I didn't expect to like THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME but I sort of did. I think it was because of Michael Cera's casting. I watched it as a series of skits rather than a whole, which was less frustrating. Going to see DON'T LETS GO DOWN TO THE DOGS TONIGHT today. I read it a long time ago. (Great movie-about a family caught up in the end of white Rhodesia).
Liked the BLACK MIRROR episode with Paul Giamatti. Still watching the series on the Mitfords (OUTRAGEOUS) on BRIT BOX. Always difficult to find much sympathy for the rich and this one makes it even harder as they fawn over Adolph Hitler. Still reading MINA'S MATCHBOX, which is so unusual. Although it goes well with the Anderson movie. Also reading essays by Lorrie Moore. THE WSJ picked their favorite crime books from the 2000s. Megan's THE TURNOUT was on there. I thought it was a very good list but anyone craving action probably won't.
The weather is strange or maybe it's the Canadian fires but it's dark a lot.
I wake up full of dread anyway and that sure doesn't help.
What about your world?
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Diane and I watched the final episode of PATIENCE on PBS (a second season is being filmed now). We're still watching POKER FACE.
Western NY weather has moderated for the next few days: 70s and low humidity. Nice. More heat heading our way this weekend.
Colbert getting axed by Paramount in order to satisfy Trump is outrageous! If any of the Late Night hosts criticize Trump, they'll be looking for a new job, too. Our country is a mess! Stay safe!
So, interesting, as our reading and watching is completely different from yours. Here we start the day with word games, go on to books and television.
This was a quiet and warm to hot week. This week looks the same. Nothing major going on here. I know what you mean about waking up dreading what the new day will bring. I try and avoid the news but it is impossible.
Jackie tends to watch an hour or two of shows I don't want to watch during the afternoon. She went through the second series of FUBAR, which looked dreadful, and I think she is watching the poorly reviewed COUNTDOWN. She is more into silly action stuff than I am. I'd much rather read.
We did finish LONG BRIGHT RIVER on Peacock. The book was better. 8 hours was too long, and Amanda Seyfried seemed to have the "deer in the headlights" look the entire show, plus some of the changes they made, I didn't care for, even though it mostly followed the book. Also finished the second (final?) series of WOLD LIKE ME, which left a cliffhanger that may or may not be resolved by a third series, if any. We're nearly at the end of the first series of POKER FACE (also Peacock), which we continue to enjoy. Each episode is just different enough despite the COLUMBO parallel to keep our attention, and there are interesting guest stars, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Our current Saturday night Brit Night lineup is PRIME SUSPECT, NEW TRICKS (both of which we've seen before) and SILENT WITNESS, but we also started rewatching the classic JONATHAN CREEK again. PRIME SUSPECT 4 ran in 1995 - the first episode's guests were Lesley Sharp, who has gone on to SCOTT & BAILEY among others, and Robert Glenister, who played the Home Secretary on several series of SPOOKS. NEW TRICKS series 1 was 2004, and we're up to series 15 of SILENT WITNESS (2012). JONATHAN CREEK started in 1998. One of the main enjoyments of watching these shows is catching earlier performances by actors who became well known later, sometimes (as with Ralph Fiennes in an earlier SILENT WITNESS) in a very early performance.
Also watching many other things - the French THE BUREAU (Paramount +, maybe) and LE CODE (MHz), the Swedish THE GLASS DOME (Netflix; a girl was kidnapped and held in a glass box for some time. Years later she comes back from the US when her adoptive mother dies, only to find another young girl has been kidnapped); the Canadian BEING ERICA and CONTINUUM, etc.
I read and liked Bruce Borgos's third Nevada-set mystery, THE BLUE HORSE, and John Kenney's OK but not great I SEE YOU'VE CALLED IN DEAD.
I wasn't impressed with the WSJ best mysteries list. Only read 6 (including Megan's).
I thought they crammed too much info in the last minutes of PATIENCE. Also her autism barely is dealt with. ASTRID was better IMHO.
POKER FACE is pretty good. They attract good actors and writers and she's perfect as Charlie. All of the late night hosts have said worst things about TRUMP but this was when Paramount was vulnerable, I think.
Will skip LONG, BRIGHT, RIVER. I watched a lot of movies last week including INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, TO CATCH A THIEF, and the amazingly great IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE.
No Jerry today?
Did he go to Massachusetts? I do worry when the usuals don't show up. Always wondering if it was something I did or if they are ill or if my blog isn't working. These are the black thoughts that wake me up.
Massachusetts is not until November.
I like that photo of flowers and hostas (?) at the top. I have been wanting to put some more plants in pots in the back area but my shoulder is still bothering me off and on.
We have been watching MURDER SHE WROTE, CSI: NEW YORK, and the new season of GOOD SHIP MURDER. Glen describes it as "soapy" but we have a good time with it. Also, we watched another episode of MIDSOMER MURDERS. Last night we watch DEMOLITION MAN from 1993 with Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, Glenn Shadix, Bill Cobbs and a lot of other actors I enjoyed. It was the ninth time we had watched it.
Glen is now reading three books, including BORN TO BE POSTHUMOUS by Mark Dery, a biography of Edward Gorey, and PACKING FOR MARS by Mary Roach, about the "strange universe of space travel and life without gravity." He has three more ghost stories to read in THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE by John Gaskin.
This week I read A DEATH IN TOKYO by Keigo Higashino, and I read it at a much faster pace than usual. I enjoy Higashino's books, but they are often more complicated than the average mystery. Now I am reading OLIVE, AGAIN by Elizabeth Strout. I have read five of the thirteen stories. I am enjoying this one more than OLIVE KITTERIDGE, but only because I know what to expect this time. And, of course, it is following up on some of the events from the first book.
I was also wondering where Jerry was.
Glen has very eclectic tastes. I am a fan of Asian fiction and movies.
A friend’s nephew was in a very serious motorcycle accident last night. He was not wearing a helmet. It is not against the law in Michigan. Crazy, right. He has a young son.
Jimmy Kimmel (who has spoken out in strong terms about Colbert's cancellation) has moved from his earlier fraboy shtick toward sharp comedic criticism particularly of Drumpf and his minions, and no sign so far that this has made him a target for nervous suits at ABC (who are probably actually amused that CBS is dumping the most popular show in direct competition with JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, almost certainly providing more eyeballs for Kimmel's series). As to why Kimmel has upped his game (other than the current NBC TONIGHT SHOW is in the hands of a bubblehead for the arrested development cases looking for that sort of thing), a good friend of mine noted that, after all, Kimmel has kids now. She suspects that makes a lot, if not all, of the difference.
I endorse Glen's choices, and might be seeking them out soon...Roach writes about interesting matters.And now I'm a bit worried about Jerry, as well, hope whatever is keeping him from usual schedule of posting isn't Too dire nor long-lasting.
What I've been overdosing (almost) on of late are back-episodes of the original BBC version of HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU, the comedy quiz/discussion series that CNN has picked up as their primary comedy/satire series, in a good US version, after 30+ years running in Britain. I don't think, as you seem to agree, Patti, that the current admin has fully cowed television, so much as the front offices of current television (certainly Shari Redstone of Paramount Global and David Ellison of Skydance) share too much of Drumpf's attitudes about the world, and, unlike Paramount and Skydance, aren't looking to get approval for greater monopoly than should be allowed at this tantrum moment in Drumpf's tantrum-fest of a life.
Would watching an old show about news of the nineties work? Wouldn't that world seem far preferable to ours-which happened when I watched Good Night and Good Luck. McCarthy was horrible but boy he went away a lot quicker and easier than...other people.
But not his acolytes Nixon and Bobby Sr. (Bobby Jr. being the worst of his legacies, though he didn't stop being himself an ass in aiding McCarthy). The humor at the expense of the "newsmaking" abusers helps...and the reminders of the Continuing/Continual Crisis. And the oldest episodes go back to the '90s, but the BBC series continues today. I watch the more recent episodes the most assiduously.
First episode of the current series (beginning in April 2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JalluUsWg
Will try it. Thx!
A pretty good episode, not their best, but worth seeing (I watched it for the first time after digging it out). I assume you've seen the US version? Here's a long 2025 clip/online bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8zD3BlRsPk I like both.
Just saw the LATE SHOW, and the Seth Meyers "Closer Look" and DAILY SHOW opening about Trump...a good night of tv. Good repeat if AFTER MIDNIGHT, too...guests Maria Bamford, Doug Benson and Eddie Pepitone. I've met Bamford and Pepitone in person.
No, I have never seen the US or any version. I am not a late night viewer.
FWIW, HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU is a Sunday primetime series on CNN when the new episodes roll out (new season set for September), and HBO Max makes the episodes available the next day to their subscribers (the UK original it's in what would be "primetime" on BBC 1 on Saturdays)...but it is amusing, or not, that even the cable series in the US that have no compelling reason to be in relatively late night, such as THE DAILY SHOW and HBO's LAST WEEK TONIGHT, are still in those slots.
Coming in late to say the CNN version of HAVE I GOT has been a fun show.
Jeff, I tried listening to BLUE HORSE and quit. The romance bits were way too ooey-gooey and the plot was too far fetched for me.
I read Christa Faust's latest and last Angel Dare novel and enjoyed it. Started reading SHADOW OF REICHENBACH FALLS and been enjoying it. A Holmes novel with some humor, adventure, and Moriarty history.
I'm back at work after my spell of COVID but have been slow to get back into the swing of things. There are always new roadblocks on the way to getting a building expansion. Sometimes I don't get bothered. Other times I get down and take a couple days to rest and reassess. I am back to regular exercise at least.
Been listening to Burke's JOLIE BLON'S BOUNCE. I probably read it before and am not sure if I have read it or that I just recognize so much of Burke's style and themes. First time I've really noticed that Robicheaux is not a reliable narrator. He is in denial on his drinking trouble, his stress, his worry. Characters often tell him how much he is being a prick; Dave shares this as narrator but nothing gets through to him. There is a line of dialogue when the Sheriff is counseling Dave and Dave says something like, "I'm not big on self-reflection." Meanwhile, his best pal Clete, is even worse.
BOUNCE came out in 2002 and I'm even more disturbed now about the violence perpetrated by the police and how they get away scot-free. Most of the novels are read acknowledge the cops' actions are illegal. Most of those novels excuse the behavior by giving the reader some revenge against miscreants.
I'm sure someone has already written a PhD on this topic.
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