For a not particularly violent person, I love murder mysteries.
As I mentioned last time, I don’t find tv watching relaxing. The minutes crawl by, so I have to have something next to me to distract me, usually my phone where I’m reading an article (I don’t have social apps on my phone except Instagram). I would knit, but having the light bright enough doesn’t really enable my husband to watch tv comfortably. However, over August we made it through the first 5 seasons of “Supernatural.” After a predictably rough start, midway through the first season it got good- really good! It may have had something to do with Ben Edlund’s involvement (if you haven’t read or watched The Tick, find it immediately. It’s parody still holds up brilliantly, perhaps even more so now that ninjas & superheroes are hot again). After the end of season 5, which wraps up the series nicely, we decided to take a break before we watched the more recent seasons.
Next we watched “Broadchurch.” WOW. I mean, we knew we’d love parts of it bc of David Tennant, but everyone was well written and well acted, especially Olivia Colman. They’ve remade it for America as “Gracepoint,” which will be starting October 1st. I don’t know that I love Tennant’s American accent and to be honest every else looks so shiny. But while the first two episodes of Gracepoint are supposed to mirror Broadchurch, from there it diverges and has a different plot. Who am I kidding, we’ll totally watch it, but probably start at episode 3 & power watch 1,2, & 3 at once so we don’t have that sense of disappointment. We loved Broadchurch so much that it left us with that feeling of a bad breakup. Does that ever happen to you? You love something so much and when it’s over nothing else compares (cue Sinead O’Connor and her glycerin tears).
picture is Luther wallpaper from http://stylefavor.com/luther/luther_wallpaper/
We decided to rebound with Luther. We were first introduced to Idris Elba in The Wire (another show that left us like a bad breakup). Luthor is good, really good and it features a delightful anomaly: a female master villain. Neither my husband nor I found Ruth Wilson as Alice attractive. She has what I term, “the Innsmouth Look” (Lovecraft! & seriously, please stop putting fillers in your upper lip), but I soon fell in love. I explained to my husband that she’s like what would happen if Batman had to team up with Poison Ivy- (side note, how amazing would Idris Elba be as Batman? He’s tall, gorgeous, and radiates intelligence). He ended up coming around to her & now every time she shows up we squeal bc we know the show is going to get SO GOOD!!!
Oh! I should mention in case it’s not apparent, these shows are SUPER messed up and not for the faint of heart. Netflix has Supernatural and Luther, but you have to pay for Broadchurch on amazon. it’s worth it. Be careful, apparently the BBCAmerica version cut scenes out 😦
nouvellegamine 
Back in the day I was a huge fan of BBC’s Cracker. A great psychological crime show that predated Law & Order and its endless variations here in the states. The “American” version never held any interest for me. Luther however is my favorite BBC shows to date. I am heartbroken that the series ended but I thought it ended perfectly. And clearly my favorite Idris role by far to date.
Oh wow! I’ve never heard of Cracker. I’ll definitely look for it. The only US Law and Order I liked was when Vincent D’Onofrio was on it.
I’m bummed season 3 is the last for Luther, but I’m glad Elba’s film career is going strong. I still can’t believe DC hasn’t cast him as Green Lantern. He looks exactly like the way he’s drawn in the Justice League cartoons.
I want to watch Wallander, but my husband is determined to finish the first 5 books bc the Branagh series starts with number 5.
Alice, not attractive?!!? 😮
I admit, my husband & I are jerks about it, but neither of us like her mouth- it’s really, really shelf-like, like a real life Simpsons character. However, she grew on us & now we’re in love. She ended up being our favorite part of Luther!
Yeah,a bit pout-y. But matched the character perfectly,i thought. And she plays to the redhead child mythology.lol
hahaha, having finished the show and feeling so differently about Alice, it’s hard now for me to even see what I initially found so, “wtf?” about her mouth. She just nailed the part & now I want to track down some more stuff with her in it.
I remember doing the same search through her filmography and finding nothing exciting
that’s a drag 😦
I Lightly perused her film-history. I’m sure she shines in whatever she’s in.
Accurate observation on possible green lantern casting for idris ‘running lord’ elba
I just want to shake DC sometimes. Not that I don’t love Hal Jordan- he was my generations Green Lantern, but John Stewart is such an interesting, solid character who’s really well known to the current generation of fans.