Lately I've Been Watching.... (with trailers, for your enjoyment!)

A few TV and film recommendations for your viewing enjoyment... or not, as the case may be!  Most on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.  

For more short TV recs and reviews, click the 'Lately I've Been Watching' tag a the bottom of the page :) 
 

Film: Do you trust this computer?

Utterly brilliant - everyone should watch this.  It shows where technology is really at, and it's terrifying enough for me to realise that the world as my generation knew it is already the halcyon days of long ago, and be glad I was born when I was.  Products and processes that seemed like something out of a science fiction film even 20 years ago are now in use—and the implications of this, and the ever accelerating speed of change show how reality is much more worrying than fiction.

5 stars plus 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Series: Black Summer

New zombie apocalypse show - and it's terrific, and exceptionally brutal.  Someone I know said it makes The Walking Dead look like Midsommer Murders... it's very fast paced, little dialogue, not much character build-up, but it's thrilling.  It dots between time frames and characters; this might irritate some people, but I liked it.  The zombies are much more of a threat, as they can run, and people 'turn' the minute they are bitten.

5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Series: Escape at Dannemora 

Based on a true story, about two inmates of Dannemora jail who were aided in their escape by a civilian woman who ran one of their workshops - and who was having sex with both of them.  Patricia Arquette is brilliant as the delusional, dissatisfied Joyce Mitchell.  Riveting.

5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Film: Dragged Across Concrete

Mel Gibson stars as a suspended, bitter nearly 60-year-old cop who wants to make life better for his family, and goes down some dark roads with partner Vince Vaughn.  Running alongside is a story of an ex-con getting involved with some seriously nasty people.  Racism/perceived racism theme.  It started off just quite good, watchable, and got better and better, as a superbly well-placed side story about a bank clerk who can't bear to leave her baby and return to work made it something more than just another cops and robbers tale.  I ended up on the edge of my seat, all through the second half.  Laurie Holden (Andrea in TWD!) also features, as Gibson's wife.

4.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Series: Bosch (Season 5) 

Love Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector and Madison Lintz in this; enjoyed the season as much as ever.  Only knocked off half a star because one strand of the 3-tier plot I found a little confusing (couldn't remember who everyone was) and not so compelling, but, with Bosch going undercover and a former lover of his trying to ruin his career, there is some thrilling stuff, and I'd definitely recommend.

4.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Series: Veep (Season 7)

As funny as ever, and you get the feeling that it's telling us more than we'd probably like to know about what goes on behind the scenes in electoral campaigns.  Last season, I believe.

4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Series: The Victim 

Stars Kelly MacDonald (Boardwalk Empire) as a woman whose son was murdered by a minor; the accused's identity was hidden.  She discovers who she believes him to be, and a campaign of hatred is launched against him, for which she is put on trial.  I enjoyed it, but I find MacDonald a bit irritating, and the end was predictable and disappointing.

4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Film: The Professor and the Madman

I expected this to be better than it was - Mel Gibson stars as the professor who compiled the original Oxford English Dictionary, and Sean Penn as the disturbed academic who helped him.  They were both great, and I did quite like it, but somehow it was not a memorable film.  Not helped by the casting of Natalie Dormer, who I usually love, but was totally wrong as the down at heel mother from the slums; her fake Eliza Doolittle accent was painful.  Even her face looked wrong when she was saying things like 'I fink' instead of 'I think'.

3 stars ⭐⭐⭐

Series: Chambers

Average sort of YA type supernatural story about a teenage girl who has a heart transplant, and finds herself haunted by the girl who the heart belonged to.  But that's not all, of course.  Fairly watchable at first, I quite liked it, but after half way it seemed to go on and on and on, repetitively - the plot itself could have been fitted into at least 2 less episodes.  IMDb described it as terrifying; I beg to differ.  Set in Arizona; gorgeous scenery.

2.5 stars ⭐⭐

Series: Curfew

Amateur drivers from all over the world compete in an illegal night time race.  Someone recommended this to me, as I love Sean Bean.  It's horrendous, with lots of ghastly faux 'Saarrrf Larndon' accents, and dreadful dialogue that made even actors like Bean and Harriet Walters look wooden and clichéd.  Abandoned after one episode.

1 star ⭐