The Commander on Amazon Prime is yet another British police procedural.  It’s interesting because the Commander is a woman, who makes the mistake of falling for “bad guys”.  In the first season, she has an affair with an ex-con who killed his wife “but loved her”.  Of course the other cops distrust the Commander and think she’s emotionally volatile, bossy and scary.  I suppose the series is trying put a human face on homicide cops – especially those whose personal lives are less than ideal.  Not bad and there are three seasons to watch!  

The Diplomat – it’s the second season of this rollicking and funny series about the US ambassador to the UK.  Delightful. Unfortunately for ambassador Katie Wyler, her husband Hal, once himself an ambassador, is obsessed with her (and he will hang on to her coattails) getting closer to political power.  The rumour is that someone in the White House is considering Katie for VP of the US.  Katie doesn’t necessarily want the job, but the problem is that Hal gets her more and more enmeshed with the sensitive political situations in the UK and Europe – in an effort to show she’s capable of bigger and better things.  Engaging, funny, great scenery of castles and stately homes in the UK and Keri Russell (see my review of her in The Americans) is earnest and feisty. It’s on Netflix.

3 Ken Loach films you can watch

The latest is The Old Oak (2023) which you can watch on Amazon Prime.  Loach, an exceptional filmmaker, and a socialist known for his sympathetic portrayals of Britain’s working class, announced a couple of years ago that The Old Oak would be his last film; he’s 88.  This is not one of his best films however; I’m a big fan of his first film — I wrote a review of Cathy Come Home.  In The Old Oak, an immigrant family from Syria live in a northern English town which has been robbed of jobs and its future because of rampant de-industrialisation.  Residents are somewhat suspicious of the adult Syrian daughter who is a photographer.  What Loach is trying to do is to knit the white community together around the issue of immigrant rights.  We see some characters whose racism and antipathy is all too real and upsetting.  The owner of The Old Oak pub, tries to overcome the effects of years of poverty, suffering and ill health in the community by uniting his customers to accept the Syrian family.  Here’s the trailer. On the upside, the woman photographer in the film is one of the two lead characters – a welcome change from the virtually all male casts in the following two Loach films.

Riff-Raff won the 1991 European Film Award for Best Picture.  Now homeless, Stevie, lives rough and sleeps in squats.  From Glasgow, he’s homeless because his wife and he have split up and she lives in their house with their two young daughters.  Stevie starts to work in construction, again the issues of safety, long hours and pay. The trailer is here. You can  watch the whole film for free.

The Navigators (2001) is about the privatization of Britain’s railway.  Eight men are on a work gang in the South Yorkshire; they repair the tracks for British Rail.  Over a period of months, the rail lines are chopped up and sold off to various private companies.  Each company circumvents health and safety, puts the workers’ lives at risk and ultimately lays off workers.  The testy relationships among the soon-to-be jobless men and their justifiable anger toward their boss is well done, and explosive at times. Well scripted, well written and fast moving, this film demonstrates the state of the working class and politics in neo-liberal Britain.  Watch the trailer here. And the film itself you can see it for free here.    

Just watched the first half of Let Go, (Släpp Taget in Swedish) a feature film now on Netflix.  Husband Gustav has a girlfriend at work. He announces to his wife Stella he wants a divorce so he can be with the other woman. The couple’s relationship with their fractious 16-year-old pole-dancer daughter, and their demanding five-year-old son is worth watching. The timing is good, and the acting believable. It’s a good story. Some parts are very funny.  Have a look at the trailer.

Among new documentary releases on Netflix, you can find Monsters: the Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. It is quite excellent– chilling.  The acting, the timing and even the script for these two psychopathic killers is good television.  In this series we can see only imagine what motivated the two sons to kill both parent in such an extremely vicious and violent manner. The scenes with the “boys’” psychologist (who himself is a dangerous man) and in the court room cannot be beat.  Watch the trailer here. 

Watch only if you’re desperate…

On Netflix you can watch Stay Close (2021), an 8-part thriller series.  A suburban mother doesn’t want her seedy past revealed, yet certain things come together to threaten her “safe” home and family. Of course there’s a couple of murders and a serial killer.  It’s a waste of time to watch:  here’s the trailer.

If you like love stories you’ll like the new (2024) romantic Italian drama Deceitful Love on Netflix. I did not like it, probably because I hate romance. A wealthy 60-year-old divorcée, Gabriella, falls in love with a man half her age – whom her son thinks is a gold digger.  The film takes place in a sumptuous hotel Gabriella owns near Positano on the Amalfi Coast.  The scenery is beautiful. The conversations are stilted, the script is weak and repetitious – and the “surprise” ending –well it’s not much of a surprise. But if you like romance, love and brazen ambition, this is for you. The cloying trailer is here.

Another “good will triumph” series is Ransom on Netflix.  First, you’re doing a good turn for Canada, since this series was made with Telefilm money and a number of international countries. Canadian content is sparse to nil of course – but Toronto does stand in for Denver. Colorado.  Each episode features the independent hostage negotiator team, piously led by British actor Luke Roberts. He  tells the family of the kidnapped victim that they should not call the police and that for the assistance of his team’s superior skills there will be no charge – unless their loved one is freed.  I watched two episodes in the series.  On the upside, there is not as much violence as in most thrillers and even mysteries.  But the script is weak, repetitive and ridiculous.  Here’s the trailer. 

Nine Perfect Strangers: “2 episodes in and I’m bored, it’s cheesy and silly so far.”

online critic

On Kanopy you can watch Nine Perfect Strangers.  Nine people attend an expensive resort with the understanding that the 10-day retreat will help them – one woman writer  wants to lose weight, one small family has to deal with a son’s suicide, one man needs to turn his business fortunes around.  Unfortunately, the gang of nine are portrayed like the ridiculous characters from the 1960s series Gilligan’s Island.  The  woman who runs the place is Masha (Nicole Kidman) who has a sleazy Russian accent and is more like Rasputin than any trainer or psychologist I’ve ever met. She bullies the nine, humiliates and aims to break them down. I watched only two episodes which were dull, grueling and a waste of my time.  Unreal.  As one commenter wrote: “2 episodes in and I’m bored, its cheesy and silly so far.” Here’s the trailer

With a Heavy Heart…

For a dose of reality, I recommend you watch this five minute video prepared by Skynews.

Dr Adnan al-Bursh was a well-respected surgeon at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza.  In April 2024 the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) arrested him and tossed him into the now infamous Sde Teiman prison where he was tortured, blindfolded, handcuffed and held without charge. Eyewitness accounts attest to the fact of his torture; he was then sent to Israel’s notorious Ofer prison, where he was assaulted, and further tortured.  Ill, he was forced naked into the courtyard in May and died.  Israel has refused to return his body to the family or explain his death.  According to a fellow imprisoned surgeon,

“He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body. The prison guard threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there.

The 5 minutes is worth watching to see what Israel has done to more than 1100 medical workers who have been killed in Gaza in the last year. Here’s the 5 minute film.

Ars Gratia Artis

For something wonderful tune into this short song and dance reel featuring Brandon Lambert  and two other dancers in period clothing: – “Mozart presents the Rondo alla Turca (1784).”

Gerald from Marketing, is a nice little two minute animated reel — why  bother replacing Gerald who quit when Brenda can do two jobs– hers and Gerald’s for the same pay? Here it is

What to Read…

Clean is a new novel from Chilean writer Alia Trabucco Zerán.  I suppose you could compare parts of the novel to the book The Maid by Canadian author Nina Prose which I reviewed here.  In Clean, Estela Garcia was born and grew up poor on an island a hundred of kilometres south of Santiago.  The 33-year-old Estela goes to the capital to get a job as a housemaid and nanny.  A mystery surrounds what happened to the wealthy parents’ seven-year-old daughter, Julia.   I suppose it will capture your attention, but I found the book stifling, and a bit of a yawn. Still, it’s been favourably reviewed everywhere, including in The New Yorker  Here’s a review from NPR .

The Centre, a novel by a new writer Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, is very good.  Anisa, originally from Karachi, Pakistan, has lived in London for about 15 years.  She attended a British university and has a job writing subtitles for Bollywood films.  Her new boyfriend has mastered a couple of languages through taking intensive two week courses at something called The Centre.  On a whim, Anisa decides she wants to learn German to expand her translation skills; she applies to the mysterious organization, The Centre.  This book has a touch of a mystery, a thriller and also a fine novel.  Siddiqi’s portrayal of the life of a young Muslim woman in London is fascinating.  Anisa doesn’t take herself too seriously, but her best friend Naima (from India) decides she wants a more traditional English life.  This is a coming of age story, a story about race and privilege; it’s funny, clever and worth reading.  

Ford County, is a 2009 book of short stories by John Grisham.  I like his short stories more than the long, seemingly never-ending thrillers I’ve reviewed in most of my columns lately.  My favourite stories in Ford County are “Michael’s Room”, “Quiet Haven” and “Funny Boy”.  I read it as an e-book downloaded from Halifax Public Libraries.

Still on short stories, I read Joyce Carol Oates 2021 book of short stories The (Other) You.  I downloaded it as an e-book from the Halifax library.  My favourite stories are “Waiting for Kiza”, and “Blue Guide”.  “Blue Guide” is about a retired American history professor and his wife who go on a bucket list trip to a medieval town in northern Italy.  Delightful.  If you know Italy or want to know Italy you need to read this! I’m an Oates fan. Her 2006 novel Black Girl/White Girl really sticks with me and packs a punch in challenging our notion of racism and pernicious family stories. And it’s a must read!!

There Will Be Fire  by Rory Carroll is an investigative book about the IRA’s 1984 hotel bombing  in Brighton, UK.  Some of you will remember that the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in that city, killing five and injuring 31.   The target of assassination was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – but she wasn’t hurt. The bombing occurred during the annual Conservative Party Conference, in the heady days of the rapid rise of neo-liberalism and before Thatcher got sidelined by her own party. Author Rory Carroll, is a veteran journalist who began his career in Northern Ireland. He has reported for The Guardian from the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, Latin America, and the United States. He is currently The Guardian‘s Ireland correspondent, based in Dublin.

What for me is a companion book to There Will Be a Fire, is the IRA bomber Patrick Magee’s 2021 autobiography, Where Grieving Begins, a Memoir (building bridges after the Brighton bomb).  Now age 73, Magee served more than 14 years in prison for the multiple murders and was released in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement. The hotel bomb killed Sir Anthony Berry, MP.  His daughter, Jo, wanted to know why Magee did this. Over the years they met frequently; Magee noted,

“Between Jo and me, the big issue is the use of violence. I can’t claim to have renounced violence, though I don’t believe I’m a violent person and have spoken out against it. I am 100% in favour of the peace process, but I am not a pacifist and I could never say to future generations, anywhere in the world, who felt themselves oppressed, ‘Take it, just lie down and take it’.”

Jo Berry started a nonprofit called The Forgiveness Project – to which Magee is affiliated.  Magee’s is an amazing book and well worth reading.  Magee can write well, he’s a left wing activist and thinks clearly and fast. Despite having earned a PhD while he was in prison, he could never land an academic job (or possibly any decent job) in the 26 years since his release. 

In the Toronto Star, Heather Mallick’s 25 Oct. column “What the ‘Monsters of Avignon’ teach us about predators and men” is particularly good. She opens it with “Men Should Weep.”  How true that is, if we mentally tally the court cases of 51 men who over the last decade raped and forced sex on Gisèle Pelicot in southern France.  Pelicot’s ex-husband, Dominique, recruited 50 men he found mostly online– who came to the couple’s home to sexually assault and abuse Gisèle while she was nearly comatose from the drugs Dominique administered. Mallick’s final paragraph is worth reprinting here:

Gisèle Pelicot has become a worldwide heroine for running this courtroom gauntlet of male deficients. Why? She wants to tell all victims, male and female, “Look around you, you are not alone.”

An recent column by American antiwar activist and author Chris Hedges is excellent.  In “Lakeman and The Whoredom of the Left,” Hedges examines the career and soon to be legacy of an iconic feminist and anti-capitalist Lee Lakeman in Vancouver. Lakeman is now in palliative care. Hedges points out:

The radical feminist Lee Lakeman has spent her life calling out patriarchy for its oppression, the left for its bankruptcy, neoliberalism for its cruelty and organizing women to fight back.

You can read Hedges’ column here,

What to listen to…

Sleaze is a great 43-minute radio play you can listen to here.   Siobhan, a teacher, is married to Max who used to be the lead singer in a popular boy-band. A woman’s complaint of being raped by one of the band members 15 years prior, has got the attention of the police. The issue of what the band members actually remember, and own up to doing, throws light on the music scene of the late 90s and early 2000s – and how sexual assault at the time was treated very lightly if at all.

The Listening Post on Al Jazeera has a good program called “We Need to Talk about Zionism” and an indepth interview with Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of If Not Now in the US.  She is also one of the non-Zionist Jews featured in the 2023 documentary film Israelism: the Awakening of Young American Jews. The half hour program is worth hearing; you can tune into to the interview with Simone in particular at 14 minutes into the broadcast.

Image at the top: popcorn–photo by Peter Schad in Austria.