVD. We've watched a number of episodes in the first season. These are also 1.5 hr long episodes. Each is a murder mystery set during WWII. Foyle is a detective with impeccable integrity who has to deal with ethical dilemmas and politics of wartime while solving crimes in rural England. This is one of the less edgy shows on the list. (I mean that in a positive way- no nudity, swearing, gratuitous gore and violence.) We liked it but stopped having the DVDs sent via Netflix because there were other things on our list we wanted to watch. I would guess we would watch more if they were instant downloads or if we owned the DVDs. We'll probably get back to the series sometime.

Inspector Foyle, his driver, Sam(antha), and his assistant (I don't remember his name).

Jekyll- I love a good monster movie and this does not disappoint. It is hide-your-eyes gory at times, so beware. This is billed as a sequel to the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Set in modern day England. Complete with a conspiracy led by the Americans. (Some of our favorite parts of all these series is seeing their view of Americans. They definitely stick to a stereotype.) This is a 6 episode mini series. We have one episode left. I'm dying to see how it all comes together.

James Nesbitt does a great job playing both Jekyll and Hyde.

So, there you have it. I would recommend all of these. We need something new. What do you recommend?

2 comments:

Afton said...: I enjoyed a couple seasons of House of Eliot about two sister's who decide to start a fashion house after their father dies. It's set in the 20's and the fashion design is great.

The miniseries Little Dorrit, a Dickens with my moviestar boyfriend Matthew MacFadyen was awesome, but reflected the fact that Dickens wrote his stories serially for the paper, so the plot really goes all over the place before finally getting wrapped up.

And then anything by Elizabeth Gaskill is great: North and South (four part series), Cranford, etc.This is totally not as edgy as your list, but good in a charming, soap opera-y kind of way.

Then of course there is Doctor Who. The special effects are a little laughable and the plots are sometimes goofy, but there's some good stuff there.

My boys, including Robert, love Merlin. I found the plots to be quite repetitive. But this one definitely has more sword fighting than my other suggestions.; July 22, 2012 at 10:41 PM
K said...: Poirot. :); July 23, 2012 at 8:53 PM

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Shows

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