Bingeworthy TV
Slow Horses (AppleTV+) is back for series 4 – what more can I say – it’s the best thing on any TV platform! Initially centring around River’s father played by a wonderful Jonathan Pryce, with all our favourite disgraced spies back led by Jackson Lamb, the action is never far away. Gary Oldman is pure genius as their spymaster with Kristin Scott Thomas in MI5 HQ to run the show.
Ripley (Netflix) – I finally got around to watching the beautifully shot in monochrome, but cerebrally slow series starring Andrew Scott as schemer Ripley with Johnny Flynn as his mark Dickie Greenleaf. All the way through, given the state of my knees these days, I couldn’t help thinking about the stairs in that Italian town. It picked up in pace though after the first couple of episodes.
Bad Monkey (AppleTV+) – Vince Vaughn is perfect as the wisecracking suspended cop Detective Yancy on the search for social justice after an arm is ‘hooked’ by a tourist on a fishing trip. He teams up with pathologist Rose (Natalie Martinez) to solve the mystery in which too many are getting murdered. Adapted from the Carl Hiassen novel, it’s funny and thrilling and features Rob Delaney as you’ve never seen him before!
KAOS (Netflix) – This is the second-best thing on TV at the moment. Imagine a modern take on all the ancient Greek myths. Got that? Now cast Jeff Goldblum as a seriously deranged tennis and pyjama-loving Zeus, and Janet McTeer as his imperious wife Hera, and give them the wonderful water gardens of the Villa d’Este in Tivoli outside Rome (I’ve been) as their spectacular setting for Mount Olympus. Add in the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and Ariadne and the Minotaur, liberally stir with Poseidon, Dionysus, Hades, Persephone and not forgetting our narrator Prometheus (Stephen Dillane) and we have 8 wonderful episodes of mayhem!
Summer of Sport: Wimbledon, documentaries on Daley Thompson and Linford Christie, the Olympics. Fabulous! There was no need to watch Homes Under the Hammer and Bargain Hunt with all that lot going on.
Big Screen on the LIttle Screen
The Man in the Hat – 2020 – (Prime) – Ciarán Hinds on a road trip in rural France – virtually dialogue-free and simply gorgeous French countryside. He is nursing a drink and a portrait of an unknown woman, when he spots after some black-suited guys dump what he assumes is a body in the sea and they spot him. A chase begins through the French countryside as their paths repeatedly cross in funny ways. He meets many people along the way, including the ‘damp man’ (Stephen Dillane, again) whom he helps. It was simply delightful!
The Outfit – 2022 – (Prime) Noir set in the gangster era with Mark Rylance as an English cutter who owns a tailor shop used as a meeting place by the gangsters that buy his suits, Johnny Flynn plays one of them. Lovely twist in the tail.
The Menu – 2022 – (Disney+) Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy with Nicholas Hoult and others. A dark comedy-horror film about an exclusive restaurant on a private island, where the chef (Fiennes) is preparing a different kind of banquet! Bizarre but compulsive.
The Instigators – 2024 (AppleTV+) Matt Damon and Casy Affleck in an OK crime caper. A rare case of just ‘OK-ness’ from Apple.
Confess, Fletch – 2022 – (Netflix) Jon Hamm is investigative journalist Fletch in a comic art theft murder mystery. Great fun. Nice support from Kyle MacLachlan amongst others and a neat cameo from Mad Men colleague John Slattery. Good fun.
Live Events by Mostly Books
The Bookshop Band – put my first encounter with the band – and a lovely opportunity to meet up with Rebecca and her husband Chris (she blogged about it here). I’m a convert!
Susie Dent – in conversation with Katie Tyler from Radio Oxford, the day before publication of Susie’s first novel, Guilty by Definition, which I’ve now read and will review soon. A fun and educational event – I learned some new words that evening, including: ‘Confelicity’ – a much-underused word meaning delight in someone else’s happiness; the opposite of Schadenfreude, and ‘Apricity’ – the warmth of the sun in winter.
What did you watch over the summer – your recommendations are welcome.
Slow Horses is soooooo good! I’m enjoying Bad Monkey too.
I hadn’t heard of The Outfit and I really like Mark Rylance so definitely adding that to the list – thank you!
Bad Monkey is such fun! Slow Horses is torture at one episode a week!
Very nice watch list! I couldn’t agree more about Slow Horses — it’s one of the best things ever! Here in the U.S., alas, I can only watch one episode per week, so it’s torture waiting six long days to see how the plot unfolds! (have you read the books BTW? I spent most of the early summer on a re-read. I think they’re even better than the series, which is saying a lot. But then, there’s no theme song by Sir Mick!) I just finished watching the last episode of Kaos and, again, totally agree with you about its quality! It’s quirky, incredibly imaginative, visually arresting and very, very well acted. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Netflix will go for a Season 2 and even 3 (what the show runner wants) I also enjoyed Ripley very much — so different from the earlier movie, but quite a fresh & wonderful take on Highsmith’s classic. I haven’t seen ANY of your movies, although The Outfit has been on my list for awhile. As for my own viewing — have you seen a sci-fi series called The Expanse? lots & lots of episodes and they’re all pretty good . . .
Janakay, we’re being tortured too with just one episode a week of Slow Horses 4. I’ve read 6 of the books so far – and just love them. Luckily for me, Mick Herron lives in Oxford and I’ve got several signed by him. Lovely man too, very witty. On Kaos, Janet McTeer as Hera scares me stiff, and I love Dionysus with the kitten! Can’t wait for another series. I will check out The Expanse – thanks for the recommendation.
You’ve just turned my Sunday green with envy (in a nice way)! Mick Herron’s signatures on your copies! I’ve read various things about Herron (think the Guardian did an interview) and he sounds very, very engaging. As for Kaos,Janet McTeer is FABULOUS! Did you ever watch Ozark (the cartels come to rural Missouri/Arkansas)? It’s violent but really gripping; McTeer has a major role for a couple of seasons & she’s even scarier.
We enjoyed the Olympics coverage and the Daley Thompson documentary, have the Linford Christie saved to watch as I’ve been away and now Matthew is. I enjoyed the Susie Dent novel and am also about to review it – NetGalley readers found it a bit wordy but I loved the wordiness and I expect you did, too!
How could a novel set at a dictionary’s HQ, with lexicographer sleuths, and written by a lexicographer not be wordy?! Loved that aspect of it totally – and it’s not as if she didn’t make the definititions clear in the text either.
I enjoyed Ripley, too. The slow pace worked for me, illustrating how he develops into a sociopath much more skilled at killing by the end. Coincidentally, I watched the brilliant Being John Malkovich for the third time last month. He’s still my favourite Ripley!
I’ve never seen the Malkovich Ripley film – I must look it out – for I do love Cyrus the Virus!
Ha! I’d forgotten all about that. He’s a chilling Ripley.
Many of these are on my TBW list but I’ve got a lot of American and Canadian shows and films in my queue, too, and over the summer I don’t watch quite as much generally. “The Bear” (love stories set in restaurants and bars, no matter the medium, and there’s so much character development here too) and “Barry” (very darkly funny, depends on my mood) are underway, and for drama I’ve been watching “Dicte” for that Euro-crime itch and finishing the last season of “The Good Fight”. I seem to go through phases where I start shows (secretly hoping that I won’t like some of them, which hardly ever happens cuz I’m picky before I try something, so my TBW ends up just as long) and also phases where I try to finish some (which is where I’m at now). Are you mostly a start-and-then-finish viewer?
I’m definitely a binge viewer. As long as the first episode grabs me I will watch the lot as soon as they are available – I watched all of KAOS over 1 weekend and it’s hard waiting only getting 1 ep per week of Slow Horses and Bad Monkey. I regret slogging through 3 tedious episodes of The Expats though before giving up. I had a couple of months of free Disney+ but didn’t have time to get into The Bear fully which is a shame – another time.
I loved Ripley way more than I thought I would. I thought Scott was amazing and nearly every shot had me swooning. Slow Horses is as fun as ever.
I agree, Ripley was always gorgeous to look at and Scott was great casting (he’s ageing well at 47). Slow Horses is still fab, but the chap playing Claude Whelan is too caricatured.
I know what you mean about Claude.