Saturday, April 2, 2016

Another terrific TV show to add to your que!



I don't know if you morons watch PBS. I mean we are more a CMT or FX audience at Lem's but some of you might watch PBS. Well Titus at least. But they often have some great stuff at Masterpiece Theater. Downton Abby which just finished its run. Poldark which was remake and nowhere as good as the original from the 1970's. Mr. Selfridge with the nasty hebe from Entourage playing the department store magnet from the beginning of the last century. Plus they have been featuring some excellent BBC detective mystery series.

"Grantchester" starring James Norton and Robson Green as an English Vicar and a local policemen who form an odd couple crime solving duo. Norton is an excellent actor playing against type as he is often a heavy. He was great in the series "Happy Valley" and is about to become very hot because of his turn in the new adaptation of "War and Peace." The vicar Sydney Chambers is a WW2 vet suffering from PSTD who drinks, listens to jazz and gets involved in solving murders. Geordie Keating the detective is also a vet but much more practical and no nonsense. The first series aired last year and was excellent. The second series is airing now on Masterpiece Theater and is well worth a look. I know it is also available on Amazon Prime. Plus it is a great idea to join the PBS website and you can stream the episodes for free along with some other decent programing. We might as well get something out of all the money the government is wasting on PBS.

The show is easy and comfortable but still engrossing. You can enjoy it without having read the books that it was adapted from and still get a lot out of it.

Highly recommended.

7 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

By the setup I thought immediately of Father Brown.

Wiki: Christopher Stevens of The Daily Mail considered it "an imaginative effort to solve the crossword by plucking hints from just about every classic crime series in television history", "shamelessly" borrowing from Inspector Morse, Miss Marple and Father Brown.

I'm forced to like this opinion because he said crossword. One of the familiar tropes about Father Brown series is his protest sign that he held once that describes the top intensity he musters, "Down With This Sort of Thing."

The Dude said...

Magnet - good one - I was sittin' thinkin' why would a store need a magnet? Then I realized it didn't.

William said...

Those quiet English villages have more murders per capita than housing projects. English country estates are particularly dangerous. The mortality rate at Downton Abbey was fairly high. None of the dead were murdered, or so they would have you believe. I always thought there was something sinister about Lady Mary. Is it just a coincidence that her husband and her one night stand died sudden, unexpected deaths? Also, she was in cahoots with the butler. Butlers know how to arrange these things.......Maybe Miss Marple should pay a weekend visit to Downton.

deborah said...

Well played, William.

Christy said...

For a modest monthly fee Acorn streaming brings many British series, but regrettably not Grantchester.

deborah said...

Thanks for the tip, Christie. I'll check out the one week free, because it seems we'll be nickled and dimed by added charges. $99 for Amazon Prime, $7.99 for Netflix...does hulu cost?

Anyway, I was ticked when I recently went to watch Inspector Morse on AmPrime and it said I had to do it through Acorn. But I'm one up because I don't have cable. Just Internet.

deborah said...

(I didn't know it had British.)