Stop me if you've heard this before: a brooding, troubled detective with a checkered past arrives in a small, isolated town populated by squirrely characters to solve a crime involving a child. I know, sounds like a combination of Popular Serious Cable TV Tropes, but the BBC series Broadchurch still does it up good. This time, the detective has a thick Scottish accent and a permanent five o'clock shadow. It was apparently a monster hit in the UK, and there's only 8 episodes, so you could do it in a weekend, or spread it out for a while like we did. NO SPOILERS PLEASE, we're watching the finale tonight.
It's basically a whodunit, with a couple of subplots. I like it! Well-written, and the acting is great.
Our next show is called Top of the Lake, and in it, a brooding, troubled detective with a checkered past arrives in a small, isolated town populated by squirrely characters to solve a crime involving a child. This time, though, the BTD is Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men and she's got a New Zealand accent that comes and goes. Winningly, the show also features Holly Hunter as a wackadoodle guru of some kind. Jane Campion was involved, and I guess she has a contract rider that specifies Holly Hunter has to be in anything she does. Anyway, it's 6 episodes? Or 7? I can't remember, but again, pretty compact. Worth a look.
If you haven't been watching Sons of Anarchy from the beginning, you're kind of lucky, actually, because you get to skip season 3, which the rest of us had to sit through. Other than that, it's a pretty enjoyable series about a biker gang in San Joaquin County and all the shit they get up to. It's actually kind of stunningly graphically brutal for TV, so watch out if that bugs you.
Also, if you get HBO, Veep is the funniest comedy on TV right now. The new season is about to start (or already started? I'm not sure) but if you haven't seen it you get the sublime pleasure of watching all the old episodes in a row. Seriously, funniest thing on TV, no lie.
3 comments:
Sons of Anarchy lost me. Perhaps it's my (basically unfounded) dislike of Jimmy Smits.
Liked "Broadchurch" until the end, which has a sentimental and uplifting finale. Yuck! And I hope that's not a spoiler. "Top of the Lake" is strange and extraordinarily good, and does not have a sentimental and uplifting finale. Elizabeth Moss and her off-and-on accent is the only mistake in casting, and Holly Hunter walks off with the show as the Wackadoodle Guru. Haven't watched "Veep" but just binge watched the first two seasons of "Scandal" with Kerrie Washington who is my new Favorite TV Star. Check it out.
Stoney -
I actually like the Jimmy Smits character.
Michael -
Thanks for the tip! The Wife is a big fan of Scandal, too.
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