Watchlist: mid-March to end-April 2023

Films on the small screen:

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (Prime) – after reading Baxter Dury’s memoir (reviewed here) I was recommended this biopic of his dad, Ian and loved it. Andy Sirkis’s singing is a little more raucous in comparison, but he was brilliant.

Tetris (Apple+) – starring Taron Egerton. Who’d have thought a film about a small gaming company trying to buy the rights to Tetris would be so entertaining and complicated – but negotiating with the Russians and Robert Maxwell was never going to be straight-forward. Toby Jones and Roger Allam (as Maxwell) support.

Sharper (Apple+) – Hustle writ-large. Everyone is one the make to get John Lithgow’s millions in this caper. Nasty for the most part. Julianne Moore is good as always. OK.

Three Thousand Years of Longing (Prime) Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba star in this love story of a storyteller who unlocks a genie from his bottle. Not what I expected, but I really enjoyed it, and I’ll watch anything with Swinton in it.

Television:

Ted Lasso! (Apple+) Series 3 continues to delight and there are just a few episodes to go now.

Blue Lights (BBC1) Following three rookie police officers and their partners in Belfast where tensions still run high. Excellent.

The Big Door Prize (Apple+) – I watched the first few episodes, but have rather lost interest – is it worth pursuing?

The Morning Show (Apple+) Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon are both fantastic, especially the former, in this newsroom drama with Steve Carrell as the former anchor axed for #metoo allegations. I’m now onto Season 2 and it’s brilliantly back-biting.

Magpie Murders (BBC) – I had to binge this! It’s so cleverly done. The conflating of the book within and the main timeline is done seamlessly too. Lesley Manville stars – seemingly in her element – and I love her biker jacket!

Great Expectations – it’s not effing Dickens as we know it, but it’s certainly arresting! (ongoing)

Luther (BBC iplayer)- I never watched this seriously before – but again have now binged all five series. It’s dark. It’s good. Ruth Wilson is creepy and wonderful. Idris Elba looms!

Citadel (Prime) – Super slick, super glossy, totally unbelievable spy series – but total fun and it’s got Stanley Tucci! (2 episodes in – I’ll continue).

And a final special mention to Picard (Prime) – This final third series of Picard has been a total delight, reuniting nearly all of the old crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation plus Seven originally from ST: Voyager once more, pitting them against foes old (Borg) and new (Changelings) who want to destroy the Federation, and bringing in one last surprise for us right at the end (if you’ve ever watched TNG, you’ll doubtless work out who that could be – she teased). Even Alice Krige returns as the voice of the Borg Queen, and there are references aplenty throughout to other Star Trek characters.

All the old TNG stalwarts are getting old, Patrick Stewart is 82 and Levar Burton at 66 is the youngest of the crew. But it’s been lovely seeing them all in action together this last time, but particularly Michael Dorn as Worf, the Klingon, who is a new man!

What have you been watching this month? Do share…

6 thoughts on “Watchlist: mid-March to end-April 2023

  1. A Life in Books says:

    Magpie Murders sound excellent. Believe it or not I’ve been revisiting and really enjoying Friends. I’d forgotten how funny it was. And on the big screen, I loved Rye Lane which cheered me up no end.

    • AnnaBookBel says:

      Magpie Murders was excellent and the denouement ingenious! I remember the days in the 1990s when you stayed in for Friends on a Friday – I’ve seen enough of them again watching with my daughter, Chandler and Phoebe were my favourite characters, and I sing ‘Smelly Cat’ to Harry whenever he’s stinky!
      I’ve now started rewatching ER from the beginning – more next time on that.

  2. Calmgrove says:

    I’m glad you liked the Dury biopic because Andy Serkis steals the scene of every show he’s in. And Roger Allam as Robert Maxwell? Perfect. A pity we don’t have Apple+…

    And Magpie Murders was seamless and played it brilliantly. Though I’ve yet to read the novel having Horowitz write the script makes me feel nothing was pruned and nothing extraneous added.

    • AnnaBookBel says:

      I had a free 6 months Apple sub and kept it going as I’m finding more to watch there the quality is higher than Netflix’s new stuff I’m finding. The Tetris film was excellent.
      On Magpie Murders, I haven’t read the book, but I gather the two plotlines are kept more separate in it. I thought this aspect was super in the TV adaptation.

  3. JacquiWine says:

    I quite fancy Magpie Murders and Blue Lights, so it’s great to hear that you enjoyed them. Lesley Manville is such an excellent actor, and her range is phenomenal – she elevates pretty much everything she appears in. Have you seen Paul Thomas Anderson’s film ‘Phantom Thread’? If not, I would thoroughly recommend it!

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