Tag: Media Monday

Media Monday: Endeavor

Published on by Live Vi-Carrie-ously

We’ve been on a British TV show watching kick.

Escape to the Country for late night/exhausted no-brain-needed viewing.

Great British Baking Show, Holiday episodes, ditto. But just me. We do enjoy the regular seasons together, but the Holiday editions aren’t shared.

We were caught up with Midsomer Murders and Father Brown (though both may have new seasons by now), so we went looking for something similar and found Lewis. Lewis is a detective in Oxford who was trained by Morse, who first appeared in books by Colin Dexter. We started with Lewis, then I figured we’d back up to Morse.

One day a couple months ago, Stud Muffin was telling a friend that we were watching Lewis and the friend stopped him and said we needed to start with Endeavor. It’s actually a newer show, but it’s about Inspector Morse as a young policeman and the detective who trained him.

So we put the brakes on Lewis and went to Endeavor. It begins in the late 1960s, in Oxford, England. We see Endeavor as a young officer, confident in his abilities to solve crimes. His trainer/mentor, DI Thursday, tells him he’s a good detective, but not a very good policeman.

Endeavor then learns to be both.

We’re almost to the end of the series, up to the early 1970s. We see Morse struggle to find his place in policing and life. We see him drink too much, sleep around too much, and fall into deep holes. But we also see him loving easily, stopping violence, and being a voice of truth to others.

If you enjoy British Who Done Its, Endeavor is an excellent addition to your viewing list!

Media Monday: BritBox and AcornTV

Published on by Live Vi-Carrie-ously

We disconnected the satellite TV a few months ago and are now streaming only. We still get live channels via YouTubeTV. Which we pay about the same amount for as what the satellite company offered to keep us. But we’d made up our minds so we declined their offer. With the streaming subscriptions, we’re saving about $100/month over what we were paying for a bunch of satellite channels we never watched.

Photo from DepositPhotos

We’re watching a lot of British and Canadian shows via BritBox and AcornTV, thanks to Amazon Prime. Which we had watched many of these already, but we’re back at it, and finding some new ones.

I’ve previously written about Murdoch Mysteries, a product of Canada. There were two new seasons we had to catch up on. And talk about a cliffhanger at the end of Season 14! I immediately had to check and be sure they were filming Season 15. Whew! They are.

Murdoch Mysteries

It took us a year to watch all of Midsomer Murders, and last week we watched Season 22.

PBS recently aired a new version of All Creatures Great and Small, based on the books by British vet James Herriot. We watched Season 1, then went back and watched the older series from the late 1970s and early ’80s. We’d read all the books, of course. Both the older and newer series followed the same book fairly closely.

After we finished the older series, we went back to Midsomer Mysteries, Season 21, Episode 1, The Point of Balance, when Christopher Timothy, the actor who played James Heriot, guest starred in Midsomer as Ned Barnaby, DCI John Barnaby’s father.

That was very fun to watch! Seeing an older “Herriot” and how he’d aged.

We tried Doc Martin. I had tried it a few years ago, at several friends’ recommendation, but just couldn’t get into it. Stud Muffin and I tackled it together and after a few episodes, decided we enjoyed it enough to continue. But as often happens, (and I’ve told him this), he gets me to watching something that I’m not really wanting to watch (American Idol, Survivor, Longmire, to name a few) and then I get hooked and he decides he doesn’t want to watch anymore. Well sure enough, around Season 6, SM got tired of Doc’s perennial jerkness and said he was done. I do see glimmers of him trying to be better, so I’ll continue with Doc on my own. One of these days.

We’re currently trying Father Brown. After the first 2 episodes, SM said he didn’t care for how the “writers” (he blames all story deficiencies on the writers, never the producers, directors, or editors) portrayed the police officers/detectives/investigators as “bumbling idiots.” I disagreed with him. We did take a break and caught up on Midsomer, and we’re back to Father Brown. He hasn’t complained again. I don’t think he’s changed his mind, but at least he’s not arguing with the television set.

Media Monday: The Crown

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We enjoyed the first two seasons of this original Netflix show, and just got around to watching Season 3. There are new actors in many of the roles since Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, Prince Charles, and the others are getting older.

We like this show for several reasons.

It’s a good “Well, it could have happened that way,” story of real lives about real people whom we’ll never know the real truth about.

It shows British history, including parts we’re not familiar with. We had no knowledge of the Aberfan disaster. A Welsh coaling village, Aberfan was devastated by the deaths of 116 children and 28 adults when a colliery spoil tip collapsed into the village. It was like a giant sinkhole, that then turned into an avalanche. And we learned that the Welsh people weren’t (and presumably still aren’t) particularly supportive of the monarchy in general and the Prince of Wales in particular.

The actors are incredible. Clare Foy as Queen Elizabeth in the first two seasons, then Olivia Colman. John Lithgow as Winston Churchill. Vanessa Kirby and Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret. Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip. We already had a love/hate relationship with Menzies as Frank Randall/Captain Black Jack Randall in Outlander, but he made Prince Philip his own too. So while many of the actors are familiar, their work in The Crown is outstanding.

Do you watch The Crown? Who’s your favorite character/actor?

Media Monday: Sweet Magnolias

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A new-to-me Netflix series, Sweet Magnolias, was my weekend escape. I’m halfway through Season 1, and I understand it ends on a cliffhanger, so I’m trusting there will be a Season 2.

SMSweet Magnolias is set in Serenity, South Carolina and is about three women, friends since high school. Maddie, newly divorced, mom of three. Helen, single, attorney, accomplished. Dana Sue, longer divorced, mom of one, restaurateur. They go into business together, renovating a historic home and turning it into a spa. The series follows their lives, their romances, their families.

I haven’t read the books the series is based on, by Sherryl Woods. I’ve heard good things about them, but honestly, my To-Be-Read (TBR) mountain is teetering so high, I don’t dare add any more to it. At least until I get the current stack to a more manageable height. If you love small town Southern romances with strong female characters and deep friendships, I feel safe in saying you’d love the books.

The series is good, even if I can’t personally compare it to the books.

SH

I like the characters. I loved Brooke Elliott, who plays Dana Sue, as Jane Bingum in Drop Dead Diva back in 2009-2014. She was ditzy blonde model who was killed in an accident and sent back to life on Earth in a smart, brunette attorney’s curvy body. Ms Elliott was brilliant in that.

I’m enjoying this as a new find.

Anyone have something new to recommend?

My Netflix and Amazon Prime lists are not quite as bulging as my TBR stack.

Media Monday: The Office TV Show and The Office Ladies Podcast

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I didn’t watch The Office when it was on television. I wasn’t a fan of the mockumentary style. But it’s grown on me.

office

And people I respect love The Office so a couple of years ago, I made it my lunchtime Netflix show. And I really enjoyed it. Yes, it lost some of its charm when Steve Carrell left, but I watched it to the end.

There are very few shows I watch over and over again. Gilmore Girls … and … and that’s about it. If I’m channel surfing and Friends is on, I might stop there.

Then I found The Office Ladies podcast. Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who played Pam and Angela on The Office, have a podcast where they dissect an episode a week. OLPThey started with the pilot and are going straight through. I’m only about mid-way through Season Two, and they’re near the beginning of Season Three.

The two women are best friends in real life and that shows. They’re having a blast remembering things that happened during filming. You can tell that the entire cast and crew had enormous respect for each other.

So now I’m rewatching The Office. I listen to an episode of the podcast, then rewatch the television episode they talked about. It’s fun to revisit favorite moments, to hear about who couldn’t get through the scene without breaking. Sometimes a costar or crew member or writer or production team member will call in or stop by to add their memories.

After I’ve finished this second go round with The Office, I’m going to watch the British version that was the original. The US version has 188 episodes. The British version: 14. It won’t be quite the time commitment. We can’t seem to know when is enough. But that’s a subject for another day.

Anyway, if you listen to podcasts and you liked The Office, check out The Office Ladies.

One caveat: there are lots of ads. I fast forward through them pretty easily, but their parent company offers a paid, ad-free subscription with extras. Just FYI.

Is there a television series you return to? A comfort watch, if you will?

I’m always looking for recommendations!

Happy viewing!