Reviews
Three Pines (2022)
The Canadian Formula
So every single Canadian Native is an extremely wise, moral and noble victim. White man bad. The local small town restaurant is run by a gay couple. Murderer is forgiven and pitied because of some past abuse, and the murder victim had it coming after all. Gee, where have I seen this before? I know, every other Canadian TV detective mystery that we get here in the US. Is Justin Trudeau the Executive Producer on all of these shows?
Am I the only one who is tired of seeing Tantoo Cardinal play the same character in just about every Canadian production? It's been going on for 30 years now. She can retire knowing that every Canadian TV show will reserve jobs for 4 or 5 Native women actors.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Unnatural Selection (1989)
Pulaski's First Big Role
This is the episode in which serious fans learned to despise Dr. Pulaski.
The plot's lesson makes it clear that playing god is always a mistake--good lesson. In the process, Pulaski displays her arrogance is as bad as the genetic scientists, and we hate her for it. After this, except maybe for the episode "The Icarus Factor", when she is revealed to have been Riker's father's former old lady (which in itself is kinda gross), she never gets a featured role again. She was obviously hated by most fans, so much so that the a-hole writer who didn't like Gates McFadden had to beg her to come back and resume playing Dr. Crusher. Whew, that was close.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes: The Abbey Grange (1986)
Powerful Stuff
This is as good an episode as I've seen yet. The acting is top notch all the way around. Holmes and Watson are outstanding in their quiet subtle exchanges. Lady Brackenstall is wonderfully understated and convincing in sharing her fabricated story. Even excellent performances by the maid Theresa and Mr Viviani, the head of the shipping line. This is one of the best Holmes plays of any kind I've ever seen. It's also satisfying to me how closely the script follows the original--this telling strays only once, when the Lady is present for the "courtroom" scene (Watson as jury). That scene is developed perfectly however and is worth the price of admission by itself. Wonderful episode.
Sourpuss nitpicking note: Inspector Stanley Hopkins is a young man--probably between 28 and 30 years old. The actor they have portraying him here is twice that. It's important because Hopkins invariably jumps to incorrect conclusions easily--part of his youth and inexperience, which is lost in this story with an older man playing him.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes: The Priory School (1986)
Total Rewrite
I enjoy these programs in every way--the production values and acting are first rate. I can also stand a little bit of rewriting of the original stories to give a more satisfying conclusion for television's unsophisticated viewers. However, in this episode the writers/directors went too far. The changes they made in the plot are too much and fundamentally change the story and the character of the older son as well as the Duke. We should only put up with so much bastardization or Sir Doyle's work--in this case it was "Hollywooded" up in order to add a little more action, but went way too far. Big thumbs down.
1899 (2022)
Complete Nonsense
There would be hundreds of ways for the question "What is reality?" to be investigated, to be made enjoyable, intriguing, and thought provoking. There is none of that here. This is utter horsecrap. The makers of this horsecrap have absolutely nothing to say--just throw out dead end "mysteries" and repeat the same nonsensical tropes over and over. How many times do we have to hear the redhead say, "I don't remember. I don't remember why I don't remember. I don't remember why I don't remember why I don't remember." Or have the captain say, "Could this all be a dream? Are you sure this isn't just a dream? What if this is just a dream?"
There is no profundity here. There is no deep thought. Anyone claiming to find this interesting is lying to themselves or to the outside world--either "I know I'm smart so I must enjoy this deep complex plot." Or, "Hey everybody, I'm really smart so I enjoy this kind of deep complex plot."
It's almost as if the writers were trying to warn the viewer that this is complete Eurotrash not fit for intelligent consumption. The pacing is so slow that after episode 2 it's clear that if the show really had anything to say it could be wrapped up in 5 episodes, 6 at the most. The fact that it dragged out to 8 was a sign the writers knew that they were vomiting up such complete nonsense that they may as well run with it.
Sister Boniface Mysteries: Unnatural Causes (2022)
Too Bad
I thought this Sister would make a good character to join the cast of Father Brown as soon as I saw the episode where she appeared, 'The Bride of Christ'. She was really good and stole the episode. So it was good news that they decided to give her a show of her own. It's really too bad they botched it.
Part of the intrigue of Father Brown is that he has a quality foil to work against him (Chief Inspector). Apparently the writers/producers of this show decided that they couldn't do the same with a female lead character, for whatever reason, so Sister B is given free reign and never opposed or questioned. It takes the heft out of the plot immediately. And then the BBC's own affirmative action quotas apparently caused them to cast an actor who has no experience or talent to be the 3rd lead character, with no personality or interesting quality of his own. He's so bad you can actually watch him "acting", which amounts to him reciting his lines, no more. Compare that to the quality lineup that they give Father Brown--true pros like Sorcha Cusack, Nancy Carroll, and Alex Price (he's brilliant, in my opinion), and of course all 3 Inspectors. But now it's clear that the BBC has decided it's more important to be progressive than good so now this is just a disposable throwaway piece of nothing. Truly a shame that the BBC, in its quest to be inclusive, ruined the chance for a strong female lead character to be great. That's called irony.
Father Brown: The House of God (2019)
The show's Catholic advisor?
This is an interesting episode based on a righteous man being able to interpret the Bible in such a wildly different manner than is usual. And then Father Brown openly admitting that the man's interpretation is not specifically prohibited in the Bible, while obviously not endorsing or tolerating the man's idea. I think it works very well as a plot design. Good episode.
One small note though about Father's biblical quotations: At the time of this series (early 1950s) the church would have been using the Knox translation as its standard. The quotes offered up by Father Brown are not from this translation--I've recognized enough of them that are very different than what I am familiar with, so I looked up a few. And as I thought, Father's quotes never come from Knox. Neither do they come from the Douay-Rheims translation that would have been the official Catholic version when Chesterton was actually writing the stories, the early 20th century. They may be using a translation that isn't Catholic at all. Just a curious if anyone knows the version they are using.
Father Brown: The Flower of the Fairway (2018)
Pretty weak plot...and the American accents!
Again, the BBC refuses to hire American actors to play Americans, instead using bad English actors on the cheap to play Americans with appallingly bad accents. Three of them this time!
Father Brown: The Paradise of Thieves (2015)
Sid is brilliant
Yes this is a good episode. I like the vault trickery. But mostly, this is the episode that convinced me what a great actor Alex Price is (Sid). Watch the scene in the vault with Father and Sid--it takes him just a look, no words, to be brilliantly funny.
Death in Paradise: Christmas Special (2021)
It's OK, really.....
There's a lot of complaining about plot holes and padding of the overly long script. But this has been an interesting mystery series and light-hearted entertainment for 10 years and has earned the right to give up one episode to exploring the personal lives of the characters. No, it wasn't a great whodunit episode, but I can appreciate one episode like this in deference to years of quality production.
A couple complaints of my own however. One thing that really diminishes the experience of watching a show that you're fond of is when bad actors appear. The actress playing the new wife of the murder victim is really bad. And as an American, I am not tolerant of British actors who feign horrible American accents, which this one does (I always imagine English viewers never notice this). That, and the fact that her character is horrible in every respect makes it unbelievable that one, let alone two, other humans would be in love with her. That's a huge plot problem.
But otherwise, I'm perfectly happy letting the show's writers, producers and actors having a Christmas "special" episode.
Inspector Morse: The Settling of the Sun (1988)
Does 'Inspector Morse' get better with time?
I am a big fan of the 'Endeavor' series. It's definitely one of the best written, directed, and acted crime procedurals I've seen. The character Morse is very interesting and complex, as are the supporting characters. It of course led me to start watching 'Inspector Morse' episodes, so I started from the beginning. But so far through Season 1 and three episodes of Season 2 I'm baffled by the low quality of the writing, directing and acting of this series. How did this series ever get a two hour slot on the BBC? This actor is unlikeable and not believable, and the character's personality and behavior is not consistent from one episode to another or even one scene to another. The plots are nonsensical, and the plot twists are clumsy and ham handed, and seem to be thrown into the mix just to fill up minutes in these unbearably lengthy scripts. I truly wanted this to be a good show and was excited to have 8 seasons to watch, but I'm done with it, I just can't watch any more.
Inspector Morse: The Wolvercote Tongue (1987)
Bad acting
It's hard to judge the acting in TV shows 35 years after they were produced, but I will never understand how the English could put up with Simon Callow for all those years. Every time I see him in a TV show or movie I can't enjoy it because his clownish over-acting is distracting, irritating and infuriating. Second point is that occasionally there are British actors who play Americans in American TV shows and movies and are fantastic--for instance Tim Roth, Damian Lewis, Laura Fraser, Kelly MacDonald etc. But in English productions, especially TV, the producers aren't too concerned with getting actors who can do even a passable American. I suppose they figured that only Brits are going to be watching it and thus nobody will be any of the wiser. But now that we Americans are getting to watch old (and new) English TV shows on streaming services, we are exposed to these actors playing "Americans" with ridiculous accents that sound nothing like an American. The old bag called Janet in this episode is particularly bad. There's also one of the oldsters in this episode who has an obvious and thick Australian accent. And they're supposed to be from Omaha or some such.
Cardinal (2017)
Season 2 Bad Actors
First, the two actors who play the bad guys in Season 2 are really bad--they're the kind of bad actors who you can watch acting. Second, the writers give the main bad guy such ridiculous gibberish for dialogue, supposedly his "philosophy", that he becomes a cartoon bad guy. This all combines to make Season 2 unwatchable.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
If you're a chick
This is the art-house Ingmar Bergman chick flick version of 'Saving Private Ryan'. Which is great.....if you're a chick. Of course all the critics and Hollywood types will have to praise it because they have to.
Intersect (2020)
Exquisitely Bad
Is the English language audio dubbed? The incredibly bad dialogue doesn't seem to match the video, so it looks like it has been dubbed. If the writing had been anything but abysmal that might be tolerable, but it's horrible. The story is twisted and scattered beyond the writer's capability to put any of the parts back together, making it nonsensical gobbledygook. Any yet, even with terrible cinematography and a terrible script with terrible dialogue, it's still possible to detect that the acting by all involved is also terrible. You'd think that a bad actor would be able to hide behind the other horrid parts of this craptastic production, but not so. The worst is one of the starring actors--his previous highlight credits in a 15-year career include 'Diner Patron', 'Redneck Guard', and 'Waiter'. That's it. So how does a rank amateur like that get a starring role in a movie? Easy. It has to be horrible beyond all rational thought.
New Tricks: Dead Man Talking (2010)
International Intrigue
There are just enough loose threads in this episode to make it enjoyable, and one perfect twist to keep us in the dark until the conclusion. While it appears to be a 'big' story at first with international intrigue, it boils down by the end to be a story of families. Three families pitted against each other, with one character stuck in the middle of both. When the threads are sewn up, it all makes sense enough.
The highlight is the understated and brilliant performance of David Bradley--some of the other guest actors in this episode should take note, but I doubt they did. The performance of Elizabeth Tan is so bad that it's distracting. And Tom Wu is maybe even worse and overcooked to the point of being embarrassing. Why don't young actors take the age-old advice of the old pros--'less is more'?
Republic of Doyle (2010)
Every piece of this piece is a cliché
How did Canadians put up with this for 6 years? Holy Crap! Is there any cliché that isn't used in this first episode? Every character is a cliché, every situation is a cliché, every relationship is a cliché, and every line of dialog is horribly clichéd. Ugh! If this were made in the '70s, you might say it was original, or at least a light hearted ripoff of the PI shows of the day. But this is absolute warmed over drivel.