What to Watch…

Don’t watch this unless you can restrict yourself to only the first half, and trust yourself enough not to watch the second.  The first half of The Woman in Cabin 10 is a bit of a mystery/thriller that descends into a kick-ass (approved by 14-year-old boys) who dunit. A woman journalist, played by Keira Knightley, is invited to interview the rich and famous aboard a luxury yacht. One night, she sees a body dumped overboard.  It’s one hour and 35 minutes of predictable tedium on Netflix.

Better to watch Accused on Kanopy.  Accused is five clever vignettes about justice in the UK. These cases are not easy, and not easily resolved.  Worth watching.

I watched the Treason series on Netflix. It’s in five parts – on the plus side, each episode is only 46 minutes long. On the down side, the lead actor is frankly unbelievably compromised, his family life is too precious, and MI6 is too dastardly.  As a review in The Independent said:

“Overambition is clearly preferable to a lack of creative aspiration. It’s a shame, then, that Treason is so relentlessly preposterous. Not only does Cox [the lead actor] utterly fail to convince as someone competent or ambitious enough to be made head of MI6 at 40, but the show insists on saddling him with endless cliché.”

A watchable time waster.

 Below Clockwise: Susan Lorincz under arrest in The Perfect Neighbor; a still from The Woman in Cabin 10; a menacing look in Treason; poster for Accused; scene from The Diplomat.

The Perfect Neighbor is topping the Netflix charts now.  In this feature-length documentary, Susan Lorincz, a white 59-year-old woman,  lives alone in a cul-de-sac in a suburban Florida town.  Most of her neighbours are Black families with children whom she believes are deliberately taunting her, trespassing on her tiny property and being nuisances.  This film is composed of videos,  taken almost exclusively from police body cameras.  There is no voice over, no narrator, no explanation – we see what we see.  And we see and hear Susan – whom the children call “the Karen” – at war with her neighbours, especially the kids who leave roller skates, toys and even a tablet on some grass near her townhouse.   In a bizarre and horrifying twist, Susan shoots one of the neighbours “by accident.”  But it was no accident. The police and the community tried to lean on  “stand-your-ground” laws (especially in Florida where in 2012 a Latino man on patrol for neighbourhood watch shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black unarmed youth who was staying in the community with his dad).  In The Perfect Neighbor, police body cameras clearly showed  the Black families were harassed and threatened by Susan. Unlike most police/crime programs that vilify Black people, corner and arrest them and break their spirits, the local police tended to side with the Black community – not with Susan.  See what you think.  Oh, Professor El Jones (from Mt St Vincent University) and CT Jones (no relation), a writer for Rolling Stone,  discuss The Perfect Neighbor on CBC radio’s Commotion – Listen here.

I’m watching the third season of The Diplomat, also on Netflix.  A bit of clever dialogue, some international intrigue, the stuffiness of the Brits and the dough-headedness of the American politicians make this series somewhat worth watching.  Keri Russell, who portrays a level-headed, but determined, US ambassador  is one of my favourite actors – I really liked her in The Americans (which I highly recommend). 

Never Stop Talking About Gaza

In October 2024, at the one year “anniversary” of Israel’s massacre in Gaza, Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer wrote the following,

“Ask any Arab what the most painful realisation of the last year has been and it is this:  We have discovered the extent of our dehumanisation to such a degree that it’s impossible to function in the world in the same way.”

In an article in Vashti “an independent online magazine offering Jewish perspectives on debates confronting the contemporary British left” Kendall Gardner writes about the uses and abuses of using the genocide in Gaza to provide “entertainment”—albeit serious and critical of Israel.  In “Jazz hands hollow gestures – Watching a play is not political action”, Gardner zeroes in on books, concerts, plays and columns that criticise the genocide—she writes that it feels good, but also bad in that in the shadow of the genocide, art resonates with emptiness.  She quotes Hamdan Ballal Al-Huraini who wrote in Vashti after his film No Other Land won an Academy Award:

“Yes, we have an Oscar – but where is international law, which was established to protect civilians and innocents? We have received every accolade – but we want your conscience.”

Here’s the article by Gardner and it’s well worth reading!

“I’m disgusted by every person who has capitalized on the annihilation of our people in Gaza to advance their careers. None of you are important, nor are your webinars, articles, or films; it’s insane!! How has nothing changed in the face of all this killing…how?!!!”

Amany Khalifa, August 2024 in this post on X

Australia’s Caitlin Johnstone is a must read – or you can listen here to her partner read “The West’s Dehumanisation of Arabs Is Completely Unforgivable”.  Johnstone,  in addition to being a writer, a poet and a Gaza supporter with a dynamite website, is an excellent portrait artist.  Here is her art site: have a look.

Podcasts for you…

The Gray Zone’s very convincing podcast by host Max Blumenthal “Why October 7 happened in 3 minutes” is well worth – 3 minutes of your time!  Listen here. 

I can’t rave enough about the  5-part series on the Hockey Scandal at Canadian True Crime.  Host and writer, Kristi Lee, presents “Analysing the Hockey Canada Trial”, interviews two women who endured sexual assaults and lengthy high-profile trials.  Their observations about last summer’s hockey trials are jolting yet resonate with just about any woman who listens.  Lee investigates the evidence from police interviews of the young men in 2018 – when the offences occurred.   Much of what Lee unearths has not been reported elsewhere; she also explores the texts among the five men, plus several others who were in hotel room 209 that night.  This is the best podcast series since Lee produced the six-part series The Death of Darcy Allan Sheppard here – the podcasts are nothing short of brilliant.  I reviewed the early episodes in my blog here but the final episodes are even better—I reviewed them here and here .

Photo at the top: Jewish Artists for Palestine disrupt the BBC Proms and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, London – August 2025. (Credit: Artists on the Frontline via X).