Category Archives: Wife leaves husband

2021, Abduction, Amazon Prime, Bloody scenes, Clever Plot, Controlling personality, Danish, Danish Detectives, Danish Police, Danish TV series, Divorce, DO NOT MISS, Failed Father, Failing Marriage, Father-son relations, Gory, Mother-son relations, Profiler, Revenge, Sadism, Serial Killer, Suicide, Suspense, Torture, Unhappy Marriage, Violent, Wife leaves husband

Blinded: Those Who Kill (2021)

Leave a comment

From Amazon Prime:

Five years ago, a serial killer murdered three young men but was never found. Now, criminal profiler Louise Bergstein is asked by the terminally ill mother of a victim to help solve the case. Teaming up with the police, Louise discovers a distinct pattern to the killings-and the hunt only intensifies as the murderer strikes again in this Danish thriller. CONTAINS VIOLENCE AND GRAPHIC SCENES.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 8 episodes of this well-done Danish serial-killer series.  Each episode lasts about 45 minutes. English subtitles.

From the very beginning you know who the killer is: Peter is a father with son Johannes . Peter’s marriage has failed and his wife has moved to Singapore.  Louise and Karina are two of the detectives working to solve the case. Louise is a profiler who, in an original plot twist , completely fails to recognize as killer the handsome man whom she meets quite by accident, after which the plot thickens a bit.

Poor Johannes is baffled by the strange behavior of his father. Johannes sorely misses his mother but is prevented by his father Peter from seeing her.

Because Peter kidnaps and tortures his victims,  the crime photographs can be quite gory.  But because the series is done so well, if you can get past the ugliness, DO NOT MISS!

2014, Acceptable Trash, Accidental Death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, Amazon Prime, Arson, Art Marketing, Autism, Binge worthy, Brother-Brother relations, Brother-Sister relations, Cancer theme, Cooking and food, Corny at times, Corrupt Prison Guards, Courtroom scenes, Depression, Detective, Divorce, DO NOT MISS, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Ethical struggles, Explicit sex, Explicit sexual discussion, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, False Imprisonment, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Fishing, Flashbacks, Flirting, Friendship, Gay theme, Happy Family Gatherings, Husband leaves wife, Illegitimate Child, Incompetent or unfit mother, Lawyers, Longsuffering wife, Love Story, Love Triangle, Marital Infidelity, Medical Theme, Mental Illness, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Murder Trial, Narcissist, Nudity, Occasionaly violent, Prison, Psychiatrists, Romance, Small Town, Small Town Atmosphere, Soap Opera, Suicide, Surfing, Unhappy Marriage, Unmarried mother, Weird California Cultures, Wife leaves husband, Womanizing

The Affair (2014)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

A struggling novelist and a young waitress strike up an extramarital relationship that promises to forever change the course of their lives.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 10 episodes of this steamy romance and crime series. Each episode is just under 1 hour.

UPDATE:  Now from Amazon Prime you can stream 5 seasons of the soap opera that never ends. Season 2 has 12 episodes. Season 5 has 11 episodes. Seasons 1,3, and 4 have 10 episodes. Each episode is still about one hour.  That gives us a total of 53 hours of soap opera escape.

Nothing is perfect. Some portions are downright corny.  There is a strange interruption in plot when Noah seems to be having a series of psychotic episodes.  Did the writers forget to finish that part of the story?   Sometimes present events plus flashbacks from the past might seem somewhat confusing.

Toward the end I watched slowly because I did not want the story to end.  If a LOOOONG soap opera with a fair number of sometimes explicit sex scenes is your thing, DO NOT MISS!

Original review:

Noah Solloway is played by Dominic West,  the British actor with a long acting resumé. At the time of filming he was 45 years old.

Alison Bailey is played by Ruth Wilson, the British actress whose own resumé is just as long even though she was only 32 years old at the time of filming.  Her role as the sociopath “Alice Morgan” in the TV series “Luther” was chillingly unforgettable.

Alison’s marriage is failing while she and her husband morn the death of their young son.  Noah is having trouble writing his second novel and is trying desperately to be faithful to his wife even though he is immediately attracted to Alison.

Along the way there is a death that is being investigated  by Detective Jeffries.

As soap operas go, this one is not too bad.

2020, Abandoned child, Abuse of Women, Acceptable for teenagers, Amazon Prime Acorn, Athletes, Baby snatching, Beautiful Seaside Town, Boating, Child custody, Danish, Danish Police, Danish TV series, Divorce, Failing Marriage, Father-daughter relations, Jealousy, Lottery Winners, Love Triangle, Mother-daughter relations, Sex trafficking, Swindlers, Unhappy Marriage, Unmarried mother, Violent, Wife leaves husband

The Sommerdahl Murders (2020)

Leave a comment

From Amazon Prime Acorn:

DCI Dan Sommerdahl investigates murders in a lovely Danish coastal town with his best friend, Detective Flemming Torp, and his wife, Marianne, a criminal technician. But Dan’s years of devotion to
the job have hurt his marriage, and with Marianne wanting a divorce, Dan discovers his rival for her affections is none other than his best friend. And they all must still work together to solve crimes.

Amazon Prime offers some subscriptions to special sets of shows, one of which is Acorn TV.  You can, of course, subscribe independently to Acorn TV. But Acorn TV gave me such headaches when I tried to login on my TV set that I switched to the cheaper Amazon version of Acorn.

From Amazon Acorn (and probably Acorn TV) you can stream the 8 episodes of this Danish crime series. Each episode last about 45 minutes. Some stories require 2 episodes.

As explained in the  summary above,  the important theme that runs through all the episodes is the continuing tension between Dan and Marianne.  Somehow the crimes are interesting but secondary in importance to their marriage problems.

Crimes are varied: Sex trafficking, baby theft,  serial swindlers, financial fraud, murder in an athletic setting.

Nothing special but watchable.

2015, Abduction, Amazon Prime, Based on a Book, Bisexual theme, Brother-Brother relations, Brother-Sister relations, Bullying, Car Chase, Drama, Drug Dealers, Drugs, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Gangs, Gay theme, Gritty, Jealousy, Love Story, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Personal Betrayal, Revenge, Scottish, Soap Opera, Suicide, Suspense, Unhappy Marriage, Violent, Wife leaves husband

Stonemouth (2015)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Mystery drama based on a novel by Iain Banks. Stewart Gilmour returns to his hometown after been driven out two years before by a local gangster. He returns for the funeral of his friend who recently committed suicide. He sets out to try and get the bottom of his friends death who also happens to be the son of the local gangster and the brother of Stewart’s ex girlfriend.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the two episodes of this complete story. Each episode lasts an hour.

Granted this drama set in Scotland is a soap opera, but it was really nice to see a complete story played out in only two episodes.  Granted also that the tensions, violence, and betrayals could have been stretched out a lot longer but instead were possibly resolved too easily. But what is wrong with a short, easy watch filled with good guys, bad guys, real friendships, and a nice love story?

One of the Scottish actors, Gary Lewis (who plays Mike MacAvett), seems to show up in many productions. You may remember him as Colum MacKenzie in the very popular Scottish series Outlander (which you should not miss).

Do Stewart and Ellie work out their difficult situation?  You too can find out in a mere 2 hours.

 

2020, Acceptable for teenagers, Based on true facts, Bisexual theme, Classical musicians, Cult Brainwashing, Divorce, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Explicit sexual discussion, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Gambling, Gay theme, Good Acting, Hasidic Jews, Jewish Culture, Lesbian Theme, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Netflix Streaming, Religious Theme, Sex Scenes, Wife leaves husband, Wonderful acting, Yiddish

Unorthodox (2020)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Story of a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage and religious community to start a new life abroad.

From Netflix you can stream the 4 hour long episodes of this masterpiece.

At this point in April 2020  critics are raving about the film. For example you can find a discussion in the New York Times.  Unfortunately you must subscribe to the NYT to read full articles. From that review we read:

“Unorthodox” is loosely based on the best-selling 2012 memoir by Deborah Feldman, who left the Satmar sect of Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg and ultimately settled in Berlin.

In the film the young woman Esther Shapiro, who is called Esty, is played by the slight pixie of an actress Shira Haas.  Shira Hass is an incredible performer who presents her role to perfection. 

There are also short documentaries on the making of this film and how it strived for correct Hasidic details by hiring Hasidic men to help with the filming. Only the mink fur men’s hats are fake.

Constant switching between the past and the present, between New York and Berlin, might be a tad confusing.  Just keep in mind that the Berling portion of the film is fictional while loosely based on the memoir.

For me the most stunningly breathtaking moment in the film occurs when Esty auditions at a music school. We are talking real gooseflesh.

DO NOT MISS!

2020, Acceptable for teenagers, Based on a Book, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, British, Clever Plot, Complicated, Conspiracy, DO NOT MISS, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Financial malfeasance, Friendship, Happy Family Gatherings, High school students, Illegitimate Child, Marital Infidelity, Muchausen's by proxy, Muchausen's syndrome, Murder, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Personal Betrayal, Police Corruption, Suspense, Teenagers, Thriller, Violent, Wife leaves husband, Womanizing

The Stranger (2020)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Follows the lives of suburban families whose secrets and lies are made public by the appearance of a stranger.

From Netflix you can stream the 8 roughly 50 minute episodes of this thriller based on the book The Stranger which Harlan Coben wrote in 2015.

Starting in 1995 Harlan Coben (who at this writing is 58 years old) has written a book a year. If you have never read a book by Coben and if you like clever thrillers, you are in for a treat. So far every Coben book I have read was gripping and a real pleasure.

Plot is all important and usually complicated in a Coben novel. However his treatment of character is well done. In the TV version the actors do not disappoint:

All this actors have incredibly extensive resumés. You just cannot go wrong watching this series.

DO NOT MISS!