Category Archives: Private Versus Professional Life

2011, Acceptable Trash, Acorn TV, Ambitious Dirty Tricks, Assisted Suicide, British, Bullying, Career Competition, Courtroom scenes, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, Lawyers, Mediocre, Melodrama, Private Versus Professional Life, Revenge, Romance, Soap Opera, Suspense, Wrongful Arrest

The Case (2011)

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From Acorn TV:

In this suspenseful British legal drama, a husband is put on trial for his wife’s death-but was it murder, or an act of love? Tony Powell (Dean Andrews, Life on Mars) claims he helped his terminally ill wife (Caroline Langrishe, Judge John Deed) commit suicide, but when he appears to be hiding something, his lawyers fight for the truth behind the controversial case.

From Acorn TV you can stream the 5 episodes of this complete story. Each episode lasts about 43 minutes.

Basically this series is a slightly better than  mediocre soap opera. Dean Andrews  ( Robbie in “Last Tango in Halifax”) as Tony Powell spends most of the time looking mournfully guilty. His two lawyers, Julie and  Sol, cannot decide whether to have an affair.  Julie devotes a fair amount of time cat-fighting with the office witch,  Valerie. Meanwhile Valerie prowls desperately looking for love (or just sex). You get the idea, right?

As background noise while doing something worthwhile this soap opera will suffice.

 

2001, 2003, 2012, Abduction, Abortion, Abuse of Women, Alcoholism, Bloody scenes, Career Competition, Child custody, Computer geeks, Corruption, Crime thriller, Detective, Divorce, Explicit sex, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Financial malfeasance, Jealousy, Journalist, Lesbian Theme, MHz Choice, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Personal Betrayal, Private Versus Professional Life, Psychopath, Revenge, Serial Killer, Suspense, Swedish, Swedish crime series, Terrorist Attack, Thriller, TV Series, Unmarried mother, Violent, Vulgar

Annika Bengtzon (2012)

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From MHz Choice:

Based on author Liza Marklund’s best-selling crime novels, Annika Bengtzon is a journalist and working mother of two struggling to raise her family. Fearless in her search for the truth, she won’t take no for an answer from anyone: not from prestigious academicians or drug dealers or from colleagues inside her own profession.

MHz Choice streams this Swedish TV crime series (with English subtitles) in two seasons. Season 1 includes 6 episodes all of which were made in 2012. Season 2 includes only 2 episodes made in 2001 and 2003.  First watch Season 1 in which Annika is played by the beautiful Malin Crépin.  Season 2 contains “Paradise” which is a prequel that tells how a young Annika fights to be a reporter, and “Deadline” which takes 2 hours and features Annika as a second-in-command at the newspaper. All the other 7 episodes last about 1.5 hours. In season 2 Annika is played by Helena Bergström who is extremely different in appearance from Malin Crépin. Visually, for example in the physical appearance of actors, season 1 is more of a crowd pleaser.

As is the case with many crime shows featuring a woman doing the sleuthing, the theme is how the woman must battle male prejudice while trying to balance her obsessive drive to do her job (here to deliver news stories)  with the demands of her family (here husband and two children). Quite a bit of really NOT boring film footage is devoted to jealous bickering in the newsroom.

Only one episode was somewhat boring. In every episode, however, the suspense is palpable, especially because  Annika’s life is usually in danger.

If you like an intense rush, try these two series.

2016, Abduction, British Mystery Series, Complicated, Confusing Plot, Detective, Divorce, Extramarital Affair, Family Conflict, Forensics, Gay theme, Greed, Marital Infidelity, Mental Illness, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Politicians, Private Versus Professional Life, Serial Killer

Marcella (2016)

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From IMDB:

Marcella Backland left the Metropolitan Police for the sake of her family, only to have her husband leave her. She returns to her job on the murder squad, investigating a case that seems disturbingly familiar to her.

From Netflix you can stream 8 episodes of Season 1.  It is not clear from IMDB whether there is a Season 2, but in any case Netflix offers only Season 1.

Although the acting is fine, the story is complicated, new characters seem to pop up regularly, and the 8 episodes drag on a bit.  Marcella herself falls into strange fugue states from time to time without any explanation as she works to catch one and possibly two serial killers. Along with all the murders, not all of which are serial murders, there is no lack of suspicious characters.  Of all the characters, Sinéad Cusack, who plays Sylvia Gibson, is wonderful as a woman you can hate on first sight.

We stuck it out to the end of Season 1 out of mere curiosity.

2014, Acorn TV, Assisted Suicide, Australian, British Mystery Series, Career Competition, Conspiracy, Detective, Drug Dealers, Gangs, Lawyers, Lesbian Theme, Motorcycles, Murder, Murder Investigation, Murder Trial, Private Versus Professional Life

Janet King (2014)

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From IMDB:

Senior Prosecutor Janet King returns from maternity leave to confront a high-profile murder, and a conspiracy which will have shocking ramifications throughout the judicial system.

In an earlier review I raved about “A Place To Call Home” which can be streamed from Acorn TV ($5.00 per month). In that Australian TV series the star Marta Dusseldorp was the enchanting Sarah Adams. In addition Deborah Kennedy presented a perfect town gossip.

And now I rave about another Australian TV series streamed from Acorn TV. Here Marta Dusseldorp plays the protagonist Janet King who is a very busy lawyer and mother. Her character is a lesbian with a partner who stays home with their children. Homophobia plays only a small part in the plot. Once again we meet Deborah Kennedy, this time in a slightly more sinister role as murder suspect Dianne Vaslich.

As far as I can tell so far Acorn offers only Series 1.  Beginning late March 2016, a second series of 8 episodes will be shown for the first time on (British ?) TV.

Various themes run through the episodes: slight homophobia, police versus prosecutors, threatening motorcycle gangs, assisted suicide, witness intimidation,  home life versus professional life, and ambitious competition to name a few.

Think of this type of series as the British version of “Law [versus] and Order”. Excellent!

2014, Acorn TV, Action Film, Alcoholism, Bloody scenes, Canadian Police, Drama, Dysfunctional Lives, Explicit sex, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Lesbian Theme, Love Story, Murder Investigation, Pedophilia, Personal Betrayal, Police Corruption, Police Culture, Police Politics, Police Story, Private Versus Professional Life, Psychiatrists, School Shooting, Senior citizens, Sex Scenes, Small Town, Spousal Abuse, Suicide, TV Series, Violent, Vulgar, Wife Beating

19-2 (2014)

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Fronm Acorn TV;

Officer Nick Barron (Adrian Holmes, Arrow, Smallville) patrols the streets of Montreal with Station 19’s newest squad member, Ben Chartier (Jared Keeso, Falling Skies, Elysium). Back on the job after a shooting incident, guilt-ridden Nick immediately clashes with overzealous Ben. Absorbing and authentic, with an outstanding ensemble cast, this award-winning drama follows first responders beyond the crime scenes and into their own messy lives.

Acorn TV revamped its arrangement of this series so that now (2016) you can stream 10 Episodes of Series 1 and 10 Episodes of Series 2 and 10 Episodes of Series 3.

Acorn’s summary more or less says it all. Most police procedurals will be somewhat similar and “19-2” fits that description. Taken as a human drama, however, the plot details, characters, and acting are better than average.

Series 1 centers on Ben and Nick and Ben’s romance with Nick’s sister. Series 2 centers on finding a mole in the police department that is responsible for leaks that lead to the death of several officers.

WARNING: Series 2 Episode 1 is consumed by a lone teen gunman running amuck in a school shooting. This episode is long, harrowing and adds nothing to the other episodes in the series. Feel free to skip this episode without losing a beat.

Not a repeat of other police series, and not a waste of time. In fact, the more I watched, the more involved I became. Expect surprises.