Category Archives: Athletes

2017, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Action sequences, Amazon Prime MHz Choice, Amnesia, Athletes, Bloody scenes, Corrupt policemen, Corrupt Politicians, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Failed Romance, Forensics, Game hunting for humans, Gay theme, German, German Air Force, German Detectives, Homophobia, Journalist, Kidnapping, MHz Choice, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Personal Betrayal, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Sex trafficking, Single Mother, Soccer, Suicide, Undercover police work, Upsetting ending, Violent

Tatort: Lindholm (2017)

From MHz Choice:

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

MHz Choice ($7.99 per month in 2021) can be purchased directly or through Amazon Prime. From MHz Choice you can stream the 12 episodes of the only season available. Each episode lasts about 1.5 hours. German with English subtitles.

From Wikipedia:

Tatort (“Crime scene”) is a German language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with some 30 feature-length episodes per year, which makes it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public service broadcasting organisation ARD for their channel Das Erste, it is unique in its approach, in that it is jointly produced by all of the organisation’s regional members as well as its partnering Austrian and Swiss national public-service broadcasters, whereby every regional station contributes a number of episodes to a common pool.

Charlotte Lindholm is a smart, determined, and courageous detective, as well as a single mother raising her young son. Throughout the episodes she will have many romantic relationships, none of which succeed.

Of the 12 episodes, number 10  “The Smooth Death”  is unsettling because the “bad guy” wins.  Sometimes in a series, one episode will have the evildoer win only to be followed by an episode in which justice prevails. Sadly, not so with this difficult episode.

Each episode is very tense and can be unnerving to watch. If that appeals to you, then

DO NOT MISS!

 

2004, Abuse of Women, Acceptable for teenagers, Amazon Prime, Athletes, Bisexual theme, Bullying, Divorce, Drama, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Father-son relations, Feel Good Not For Children, Friendship, Gay theme, High school students, Husband leaves wife, Marital Infidelity, Mother-son relations, Optimistic, Sensitive treatement of emotions, Small gem of a film, Spousal Abuse, Wife Beating

Jack (2004)

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From IMDB:

Jack (Anton Yelchin) is busy with adolescence when he realizes his parents are divorcing and even worse, his dad is gay. After some bittersweet experiences, Jack learns no family is perfect, but his own is more caring, supportive, and stronger than he knew.

From Amazon Prime:

Fifteen-year-old Jack finds his life turned upside down when his parents divorce and he discovers that his father is gay. When his friend Max reveals his own family troubles, Jack learns to appreciate all that he has – however unconventional and troubling it may be.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 43 minute family drama.

Dad Paul is played by Ron Silver. Mom Anne is played by Stockard Channing.  Jack is played by Anton Yelchin. Max is played by Giacomo Baessato.

Jack is 15 going on 16.  He is a typical kid who is on the varsity high school basketball team.  He and his best buddy Max gaze  shyly and longingly at their female school mates.  At fate would have it, it was only when Jack’s world seems to collapse that he able to befriend Maggie whose own father also turns out to be gay.  When Jack learns that Max’s father physically abuses Max’s mother,  he begins to appreciate his own family.

Despite the theme, this is a feel-good film in which Yelchin’s portrayal of Jack is pitch perfect and endearing.  This film is one of those rare gems that I somehow stumbled on.

 

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.