flrestan Reviews

Roadkill (2020)

One of the most prescient series that I have ever watched

[6/10 · 5 June 2022]

Reality today in the UK is more like this drama than the makers could have imagend. The tory party under Boris Johnson could have written the script from their own experience.

As I said, this is one of the most prescient series that I have ever watched.

Vienna Blood (2019– )

Very enjoyable

[3 December 2019]

Very good and fresh crime-solving drama set in Vienna on the eve of the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Damned by a patronising and sneering review in the Observer, it is most enthraling.

Death in Paradise (2011– )

Dwayne replacement has killed it

[4/10 · 27 January 2019]

They have just introduced a new very mouthy characted who seems to annoy all the other cops and just kills it for me.

Killing Eve (2018–2022)

Pretentious rubbish

[1/10 · 3 November 2018]

Could have been written by a juvenile sociopath. It might have made a decent 90 minute film but who ever wrote the script must have thought that they were writing something important.

Bones (2005–2017)

Like Friends but with corpses

[6/10 · 2 February 2018]

Viewing season 8 and the emphasis on snogging and sex (with the underwear kept on, of course) and all the other personal stuff has become very irritating. The supernatural tosh and the all-powerful super-villain add to the general feeling that the show is at least one season beyond its prime. My rating reflects my overall view on seasons 1 to 8.

The Vietnam War (2017)

An incomplete view

[7/10 · 26 October 2017]

While the series as I watched it (10 episodes of about one hour aired by the BBC) is informative and very moving and attempts to be a balanced view, it is clearly not a definitive history. There are some glaring omissions. For example, the role of the British in ensuring that the Free French could take back control of their colony by enlisting the assistance of Indian and Japanese forces (!) is not even mentioned. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Vietnam_(1945%E2%80%9346) for details.

The Good Fight (2017–2022)

Good but annoying

[7/10 · 30 April 2017]

While it zips along at a good pace and is an improvement on The Good Wife, the portrayal of court scenes leaves a lot to be desired. Lawyers interrupting each other in mid-sentence would just not be tolerated in a real courtroom and interrupting a judge would surely risk being locked up for contempt.

I watched Episode 5 yesterday and had to stop because of this. The Good Fight is not the only one that has such nonsense in it but it seems to be taking it to a higher level. Most TV drama including court scenes showing such behaviour. I'd like to know why because shouldn't the drama be in the actual fictional case? Law and Order gets part of the way there and The Wire gets all the way there.