Weekly Rec: The Bletchley Circle: San Franciso

I'm here to recommend the new Bletchley Circle spinoff, but it occurs to me that I should point out that if you haven't seen the original The Bletchley Circle, you should rectify that immediately. It's about Bletchley Park codebreakers who are pushed back into traditionally female roles in post-war British society; bored and frustrated with this, they start . . . solving murders with the skills they honed during the War! It's DELIGHTFUL.

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco is BritBox's first original show; as always with a spinoff of something I really like, I was a bit wary of what they'd do, but so far I'm really liking it. Two of the women from the original series travel to late-1950s San Francisco when they read about murders there they think are linked to the wartime murder of a girl they knew at Bletchley. There they meet up with some of their American counterparts and continue solving crimes.

The spinoff has all the charms of the original as well as frank explorations of race and class and gender issues of the late fifties. The new American characters include a black woman whose family is fighting gentrification, a Japanese-American woman who talks openly about how she needs to work twice as hard and behave twice as correctly to keep her job, and a female engineer who has left a rural area for the city and is great at her work but has trouble with social cues. So far, at least, it's doing a better job with the time period than most American shows manage.

There are two episodes streaming so far with a new one premiering each Wednesday! Go watch!

TV Review: Cardinal

Canadian mystery show Cardinal premiered on CTV back in January, but before its U.S. premiere on Hulu earlier this month, it had a screening at the Austin TV Festival, and that was a GREAT idea. Because it was the perfect way to get the word out to the audience for this kind of quiet, slow murder show - like me. I wasn't at the event, but before it had even concluded multiple people had sent me messages saying that I would LOVE THIS SHOW.

And I did! As everyone had promised, it had lots of murder and lots of snow, which are two of my favorite things. More specifically: it's about police detective John Cardinal, pulled back into a case when a body is found that turns out to be that of a girl whose disappearance he previously investigated (but didn't solve, obviously), and his new partner Lise Delorme, who is secretly investigating him while they're both investigating what turns out to be a string of murders. The plot is satisfyingly twisty but not too labored; everything comes together nicely and the crimes are very creepy.

One of my favorite things about this show was that, while both lead detectives were a bit troubled and had stuff going on their personal lives, both Cardinal and Delorme were pretty grounded, pragmatic detectives who acted professionally. In a lot of mystery shows, a practical lady detective has to deal with a male partner who's a charismatic maverick rulebreaker, and much as I love some of these shows individually (Broadchurch is back tonight! yay!), I'm getting very sick of that trope. So I really enjoyed the way Cardinal and Delorme were both flawed and a bit messy but things weren't set up so the boring serious one had to clean up after the flashy one.

Cardinal is also just a joy to watch because it's well-made: the writing and acting are solid and the show is gorgeously shot. The snowy landscapes are starkly beautiful without being romanticized, and episode five has a particularly memorable well-executed tracking shot. The world of the show feels very real and textured. Also, as I said: Lots of snow. Perfect to binge on a hot summer weekend. All six hours of season one of Cardinal are now streaming on Hulu, and a new season is on the way.

(Reviews are made possible by my generous Patreon supporters. Come join in!)

Morning Coffee (7/8/16)

(Woke up to terrible news again; as usual on Fridays, we're going to ignore current events and go for fun distracting links, if anyone needs that. Back to normal tomorrow.)

Me elsewhere: The latest episode of The Fourth Wall is out - Holly and I talk about fanfic some more.

AGREED: AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire is The West Wing with computers. Catch up now.

!!! A British TV Network Ran Knitted Versions of Well-Known Spots for an Entire Ad Break

How a teen girl’s mad Overwatch skills struck a major blow to sexism in gaming

Let's ogle the Ralph & Russo fall line. I would like to watch a British mystery series set at a glamorous hotel where everyone wears these clothes.

Best headline ever? British singers surrounded by cheese

When I actually travel I generally want to stay in hotels, but this feature on Scandinavian holiday cottages and cabins is gorgeous and relaxing.

Heh: Poll: Americans only hate spoilers if they’re not the ones doing the spoiling

20 Fun Fiction Books to Read at the Beach, As Chosen by Authors

Ooh: Is This the Legendary Throne of Agamemnon?

Can You Handle our Handel? (I can't resist that pun.)

If Barack Obama Were Your Dad

TV Recommendation: Rebellion

A quick, somewhat belated note: RTE One drama Rebellion has been airing on Sundance TV this week in the U.S., and if you're interested in history it's definitely worth a look. I've only seen the first two of five hours so far, so I can't promise it resolves satisfactorily, but I'm riveted so far.

Rebellion is about a group of people from various social strata and walks of life who get caught up in the Easter Rising and outbreak of hostilities between the Irish republicans and the British in 1916. The main characters are (so far as I can tell) fictional, with historical figures like Patrick Pearse popping up regularly. The young female characters at the center of the show are particularly fascinating, and demonstrate a lot about how the rebellion intersected with challenges to traditional gender roles. I also like how firmly the show places the events in the context of World War I and the anxieties that came with it. And, of course, this has the usual strengths of a big-budget historical show, with gorgeous costumes, elaborate sets, and lots of family and romantic drama happening among the events of war.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Sundance has reruns on the schedule right now, but! My cable provider, at least, is putting the show on demand for anyone who has Sundance as part of their channel lineup, so check there.

TV Recommendation: Faking It

Faking It returns to MTV for season two next Tuesday, September 23rd, and if you missed this one when it debuted earlier this year, I'd urge you to give it a try. I know a lot of people were put off by the premise - two high school best friends pretend to be a lesbian couple to gain attention and popularity. There are obviously a million ways in which such a premise could result in a terrible, offensive show, not least because non-fictional gay high school students who come out often face negative social consequences (and worse things), not positive. I was highly skeptical going in, but one of the lead actresses is from the same small town as I am and knows my brother, so I wanted to give it a try for her sake. And I'm very glad I did. I'm absolutely not claiming the show handles everything perfectly, but (like most shows) it's much more complex than the one-line premise might imply, and I was impressed by how sensitively it handled a number of potentially fraught themes, including but not limited to its characters' sexuality. It deals with issues of friendship and love and family, and has some interesting things to say about adolescents' individuation and the role played by both internal and external expectations. And it's also just good entertainment - it's both funny and genuinely touching, with a great cast that got me invested in the characters almost immediately, despite my initial doubts.

The first season only had eight half-hour episodes, so you can catch up in barely any time. You can find them on MTV.com or stream them from Amazon Prime. (They might also be on demand, depending on your cable provider.) If you do give it a try, let me know what you think!

Morning Coffee (1/13/14)

Happy Monday!

Here are all the Golden Globes winners.

Look at the Veronica Mars movie poster! I love it.

Outlander fans, did you see the first trailer released over the weekend?

I don't do this here often, but if you didn't watch new comedy Enlisted on Friday, I really really really think you should. Watch it free right here.

The Murderer and the Manuscript

Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet

Let's Be Real: Online Harassment Isn't 'Virtual' for Women

This site isn't new, but a friend just showed me Unfuck Your Habitat and I'm kind of loving it.

Morning Coffee (11/18/13)

Almost Human premiered last night and I really like it, so if you missed it, you should watch the first episode on Hulu and then tune in for the second tonight on Fox at 8/7c. (After this it will just be on Mondays - it was a special Sunday premiere.)

Sad news: Doris Lessing has died.

Some of these covers are great. Especially Maroon 5 singing Taylor Swift.

A Wonk's Guide to the TV Galaxy

Classics That Prove Your Grandma Could Kick Bella Swan’s Ass

How to Cook Pretty Food

Fascinating history: Katie MacIntyre's exotic taste

Fun read on literary siblings: A Little Society

Hurrah for Broadchurch!

British crime drama Broadchurch premiered on BBC America last night, so I realize that now pretty much everyone is writing posts that say "Yay Broadchurch! It was great!" But I feel compelled to add my voice to the chorus - yay! It was great! While I do like traditional murder-of-the-week crime shows, I am also enjoying this current (mainly European, it seems) trend of slower shows that trace one investigation over the course of a season or more. (I even liked season two of the U.S. version of The Killing. I know, I know.) When done correctly, these slower investigations mean that the detectives we follow from case to case aren't the only real characters. The people in the victim's life, who in most procedurals are brief guest stars, get to be multidimensional characters in their own right - if the show is written correctly, at least, and so far it looks like Broadchurch is. The victim's family, the newsagent, and the local reporters are already interesting, and I look forward to seeing how it develops everyone further.

Broadchurch is set up with some familiar elements - the victim's slightly shady parent, a friend with secrets, small town intrigue - but that's by no means a bad thing. The conventions of the genre exist for a reason, and there's space to do almost anything within that framework. Among the cast, David Tennant's getting most of the attention, of course, but others shine too and the variety of interesting female characters are worth some focus as well: Olivia Colman as an ambitious detective who also happens to be a mother, Jodie Whittaker and Charlotte Beaumont as the victim's mother and sister, Carolyn Pickles as the local newspaper editor with unflinching standards, Vicky McClure as a somewhat mysterious and morally questionable young ambitious reporter. Now that I think about it, in the first episode, at least, more time was given to the women's career ambitions than to the men's, and it will be interesting to see how that progresses.

I'm not going to promise to write about Broadchurch every week, because inevitably something would happen to prevent that, but I'll try to check back in next week, at least, to see if the second episode lived up to the hopes I have after watching the first. If you missed it, it looks like BBC America is rerunning the premiere on Friday at 11pm. And at the moment, you can watch the premiere for free online, though I'm not sure how long that will last.

Tonight: The Hour returns. You should watch it.

The Hour returns for season two on BBC America tonight, and I highly recommend you check it out. It's a drama set in the 1950s about the launch of a BBC television news program, and it does quite a good job of weaving together office politics, current (now historical) events, and the characters' personal lives. The cast is strong, especially the amazing main trio, Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw, and Dominic West. Particularly fascinating and important is the look at the way Romola Garai's character navigates the 1950s office (and media "boys' club") as a young, ambitious woman who is clearly smart but also clearly flawed. This is a must-watch for anyone interested in the history of news media, feminism, the Cold War, or just good drama.

If you need to catch up on season one, BBC America is marathoning it starting at noon today, and the DVDs are available on Netflix (or for purchase on Amazon, etc.).

Why I Love Fringe

Fringe returns for its fifth and final season tonight, and if you follow me on Twitter or have talked to me much in the last month or so, you've probably noticed that I've recently caught up and am completely obsessed. And, for me, when it comes down to it it's not really about the specifics of the plot or Joshua Jackson's coats. So I thought that in celebration of the show's return, I'd tell you the three main things that make me love it so much.

1. The continuity (and foreshadowing). My God, the continuity. The plot is extremely complicated, and the writers are extremely careful. Given the way many simpler shows can't seem to keep their own details and timelines straight, the way the Fringe writers have made this all work is nothing short of astonishing. They should be teaching classes. And tiny things, sometimes things that seem to be throwaway lines, from early seasons come back in extremely meaningful ways later. I already can't wait to rewatch the whole series to catch things I didn't notice.

2. The acting. I won't tell you specifics, in case I'm actually convincing any of you to watch, but several of the actors have had to play different versions of their characters over the course of the series, and they've all done a really good job. There's a particular couple who plays the actual day-to-day couple stuff (which is harder to do well than the early flirting/sexual tension stuff, I think) more believably than anyone other than maybe Peter and El on White Collar. And I don't usually go around ranting about how my favorites should be rewarded at awards shows, but SERIOUSLY WHY DOESN'T JOHN NOBLE HAVE ALL THE EMMYS?

3. It makes me think and care. Too often, "smart" shows leave the viewer feeling somewhat distanced from the characters and their concerns, and shows that excel at tugging on the heartstrings aren't necessarily intellectually engaging. Most shows at their best alternate between plays for the viewer's head and heart. Fringe is the only one I can think of that melds this perfectly, so that the thought-provoking sciencey bits are also the things that very directly affect the lives and loves and fates of the characters they make us care about so much.

If I've gotten you at all interested, well, do not jump in with the fifth season premiere tonight. Start at the beginning. Trust me, it's worth it. Amazon Prime members can stream the first three seasons for free, and Netflix has the first four seasons on DVD.

TV Recommendation: Bomb Girls

Canadian show Bomb Girls quietly premiered on Reelz Channel last week, and I highly recommend that fans of historical drama check it out. It follows the lives of women working in a munitions factory during World War II, and like almost all good historical fiction, it takes place at a time of great social change and illuminates the way big historical events affected people's everyday lives. The war itself provides overarching tension - the women all have sons and brothers and husbands over there - and it looks like the show will take an interesting look at issues of class and ethnicity in addition to the individual personal dramas. Some of the writing in the pilot was a bit heavy-handed, but overall, I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to more.


Bomb Girls | Movie Trailer | Review
Reelz is rerunning the pilot at nine tonight before the second episode airs at ten. Give it a try!

Tonight: The Crimson Petal and the White

Encore is airing their miniseries The Crimson Petal and the White tonight, and I know Sunday nights are busy TV nights, but fans of historical drama may want to check this out. It's based on the very popular novel about Victorian England, which I've actually never read, so I was going into this more or less blind. (Though now I certainly want to read the book.) A warning: It's well-made, but it's not . . . fun. It's a fascinating, thoroughly depressing look at Victorian sex, power (financial, psychological, etc.), madness, abuse, and the often desperate ways women found to deal with their severely limited world and options. The cast is phenomenal: Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Amanda Hale, Shirley Henderson, Gillian Anderson, Mark Gatiss, and more. Again - this is no light costume drama, at all, but it's worth a watch.

Last Chance to Catch Up on Borgen!

I've mentioned Borgen a few times before, but the free viewing period for the first season is almost over, so I just want to urge you again to head over to the LinkTV site to watch it. It's a Danish political drama about an MP who, through a series of coincidences and clever political maneuvering, becomes the first female prime minister of Denmark. It also follows her family, some of her staff, and an up-and-coming young journalist with a secret. It's a quiet, thinky show, but completely riveting. Season two is playing on LinkTV now, and each episode is available online for two weeks as well. Give it a try!

10 Reasons to Catch Up on Magic City

I love Magic City, and I can think of literally no one I know who watches it, and why is that? You should jump in! Really! The first season is almost over, but it's already been renewed, and Starz is replaying all seven previous episodes starting tonight in preparation for next week's season finale. So it's the perfect time to join in the retro, soapy fun. I already wrote about why I liked the pilot, and here are a quick ten reasons why you should give the show a chance:

1. Jeffrey Dean Morgan doing "morally ambiguous and kind of scary"
2. Gorgeous 1950s costumes
3. Mob drama
4. Great period music
5. Complicated family dynamics
6. A glitzy hotel setting
7. Culture clashes involving various minorities negotiating how to achieve mainstream success without losing what they value
8. References to and cameos from historical figures like Sinatra and the Kennedys
9. Historical events like the Cuban Revolution affecting people's lives
10. Delicious rugelach as an actual plot point

If I've convinced you (Rugelach! As a plot point!), you can see when each episode is playing right here.

TV Recommendation: Magic City

Starz's new show Magic City premieres tonight at ten, and if you're at all interested in the fifties, hotels, labor issues, the mob, or Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I urge you to check it out. I watched the first episode, and I can't remember ever being so excited about a show based on its pilot before. I'd expected the show to just be some soapy fun in retro costumes, but it surprised me by dealing with everything from union organizers to Che Guevara to civil rights to Frank Sinatra to the struggle of newly-wealthy Jewish and Italian families to be accepted in society. The ensemble cast is strong, and in tone it reminded me very much of Goodfellas* mixed with an actually dirty version of Dirty Dancing. Starz has already renewed Magic City for a second season, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Random observation: This is the fourth current show I love that takes place in my least favorite state, Florida. Huh.

* Note: This is a good thing. Some people who know me quite well were surprised last night when I said Goodfellas was one of my top five movies of all time, so I figured I should clarify.

TV Recommendation: Bent

NBC's Bent premiered last week, and if you missed it, you should absolutely watch last week's episodes online and tune in tonight at 9 for episodes three and four. Five and six air next week, and . . . honestly, that's probably all there will be. But I have no idea why NBC is burning it off like this, because Bent is charming and funny and delightful. Leads Amanda Peet and David Walton have great, easy chemistry, and Joey King plays the best sitcom kid since Travis on Cougar Town. There's nothing wildly ground-breaking or game-changing going on here, but sometimes, an hour of thoroughly enjoyable comedy that's sweet without being saccharine is exactly what you need.

Quick Take: The Finder

When FOX's new procedural The Finder announced that they'd hired writer Aaron Ginsburg, I rashly proclaimed that I'd watch it for as long as they employed him. My loyalty to Aaron apparently runs deep, both because of the quality of his writing and his extremely generous attitude toward fans. But after I said that, I worried a little - what if, in spite of the high-quality writing I knew Aaron would bring to the table, I just didn't like the new show?

I shouldn't have worried. The Finder premiered last week and I loved it. It's nominally a Bones spinoff, but the show it really reminded me of was Burn Notice: It has a Florida setting, a protagonist who's damaged but very good at his job, a lady who likes to shoot things, and a ragtag team coming together to form a sort of found family. The mystery in the series opener was twisty and somewhat unconventional, but not confusing. The characters and overall town made for a world in which I definitely want to spend more time.

If you missed the pilot, catch it on demand now, and tune in for the second episode tonight on FOX at 9/8c.

And then you must watch Justified.

For some reason - perhaps the TV gods have it out for me - two of my most-anticipated January premieres, White Collar and Justififed, are happening during THE SAME HOUR tonight. Why is so much awesomeness being so concentrated? ANYWAY. I've seen both premieres, and they're both really good. Justified is sort of a quiet show, and it's slow and complex and doesn't always get a lot of attention, but it has first-class writing and acting and great, careful production, and it's really worth your time. It's very serialized, though, and while they have a new Big Bad for this third season, the previous two seasons are out on DVD and aren't very long so I would definitely recommend you catch up in order if you possibly can. Don't ignore it if you just don't like cowboys stuff or Westerns - it's more of a Southern Gothic, anyway, and the quality of the writing and the complex characters make it appealing outside of a genre base. If I had to compare it to something, it's sort of Winter's Bone meets Burn Notice.

And, so: Since they're on the same hour tonight, it's at least useful of the shows to be on cable channels that do a lot of repeats. If you can't record them, I'd watch White Collar live at 10 and Justified when it repeats a few minutes after 11, because White Collar doesn't repeat until later. If you are going to DVR, you have plenty of options for timeslots. Just make sure you watch these shows.

At 10 Tonight, You Must Watch White Collar.

Why? I tell you right here. But seriously: It's AMAZING. One of my favorite episodes of TV ever. If you like this show at all, you don't want to miss it.

Personalized TV Recommendations for Teen & Supernatural Drama Fan

@Medlinniel on Twitter asked for recommendations; here's what she likes: "Vampire Diaries. Pretty Little Liars.. True Blood and... The New Girl (which isn't out yet)"

Okay! First of all, if you like Vampire Diaries, you must try The Secret Circle. It's made by the same people, and based on another trilogy by the same author. It's about a young girl who moved to a small seaside town to live with her grandmother and discovers that her family is one of several families of witches in the town. I've seen the pilot and liked it a lot. For your viewing convenience, it's on the CW on Thursdays at nine, right after Vampire Diaries.

You should probably try the CW's other new show Ringer, on Tuesdays at nine. It stars Buffy's Sarah Michelle Gellar and just cast Moonlight's Jason Dohring (also known as Logan from Veronica Mars), so it's sort of vampire-adjacent. It's about a woman on the run who tries to stay safe by impersonating her missing, estranged twin sister, only to discover that people are after the twin as well. It doesn't look like it's going to have a supernatural element, but the pilot has a similar feel to the sort of shows it sounds like you like - somewhere between PLL and Nikita with a little Gossip Girl thrown in.

A few more ideas: ABC's Revenge is a Hamptons soap about a young woman trying to get revenge on the rich community that somehow ruined her family, and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. (It's loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo. And if you're looking for more shows with magic or supernatural elements, try ABC's Once Upon a Time and NBC's Grimm.

I hope that helped! If you try any of these shows, let me know what you think!