The Count of Monte Cristo

 

Superb adaptation of the classic Dumas story of three men who, for varying reasons, conspire to falsely imprison a man. 15 years after, he escapes and extracts revenge. This is the type of thing that Masterpiece theatre usually knocks out of the park and this is no exception. Tremendous cast, great source material and it's handled by a production company that makes these kind of historical dramas look effortless. It's currently airing on American television, although it aired two years ago in the UK. Well worth the time whether you're familiar with the story or not.

DTF: St. Louis

Uncomfortable story of a love triangle between friends in St Louis that starts on a dating app and ends with a murder investigation. HBO is never scared to go for non traditional content and DTF is not your normal show. The cast is excellent, the script starts strong, but ends weak, and what is in-between is a really bizarre examination of friendship and sexuality that is guaranteed to make you cringe at some point. There is plenty here to wrap your head around and it never ceases to keep your interest However, viewing this show in its entirety is going to produce a vast range of outcomes depending on the viewer's ability to relate to these characters. For me, it's a mixed bag. Worth the watch even though the ending is almost certain to disappoint. 

Christy

 Sydney Sweeney portrays groundbreaking, 1990's, female boxer Christy Martin. Not an all together typical sports biopic simply for the fact that the main perspective is that of a female fighter and with the exception of Million Dollar Baby this hasn't seen much play on the big screen. It allows the director to explore themes of spousal abuse and LGBTQ that are absent from most sports pics. This isn't a show stopper, but its solid. I am not a fan of Sydney Sweeney, but I am starting to come around. She was nothing short of great in this role and her last two film roles (This and The Housemaid) have been excellent. She'll never be ATJ, but if she takes the right roles she has a bright future.

S4: The Bob Lazar Story

 Anybody familiar with UFO lore knows who Bob Lazar is and s4 is the culmination of all that Bob has told us about his experiences working with government owned UFO's and it has been visually recreated here much to my delight. An outstanding companion piece to Age of Disclosure and even after over 30 years of research into the subject I still learned things I didn't know from both these films. Amazingly, We now know how they fly and what they use for a power source (element 115) and all of it is utterly fascinating. A must see for UFOlogists and a pretty damn good watch for anyone with an interest in the subject.

Something Very Bad is about to Happen.

 Something very bad is about to happen.... you are about to waste 8hrs of your life on a story that could have been told in two. Hard to imagine how much I hated this long-winded, boring story about a wedding, an old curse and a bunch of utterly annoying characters from one family. This is by the creators of the hugely overrated Stranger Things, but it isn't even up to those meager standards. The two leads aren't worth a plug nickel combined, the story is stupid and it's SOOOO overly long that some amount of boredom is inevitable. I did something I NEVER do, I skipped from e4 to e8 just to see how it finished and I STILL spent too much of my life on this one. Hard Pass

Detective Hole

 

Highly Americanized Norwegian crime thriller sees Tobias Santelmann as the alcoholic detective Hole and Joel Kinnaman, a corrupt colleague, as they team up to hunt for a serial killer, while playing cat and mouse with each other. Dark, brooding and highly-stylized detective thriller hits all the right notes. These detective thrillers are a dime a dozen so when one comes along that grabs your attention like this you hold on. Kinnaman acting in his native Norwegian is refreshing and gives this instant credibility. Hopefully, the subtitles won't discourage viewers because this maybe the best show that Netflix has done so far this year. This is up their with Task and True Detective. Outstanding stuff. Do not miss.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

 

Oscar winner for best animated short, TGWCP is a fable about a young boy, the girl he loved and the greed of men. This is 17 minutes long and it took five years to make. It's done in stop motion animation and if nothing else this is a wonder to look at. The story may fall a bit short, but the artistic creation on display here make TGWCP a very worthy Oscar winner. If you have a chance to watch this, take it. It's the definition of short and sweet.