Category Archives: Brother-Sister relations

2018, Abduction, Action Film, Action Hero, Amazon Prime, Amnesia, Bloody scenes, Brother-Sister relations, Car Chase, Child abuse, Complicated, Creepy, Detective, Disturbing Image, Emotional child abuse, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Forensics, Improbable details, Invincible Hero, Kidnapping, Mad scientist, Marital Infidelity, Mental Illness, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Physical child abuse, Psychopath, Revenge, Serial Killer, Sometimes seems silly, Suspense, Thriller, Torture, Unbelievably smart detective, Violent

Absentia (2018)

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From Amazon Prime:

Centers on an FBI agent who disappears without a trace while hunting a serial killer.

From IMDB:

After being declared dead in absentia, an FBI agent must reclaim her family, identity and innocence when she finds herself the prime suspect in a string of murders.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 10 episodes of this one season Amazon Prime Original series. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes.

With so many categories involved, it is hard to pin down a short characterization: suspense, police detectives, FBI, serial killers, mad scientist, kidnapping, innocent suspect trying to find the truth.

Emily Byrne, who is played by Stana Katic (Kate Becket of “Castle” fame), is central to the story. Emily, an FBI agent, has been missing for 6 years. Her supposed killer, Conrad Harlow, is released from jail when she mysteriously reappears suffering from amnesia. Meanwhile her husband, FBI agent Nick Durand, has remarried Alice Durand. Nick and Alice are raising Flynn, Nick’s son by Emily. Needless to say, Nick will remain conflicted about a choice between Emily and Alice for all ten episodes.

Emily’s energies are devoted for all ten episodes in finding out what ever happened to her. She has nightmare flashbacks to being placed in a sealed glass tank that regularly fills with water to almost drown her. Unfortunately Harlow is murdered and Emily is blamed. More murders ensue for which Emily is again blamed. For the rest of the story Emily is on the run from the Boston Police Department and the FBI in a desperate attempt to learn the truth and clear her name. Emily’s father and brother become involved. Nick teams up with a BPD detective to do the investigation.

Before you devote yourself to 10 episodes, there are some warnings:

  • At least the first time you see that torture tank you will almost certainly cringe. That tank is a persistent fixture in the story.
  • Emily is an unbelievable superwoman: she leaps over walls, she runs for long distances, seeming she hardly ever eats or sleeps, she always invents incredibly clever solutions for each crisis. In other words, just suspend disbelief.
  • Similarly there are just too many suddenly convenient discoveries, clues, escapes, etc. Again just suspend disbelief. But it did help to have a happy (if somewhat lame) ending.

Having warned you, nevertheless I breathlessly binge-watched all ten episodes.

2017, Abduction, Action Film, Action Hero, Black Ops, Bloody scenes, Brother-Sister relations, Cancer theme, Car Chase, Chase film, CIA, Computer geeks, Conspiracy, Corny at times, Corruption, Ends in Cliff Hanger, FBI, Frenetic, Gangs, Invincible Hero, Israeli Spies, Kidnapping, Large-scale gang activity, Mayhem, Mixed Martial Arts, Murder by poison, Netflix Streaming, Police Corruption, Revenge, Spy Theme, Suspense, Terminal Disease, Torture, Violent, Weapons Dealer

Taken (2017)

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From IMDB:

As former CIA agent Bryan Mills deals with a personal tragedy that shakes his world, he fights to overcome the incident and exact revenge.

From Netflix you can stream the 10 episodes of season 1 only. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes.

Whereas the continuing story line is Bryan’s continuing battle against Carlos Mejia, the Mexican criminal that killed Bryan’s sister, each episode also tells an episode-contained story with a satisfying ending. WARNING: Unfortunately the tenth episode is a cliff hanger that urgently wants to lead into the next, so far unavailable, season.

Bryan Mills, whose character overpowers the entire set of episodes, is played by Clive Standen. If you watched the amazing series Vikings (2013-2018), you will recognize Bryan as the character Rollo who was the brother of Ragnar. Recall that Rollo marries into French nobility.

You have seen these plots and action sequences before.  So why watch another version?  For me the attractions were: the intensity of each episode, the well-done action sequences, the fairly good acting, and seeing the good guys vanquish the bad guys.

Once again, our hero Bryan is a superman who never misses a shot, leaps over lots of tall things, never loses in hand-to-hand combat, has (to quote a woman Israeli spy) “a kind face”, is a bit of a ham,  and is a hit with the ladies.

Despite hints of mediocrity, I had lots of fun watching the violence. Maybe I should join the NRA!

2014, Abduction, Acceptable for teenagers, Ambiguous Conclusion, Ambitious Dirty Tricks, Anti-Semitism, Bloody scenes, Brother-Sister relations, Conspiracy, Corruption, Cult Brainwashing, MHz Choice, Murder, Personal Betrayal, Political Suspense, Politicians, Racism, Swedish, Swedish crime series, Thriller, Violent, White Supremecy

Blue Eyes (2014)

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From MHz Choice:

A taut, contemporary Swedish thriller set in the run-up to a general election as a series of terror attacks sends shock waves throughout the nation.

From MHz Choice (foreign films only) you can stream this Swedish TV series consisting of 10 1-hour episodes.

Essentially the film centers on the rise of white supremacy in Sweden, its political repercussions, associated terrorism, and its effects on different characters.

Secondarily the mystery in the series involves several murders which are a result of a conspiracy by some politicians to hide their greed-inspired push to allow uranium mining.

Most tragically we watch a young sister and brother being groomed to become white supremacist terrorists. Here the sister is motivated by the false belief that her mother was murdered by immigrants.

It seems only fair to warn you that the ending, much like life and the political process, is somewhat ambivalent. Expect no black and white conclusion.

Tension that drew me in like a magnet!