TV shows you most recently finished watching

Just watched the first 4 available episodes of Countdown the new Amazon prime series that is getting very mixed reviews. It's full on escapist action stuff with clearly drawn bad guys (Belarusian gangsters trying to sneak radio active material into LA) and the FBI task force of maverick agents assembled to stop them. It's pretty dumb but knows what it is and doesn't try to pull the wool over your eyes. Very watchable.

Murderbot
This surprised me in a good way. I normally hate sci-fi being parcelled up in 20-25 minute episodes akin to a sitcom but this is really good. The idea is a service robot hacks its programming ('governor module') and although there is no real basis in reality for this to happen we wouldn't have a whole slew of sci-fi such as Blade Runner and the like otherwise. This takes a lighter touch than most sci-fi though and doesn't dump on humanity as BR did (although I like that film). Thoughtful, interesting and extremely bingeable. BTW it has been renewed by Apple for a second season.

^^ Just finished Murderbot too and loved it. We watched over 2 nights as each episode is short. There are a few books in the series so hopefully more to come.

The Bondsman - Daft horror series with Kevin Bacon. Vibes of Ash vs The Evil Dead and Tucker and Dale vs Evil but with less comedy. A bondsman is brought back to life by the devil to hunt down escaped demons. It's not bad but some of the script is a bit too cheesy and the whole thing seems a bit roughly made, but I've seen a lot worse than this. Short episodes again, which is getting more common with US shows and only 8 of them. A watchable 7/10

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds   season 2

Never a big fan of Next Gen or any of the other ST iterations and on the heels of my disappointment with the appalling Section 31, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this creative, lively and heartfelt interpretation of Pike-era Trek as the first Enterprise boldly goes where no one has gone before... or at least anyone in a still fledgling Starfleet.   With an emphasis on the human experience in space, done with empathy but with little doubt these people will kill you if you cross them, this second season is a marked improvement upon the first and other than a slightly goofy musical finale and a fun if loopy animated crossover episode with Star Trek:Lower Decks, it is a satisfying and canonically correct Star Trek series that is episode-oriented rather than serialized, giving it an anthologic quality that works.   Thoroughly modern and respectful of the whole of humanity as well as Gene Roddenberry's original vision, I believe Roddenberry would be happy with this one, despite his famously gruff, unimpressed demeanor.

Atavachron wrote: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds   season 2 Never a big fan of Next Gen or any of the other ST iterations and on the heels of my disappointment with the appalling Section 31, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this creative, lively and heartfelt interpretation of Pike-era Trek as the first Enterprise boldly goes where no one has gone before... or at least anyone in a still fledgling Starfleet.   With an emphasis on the human experience in space, done with empathy but with little doubt these people will kill you if you cross them, this second season is a marked improvement upon the first and other than a slightly goofy musical finale and a fun if loopy animated crossover episode with Star Trek:Lower Decks, it is a satisfying and canonically correct Star Trek series that is episode-oriented rather than serialized, giving it an anthologic quality that works.   Thoroughly modern and respectful of the whole of humanity as well as Gene Roddenberry's original vision, I believe Roddenberry would be happy with this one, despite his famously gruff, unimpressed demeanor.

I've picked up Season 1 again having been put off by the overly correct English accent of one of the characters (the security officer I think) which is like fingernails on a chalk board to me. However Anson Mount's portrayal of Christoper Pike is so good I tried watching again but this time with subtitles and the volume turned right down. That kind of works so I'll bear with it. It looks great as well.

Reacher   season 3

Though a slow start, this third season based on Lee Child's series of books featuring his irreverent & hardnosed ex-MP investigator Jack Reacher, portrayed with nuance by Alan Ritchson, develops into a more interesting and emotionally complex action/drama than the first two excellent seasons.   Brimming with indifference and a desire to just be left alone, Reacher of course finds himself swept up in an off-the-books DEA operation run by three hotshot but mismatched agents who increasingly need his help in taking down a ruthless drug smuggler.   As Reacher becomes close to one of the smuggler's sons, his mentorship of the boy grows and when he discovers a young girl is being held hostage, all bets are off.