Category: TV Series

Genre: TV Series      

Grade: A+

Notable People: a wonderful cast of characters from John Muir to Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Created by: Ken Burns

Title: The National Parks: America’s Best Idea

Review:  If you have the time…. just watch this. An extraordinarily uplifting six part- eighteen-hour series by Americas’ finest historian/ storyteller. Just an amazing story of perseverance over hardships and narrowmindedness, larger than life heroes and happy ultimate endings. Just what we all need right about now. Who knew how difficult this was, and how much greed and private control got in the way. I gained a new and amazing respect for the early pioneer advocates like John Muir, the little known people fighting the good fight along the way who refused to lose the dream, and the great leaders like the Roosevelts. Watching FDR made me weep, given our current leadership situation. These folks were just plain visionaries, deferring everything to the ultimate public good. Majestically shot, engagingly told and wonderfully written…. this is a pure gem……………not to be missed. Also available on PBS. 

Genre: TV Series    

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Ville Virtanen, Anu Sinisalo, Olivia Ainali, Created by: Miikko Oikkonen

Title: Bordertown

Review:   Very, very quirky show about a Finnish mystic/detective living in remote Finland, on the Russian border (ergo the title). Virtanen is brilliant as the very disturbed, ineffectual, post traumatic detective who has visions and is aided by his late wife. His adventures in fatherhood are priceless. The show runs in cycle stories of 2-4 episodes. Probably not for everyone. Kari (the main character) is hard to watch at times, the stories can move very slow and it is in Finnish. Often bleak. But I find it very thought provoking, a uniquely different culture and highly entertaining. Worth a shot.

Genre: TV Series         

Grade: A-

Notable People: JK Simmons, Olivia Williams, Harry Lloyd, Nazanin Boniadi, Created by: Justin Marks

Title: Counterpart

Review:   Very strange series, recommended by my TV highbrow connoisseur, Feel. Simmons is brilliant playing two roles of the same person in parallel worlds…I mean subtly brilliant. Always liked him, but this a new level. Many of the cast play double rolls, with aplomb. The story is bit convoluted, and at times, hard to track back and forth between the parallel worlds….but less sci-fi than you might think, and quite the storyline. Did not think I would like this, but really did. I doubt any more seasons are probable after the ending of season two.  

Genre: TV Series

Grade: A

Notable People: Tcheky Karyo, James Nesbitt, Frances O’Connor, Created by: Jack and Harry Williams

Title: The Missing

Review:    This is the precursor to Baptiste, which I reviewed a few weeks ago, and is the origin of the Baptiste charter, astoundingly portrayed by Tcheky Karyo. He’s a strange cross between Foyle (of Foyles’ War) and Colombo. The story of a missing child and his parents eight-year journey to find him in the remote French countryside is so compelling it’s hard to not binge watch it. Very complex drama about loss, giving and relationships, built around the extraordinary presence of Baptiste…. a man who never  (I mean never ) gives up. Subtle, profound, riveting. There is a second season which we are just starting- but a completely separate storyline for the aging Batiste to obsess over. A gem!

Genre: TV Series            

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Tcheky Karyo, Tom Hollander, Anastasia Hile, Alec Seceraneau, Barbara Sarafien, Created by: Jack and Harry Williams

Title: Baptiste

Review:    Nice little show about a semiretired French policeman, famous for finding missing people, living in Amsterdam. Quite convoluted plot about a ring of mysterious Russian teen girl importers, but the cast is good, the show is wonderfully filmed on location, and it’s hard not to love the aging Baptiste- played lovingly by the ethnically confusing Karyo. This was an offshoot form an earlier PBS Masterpiece popular show called The Missing. You cannot go wrong, ever, with Masterpiece.

Stu’s Reviews      

Genre: TV Series      

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: David Cornsweet, Jake Picking, Jeremy Pope, Patti Lupone, Dylan McDermott, Jim Parsons, Joe Mantello,  Created by: Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy

Title: Hollywood

Review:    Need a little break from all the intensity? Surprisingly complex show, despite the formulaic story lines, about a group of people trying to make it Hollywood during the repressive 50s. Racism, Sexism, and general inequality are addressed throughout. The scenes are shot in very stylized manner, but the overall effect is quite good. Lupone is magnificent and Rob Reiner has wonderful auxiliary role. The cast is really quite good. Even has a Hollywood ending. One season will be it. Thee thumbs up.

Genre: TV Series 

Grade: A

Notable People: Julia Brown, Jonah Hauer-King, Zofia Wichlazc, Sean Bean, Lesley Manville, Helen Hunt, Created by: Peter Bowker

Title: World on Fire

Review:    Brilliant PBS series on the always highest-quality Masterpiece Theater, tells the story of the Nazi Blitzkrieg of Europe in 1939 and 1940. Magnificently told through the lens of five participants in five different countries. Tense, brutal, touching, heroic…once again make the convincing arguments for the saving graces the Brits and the Resistance, without whom the Nazis take over the world before we ever enter The War. The young faces in the cast are exceptional, but the sensational performances from veterans Hunt and Manville make this must see. Hard not to binge watch this short seven episodes first season. As second season is definitely in the works. Watch it on PBS On-Demand.

Genre: TV Series    

Grade: A

Notable People: Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seahorn, Jonathan Banks, Michael Mando, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael McKean, Created by: Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould

Title: Better Call Saul

Review:    The extraordinary prequel to Breaking Bad features the very excellent Odenkirk conjuring the subtle change from nice guy lawyer, Jimmy McGill to shyster of the century, Saul Goodman. This is brilliant television; it was recently named on several lists the best show on TV, and it’s a fair argument. The cast is top notch, especially Banks as his menacing self and McKean as the bat shit crazy older brother/lawyer mentor. And Esposito……Whoa…. he is quiet evil in its most potent incarnation. The development of the characters who later came to populate Breaking Bad is so tasteful as to be shocking. Each season has topped the one before, though I suspect the next will be the last, as the timeline is running out to catch up to the birth of Walter White. Not necessary to have liked or even watched BB to appreciate this one.

Genre: TV Series 

Grade: A-

Notable People: William H. Macy, Jeremy Allen white, Cameron Monahan, Emma Kenney, Ethan Cutkowsky, Emmy Rossum Created by: Paul Abbott

Title: Shameless

Review:    Unlikely you are not aware of this after ten seasons, but this is cultural icon television, with the amazing WH Macy reinventing himself as an all-time scumbag. The ensemble cast is beyond compare, the writing really witty and the south side Chicago setting a formula for misadventure. The show has been inconsistent in later seasons, especially challenged by the luminous Rossum leaving fate season nine, though they did a startlingly good job of going on without her most principle character. Full of star-power cameo guest appearances- seems like everybody would like to be on Shameless. Great time to hunker down for The Plaque with ten seasons worth of sardonic humor.

Genre: TV Series 

Grade: A-

Notable People: Alvaro Morte, Veronica Sanchez, Irene Arcos, Marta Milans –  Created by: Esther Martinez Lobato, Alex Pina

Title: The Pier (El Embarcadero)

Review:    Wonderful Spanish language (sub-titled) series in Valencia, Spain and environs about a man living a double life with two wives. His mysterious death brings the two woman together and the resulting portrayal of both woman’s’ quest to understand what was going on with this guy is amazingly portrayed. Hot, steamy, complex with amazing performances. This one is hard to figure out as it unfolds, with a lot of startling turns. I doubt there is room for third season given the ending, and thought it went one episode too long and dragged a bit at the second seasons end…but very high quality television. Loved every minute of it.