I so agree!
I am watching it again!
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I’ve read and enjoyed all of the books in the series. I thought that the show skewed cutesy, and that Pierce Brosnan (while gorgeous) wasn’t right for his part.
I know! But I can’t put my finger on why.
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Well, we finished Code of Silence. We liked it overall, but I’m not surprised about the existence of a subreddit that laments the main character’s Very Bad Decisions.
Set up for a second season, judging from the final epi.
Caught Stealing (2025) - dir. Darren Aronofsky
Austin Butler is Harry. He works in a NYC bar, and leads a small, unremarkable life, save for his devotion to the SF Giants baseball team. Harry was almost a big league star, but a drunk driving accident shattered his knee, and his career-to-be. One day his neighbor Russ (Matt Smith), an aging English punk and drug dealer, asks Harry to watch his cat while he visits his dad in London. And thus poor Harry is dropped into a world of violent Russian mobsters and Hasidic hitmen (Liev Schrieber and Vincent D’Onofrio). Now he has to get himself out of a situation he truly never asked for and didn’t deserve.
That marks a change for Aronofsky. Usually, his protagonists are being put through the ringer via situations of their own making. The paranoid obsessive of PI, Requiem for a Dream’s pathetic addicts, and Black Swan’s deadly ambitious dancers all suffer (and ultimately lose) for their own particular character flaws. Harry, though, is just a guy having a really, REALLY shitty week. Also changing up is Aronofsky’s directorial style. His usual touches of stylistic surrealism here take a big step back as we’re left with very well done but conventional camera-work. The biggest change, though, is tone. Despite all the very bad things that happen to Harry and those around him (and some of the things are VERY bad, indeed), there’s no shortage of laughs. Some of it is pretty pitch black humor, but the sequence in which Harry is taken to meet the Hassid’s bubbe, played impeccably by Carole Kane, is a delight from start to finish. It almost feels like Aroofsky was trying to channel some of that early Guy Ritchie energy, ala’ Snatched or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
So, if you ever wondered what Aronofsky’s idea of “happy”, might be, we have somewhat of an answer. “Happy” = “not entirely miserable”.
3.5 out of 5 uncomfortably savage beatings some of which are even deserved.
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I just finished watching the excellent Highest to Lowest, with Denzel Washington, on Apple TV.
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How does it compare to Kurosawa’s original?
I was not a fan of his remake of Oldboy. I don’t think it brought anything new to the story, and didn’t do anything that the original didn’t do better.
At least when Scorsese redid Infernal Affairs he rejiggered the structure and got fabulous performances out of not only Nicholson and DiCaprio (expected) but even Wahlberg (which is never a guarantee).
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Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the original, so can’t compare it. Denzel and Jeffrey Wright were excellent.
I just finished watching the first season of Dexter Resurrected and it was much better than I expected it to be. It was almost as good as the original Dexter, and much better than the prequel and previous sequel. There were some great A list cameos. It was also nice to see some of the original cast members.
I’m a sucker for cosy murders so I gave it a look. It is absolutely terrible and I will still watch every episode. The characters are just too slight and serve only a narrative devices with a bit of humour. And while I appreciate the tourist gaze indulged by each port, I’d really prefer shipboard murders because I love to think about the internal workings of cruise ships: 6000 thousand passangers to be served in a mini “village”? Do that. (Also, why would an ex-cop turned crooner be such a big marquis name? A performer, sure-- a musician friend of mine worked cruises-- but like the idea he alone would be the attraction rather than a night of X-kind of music/entertainment?
I know, I’ve gone a bit far in critiquing something that inhabits a different reality, But I do think it’s sloppy world building-- possibly because that’s part of the appeal of a cosy murder.
But as I said: I will watch all of it.
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Ha - I am the same with ‘Only Murders in the Building’!
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The Paper. Like The Office, only about a paper. As St. Denis is like Abbott Elementary, except about a hospital.
Agree with your assessment…
It’s corny yet addictive. Something like junk food.
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I just finished watching the full season of The Runarounds, on Amazon Prime. It’s about a group of High School students who form a rock band with dreams of stardom. This is a real band with real musicians. I thought it was entertaining. People will either love it or hate it. It can be corny and cringey at times, but I enjoyed the original music.
We just finished the second season of Wednesday, which had some great stuff in it - an acting tour de force from Jenna Ortega and Genna Myers in episode 6, and Joanna Lumley, who I will never not enjoy seeing. Bonus: Steve Buscemi and Lady Gaga!
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I’d seen some warnings here about Smoke being strange but had no idea HOW strange we’d find it. Parts seem like over-writing for drama, but somehow it’s keeping us hooked through episode 6.
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We should start watching it now that all the episodes have dropped, and we’re almost done with Fisk 
I thought the most recent South Park was disappointing. Hard to keep up the level from whence they started the season, of course.
We recently finished Reacher seasson 3 on Prime. While it’s still not nearly as good as season 1, it is much better than season 2.
Season 2 got bogged down in a bunch of backstory. The main plot all had to do with Reacher’s old unit and old enemies trying to clean house. Endless flashbacks and introducing characters we failed to know well, thus failed to care about. Additionally, Reacher’s ass-kicking took on a particular mean-spiritedness. He seemed gleeful and eager to inflict pain on his opponents, rather than simply foil their plans and defend innocents.
S3 is sort of a midpoint between the two. Yes, the main plot has a connection to Reacher’s past, and we’re subjected to the customary flashbacks. And Reacher definitely is out to make the main bad guy pay for having tortured and killed one of his subordinates, years ago. But he doesn’t seem to be out to inflict suffering for its own sake, ala’ s2. This makes him a lot easier to root for. Also of note, Anthony Michael Hall as a small time smuggler pulled into gun-running. Richardson, as usual, is an afffable walking side of beef. Convincing as a physical threat, he has an easy charm and a decent sense of comic timing. The obligatory hookup between him and a DEA agent, however, is incredibly awkward, as the two have zero in screen chemistry.
If you didn’t like it in s1, you won’t find anything better here, but if you already like the series, this is a decent entry.
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NYT 30 Best Shows on Netflix RN
We watched a lot of these already, but I’m curious about
The Hunting Wives (my chiro recommended this also, but I’m not so sure about that one)
North of North which @Hunterwali mentioned in April, and
Really enjoying Outrageous on BritBox, Unforgotten on PBS and last season of Upload on Prime. Also happy to have Great British Baking Show back and new season of Project Runway has gotten better week by week.
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