Category Archives: 2020

2020, Abandoned child, Acceptable for teenagers, Addiction, Alcoholism, Amazon Prime Brit Box, British Mystery Series, Clever Assistant, Eccentric Detective, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Gay Prostitution, Illegitimate Child, Murder, Murder Investigation, Older Detective, Police Culture, Unloved Child

McDonald & Dodds (2020)

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From IMDB:

A shy and enigmatic Detective Sergeant is partnered with a wildly ambitious Detective Chief Inspector to solve crimes in the historic city of Bath.

From Amazon Prime britbox:

The ambitious DCI McDonald has swapped the mean streets of London to climb the career ladder in picturesque Bath. Tough, driven cop McDonald cracks cases through sheer force of will. When the two are partnered up, the unlikely pair instantly lock horns over their different approaches to policing – and to life. New episode arrives every Tuesday.

From Amazon Prime britbox you can stream the only two episodes available of this British detective story which takes place in Bath, England. Each episode lasts about an hour and a half.

DCI McDonald, played by Tala Gouveia, is young, tough, and at first glance dismisses DS Dodds, played by Jason Watkins, as a doddering old has-been who is ready for retirement.

Jason Watkins is a consummate actor with a long resumé. Perhaps you remember him as Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the TV series The Crown.  In these two detective episodes Watkins plays to perfection a shy, almost stuttering, annoyingly hesitant, absent-minded (as in “where are my glasses” when they are already perched on his head) older detective who, as it turns out, is a brilliant detective and the brains of the police department. Eventually McDonald and Dodds become good friends.

Chief Superintendent John Houseman is played by James Murray. His is a face you may have often seen but probably cannot remember where. James Murray also has a very long resumé. In this show CS Houseman is the mean boss who dislikes both McDonald and Dodds, sneers at their efforts, and never ever gives poor old Dodds any credit for his cleverness.

Finding this series was just plain dumb luck.

2020, Abduction, Action sequences, Anti-Immigration, Athletes, Bloody scenes, Bullying, Cancer theme, Conspiracy, Contract Killing, Corruption, Crime thriller, Detective, Drama, Fascists, Father-son relations, Forensics, Gangs, Henning Mankell, Immigrants, Jealousy, Lawyers, Murder, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Police Culture, Police Politics, Race Relations, Racism, Revenge, Romance, Sex Scenes, Soccer, Sociopath, Suspense, Swedish Detective, Upsetting ending, Violent, White Supremecy

Young Wallender (2020)

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From Netflix:

Rookie cop Kurt Wallander stumbles into a hate crime in his own neighborhood. As he hunts the killer, the incident fuels anti-immigration anger.

From Netflix you can stream the 6 episodes of this drama involving crime, gangs, romance, and white supremacists. Each episode lasts about 50 minutes.

Henning Mankell’s “Wallender” novels have been dramatized several times. Swedish and English versions can be streamed from many different sources. His novels take place in the Sweden of the 1970s. “Young Wallender” attempts to portray Kurt Wallender in his first job as a policeman. Instead of the 1970s, the setting is present-day (2020) Sweden. English is the original soundtrack although you can choose from many languages for sound and subtitles, none strangely enough in Swedish.

Appropriate to our era is the fact that the predominant theme of this series is the crusade of white supremacists against immigration. Throw in illegal weapons smuggling, sibling rivalry, disadvantaged blacks forming gangs, and a convincing romance to produce an exciting 6 episodes.

If you Google for “Young Wallander” you will find not only reviews but also debates over the conclusion. Beware of “spoilers.”

Even though the story seems to drag at times, I do not hesitate to strongly recommend this series.

2020, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Action sequences, Athletes, Bloody scenes, Conspiracy, Corrupt lawyers, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Forensics, Gangs, German, German Detectives, Government cover-up, Greed, Journalist, Kidnapping, MHz Choice, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Must suspend disbelief, Police Corruption, Police Politics, Rape, Revenge, Sex Scenes, Sex trafficking, Sex with underage girls, Short-lived suspenseful episodes, Suspense, Various Romances, Violent

Tatort: Lindholm (2020)

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From MHz Choice:

Lone wolf detective Charlotte Lindholm has an uncanny talent for solving crimes and fumbling all personal relationships.

From MHz Choice you can stream the 12 episodes of the only season available in this German series. Each episode is about an hour and a half.

“Tatort”  is German for “scene of the crime.”  MHz Choice offers 4 different series entitled “Tatort:” followed by either the name of a detective or of a German city.

Beware: Episode 8, “The Disposable Girl”,  is harrowing and ends with all the corruption revolving around sex trafficking winning the battle. Because I did not understand that the story continues into episode 9, I was really depressed.  Do not watch such stories at bedtime. However,  as in most fairy tales, the good guys win and the bad guys lose in episode 9.  As usual Charlotte in episode 9 loses yet another love interest.

As in many less-than-perfect such presentations, the solutions are often just too easy. Somehow the Lone Ranger always shows up at just the right time.  But that is just fine with me, I gladly trade some realism for some release in the story tension.

Charlotte is a beautiful young unmarried mother with a very young son. She keeps searching for that one true love. Sadly that is not in the cards for our Charlotte.  Just enjoy her in-your-face, determined fight for justice in the face of bureaucratic or corrupt opposition.

At least it is not boring and, in fact, not bad at all.

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)

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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.

2020, Acceptable for teenagers, Acceptable Science, Amazon Prime, Biographical, French Culture, Mother-daughter relations, Thought provoking, Tragedy, True Story, WWI

Radioactive (2020)

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From IMDB:

Pioneer – Rebel – Genius. Radioactive is incredible, true-story of Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world starring Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 49 minute complete film.

Rosamund PIke does a wonderful job of presenting a passionate, proud, intelligent woman whose efforts to do science must always come up against the prevailing male chauvinist culture of her time (born 1904, died July 4, 1934).

Several themes run through the film: male chauvinism, her loving marriage to Pierre Curie, their achievements in science, her strongly self-assertive personality, the dangers of radioactivity, and the anti-semitic anti-Polish French people who did not understand that Marie was a Catholic.

Many visual effects are used throughout the film, some of which can be a bit over the top.  But the appearance of scenes that occurred after her death emphasize the dangerous side of radioactivity are a chilling reminder: casual audiences watching atomic tests in the U.S. desert,  Hiroshima at the moment of the atomic bomb blast, and the disaster at Chernobyl.

Marie used her influence and political savvy to place X-ray machines onto the WWI French battlefield in order to avoid all the unnecessary amputations that were taking place.

Marie, Pierre, and their daughter Irene all received Nobel prizes. Pierre was run over by a horse-drawn carriage. Marie died of the leukemia brought on by exposure to radioactivity.  When Kathy and I were young we used to play on and use the foot X-ray machines that were in shoe stores at the time.

Hope you watch this really worthwhile biographical film.

2020, Acceptable for teenagers, Crime, Detective, Greed, Lawyers, Mediocre, Mildly Suspenseful, Murder, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Nothing special, Occasionaly violent, Plot Twist, Senior citizens

Dangerous Lies (2020)

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From IMDB:

When a wealthy elderly man dies and unexpectedly leaves his estate to his new caregiver, she’s drawn into a web of deception and murder. If she’s going to survive, she’ll have to question everyone’s motives – even the people she loves.

From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 37 minute complete film.

“Ordinary”, “mediocre” are a few adjectives that seem to describe this almost-thriller.  As the story unfolds we begin to question the precipitous behavior of Katie’s husband Adam. Eventually that behavior veers into dishonesty.

As far as actors go, it may be worth mentioning the following:

Nothing Special!

2020, Acceptable for teenagers, Acceptable Trash, Amazon Prime, Amnesia, Chick Flick, Comic Moments, Ends in Cliff Hanger, Father-daughter relations, Flashbacks, Incomplete ending, Love Story, Murder, Nudity, Sex Scenes, Somewhat trashy, Vulgar

Upload (2020)

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From Amazon Prime:

From the Emmy-winning Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks & Rec) comes a hilarious new sci-fi comedy. In the future people can upload their consciousness to a luxurious digital afterlife. When party boy Nathan gets uploaded to a virtual resort he meets the down-to-earth Nora who starts as his customer service “angel”, but becomes so much more as she helps him find friendship, love and purpose.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 10 episodes of season 1. Each episode is roughly 30 minutes.

Digital effects are a large part of the attraction in this series although basically the story is a romance between Nathan and Nora.

However, in the very last episode ten Nathan is interrupted mid-sentence and that is the end of the season. Moreover, there remains the unsolved question of whether Nathan was murdered. For these reasons there MUST be another season in the future.

You can label it trash or just sit back and enjoy the nonsense.

2020, Abduction, Acceptable Trash, Action Film, Action Hero, B-movie, Bloody scenes, Car Chase, Fist Fight, Flashbacks, Invincible Hero, Mayhem, Must suspend disbelief, Netflix Streaming, Pakistan, Sociopath, Surprise Ending, Thriller, Violent

Extraction (2020)

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From IMDB:

Tyler Rake, a fearless black market mercenary, embarks on the most deadly extraction of his career when he’s enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord.

From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 57 minute killing festival.

As one critic noted: “I hope the actors were paid by the bullet.”  Indeed what you see is what you get and probably expected. Still, from time to time who doesn’t enjoy some gratuitous violence.

Of course, our hero Tyler Rake (played by Chris Hemsworth ) never misses a shot even when wounded so gravely that he can barely lift his assault weapon.  Similarly he never loses a martial arts bare hands fight.  However, I suspect the ending might surprise you.

Just insert your earplugs and let the adrenalin flow.

2020, Documentary, Ethical struggles, Father-son relations, Gay theme, Government Prosecutions, Homophobia, Independent, Mother-son relations, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Religious Theme

Circus of Books (2020)

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From IMDB:

In 1976, Karen and Barry Mason had fallen on hard times and were looking for a way to support their young family when they answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times. Larry Flynt was seeking distributors for Hustler Magazine. What was expected to be a brief sideline led to their becoming fully immersed in the LGBT community as they took over a local store, Circus of Books. A decade later, they had become the biggest distributors of gay porn in the US. The film focuses on the double life they led, trying to maintain the balance of being parents at a time when LGBT culture was not yet accepted. Their many challenges included facing jail time for a federal obscenity prosecution and enabling their store to be a place of refuge at the height of the AIDS crisis. Circus of Books offers a rare glimpse into an untold chapter of queer history, and it is told through the lense of the owners’ own daughter, Rachel Mason, an artist, filmmaker and musician.

From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 26 minute complete documentary.

IMDB’s summary tells most of the story. However, one of the most important themes of the plot is that one of the Mason’s sons during his college years came out to his parents as gay.  Karen needed time to absorb and accept this fact after which she and Barry became ardent supporters of the organization of parents of gay children.

In parts of the film you will see covers of gay DVDs and magazines which are quite explicit.

Watching this documentary is like watching a “happening.”   Still I cannot get my head around the contradictions: Karen, a devout practicing Jew, ran a gay porn shop and was at first shocked and dismayed that a son of hers could possible be gay.

Really?

 

2020, Abuse of Women, Acorn TV, Arson, Bullying, Controlling personality, Depression, Drama, Emotional abuse, Extramarital Affair, Jealousy, Lawyers, Murder, Panic Attacks, Police Corruption, Psychiatrists, Scottish, Scottish Detectives, Small Town, Spousal Abuse, Tragedy

Deadwater Fell (2020)

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From IMDB:

When a seemingly perfect and happy family is murdered by someone they knew and trusted, cracks appear on the surface of a supposedly idyllic community.

CORRECTED REVIEW: Now there are all 4 episodes.

From Acorn TV you can stream the 4 episodes of this Scottish detective series. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes.

Rather than classify this series as a detective series, instead be aware that this story is a real tragedy in the classic sense that everyone in the story suffers.  In other words expect a bitter tasting ending.

David Tennant plays the lead tragic figure Tom Kendrick.  Tennant has an impressively long acting resumé including playing D.I. Alex Hardy in Broadchurch (which is a “must see”).  His character Tom is a remarkable contrast to that of D.I. Alex Hardy.

As the story progresses, you will see that first impressions are deceiving.  Little by little we discover the real nature of several inhabitants of this small town.

Superbly well done, but brace yourself.