Category Archives: Could Be Hard To Watch

2000, Abuse of Women, Acorn TV, Alcoholism, Arson, Based on a Book, Bloody scenes, British Mystery Series, Conspiracy, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Detective, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Eccentric Detective, Extortion, Forensics, Government cover-up, Ian Rankin, Journalist, Lawyers, Murder, Murder Investigation, Police Corruption, Police Culture, Romance, Scottish, Scottish Detectives, Suspense, Torture, Womanizing

Rebus (2000)

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From IMDB:

DI John Rebus is a hard drinking, unkempt, womanizing police officer whose job is his whole life. He is the most senior and most experienced DI at his station. He has a mysterious past that his partner DS Siobhan Clarke learns about from time to time through various comments Rebus makes. She is a young woman who wants to succeed, but does not have much of a personal life. She feels being paired with Rebus jeopardizes her career because of his unorthodox methods, but she is also fascinated by the man and is extremely loyal. DI Rebus’ boss is Chief Superintendent Templar, a woman who was one of Rebus’ lovers in a distant past. Their relationship is now one where they barely tolerate each other.

From Acorn TV:

Based on the novels by Ian Rankin, this gritty crime drama stars Laurence Olivier Award winner Ken Stott (The Hobbit) as gruff Scottish detective John Rebus. The world-weary policeman investigates the grisly crimes that mar Edinburgh’s historic streets in these sharply written and intricately plotted mysteries.

From Acorn TV you can stream seasons 2,3,and 4. Season 1, which is described in IMDB, seems to be missing. Season 2 has 2 episodes. Season 3 has 4 episodes.  Season 4 has 4 episodes. Each episode is a complete story.  Each episodes lasts approximately 68 minutes.

Fans of Ian Rankin should enjoy these well-done adaptations with interesting and compelling plots.  Only one, season 4 episode 1 (Resurrection Men)  stands out as especially violent.

Beautiful Claire Price plays Rebus’ long-suffering partner, DS Siobhan Clarke (which is pronounced “sha-von”.) Jennifer Black plays DCS Gill Templer.

As is common in many detective stories, Rebus is a heavy smoking quasi alcoholic.  In all fairness, however, people as portrayed in the British isles and in my own experience drink A LOT of alcohol. In one of the more recent Ian Rankin novels, Rebus’ unhealthy lifestyle catches up with him.

2018, Abuse of Women, Ambitious Dirty Tricks, British History, Coarse manners, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crude Talk, Dancing, Drama, Fashion, Grungy, Horses, Jealousy, Lesbian Theme, Masturbation, Nudity, Outrageous Behavior, Personal Betrayal, Rape, Remarkable Costumes, Revenge, Sex Scenes, Sexual Harassment, Strange Ending, Vulgar

The Favourite (2018)

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From IMDB:

In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne occupies the throne and her close friend, Lady Sarah, governs the country in her stead. When a new servant, Abigail, arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.

Based on historical facts,  this two hour film set in England in the early 18th century presents a battle between Lady Sarah and Abigail for the affections of Queen Anne.

Olivia Coleman, who played D.S. Ellie Miller in Broadchurch, portrays the sickly Queen Anne as a somewhat repellant and incompetent Queen.  Rachel Weisz plays Lady Sarah Churchill who was the Duchess of Malborough. Lady Sarah is portrayed as Queen Anne’s lesbian lover and the real power behind the throne. At one point her impoverished cousin Abigail appears on the scene looking for employment. Through clever personal competition and intrigue Abigail, played by Emma Stone,  rises to eventually replace Sarah. Since this is history I am not spoiling the plot here. In fact the entire point of the story is how Abigail tricks her way to the top.

WARNING: Although I started by disliking the film and then found it disgustingly fascinating, Kathy did not enjoy watching.  If there is any historical accuracy in the film then the English nobility were debauched and imperious lechers.  Brace yourself for nudity, sexual assaults on servants, and continuous use of the C  _ _ T word.

In its favor, the photography, the costumes, and the palace rooms are feasts for the eyes. Never mind the vomit.

 

Abduction, Abuse of Women, Bloody scenes, Cancer theme, Car Chase, Could Be Hard To Watch, Danish Detectives, Danish Police, Divorce, Drama, Failing Marriage, Father-son relations, Forensic Psychologist, Gory, Grim, Grisly, MHz Choice, Murder, Psychological Drama, Psychopath, Serial Killer, Suicide, Suspense, Violent

Those Who Kill (2011)

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From MHz Choice:

A criminal investigator and a forensic psychologist team up to track down serial killers in Copenhagen.

From MHz Choice (foreign language only, always with subtitles) you can stream 12 episodes of season 1 which is the only season available . Each episode lasts approximately 45 minutes. Each of the 6 stories encompasses 2 episodes.  Season 2 (2019) is mentioned in IMDB with another 8 episodes, but IMDB gives no further information about season 2.

Overshadowing all the other actors in the series are the criminal investigator Katrine (played by the very striking Laura Bach) and the forensic psychologist Thomas Schaeffer (played by Jakob Cedergren).  Oddly enough Jakob Cedergren also plays a character named Thomas in another MHz Choice offering The Sandhamn Murders. 

Once again, these stories are grim. Someone dreams up really gory crimes for the serial killers to commit. Expect lots of blood. Unfortunately the productions are excellent, well-acted and gripping. Is this some kind of guilty pleasure?

There is another series about serial killers from Acorn TV called “Wire in the Blood” starring Robsen Green as a forensic psychologist Dr. Tony Hill. Whereas Dr. Tony HIll is portrayed as a socially awkward, cleverly intuitive, and very eccentric misfit, Thomas Schaeffer is a loving family man torn between a normal life and his brillantly helpful involvement in horrible cimes.  Both series are downright gory.

Noone is perfect. One of my flaws must be watching this awful stuff.

 

2018, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Accidental Death, Addiction, African American centered, Basically Sad, Bloody scenes, Could Be Hard To Watch, Cynical, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Drug Dealers, Drugs, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Father-son relations, Forensics, Gay theme, Gritty, Mildly Violent, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Trial, Netflix Streaming, Personal Betrayal, Pessimistic, Police Corruption, Police Culture, Racism, Religious Theme, Spousal Abuse, Suspense, Trial Scenes, Upsetting ending

Seven Seconds (2018)

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From IMDB:

Tensions run high between African American citizens and Caucasian cops in Jersey City when a teenage African American boy is critically injured by a cop.

From Netflix you can stream this 10 episode series. Each episode is about an hour except the final episode is 80 minutes.

In the very beginning we see Officer Peter Jablonski accidentally run down a black boy Brenton who was riding his bicycle through the park on a snowy day. Immediately his corrupt white police buddies convince him to hide the crime as they drag the living boy to a ditch and leave him to bleed out over 12 hours. All ten very tense episodes relate the effort by a black female Assistant DA named KJ Harper and a white policeman  Joe ‘Fish’ Rinaldi to seek justice. Along the way we spend time with each member of Brenton’s family and the police families as their lives are sadly changed by the killing.  If there is a theme here, it is “Black Lives Should Matter” even if, sadly, black lives do not matter.

Acting is superb. None of the actors were familiar to me. Even the villains stand out as especially heinous, especially the unscrupulous white woman who defends the police.

For me much of the tension was getting to the end to see how the trial turns out.  Enjoy the gripping ride while you predict what a realistic ending would be.

DO NOT MISS!

 

 

 

2017, Abuse of Women, Addiction, American Indian culture, Bloody scenes, Could Be Hard To Watch, Disturbing Image, Father-son relations, Grim, Murder, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Rape, Revenge, Violent

Wind River (2017)

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From IMDB:

A veteran tracker with the Fish and Wildlife Service helps to investigate the murder of a young Native American woman, and uses the case as a means of seeking redemption for an earlier act of irresponsibility which ended in tragedy.

From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 47 minute full feature length film starring Jeremy Renner.

Although the scenery in all its wildness is breathtaking (and beautifully photographed), after watching this film I have decided that you could not pay me to step foot in central Wyoming. Perhaps I got the wrong impression.

Quite simply the story is about the brutal rape of a young American Indian woman and the murder of both her and her white American boyfriend and how this crime is avenged. When I say brutal, be warned: there is some nasty violence portrayed.

Jeremy Renner teams his persona as a tracker with that of a young urban FBI agent Jane Banner played by Elizabeth Olsen.  He is on the side of the law of the land whereas she tries to uphold the rules of the FBI. She has no clue about the wilderness, so to honor his Indian friend and father of the victim, he volunteers to help her while making it clear he follows his own rules.

Expect some ugly violence, much death, and a very fitting revenge. Not for the faint of heart.

2015, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Belgian, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Child abduction and murder, Child abuse, Child Molestation, Contract Killing, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Danish, Danish Detectives, Dark, Dutch, Emotional child abuse, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, Forensics, French, German, Greed, Grim, Grisly, Incest, International thriler, Made For TV, Marital Infidelity, MHz Choice, Murder, Nudity, Pedophilia, Physical child abuse, Polish, Pornographic Scenes, Prostitutes, Rape, Revenge, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Sex trafficking, Slave trafficking, Sociopath, Spousal Abuse, Suspense, Terminal Disease, Torture, Valium appropriate, Violent, Wife Beating

The Team (2015)

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From MHz Choice:

Lars Mikkelsen (‘Borgen’, ‘1864’) stars as the leader of a joint Danish-German-Belgian investigative team tasked with solving a series of murders in this gripping crime thriller from the writers of ‘The Eagle’.

What makes this one season of 8 episodes streamed from MHz Choice so gripping for me is that the villain Marius Loukauskis  is so vile and so cynically amoral that I could not wait to get to the conclusion. Unfortunately MHz Choice doled out the episodes week after week. Finally you can see now all the episodes at once, which is why I waited to recommend and review this excellent series.

Because the “Team” is assembled from several countries (even though the production is from Denmark), you will hear many languages: French, English, German, and others. As usual they are accompanied by subtitles.

Each member of the team has their own personal story to tell. Often that story is quite unhappy.

WARNING: If you are squeamish, DO NOT WATCH this series (which is not acceptable for young people, let alone lots of adults).

2011, Abduction, Action Film, Adultery, Bank Robbery, Bloody scenes, Boating, Cancer theme, Car Chase, Chase film, Complicated, Computer geeks, Conspiracy, Contract Killing, Could Be Hard To Watch, Dark, Detective, Disturbing Image, DO NOT MISS, Dysfunctional Lives, Explicit sex, Explicit sexual discussion, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, FBI, Forensics, Gangs, Grim, International thriler, Iraq War, Made For TV, Marital Infidelity, MHz Choice, Murder, Nudity, Plot Twist, Psychopath, Sadism, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Spy Theme, Suspense, Swedish, Swedish crime series, Swiss detective, Terrorists, Thriller, Torture, TV Series, Various Romances, Violent, Well developed plot

Arne Dahl (2011)

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From MHz Choice:

Rough. Raw. Real. This is the world of Arne Dahl, whose crime novels have been transposed to the screen in adaptations that follow the dramatic tradition of all best-selling Scandinavian thrillers. The series revolves around cases taken on by the ‘A Unit’, an elite force of officers recruited after a series of assassinations rocks Stockholm’s high society.

MHz Choice streams several seasons (from many years beginning with 2011) of this Swedish thriller.  There are 5 complete stories, one per different year. Each story consists of 2 episodes. Each Episode is about 1.5 hours long. Swedish script with English subtitles.

REVISION 1 (Feb 2021):

There are now 2 seasons available from MHz Choice.  In the second season several of the excellent first season actors are missing or have been replaced.  Season 2 is acceptable, but not (in my opinion) a good as season 1.  Season 2 is a bit more of a soap opera. Still worth watching.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Throughout the 5 stories the same team of detectives are together. As is usual in such productions, the personal lives of the detectives are easily as important as the mystery plots.

As powerful and as grim as the stories are, they are so well done that they are really worth watching. But you should expect blood, torture as well as some explicit sex. Many scenes involve foot or car chases.

Not only are the stories complicated, but there are many surprise turns including some endings you might not expect.

This series is so compelling that I will rate it a DO NOT MISS!

 

 

 

1997, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Addiction, Bloody scenes, Child abuse, Child Molestation, Complicated, Computer geeks, Contract Killing, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crime thriller, Detective, Disturbing Image, Drugs, Father-daughter relations, Financial malfeasance, Forensics, Grim, Made For TV, MHz Choice, Murder Investigation, Pedophilia, Police Culture, Psychological Drama, Revenge, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Spousal Abuse, Suicide, Suspense, Swedish, Swedish crime series, Thriller, Violent

Beck (1997)

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From MHz Choice:

He’s got no style, he’s got no flash and he’s squarely in middle age. But Swedish detective Martin Beck is good at one thing: methodically catching criminals so that they can be put away… for a long time. His tightly-wound partner, Gunvald, is his opposite: an impulsive man who cuts a dashing figure, is in no way politically correct and who never met a boundary he didn’t leap across.

MHz Choice lets you stream 5 seasons of the Swedish detective series “Beck”.  All seasons offer 8 episodes except Season 4 which only offers 2 episodes. Each Episode is approximate 1.5 hours.

Harsh and sometimes hard-to-watch, the episodes are well done. If you want something less tense, try the MHz Choice series “Magellan”.

Through the 5 seasons Beck’s physical appearance does not change much. But the difference between the Season 1 Gunvald and the Season 5 Gunvald is striking in the way that the actor has aged.

Part of the appeal of the series is that the personal lives of the characters continue from episode to episode. Therefore it is best to view the episodes in order. However the mystery story for each episode is self-contained.

When you browse to MHz Choice, just enter “Beck” in the search box. Then you can see all the seasons and episodes listed. If you pause over one of the episode boxes, you get a short description of that episode.

Choosing categories for this series is difficult because after 34 episodes, there is hardly an untouched category.

Never boring, never relaxed viewing.

2017, Acceptable Science, Aliens from outer space, Astronauts, Bloody scenes, Could Be Hard To Watch, Creepy, Disturbing Image, Grim, Horror, Nasty Aliens, Netflix DVD, Occasional gore, Suspense, Thriller, Upsetting ending, Violent

Life (2017)

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From IMDB:

A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life form, that caused extinction on Mars, and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth.

Netflix sent me a DVD for this film.

“Why” I asked “would Jake Gyllenhaal appear in a sci-fi film? He is so much better than that.”  Just wait until you see this film, which is probably one of the tensest sci-fi films I have ever seen, in which Gyllenhaal makes true and convincing use of his talents.

WARNING: This film is very upsetting with lots of gore. Not that it is a gore-fest, it is just that the very troubling plot demands the gore.  In a certain accurate sense, this film is a classy horror film. If you are subject to nightmares, DO NOT SEE THIS FILM!

SPOILER ALERT: Read no more of this review if you intend to watch the excitement.  Movies that end with irony are all the rage now, and this film is no exception. Do not expect a happy ending. Do expect a complete Shakespearean tragedy.

YOU COULD BE SORRY!!!!

2011, Abduction, Adultery, Arson, Bisexual theme, Bloody scenes, Child abduction and murder, Complicated, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Dark, Detective, Emotional abuse, Extramarital Affair, Father-daughter relations, German, Grim, Mental Illness, MHz Choice, Murder Investigation, Police Culture, Psychiatrists, Psychological Thriller, Revenge, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Violent

Anatomy of Evil (2011)

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From MHz Choice:

Heino Ferch (Downfall) stars police psychologist Richard Brock in this dark mystery series set in Vienna. Brock is a loner, still blaming himself for the suicide of his wife and trying to reconnect with his daughter, newly graduated from the police academy. The only constants in his life are his faithful housekeeper, Mrs. Anni, and his friend Klaus Tauber, the owner of the coffee house where he inevitably eats all his meals.

From MHz Choice you can stream 5 episodes of this superb but truly grim Austrian TV series spoken in German with English subtitles. Each episode lasts about an hour and a half.

UPDATE March 20, 2021:

MHz Choice now offers  four episodes of season two  as well as season one.  Season 2 now contains:  “Desire,” “Rage,” “Yearning,” “Guilt.”  In the fourth episode of season two, Brock must defeat a psychopathic police commander in yet another brooding, GRIM episode.

UPDATE August 17, 2019:

MHz Choice now offers  the three episodes of season two  as well as season one.  All are at least as GRIM as season one.  See below for a discussion of season two.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

From the best online description I could find, I quote:

I’ve finally met a character more morose than Kurt Wallander.

Sad, isolated, injured detectives who cannot connect with their offspring  are all the rage now. Nonetheless, if you enjoy grim (and I mean G-R-I-M-!!!) you will love these stories. Even my wife Kathy (who usually leaves the room during especially tense or violent scenes) is addicted. In fact both of us manage to stay awake during the entire show.

Episode 3 “Fear” ends with a really devastating scene. You are warned!

SEASON TWO:

“Desire”, “Rage”, and “Yearning” are the titles of the three season two episodes. All, as in season one, are characterized by dark, beautiful, careful cinematography. All are slow moving except for the violent scenes.

“Desire” is perhaps one of the strangest murder mysteries that I have ever seen because not until close to the end does it become clear that there even was a murder.

Brock barely survives “Rage”. When it is over Brock now has a dangerous and corrupt enemy in the police force. Brock’s daughter continues to work in that police force. That corruption and its many murders must eventually (we hope) see justice.

In “Yearning” Brock is recuperating both physically and mentally in his apartment. He spends his time with a pair of binoculars spying on his neighbors across the street. In a story reminiscent of “Rear Window” he witnesses a murder and needs all the help he can get to bring the killer to justice.

“Yearning” concludes with a situation that cries for another season.

What an amazing discovery this series is, even if it possibly means a harrowing viewing.