This is a candidate for the best K-TV show I've seen yet. It's about a wealthy South Korean woman doing a para-sailing publicity video for her new line of sports clothing and getting blown across the DMZ into N. Korea.

A soldier finds her in the early evening and, realizing she is there by accident, points her in the direction to walk back to where she would be found by an S. Korean ...

This is a candidate for the best K-TV show I've seen yet. It's about a wealthy South Korean woman doing a para-sailing publicity video for her new line of sports clothing and getting blown across the DMZ into N. Korea.

A soldier finds her in the early evening and, realizing she is there by accident, points her in the direction to walk back to where she would be found by an S. Korean patrol.

But she gets lost and ends up walking in a circle only to be found by him again. He knows what would happen to her if he turns her over to the security service, and because it is now getting light he decides to hide her until the next evening and try again. This is of course way over the line and both are now at great risk if found out. As you can guess, he doesn't manage to get her back the next day either.

The show alternates between the village where she is hiding and the scheming back in Seoul where her brothers, assuming she is dead, are already trying to divide up her share of the family business.

With the usual 16 episodes, there is time for a lot more additional story threads, characters, and reveals about the backstories of those characters. But the extra storylines do come together eventually.

It's a romantic dramedy and has some nice "awwww" moments along with some great scenery.

Reality check - defectors have said the show does a pretty good job ( ~60% ) of representing life in the north, except for the ease with which you could get across the border. Life depicted in the small village was the most accurate.

And if you think the leads have good chemistry. They did! And have since gotten married.

Excellent series overall. Didn't watch this until all seasons had been released so this was a binge-worthy show!

In the future, mankind has spread throughout the solar system. The only SciFi tool in place is a small fusion drive, that allows spaceships to accelerate 1G (normal gravity) halfway on their trip, turn around and decelerate to their destination. (For example, if we could do ...

Excellent series overall. Didn't watch this until all seasons had been released so this was a binge-worthy show!

In the future, mankind has spread throughout the solar system. The only SciFi tool in place is a small fusion drive, that allows spaceships to accelerate 1G (normal gravity) halfway on their trip, turn around and decelerate to their destination. (For example, if we could do this now, Mars would be a week away). So no fighter spacecraft as in BSG, or FTL drives.

But the human race being what it is, things are not all cozy between the three factions that have developed:

Originally a Stars Network series based on a series of popular books. Netflix is dropping the seasons about a year after the Stars release.

About a WWII nurse who is visiting Scotland to reconnect with her husband after being separated during the war. While her husband is digging into his family history with a local priest, she has her fortune told his wife. She is told that the signs ...

Originally a Stars Network series based on a series of popular books. Netflix is dropping the seasons about a year after the Stars release.

About a WWII nurse who is visiting Scotland to reconnect with her husband after being separated during the war. While her husband is digging into his family history with a local priest, she has her fortune told his wife. She is told that the signs are confusing ... she will travel, but stay in the same place, and her marriage line shows 2 marriages, but hers is split, not broken as is usually the case.

Left to her own to explore she touches a "standing stone", (think very small Stonehenge), and suddenly finds himself in the same spot but 200 years ago in the middle of a skirmish between Highlanders and British redcoats.

No one would possibly believe her story, so how can she fit in and survive? Can she go back? Does she go back?

This is a wild ride through the landscape of Scottish and American history.

Great remake of the old TV series. Yes, spaceships, lasers, etc. But also a very highly rated drama series (that won a lot of Emmys for drama), for the deep character development and stories.

You don't need to know the backstory, (just skip over the indented part), but it does explain a few things that occur thousands of years before the events of the series...

Humans ...

Great remake of the old TV series. Yes, spaceships, lasers, etc. But also a very highly rated drama series (that won a lot of Emmys for drama), for the deep character development and stories.

You don't need to know the backstory, (just skip over the indented part), but it does explain a few things that occur thousands of years before the events of the series...

Humans first evolved on the planet Kobal and then created the first Cybernetic robots called Cylons to be workers. These Cylons became self-aware and rather than fight a war with their creators for their freedom, agreed to leave Kobal. Using FTL travel they explored and finally settled on a planet they called Earth about 4000 BCH (Before Cylon Holocaust ).

For 2 thousand years (up to 2000 BCH), they prospered and eventually found a way to biologically reproduce while still retaining their machine-like internal architecture (don't think too much about this). Much later they then recreated a class of Cylon workers and history repeated itself. But this time the Cylon revolt escalated into a nuclear war that destroyed their masters and the Earth.

All except for 5 scientists who were working on a technology to upload their consciousness for storage periodically and later download into new bodies (think clones with memory download), and essentially live forever. 2000 BCH these five left Earth and began a sub-light speed journey back to Kobal to warn their creators of what could happen if they should create more Cylons.

(A theme of the story is "this has all happened before and will happen again").

Meanwhile. back on Kobal (also 2000 BCH) ...

Humans being humans eventually ruined their homeworld ecologically, and had to leave. There were 12 'tribes' and each colonized a new world (The Twelve Colonies). There was a central government on Capricia (yes, named for the 12 constellations we know), and for 2000 years the colonies thrived and became technologically advanced.

By 50 BCH, someone on Caprica had the bright idea of creating robotic workers and calling them Cylons (again). They were created as workers and security forces (not a good idea); they were very intelligent and could perform a lot of tasks independently. They become commonplace throughout the 12 colonies. But the problems start when they too begin to become more self-aware and resent their slave/worker status. There is a revolt and a war that was fought not only on the planets but in space as well. The colonies built large, heavily armed spaceships called Battlestars to protect the planets. This resulted in the conflict being pretty much a stalemate.

By now those 5 scientists (traveling at sub-light speeds), have made their way back to Kobal, only to find it abandoned. They then meet the new Cylons and convince them to stop their war with the colonies in exchange for giving them the upload/download technology and the ability to create biological bodies.

Eventually a truce is negotiated and the Cylons leave. After 40 years, the Battlestars are eventually decommissioned. The series opens as the last one, Battlestar Galactica, is being turned into a museum.

However during that 40 years of peace, the efforts of the 5 scientists to permanently stop hostilities were subverted and a militant faction took control of the Cylons. The five are boxed and memory of them is (mostly) erased from the other Cylons. The Cylons return to the colonies. But now some of them look human and they are not interested in talking. The Cylon attack is devastating.

The series follows the Galactica and a group of civilian ships, containing all of humanity, as they try to outrun the robotic Cylons and find a new home.

Religious beliefs play a large role in the motivation of both the Cylons, with their belief in the One True God, and the Colonial adherents to the old Gods and their ancient prophesies, except for a small minority that also believes in a single God

How does a race of robots come to believe in God at all? To answer that question, see the single season of "Caprica".

The Mini-series and Main series seasons are fine by themselves, but you may be able to find other bits of the story that fill in some gaps:

Watching in order...

Blood and Chrome (available from several places for $4)

Caprica See Review

The Miniseries (2 parts)

Season 1

Season 2 Watch up to episode 17: "The Captain's Hand"

Razor (was a movie, but now S3-E21) (But don't watch the last 10 Minutes)

Razor Flashbacks (A 7-part web series -- YouTube)

Watch episode 18 of Season 2: "Downloaded"

The Resistance (A 10-part web series -- YouTube)

Season 3

Go back and watch the last 10 minutes of Razor (S3-E21)

Season 4 Watch up to episode 11: "Sometimes a Great Nation"

The Face of the Enemy (A 10-part web series - YouTube)

Watch episodes 12 to 15: "No Exit"

The Plan (movie)

Watch episode 16 and continue to the end of Daybreak.

Send in the clones!

The opening scene shows a 20-something street-wise woman named Sarah at the subway where she sees a well-dressed woman carefully put down her briefcase, take off her shoes, and calmly step into the path of a train. The woman looks exactly like Sarah!

Sarah grabs the woman's bag and leaves not knowing just yet that her life just got a whole lot more complicated. ...

Send in the clones!

The opening scene shows a 20-something street-wise woman named Sarah at the subway where she sees a well-dressed woman carefully put down her briefcase, take off her shoes, and calmly step into the path of a train. The woman looks exactly like Sarah!

Sarah grabs the woman's bag and leaves not knowing just yet that her life just got a whole lot more complicated.

Tatiana Maslany finally got an Emmy for the multiple characters she created. Each clone not only looks slightly different in appearance but has a different accent and mannerisms. There is one scene in which Tatiana must play one clone impersonating another clone, but she does it imperfectly.

Helena is my favorite! Which one will be yours?

Yes ! Another one where you cheer for the 'bad' guy. Loved this show. If case you have not heard ...

A high school chemistry teacher learns he has cancer and the outlook is not good. With not very much life insurance, he is concerned about his family's future. So by chance, he realizes that perhaps he could make just a little money by cooking up some high-quality crystal meth.

What ...

Yes ! Another one where you cheer for the 'bad' guy. Loved this show. If case you have not heard ...

A high school chemistry teacher learns he has cancer and the outlook is not good. With not very much life insurance, he is concerned about his family's future. So by chance, he realizes that perhaps he could make just a little money by cooking up some high-quality crystal meth.

What follows is a wild ride.

This show is quite different than the other K-Dramas that we've seen. First, it is a pure drama, not a romantic comedy or a period piece. The story develops slowly and you need to give it 3 episodes to get into it.

In this series, you are going to get a look into the lives of a number of people. But the focus is on two people: a young woman (Ji-an), about 20 years old, and a ...

This show is quite different than the other K-Dramas that we've seen. First, it is a pure drama, not a romantic comedy or a period piece. The story develops slowly and you need to give it 3 episodes to get into it.

In this series, you are going to get a look into the lives of a number of people. But the focus is on two people: a young woman (Ji-an), about 20 years old, and a middle-aged manager (Dong-hoon), in an engineering company.

That phrase about "people leading lives of quiet desperation" is a good way to explain what we slowly learn about, not only these two characters but the supporting characters as well. Happiness is hard to find for most of them.

There are three groups of people: The engineering firm, Doog-hoon's extended family and friends; Ji-an's circle of her Grandmother, a hacker friend, and the loan shark that is after her.

Dong-Hoon is a middle-aged structural engineer and manager. He has two brothers, (of whom he is the brightest), and his job mostly supports them. They hang out in a small restaurant/bar run by a long-time friend and where their mother works. The owner has a failed relationship in her past that still affects her. The 3 brothers and their friends eat dinner there often and a lot of the story takes place there.

One of Dong-hoon's brothers attempted to make a film but it failed. The lead actress is still a friend of his, but now has a reputation for freezing up when the camera turns on.

One source of frustration for Dong-hoon is his job where a superior, CEO (Joon-young), is younger than he is. And this is an inversion of the normal way things work in Korea. Starting in Middle School your social position is based on age and which class you're in, So this is a very big thing. Dong-hoon and the CEO have some history and they don't like each other. This is complicated by the possibility of a promotion to a director position that both may be considered for.

Then there is Ji-an, a 20-year-old woman who is working as a temp at the company. She is not highly educated or has the skills to be there. We learn that the desperation in her life is that she owes a lot of money to a loan shark while she is also trying to take care of her invalid grandmother.

So Ji-an is apparently willing to do things that are far from ethical to earn money. The CEO decides to take advantage of this and pay her to help get Dong-hoon fired. The complication of this scheme is that over time Ji-an begins to respect and perhaps even like Dong-hoon.

Another complication in Dong-hoon's life is a strained marriage. So does this open the door to a romantic relationship between Dong-hoon and Ji-an?

This is a show where you need to pay full attention as there is a lot going on in each episode and there are some subtle reveals about the lives of these characters. Binge-watching it might not be ideal, because each episode is so packed with details that you need time to reflect on what you've seen and understand where each character is in their story arc.

One commenter in a forum wrote: "Maybe it is not always about a happy ending. Perhaps it is about the struggle to be the person you want to be." And you will be struggling along with these characters.

The character Ji-an is played by Lee Ji-eun. She had had a few previous roles that were not noteworthy. But she is far from an unknown -- better known simply as "IU", she is Korea's highest-grossing female K-Pop singer.

I've also seen her in the show Hotel Del Luna, (which was filmed after My Mister and thought she was very good). I've also watched one of her Music Videos to see what all the buzz was about.

This role is so, so very different from the personalities expressed in those, so I can see why this is called her break-out role.

Great series! - high production costs- set in 1929 Berlin before the Nazis sre not much more than a small group of agitators.

Love how they use the rhythm section of a jazz band whenever the action picks up -- sometimes just an up-tempo base drum that changes to a single note base and back to a drum, then a hint of melody. The up-tempo jazz is appropriate as several scenes happen in a ...

Great series! - high production costs- set in 1929 Berlin before the Nazis sre not much more than a small group of agitators.

Love how they use the rhythm section of a jazz band whenever the action picks up -- sometimes just an up-tempo base drum that changes to a single note base and back to a drum, then a hint of melody. The up-tempo jazz is appropriate as several scenes happen in a nightclub. For the club scene, think 'Cabaret' on steroids. There's a great musical number about halfway through episode 2.

This series has a lot going on... A depressed German economy following the restrictive Treaty of Versailles, people were hungry and looking for jobs, doing what they can to survive; old German generals wanting to re-arm the military; white Russians wanting to overthrow the Red Russians in control in Russia; an exiled Russian countess; a corrupt head of the Vice Squad; a detective with PTSD from some event that happened in WWI; blackmail; a girl working in the Temp Pool at the police department wanting to become a detective; and a mysterious train.

Dubbed in English, but better if you watch with subtitles and get the actors' voices in German.

German show about people disappearing. Is there a connection to events of 30 years ago? Well of course! Very good show!

As the title suggests there is a lot of darkness in this show -- literally! There is a dark forest, a cave, and it always seems to be overcast or raining.

It takes place in a small town with a nuclear power plant and it's owners have a lot of influence. You follow ...

German show about people disappearing. Is there a connection to events of 30 years ago? Well of course! Very good show!

As the title suggests there is a lot of darkness in this show -- literally! There is a dark forest, a cave, and it always seems to be overcast or raining.

It takes place in a small town with a nuclear power plant and it's owners have a lot of influence. You follow several families through several generations, so you need to pay attention to realize when the time period switches.

Here is a chart to help , but don't look at it until well into the show as it has spoilers.

It is dubbed in English, but it is better to watch in German with subtitles.

Discovered a delightful K-TV show named Extraordinary Attorney Woo. Woo Young Woo (same forward and backward as she likes to inform people) has a high IQ, a photographic memory and finds connections between things that most people would never see. Young-Woo is on the spectrum and as you may expect being a trial lawyer has its challenges. Woo graduated top of her class in law school but ...

Discovered a delightful K-TV show named Extraordinary Attorney Woo. Woo Young Woo (same forward and backward as she likes to inform people) has a high IQ, a photographic memory and finds connections between things that most people would never see. Young-Woo is on the spectrum and as you may expect being a trial lawyer has its challenges. Woo graduated top of her class in law school but struggles socially to interact. So the show and character is similar to "The Good Doctor" but in a courtroom.

People who know say her portrayal of someone with autism is very accurate.

We have also seen the lead actor, Park Eun-bin, in The King's Affection", a period piece dramedy where she played the identical twin of a crown prince.

So two very different roles for her and she nails both of them

Fallout is an adaptation of a video game. But like The Last of Us, you don't need to have played the game to enjoy the series.

The story takes place in two time periods, pre-nuclear war and 200 years later. The pre-war world is supposed to be 2077 and there are some technological elements that are more advanced than today. But some appear to have been cobbled together in the 1950. Like a ...

Fallout is an adaptation of a video game. But like The Last of Us, you don't need to have played the game to enjoy the series.

The story takes place in two time periods, pre-nuclear war and 200 years later. The pre-war world is supposed to be 2077 and there are some technological elements that are more advanced than today. But some appear to have been cobbled together in the 1950. Like a wrist sartphone (without the phone part), that is the size of a brick). And indeed there is a 1950's vibe to the world of the show. ( I did read that the game designers wanted the future to be what people in the 1950's thought the future would be like). Baby boomers will recognize the "red scare" talk and the idea that every home should have a fallout shelter.

But in this story, shelters are big business. And Vault-Tec controls the market with large underground vaults that can house 100's to 1000's of people ready to wait out the post-war radiation to emerge and restart civilization. At least that is the idea.

When we meet the people in Vault 33 they are happy, healthy, and almost too well-adjusted. It's just a bit odd. The star of the show is Lucy, who is about to get married in an DNA exchange with Vault 32 -- no marrying your cousin. But wide-eyed and innocent Lucy's world is about to change when she is forced to leave the vault to search for her father who has been abducted by Raiders from the surface.

So yes -- there were some survivors on the surface. But what about all that radiation for the past 200 years? In addition to people struggling to get by, and willing to kill and maim to do so, there are of course mutants to deal with.

But this is not a zombie apocalypse show. There is violence, gore and freakish mutant creatures that are just a part of life for the surface survivors. But this is not the main theme of the show. In fact it is sort of campy. There is also a semi-religious military organization, a group of scientists called the Enclave, "Raiders", and the remnants of the New California Republic (a storyline familiar to game players).

But there is also a mystery, for all is not what it appears to be with these vaults. And much of what Lucy believes to be the truth is about to be shattered.

But note that I also listed this as a comedy. There are a lot of subtle jokes and stereotypical characters, and the producers had a lot of fun with the music. There are frequent songs from the 40's and 50's that appear to have been picked for their title or opening lines that are sometimes appropriate, and ironically not appropriate, for what is happening on screen. For example, what could be more appropriate than this song. This and other absurdities work to offset the violence and gore.

Not for the squeamish, if you make it through the first episode, the gorey parts become part of the background environment as you get into the real story. Realize that as shocking these bits may be to you, they are also the reality of the world that Lucy finds herself in when she leaves the vault.

So welcome to the world of Fallout, where money consists of 200-year-old Nuka Cola bottle caps, an epi-pen that can cure radiation sickness, and cock roaches, (that did indeed survive), and are now the size of cats.

I had seen this pop up on Netflix's recommendation, but thought, based on the name, that it was just a romantic comedy -- wow was I wrong.

It takes place mostly between 1894 and 1907 during the period when Japan was beginning its slow takeover of the country (Joseon at that time). Japan was flooding the country with its money and bribing officials to make policy decisions favorable to ...

I had seen this pop up on Netflix's recommendation, but thought, based on the name, that it was just a romantic comedy -- wow was I wrong.

It takes place mostly between 1894 and 1907 during the period when Japan was beginning its slow takeover of the country (Joseon at that time). Japan was flooding the country with its money and bribing officials to make policy decisions favorable to Japan. The small number of soldiers stationed there for its legation (or embassy), is slowly being increased. The King is increasingly boxed in and isolated.

This is also a period of social, and cultural changes and influences from the West.

There are 5 main characters and lots of others. But with 24 episodes of 80 minutes each, there is plenty of time to get to know them and their motivations. However, a lot is initially not what it seems so supporting characters, which at first seem incidental, can become more important later.

Also with so much time, the directors can afford to slow down and not rush through scenes just to keep the story moving. The first episode introduces the main characters and we see events that affected them as children. As with a lot of K-TV, there are frequent flashbacks to refresh your memory of why someone is doing or saying what they are.

The main story is a romance between a noble lady and a Korean-American Marine that is stationed there as part of the Legation.

But there are complications - like a fiance and a sort of Joseon turned Japanese thug that is also in love with her. And also the cultural/class expectations of how everyone should behave.

What makes this a bit sad, and like a slow-motion train wreck, is that we know what is going to happen to the country during the next 40 years. We see the characters struggle for the independence of their country, but realize it will all be for nothing.

So we expect that some of these characters are not going to make it to the end, but which ones?

Story of a typical American family in the 1980s during the cold war. Except that mom and dad are Soviet spies and an FBI agent lives across the street. The Jennings appear to be an average middle-class family. They own a travel agency in Washington, DC, which is convenient for when they need to leave town occasionally for their real work.

They have been in ...

Story of a typical American family in the 1980s during the cold war. Except that mom and dad are Soviet spies and an FBI agent lives across the street. The Jennings appear to be an average middle-class family. They own a travel agency in Washington, DC, which is convenient for when they need to leave town occasionally for their real work.

They have been in the U.S. for years and have 2 teenage kids. But they were assigned to each other in Russia and were never actually married. Their daughter is getting to an age where she is starting to realize that her parents' lives are not quite normal.

That is the least of their worries as they are being asked to take increasing risks to get information about Regan's "Star Wars" Program.

And then the new neighbor is an FBI agent working in Counter-Espionage.

This is a fun ride. It was originally broadcast on FX.

This is a series that you need to get into a bit to appreciate. As the title suggests it is about people that have some mental problems, and we will meet characters that have a range of issues. while it is a romance, it takes quite a while before you can see that the relationship between the leads even has a chance of working

Mun-Yeong, is a successful children's book author of fairy ...

This is a series that you need to get into a bit to appreciate. As the title suggests it is about people that have some mental problems, and we will meet characters that have a range of issues. while it is a romance, it takes quite a while before you can see that the relationship between the leads even has a chance of working

Mun-Yeong, is a successful children's book author of fairy tales. She is also very self-centered, entitled, and somewhat explosive.

Her stories are dark. For example, what would say is the takeaway from Beauty and the Beast? Min Yeong thinks it is a story about Stockholm syndrome, where the monster imprisons the girl and convinces her the only option is to make herself believe she actually loves him. There are 5 original stories used in the series and we soon come to understand that they are personal for the author.

She seems to be someone that likes being alone and would be hard to have a relationship with.

The male lead is Gang-tae who works as a caregiver at the "OK Mental Hospital". He also looks after his older brother who has autism. So we think this is going to be about the two of them meeting and him helping her in some way.

Very early in the show she declares that she wants him, the same way she decides she wants a letter opener she sees on someone's desk and just takes it. She can't understand why he's balking --- she always gets what she wants.

But remember those Fairy tales? Each episode has a fairy tale for its title and will have some connection to these characters' backstories. You know the classic line from the shrink: "Tell me about your childhood". Both of these characters have childhood experiences that have affected their adult lives.

So who will end up helping who? Will this combative relationship ever actually turn into a romance? Are those demons from their past just nightmares now or still real?

There are some comedic elements now and then, and lots of enjoyable supporting characters. I especially liked the staffer at the publishing company that always seems to always have this cute but impish smile. And, commenters have said that the portrayal of the older autistic brother is very realistic.

If you like medical dramas, you should enjoy this Korean series. It's not just a copy of US hospital shows where the emphasis seems to be on manufactured drama and crises outside the day-to-day lives of the medical staff -- like a new administrator that wants a lot of changes, etc. This is more of a slice-of-life series that focuses on five doctors that are also best friends.

You will need ...

If you like medical dramas, you should enjoy this Korean series. It's not just a copy of US hospital shows where the emphasis seems to be on manufactured drama and crises outside the day-to-day lives of the medical staff -- like a new administrator that wants a lot of changes, etc. This is more of a slice-of-life series that focuses on five doctors that are also best friends.

You will need to watch 3 or 4 episodes to learn the characters for two reasons: 1) in addition to the five leads, (one woman and 4 guys), who are attending physicians, there are 20 other residents and 15 interns that pop in and out of scenes, and 2) everyone is wearing pretty much the same thing. But here's a chart to help figure it out: put this on your phone so you can have it handy

The doctors have specialties in neuro-surgery, cardiac surgery, liver transplants, OBGYN, and pediatric surgery; and each episode includes patients for 2 or 3 of those. While they have occasional ER/Trauma surgeries, most of their time is spent with scheduled surgeries, working with interns and residents, grading papers, etc. This means that they often have lunch breaks and dinners when they can all meet and interact. And it is at these meals that we see most of their personal interactions.

None of them have romantic relationships when we first meet them, but those will develop (with various degrees of success), during the series.

Hospital Playlist is one of the few Korean series that has a second season, so that says something about its popularity.

Oh, and why "Playlist" you are wondering? The doctors have a band! It's just for their own fun - getting together in one of their homes, but each episode includes them performing a cover of a well-known (at least in Korea) song.All of the songs are performed by the actors. While the female lead (Jeon Mi-do) has a nice natural voice, her character things I had a lot of bad notes. In fact they only let her sing the lead in the band once a year on her birthday! Mi-do learned to play bass for the show. Here's a sample of the band (without the missed notes) and some scenes from the show.

If you liked the female lead, try her next series Thirty Nine

And you can see the pediatrician in a very different role inMister Sunshine

Never got around to seeing the show, but found Hamilton browsing Disney, and so glad we did. Through 47 songs it tells his story, in a mix of song and rap with a lot of details. Hamilton is very much a founding father, and a possible future president, had he lived.

One thing I learned, outside the film, is that it was based on the work of a historian, who was also a consultant for the ...

Never got around to seeing the show, but found Hamilton browsing Disney, and so glad we did. Through 47 songs it tells his story, in a mix of song and rap with a lot of details. Hamilton is very much a founding father, and a possible future president, had he lived.

One thing I learned, outside the film, is that it was based on the work of a historian, who was also a consultant for the accuracy of the show.

Hamiton is definitely worth watching. You may want subtitles on as the rapped lyrics can be very fast.

This is a period piece (early 1800's in the Joseon Dynasty), so it has interesting costumes. The show is centered on a young woman in her mid-twenties that is well-educated and can read Chinese as well as Korean.

This is important because at that time foreign (including European) books were often imported from China and not everyone could read them, and because of that we first meet ...

This is a period piece (early 1800's in the Joseon Dynasty), so it has interesting costumes. The show is centered on a young woman in her mid-twenties that is well-educated and can read Chinese as well as Korean.

This is important because at that time foreign (including European) books were often imported from China and not everyone could read them, and because of that we first meet Hae-Ryung reading a European romance to a group of court ladies who can't read Chinese.

Next her brother announces (her parents are not in the picture and why will be something to discover later on), that it is time she was married and intends to find someone suitable. Hae-Ryung wants no part of this, preferring her independence.

Soon after this, we meet two men who might be candidates for her love interest in this story. One is a Government Historian named Min who seems to be a really thoughtful and nice guy. The other is the writer of a series of Korean language romance novels that all the ladies are ga-ga over. In a chance meeting, without knowing he is the author, she comments to him that in her opinion the books are a sad waste of paper.

But this is a dramedy. Something dark happened 20 years ago, lots of palace intrigue, relationships that are not what they seem, and a book named "The Story of Ho Dam" that the emperor really does not want anyone to read. Along the way, there will be extended flashbacks to 20 years ago. There are also a few comic characters that border on over-acting the part, but not annoyingly so.

Now about the "Historian" part. At that time, "Historians" were government officials who had the job of shadowing the Royal Family and recording everything they did or said for an official record. They were not to be excluded from any conversations. Our independent-minded Hae-Ryung sees a chance to become one as a golden opportunity.

Lots of good viewing with 20 episodes at an hour each.

Nice comedy series if you did not catch it when on broadcast TV.

Stars Ted Danson and Kristen Bell. Kristen's character wakes up in a waiting room and learns she has died. but not to worry, she is in the 'Good Place' because of her generous, unselfish life.

She soon begins to worry that they have confused her with someone else with the same name because --- she was a telemarketer ...

Nice comedy series if you did not catch it when on broadcast TV.

Stars Ted Danson and Kristen Bell. Kristen's character wakes up in a waiting room and learns she has died. but not to worry, she is in the 'Good Place' because of her generous, unselfish life.

She soon begins to worry that they have confused her with someone else with the same name because --- she was a telemarketer trying to sell useless stuff to old people and never spent a year in Africa feeding the poor.

How long can she keep up the charade and not give herself away?

A BBC show, Doctor Who is the longest-running SciFi show in the history of Earth.

OK... as I've been a fan since the 4th doctor way back in the "Classic Who" era, I've got to rate this one high.

There was a pause in 1989 that marks the end of "Classic Doctor Who", with a reboot in 2005. So with almost a 60-year history, it's difficult to summarize, but ...

The Doctor ...

A BBC show, Doctor Who is the longest-running SciFi show in the history of Earth.

OK... as I've been a fan since the 4th doctor way back in the "Classic Who" era, I've got to rate this one high.

There was a pause in 1989 that marks the end of "Classic Doctor Who", with a reboot in 2005. So with almost a 60-year history, it's difficult to summarize, but ...

The Doctor belongs to a race of aliens called Time Lords, that can travel through space and time in machines called a TARDIS. The Doctor appears human and really likes spending time in the U.K. where he frequently picks up traveling companions for his adventures.

"We all change when you think about it. We're all different people all throughout our lives. And that's okay, that's good, you've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be" - Eleventh Doctor

The above quote is appropriate as the Doctor's race has a bit of a trick when severely injured. Instead of dying, they regenerate into a new body. In the new body, they remember past lives, but their memory is often a bit fuzzy right after regeneration and their personality can change.

All this is very convenient for producers as they can change actors. And so far this has happened 14 times.

Everyone has their favorite Doctor. Sometimes changes in the Doctor also bring a new "Show Runner" with new ideas and writing style. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not so much. This is a shame because recently some very good actors have been given lousy scripts.

Don't want to watch them all? Try this set (mostly) from the 10th Doctor:

Everyone needs to see this film.

Yes, it is subtitled, and it is in grainy B/W from 1950. But it is a great piece of storytelling by Akira Kurosawa.

A bride has been raped and her husband murdered. Luckily there are several witnesses. But as each person tells what happened from their perspective, the stories are similar but also contradictory.

So what really happened? Is this a ...

Everyone needs to see this film.

Yes, it is subtitled, and it is in grainy B/W from 1950. But it is a great piece of storytelling by Akira Kurosawa.

A bride has been raped and her husband murdered. Luckily there are several witnesses. But as each person tells what happened from their perspective, the stories are similar but also contradictory.

So what really happened? Is this a great example of how eyewitness testimony can be unreliable? Or perhaps does each have a reason to lie? Or is reality what we each perceive it to be?

It has been suggested that this film is the reason the "Best Foreign Film" category was created at the Oscars.

Stars J.K, Simmons, who you will recognize from the Farmers Insurance ads, and early Law & Order years, in a dual role. Well actually just about everyone in it has a dual role.

This is because back in the 1980s a physics experiment had one of those untended consequences and cloned the world with a connection point in a basement hallway of the building in East Berlin where the experiment ...

Stars J.K, Simmons, who you will recognize from the Farmers Insurance ads, and early Law & Order years, in a dual role. Well actually just about everyone in it has a dual role.

This is because back in the 1980s a physics experiment had one of those untended consequences and cloned the world with a connection point in a basement hallway of the building in East Berlin where the experiment was performed.

Two identical worlds with identical people, who for the most part, continued to think and act identically. But events will occur that cause the two worlds to take different directions.

After the fall of The Wall, an organization called the Office of Interface controls the connection. The show's main character, Howard Silk, leads a dull life that consists of meeting someone in a booth and reading meaningless phrases back and forth from a script. (Interface is also the name of the department where Howard works).

The Office of Interface organization may be connected to the United Nations somehow and there are references to other departments such as Strategy, Diplomacy and Management.

Few people in the world know of the existence of another world and most of those that work in the Office of Interface, such as Howard, do not even know the real purpose of the organization or what they do.

In the 1990s a pandemic breaks out in what is called the Prime world. (Prime is used here in the physics sense as a value for a variable that occurs after some event or change.). This results in half a billion dead (mostly in Europe), and strong suspicion that it was intentional, but this is not officially proven or at least known.

We learn that the Prime world now lags considerably behind the other in technological development.

You can see how the Prime world might not be too happy with the situation and so there is certainly a need for diplomacy. There are frequent visits by people from both worlds to the other to support their respective embassies.

But somehow it is apparently easy for people to get through security and sneak into their other's world, as it appears their controlled hallway between worlds leaks like a pasta strainer. This means this series a basically about spies and plots between the worlds.

I spend this much time on this setup as the first few episodes are confusing and you may be tempted to stop watching, but I urge you to stick with it as the second half of Season One really gets going.

For J. K. Simmons (and others), the dual role comes about because they play the same person in both worlds. Some of these behave in very different ways while others continue to live very similar lives. Howard is quite different in the two worlds and that provides fun for J.K. Simmons. (Though not as much of a stretch as for Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black).

One viewing tip: turn on subtitles as when the show starts switching between the two worlds, the subtitles identify a character as "Howard" or "Howard Prime". There are other hints, but this will help in keeping things straight during the early episodes of the show.

Sadly Stars Network, which originated the series, dropped it saying the viewing audience was too male and that didn't fit their demographic targets. Perhaps another network will pick it up. There are enough threads available for a good final season.

"Signal" is Korean detective series that focuses on three police officers that are all part of the same team. --- Lt. Park, a young profiler that just joined the team. Detective Cha - a woman that is the current head of the team. And the former team leader, from when the woman first joined the group, 16 years ago -- Detective Lee.

Lt. Park is contacted by Detective Lee on an old ...

"Signal" is Korean detective series that focuses on three police officers that are all part of the same team. --- Lt. Park, a young profiler that just joined the team. Detective Cha - a woman that is the current head of the team. And the former team leader, from when the woman first joined the group, 16 years ago -- Detective Lee.

Lt. Park is contacted by Detective Lee on an old walkie-talkie and is shocked to learn that Detective Lee seems to know him; and that for Detective Lee it is the year 1985. In addition, Park later learns that Detective Lee has been missing since 1985. So how can Detective Lee know him.

If this sounds familiar, the series was based on the American movie "Frequency". But this is a much, much better drama.

An interesting twist in the time-travel genre, where it is information that travels back and forth instead of people. But, what about paradoxes? If the past changes because of information from the present, does that not also change the present?

Really well-constructed show and mystery. With lots of action taking place in the two different time periods. And there are a lot more connections between these characters to be revealed.

This show was suggested to us because it has the same lead actress (Kim Hye-soo), as in Under the Queen's Umbrella.

I became of fan of Keri Russell after watching her in The Americans. This is a similar role in which she is a no-nonsense dedicated worker that is newly assigned as ambassador to the U.K. (Apparently the US Administration has plans for her and wants a high-profile job that will give her more visibility).

But a ...

I became of fan of Keri Russell after watching her in The Americans. This is a similar role in which she is a no-nonsense dedicated worker that is newly assigned as ambassador to the U.K. (Apparently the US Administration has plans for her and wants a high-profile job that will give her more visibility).

But a bombing of a U.K. warship in the middle east is going to require all of her diplomatic skills to avoid a war.

Oh, and she has a husband that is a former diplomat and a bit of a prima donna.

Eight episodes that build layer upon layer of tension. Plus a great cliffhanger of a season ending.

1883 is a prequel to the prequel 1923 of the series Yellowstone. As much a we enjoyed 1923, we found to be 1883 even better.

1883 follows a group of German settlers in Fort worth the want to go to Oregon. At this time, there are no railroads going north and they must cross open country through indian lands before connecting with the Oregon trail. James Dutton and his family join ...

1883 is a prequel to the prequel 1923 of the series Yellowstone. As much a we enjoyed 1923, we found to be 1883 even better.

1883 follows a group of German settlers in Fort worth the want to go to Oregon. At this time, there are no railroads going north and they must cross open country through indian lands before connecting with the Oregon trail. James Dutton and his family join the group as they encounter rivers, Indians, bandits, rattlesnakes and loss after loss.

The show is narrated by the main character Elsa Dutton, James's daughter. Played by Isabel May, she has a voice I could listen to all day. (The producers liked it too, as she narrated the sequel 1923).

We never saw any of the main series, Yellowstone, and it is not necessary to enjoy these two prequels.

We watched 1923 first, and I would recommend watching in that order.

The 12 episodes of Castaway Diva was our Christmas -> New Years treat -- watching 2 episodes a day. There are two stories in this series.

The main one is an 8th-grade K-pop fan girl, Mok-ha, who has dreams of becoming a K-pop singer and star just like her idol Yoon Ran-ju. When Ran-ju has a contest to find a young singer to appear with her on TV, Mok-ha sees this as her big chance to ...

The 12 episodes of Castaway Diva was our Christmas -> New Years treat -- watching 2 episodes a day. There are two stories in this series.

The main one is an 8th-grade K-pop fan girl, Mok-ha, who has dreams of becoming a K-pop singer and star just like her idol Yoon Ran-ju. When Ran-ju has a contest to find a young singer to appear with her on TV, Mok-ha sees this as her big chance to escape the small fishing village/island she lives in, and perhaps achieve her dream. Mok-ha has a friend Ki-ho with a video camera and editing skills who makes a music video of her and sends it in. But there is a complication.

This brings in the second story element of their abusive fathers. When Mok-ha and Ki-ho decide to run away and take a ferry to Seoul, her father learns of it and manages to get on the ferry just as it is leaving. But not before beating up Ki-ho and leaving him battered on the dock. After a brief chase, he corners Mok-ha on the back of the boat and both end up in the water.

But as it is a very foggy day there is no rescue. Of course, by the name of the show, you know she ends up on a deserted island.

(All of this happens in the first episode, so I'm not giving much away here).

When Mok-ha is finally rescued her idol is now pretty much a has-been. So will she even get a shot at singing with her? Does she have any chance at stardom? Will she reconnect with Ki-ho? And how will their fathers affect the rest of their lives?

Good casting, especially, Mok-ha. Both the younger and older actors for Mok-ha are very good. The older Mok-ha is played by Park Eun-bin, which was a treat for us as we liked her performances in two other shows: The Kings Affection (a period piece in which she plays the twin sister of the crown prince); and Extraordinary Attorney Woo (in which she plays an autistic lawyer). Now she is playing a singer and she does all of the vocals herself.

If you are new to K-Dramas, this one happens to be dubbed in English -- which is unusual. But I prefer the subtitles to get the actors' inflections and have the audio match the mouths of the actors.

Great photography in locations around the world is featured as you follow 8 people that become linked together by being able to share all of their senses telepathically. Filmed in the USA, Germany, England, India, Korea, Argentina, Kenya and Iceland.

Imagine being able to hear, see, feel, taste, and smell what someone else is experiencing. At first, this sharing happens randomly and for ...

Great photography in locations around the world is featured as you follow 8 people that become linked together by being able to share all of their senses telepathically. Filmed in the USA, Germany, England, India, Korea, Argentina, Kenya and Iceland.

Imagine being able to hear, see, feel, taste, and smell what someone else is experiencing. At first, this sharing happens randomly and for only a few seconds and the characters struggle to understand what is happening. With the ability to hear what someone else is hearing comes the ability to speak to each other and understand languages the others know. And eventually to know physical skills that other's know. OK, some big leaps are required to believe these abilities, but once you buy into that, the drama and thriller aspects of the show kick in.

Very diverse set of characters and interactions between them, so it may not be to everyone's taste.

Of course, there is an organization that wants to find and kill them. But also a "sensate" from another cluster that helps them (perhaps). Each of the characters has problems in their lives to deal with. But they find they can help each other face them in unexpected ways.

Two full seasons before being canceled (partly due to the high cost of filming in all those locations). But a 2.5-hour wrap-up show was released in 2018 due to fan outrage to wrap all the story threads.

I work and play in a virtual world called Second Life. In this series, they have managed to find a way to snapshot your brain just before you die and upload you into an avatar in a virtual world simulation of your perfect vacation spot. But hope you got a premium package because your afterlife experience depends on the bandwidth option you purchased. Sort of like having a phone plan with a ...

I work and play in a virtual world called Second Life. In this series, they have managed to find a way to snapshot your brain just before you die and upload you into an avatar in a virtual world simulation of your perfect vacation spot. But hope you got a premium package because your afterlife experience depends on the bandwidth option you purchased. Sort of like having a phone plan with a cap on data.

You can also communicate with the real world and your loved ones can visit you by inhabiting a temporary avatar.

It takes a little adjustment and to help newly arrived avatars, there are operators, called "angels" that can answer questions and even appear in-world as an avatar themselves to help you.

But all is not well for our hero, who died in an accident, that is not supposed to be able to happen, in a self-driving car. Was it murder? And if so, why? And what happens when you and your angel start to fall for each other?

Season 1 is a fun look at how Nathan learns to deal with his new life. By season 2 we begin to get some idea of just how he ended up here and what forces are working against him and his 'angel' girlfriend in the real world.

An alternate history show in which the Soviets won the space race to the moon. What follows is a decades-long competition for an ever-increasing presence in space between the two superpowers.

Good character development. Some stereotype characters but that doesn't get in the way.

Just watched Season 3, (which ended in a cliffhanger), so I'm hoping there will be a season 4.

An alternate history show in which the Soviets won the space race to the moon. What follows is a decades-long competition for an ever-increasing presence in space between the two superpowers.

Good character development. Some stereotype characters but that doesn't get in the way.

Just watched Season 3, (which ended in a cliffhanger), so I'm hoping there will be a season 4.

Just watch it. Really funny! Great cast!

Story of a Jewish woman, whose husband leaves her for another woman. She gets drunk and ends up on stage at a comedy club. She starts complaining about how her life is in the dumpster and the place goes crazy --- she's a natural comedian and never knew it.

Five seasons -- I think the first three were outstanding. Season four sort of just ...

Just watch it. Really funny! Great cast!

Story of a Jewish woman, whose husband leaves her for another woman. She gets drunk and ends up on stage at a comedy club. She starts complaining about how her life is in the dumpster and the place goes crazy --- she's a natural comedian and never knew it.

Five seasons -- I think the first three were outstanding. Season four sort of just coasted along, but the series had a strong last season.

In K-TV shows most of the time you have either modern romantic dramas/comedies, or period pieces set in the Joeson Dynasty (1300 to 1900) with all the fancy costumes and palace intrigue that are also romantic dramas or comedies.

But the Arthdal Chronicles are set in a fantasy world during the early bronze age. I say that because one clan closely guards the secret of making bronze. ...

In K-TV shows most of the time you have either modern romantic dramas/comedies, or period pieces set in the Joeson Dynasty (1300 to 1900) with all the fancy costumes and palace intrigue that are also romantic dramas or comedies.

But the Arthdal Chronicles are set in a fantasy world during the early bronze age. I say that because one clan closely guards the secret of making bronze.

Arthdal and Neathdal are two races that share the top of a plateau. The Neathdals are different in that they have blue blood and some magical skills such as moving very fast and having a mental ability with animals. They are nomadic, hunter-gathers and have no concept of land ownership. They seem to be more connected to a spiritual world, but there are no religions we would recognize in this show.

On the Arthdal side, there are many clans that seem to be more aggressive. The Sarum are the group that unites all of them into a Union.

In the opening scene there is a meeting between these two races and the Arthdals offer to teach the Neathdal about farming and agriculture in exchange for access to the Neathdal's much more fertile lands with the understanding they will both share in the harvests.

When the Neathdal are not interested, the Arthdal prepare for war. But first, they decide to try to send a goodwill offering of goods. Asa Hon, a priestess of the Asa clan (the priest clan), offers to go with the gifts. When the war starts anyway, she is trapped and then shocked by the savagery of her people and escapes the fighting with a Neathdal with whom she eventually has two identical twin boys.

Those of this mixed race are called Igatu and have purple blood and some characteristic of the Neathdal to a lesser extent. Also interesting that only the Neathdal and Igatu can dream. Dreaming among the Saram is rare. So pay attention to who has dreams.

The father and mother are separated in a fight and the Neathdal father ends up with one of the boys and the Arthdal mother with the other. The mother plans to find a way off the plateau to the land of Lark. When I say "down" I really mean it -- perhaps a thousand feet of sheer rock. When the Neathdal father is later killed by the Saram, their leader, Tagon, takes the boy and raises him as his son. Igatu are feared and considered monsters among the Arthdal, so this a very risky.

The boys Eunsom and Saya, and a girl named Tanya (of the Wahan Tribe), are all born on the same day under a blue comet, which means they will bring about great change or calamity -- depending on the lore of different tribes. So you know their stories will be important.

There are a lot of things going on in the first episode and you have to deal with a lot of characters. So the AsianWiki will be a great help. As this is a fantasy world, it will take a few episodes to understand the clans and power relationships that exist. There are quite a few scenes early in the show that appear to be just interesting bits, that become important later on, so keep asking "Why are we seeing this".

Also pay attention to the details of tribal stories and rituals of the Wahan clan in the land of Lark.

The early episodes were compared to Game of Thrones (without all of the sex), but I didn't really see that, except that like GoT it does have good world-building and mythology for the characters to inhabit .... Well, oh yes, there is that giant wall. But the story is really quite different.

Looking forward to season two in September

The patients have a range of conditions that the staff has to deal with. Some of the scenes provide some of the patients' backstories, but the show mostly focuses on the nurses.

It combines ...

The patients have a range of conditions that the staff has to deal with. Some of the scenes provide some of the patients' backstories, but the show mostly focuses on the nurses.

It combines elements of "Hospital Playlist" and "It's Okay Not to Be Okay", which I have also recommended.

Dealing with these patients' issues is not without complications, and Bo-young, having just transferred from another area of the hospital, has a lot to learn about the job. Is she really cut out for this type of work?

A really good series.

This is a little different from the others we've watched. Not as intense with life and death situations, but is instead a romantic dramedy that is actually ALL about life and death. This is going to be a little long, but it helps to initially understand a little about what is going on.

We meet a woman (Man-wol) that been the owner of the "Guest House of the Moon" for a 1000 years since ...

This is a little different from the others we've watched. Not as intense with life and death situations, but is instead a romantic dramedy that is actually ALL about life and death. This is going to be a little long, but it helps to initially understand a little about what is going on.

We meet a woman (Man-wol) that been the owner of the "Guest House of the Moon" for a 1000 years since the deity Mago give her that job. Mago created the guest house as a place where people that had died could spend some time getting used to the idea. This also gives them time to let go of their grudges and resentments before going on to the afterlife. So this is a hotel for ghosts. And Man-wol has some really big grudges, but the details are only revealed very slowly over the 16 episodes. The hotel does exist in the real world, but it appears as a small old building that most people pass by and never take notice of. And sort of like Doctor Who's Tardis, is it bigger on the inside than the outside.

Some ghosts end up staying at the hotel and become the staff. There are 3 main staff characters and it also takes some time before we find out why they are stuck there and have not moved on. It also turns out that if you have been a ghost for a long time, (or you become a vengeful ghost), you can be seen and interact with "the world".

But despite this, the hotel needs a living human manager with proper ID and such, to deal with licenses, taxes, and real-world matters. And so we meet Chan-sung, who reluctantly becomes the hotel's latest living manager and, of course, the love interest for Man-wol.

Over the centuries Man-wol has figured out how her hotel can make real-world money ... and she spends it all on herself. The show's budget for outfits must have been insane.

About the mythology ...

After decompressing in the hotel, the Grim Reaper (who is a chauffeur), takes you to the afterlife in a limo driving through a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel you walk across a river (on a bridge instead of a boat), and with every step, you forget more and more of your life. The limo has a plate that says "To Heaven", but the concept of reincarnation is also present and so forgetting your past life prepares you for the next, if that is to be your fate.

We meet some people from Man-wol's life 1000 years ago reincarnated today. (And conveniently for us they are played by the same actors). They do not remember their relationship with Man-wol, but she recognizes them immediately. (Remember those grudges she is holding onto that keep her tied to this world.?)

We also meet a group of sister deities -- all named Mago. There may be a dozen, but we only meet about 6 of them. They each have a specific concern:

• wealth - to those she chooses,
• poverty - that can ruin a business,
• connections - bringing people together,
• fate - gives flowers to those fated for a pleasant river crossing
• magical medicines,
• and an executioner for vengeful ghosts (no walk across that bridge for them)

All delightfully played by the same actor.

So there are several questions to be answered during the series.

• What exactly did Man-wol do to make her the owner of the hotel for all these years?
• Will she ever get to cross the river, or will she turn vengeful and strike out at those reincarnated souls?
• And what about her relationship with Chan-sung, is he destined to lose her no matter what her fate is to be? Will he return to a normal life when the deities decide his part in this is over?

Really good series based on some popular books. But you need to pay attention...

The show's first season is all about bringing the three main characters together by the final episode. But ...

They are all of different ages and you need to see parts of their lives that happened sometime decades before the last episode of the season.

We meet Yennifer as a young deformed ...

Really good series based on some popular books. But you need to pay attention...

The show's first season is all about bringing the three main characters together by the final episode. But ...

They are all of different ages and you need to see parts of their lives that happened sometime decades before the last episode of the season.

We meet Yennifer as a young deformed peasant girl that is taken in by a witch because she may have special powers. She survives her training and is enchanted to age very slowly if at all, so by the end of the season, she is actually probably 50 years old but looks twenty.

Then there is Gault, the Witcher who was taken as a child and transformed to have special powers and magic spells for strength, fighting, and knowledge of potions for healing and protection against poisons. His role in life then becomes killing monsters. Villages gladly pay him to rid them of their problem creatures but are a bit terrified of his kind. He is about age 30 by the end of the season. Played by Henry Cavil (Superman in 2013's Man of Steel), because you need a big hulk of a guy to fight those monsters.

Lastly we have Cirila, the young (14 perhaps) princess of a Land called Cintra. When Cintra is overrun by nasty world domination types from another land she is forced to run for her life.

You meet all of these characters in flashback upon flashback, so it can be difficult to keep straight where you are in the actual timeline. This is not a show to stream while doing something else. You need to pay attention. But it is worth it.

Season two is about people realizing how special Ciri is and those that want to track her down and those protecting her.

Not quite time travel. Instead a portal that can be opened between two worlds.

In one world we have Korea we know today. In the other one, The Kingdom of Corea, where the Monarchy never ended.

Anytime you have a Monarchy, you can expect palace intrigue and murder. And it's not just the King that travels between worlds, but a murderer does as well.

Meanwhile in the Republic of ...

Not quite time travel. Instead a portal that can be opened between two worlds.

In one world we have Korea we know today. In the other one, The Kingdom of Corea, where the Monarchy never ended.

Anytime you have a Monarchy, you can expect palace intrigue and murder. And it's not just the King that travels between worlds, but a murderer does as well.

Meanwhile in the Republic of Korea, we have a female detective investigating violent crimes, and when the King chasing someone on horseback goes through the portal, the two meet.

A couple of things that made this K-TV show a little different from others:

A couple of things that made this K-TV show a little different from others:

I was luke-warm about this show based on its description: A prickly, sensitive, and hot-tempered queen, tries to turn her trouble-making princes into proper candidates to be the next Crown Prince. But wait, isn't the firstborn automatically the Crown Prince? Well yes, but there are complications.

There are a LOT of characters. (Pro-tip: create a link to   +  

Emily Blunt is an English woman that we learn, early on, is on a solo mission to find and kill a man in the American west who is responsible for her son's death. The details of that are revealed slowly in a series of flashbacks as we follow her progress and setbacks traveling and learning about a world so different from her wealthy English life.

She finds unexpected help from a Pawnee ...

Emily Blunt is an English woman that we learn, early on, is on a solo mission to find and kill a man in the American west who is responsible for her son's death. The details of that are revealed slowly in a series of flashbacks as we follow her progress and setbacks traveling and learning about a world so different from her wealthy English life.

She finds unexpected help from a Pawnee Indian that has just mustered out of the US Army and is trying to find a future in a land that has drastically changed during his lifetime.

A really good limited series that keeps you engaged.

This show was quite different from what I expected. It takes about 3 episodes to get into what is happening, so don't be too quick to judge it. You do need to pay attention; this is not a show you can watch while doing something else.

This is a post-apocalyptic theme, (but there are no zombies), caused by a virus, and deals with the different ways people react to a reboot of civilization. ...

This show was quite different from what I expected. It takes about 3 episodes to get into what is happening, so don't be too quick to judge it. You do need to pay attention; this is not a show you can watch while doing something else.

This is a post-apocalyptic theme, (but there are no zombies), caused by a virus, and deals with the different ways people react to a reboot of civilization.

We start with a performance of King Lear at a Chicago theater and an EMT in training (Jeevan) realizes something is not right with the lead actor (Arthur) and rushes to the stage.

He really isn't trained enough to do more than call for help but ends up hanging around. As everyone is leaving, he finds a 10-year-old girl, Kristen, (that had a part in the play), standing in the cold outside. We learn that the 'wrangler' (in charge of her on the set), has left in the ambulance with Arthur.

Her parents are not answering their phones and with no one else from the theater to take charge of her, he decides to see that she gets home. But she has no key and her parents still can not be be contacted. About that time he gets a call from his sister (who is a doctor), that this 'flu' is turning out to be really, really bad and that he should go home and stay there.

They go to his brother's place and end up staying there for about 3 months while the world dies. It seems that only 1/1000 survive this flu. Once you catch it, you die within a day or two.

[[Now you may recognize that a virus like this can not actually kill so many people. With such a short incubation time, it kills its hosts before they can spread it very far. So wear a mask and stay inside for a week, and this is pretty much over and... no story.]]

The show then jumps to twenty years later and we meet Kristen as an adult and part of a traveling theater group. The show will continue jumping back and forth between three time periods: before, just after, and 20 years after, as we learn more about these two and a number of other characters' backstories. Eventually of course these stories will all come together.

The name of the series, Station Eleven, is the name of the novel the series is based on, but within the story, it is also the name of a yet-to-be-published graphic novel written by Arthur's wife Miranda. Arthur's son Tyler gets a copy and Kristen is also given a copy. Both are fascinated by or better to say obsessed by the story.

Ultimately this show is about how people adapt to this new world and what parts of our culture are important to preserve. There is a villain that seems to want to destroy any remnant of the "Pre-Pan" world. Maybe this is best-- to wipe the slate clean.

Rotten Tomatoes has mixed reviews for this show. Critics gave it 94% but viewers only 74% which is in line with the IMDB's score of 7.4./ A lot of people seem to have bailed out after a few episodes so perhaps this is a rush to judgment. I liked it.

I really liked this version of the Dune story. It is split into two parts, (with part 2 releasing in March of 2024), it has a lot more time to develop the story. While there is a need for some narration to set up the story there's a lot less of it than there was in the first movie.

I especially liked the lighting. In many cases it was very subtle -- lots of shadows and partially lit ...

I really liked this version of the Dune story. It is split into two parts, (with part 2 releasing in March of 2024), it has a lot more time to develop the story. While there is a need for some narration to set up the story there's a lot less of it than there was in the first movie.

I especially liked the lighting. In many cases it was very subtle -- lots of shadows and partially lit areas of the scene and actors faces. It doesn't feel like it is filmed on a set. This adds to the uncertainity of the characters as they first encounter this new world and the dangers left by the former rulers. You will want to watch this in a dark room.

Praised for being faithful to the book, there some scenes that are missing, that were included in the prior film.

This film feels more like the book coming to life. The only disappointment is having to wait for part two.

Even though I read Isaac Asimov's Foundation series about 30 years ago I realized in watching the first season of Foundations that they changed quite a few things about the original story. You expect that they're going to condense the characters, but the writers have made many other changes as well. However, the essence of the story is the same and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Asimov loves talking ...

Even though I read Isaac Asimov's Foundation series about 30 years ago I realized in watching the first season of Foundations that they changed quite a few things about the original story. You expect that they're going to condense the characters, but the writers have made many other changes as well. However, the essence of the story is the same and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Asimov loves talking about ideas and his characters serve to put those forward. In this series, you build more emotional bonds with the characters.

The story takes place ~18000 years in the future where an emperor rules most of the galaxy. A mathematician named Hari Sheldon created a new science of psychohistory which can predict long-term future events based on probabilities of actions of large populations. He predicts that the empire will collapse to be followed by 10s of thousands of years of barbarism and intellectual darkness. But Hari has a plan -- to create, on a remote planet, a Foundation of the brightest people that will create a galactic encyclopedia of knowledge so that collapse be shortened to hundreds of years. But of course, there will be complications.

The books have a strong focus on world-building and ideas. The series adds more character development which some reviewers complain slows the story down, but I was fine with the balance.

Season 2 is even better.

Another Korean time travel show, but this one combines the Joseon period and the present day.

In this one, the time travel is due to a magic acupuncture needle case, that comes into the possession of Heo Im, the most famous acupuncturist of the Joseon period. When he is killed, he wakes up in modern-day Seoul where he meets Yeon-Kyung a cardiac surgeon.

First, we get the usual 'time ...

Another Korean time travel show, but this one combines the Joseon period and the present day.

In this one, the time travel is due to a magic acupuncture needle case, that comes into the possession of Heo Im, the most famous acupuncturist of the Joseon period. When he is killed, he wakes up in modern-day Seoul where he meets Yeon-Kyung a cardiac surgeon.

First, we get the usual 'time traveler from the past trying to deal with the 21st century'. Then when he used his skills on a man who collapses outside the modern hospital where Yeon-Kyung works, she is at first horrified but then realizes that he did save the man's life.

Turns out that Yeon-Kyung's father is also an acupuncturist who runs a small clinic in their home and Heo Im somehow finds his way there. Her father seems to understand more about the situation than he is telling, so there is a backstory that is not yet revealed.

There is a twist that turns things upside down.

While he is remembered today as a great doctor, Heo Im at this point in his life is a cocky, fame-seeking young man. So the story is really about how both will become better doctors.

The Time travel is straightforward in that. The time spent away from one time period is the same as spent in the other.

There's a problem with the future! Or is it in the past?

People's minds are being sent back in time to inhabit the bodies of people in the present that are just about to die. They avoid the person's physical death and then use the body to try and change things to affect the future, all the while trying to maintain that person's relationships and work.

Three seasons, but room for ...

There's a problem with the future! Or is it in the past?

People's minds are being sent back in time to inhabit the bodies of people in the present that are just about to die. They avoid the person's physical death and then use the body to try and change things to affect the future, all the while trying to maintain that person's relationships and work.

Three seasons, but room for another. Was on the fence for 3 or 4 Hearts for this one.

Based on a Philp K Dick story. Need I say more? (Well if you don't recognize the name, here are some films based on his stories: Total Recall, Minority Report, Blade Runner, Adjustment Bureau, Radio Free Albemuth, and A Scanner Darkly).

This is an alternate world in which the Nazis won WWII and divided up America with Japan. Germany controls the east, and Japan the wet coast up to the ...

Based on a Philp K Dick story. Need I say more? (Well if you don't recognize the name, here are some films based on his stories: Total Recall, Minority Report, Blade Runner, Adjustment Bureau, Radio Free Albemuth, and A Scanner Darkly).

This is an alternate world in which the Nazis won WWII and divided up America with Japan. Germany controls the east, and Japan the wet coast up to the Rockies. There is sort of a neutral land in between. So we meet characters from each of these zones.

Things are going pretty well for the Germans and Japanese. There is a resistance, but it is more of a nuisance than a major problem. Except ... there are these films that keep appearing that show the version of history that we know.

The "Man in the High Castle" seems to be a code name for the guy who is collecting and spreading them around. So there is a mystery: where are these films coming from? They appear to be too real to be staged.

Really good show, but I felt a little let down by the ending. I think the writers defaulted to the sci-fi "let the viewer figure it out" ending

Would have been 5 Hearts if not for the ending.

Man finds a key to an old remote hotel room that contains objects with supernatural powers but loses his little girl in the process. Can he use "The Key" and other objects in the room to get her back?

The room is filled with some ordinary objects you might see if someone was staying there, such as a hairbrush or pen. If you leave something you brought with you in the room and then leave it ...

Man finds a key to an old remote hotel room that contains objects with supernatural powers but loses his little girl in the process. Can he use "The Key" and other objects in the room to get her back?

The room is filled with some ordinary objects you might see if someone was staying there, such as a hairbrush or pen. If you leave something you brought with you in the room and then leave it there, when you open the door again, it is gone and everything else in the room is as it was before. If you take a "special" object from the room, it gives you some unique power.

But, of course, there are others that know about and want those objects for their own purposes.

Good Story

A small-budget story about an old man. Could have been a Twilight Zone story

Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite writers, explained in his book on writing science fiction that stories can be classified using "MICE" -- Mileue, Ideas, Characters and/or Events, in various combinations. This movie is all about Ideas and takes place in a single room.

There's a sequel too: The Man from ...

A small-budget story about an old man. Could have been a Twilight Zone story

Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite writers, explained in his book on writing science fiction that stories can be classified using "MICE" -- Mileue, Ideas, Characters and/or Events, in various combinations. This movie is all about Ideas and takes place in a single room.

There's a sequel too: The Man from Earth: Holocene. (But not as good as this one).

Neil Gaiman story.

A wizard attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. Fearful for his safety, the wizard keeps him imprisoned in a glass bottle for decades -- with consequences for the world.

After his escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power and has to deal with some of his brothers and ...

Neil Gaiman story.

A wizard attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. Fearful for his safety, the wizard keeps him imprisoned in a glass bottle for decades -- with consequences for the world.

After his escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power and has to deal with some of his brothers and sisters.

Readers of the graphic novel say this version is overly complicated and sometimes loses what should be the main thread of the story. But I enjoyed it.

About 100 years after a nuclear war, an orbiting station, needs to see if conditions are right for a return to the planet. They are running short on supplies and have a problem with juvenile delinquents that are always causing trouble. Sufficient trouble that could lead to them being "floated". Their solution: send 100 of them back down and see if they survive.

The earth is not a barren ...

About 100 years after a nuclear war, an orbiting station, needs to see if conditions are right for a return to the planet. They are running short on supplies and have a problem with juvenile delinquents that are always causing trouble. Sufficient trouble that could lead to them being "floated". Their solution: send 100 of them back down and see if they survive.

The earth is not a barren wasteland, it is green and looks like everything you could hope for. But first, these kids must form some sort of society and organize to get things done.

But guess what, Not everyone on Earth died. There are waring tribes of "gounders" that are not happy with their arrival.

This series is based on a set of books, (that I've not read), and works for both adults and young adults. We learn of a parallel world to ours with many of the same place names, but in which there is magic. But this magic is not primarily casting spells and such, although there are witches, we don't meet any right away.

In this world, everyone's soul exists outside their body as an ...

This series is based on a set of books, (that I've not read), and works for both adults and young adults. We learn of a parallel world to ours with many of the same place names, but in which there is magic. But this magic is not primarily casting spells and such, although there are witches, we don't meet any right away.

In this world, everyone's soul exists outside their body as an animal (called a daemon), that accompanies them everywhere. In fact, the two can not be separated by too great a distance. Your daemon can talk to you, advise you, and perform tasks for you. If you or your daemon are injured, you both feel the pain. If you are a child, it can also change form in a heartbeat. So if your daemon is a ferret, as is the case with Lyra -- who is the focal point of the story, and you decide to run, the daemon can change into a bird to keep up with you. But when you become older, your daemon will 'settle' into its permanent form.

Lyra is about 14, and an orphan. She has an uncle that is an explorer/scientist that is investigating something called Dust -- which is usually invisible. But he has found a way to make it visible. He believes he has seen, in a cloud of Dust, another city in the sky. Lyra idolizes him and his adventures in the far North.

The world seems to be run by a theocracy called the Magisterium, which wants very much to be in control of everyone and what they do. They are not happy with Lyra's uncle's investigations into the nature of Dust which they believe is the manifestation of original sin brought on by Eve. (The title is from Paradise Lost so the Eve connection is not by accident).

You will notice that the organized religions of these worlds seem to be the bad guys, (reminiscent of the Inquisition period of Christianity), but there is a good reason for that. It seems that God has gone walkabout and left an angel in charge. But then there was a coup, and now a dark angel is "The Authority" and apparently really doesn't like mankind. So this is a struggle for mankind to regain free will.

Early in season one, we learn that a doorway exists between Lyra's world and our present-day world. But we don't know how this came to be and if there are more of them.

So Lyra has several motivations: she wants to join her uncle in his adventures, and she wants to find her best friend, who along with a lot of other children, has disappeared (hint - it's the Magisterium), and she is told by several people that she is special in some way, but we, and she, don't know why yet.

I watched Season One several years ago. But now the entire series is available on HBOmax. The three seasons were filmed over 4 years as they had to take a break during the pandemic. As a result, you'll see that Lyra ages quite a bit. But this is okay as part of the story is about her becoming an adult, and those changes that happen to her are important in her magical world and this story.

Season 1 can be a little confusing because there are a lot of characters, terminology, and world-building to be introduced. And hopefully, this review will help with that. But each season gets better and season 3 is the best yet with an emotional ending.

Stranger is one of the few K-TV shows that has 2 seasons. It stars Bae Doona, whom you might recognize for her English-speaking roles in Sense8 and Cloud Atlas.

This is a police drama that is centered around a prosecutor (who apparently also do investigation work in Korea), and a police lieutenant that are looking into a murder. Along the way, they find their investigation being slowed ...

Stranger is one of the few K-TV shows that has 2 seasons. It stars Bae Doona, whom you might recognize for her English-speaking roles in Sense8 and Cloud Atlas.

This is a police drama that is centered around a prosecutor (who apparently also do investigation work in Korea), and a police lieutenant that are looking into a murder. Along the way, they find their investigation being slowed down and misdirected.

Corruption in the upper level of the police seems to be a frequent theme in K-TV shows and that is the case here. The simple thing would be to just let it go, but the prosecutor just has to keep digging.

To complicate the relationship between the two leads, the prosecutor had a brain injury when he was a child and has a lack of empathy as a result. This hampers his relationships and his ability to interview victims of crimes when they are trying to deal with a loved one's death.

1923 is a prequel to the series Yellowstone. 'Yellowstone' refers to the park and a ranch near the park, and is about the Dutton family that owns the ranch at a time when there are several factors putting pressure on all the ranchers in the area to sell their land.

It truly has an all star cast including Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford, Timothy Dalton and many others you will ...

1923 is a prequel to the series Yellowstone. 'Yellowstone' refers to the park and a ranch near the park, and is about the Dutton family that owns the ranch at a time when there are several factors putting pressure on all the ranchers in the area to sell their land.

It truly has an all star cast including Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford, Timothy Dalton and many others you will recognize.

In addition to the ranchers, there are sheep headers, miners, a nearby Indian Reservation, town folk, and a school run by the catholic church for teaching indian kids to be obedient (white in everything but skin color), Christians.

Absent from the events in Wyoming, is a brother that is off in Africa making a living as a big game hunting guide. When the family ranch is in crisis, he is sent a letter urging him to come home immediately. But doing so will lead to challenges much greater than the African wildlife.

I haven't seen the current Yellowstone series but this prequel stands on its own and I'm looks forward to season 2 early in 2024.

This series follows a group of young Marines from Pearl Harbor to the end of the war as they fight their way across the Pacific from one island to another. Their stories were based on real people. Some of course will not make it, but for those that do it is a transformation experience.

Produced by the same group that did Band of Brothers, it is similar in style.

Started watching this ...

This series follows a group of young Marines from Pearl Harbor to the end of the war as they fight their way across the Pacific from one island to another. Their stories were based on real people. Some of course will not make it, but for those that do it is a transformation experience.

Produced by the same group that did Band of Brothers, it is similar in style.

Started watching this because we are in the habit of listening to lectures from The Great Courses and had started on one about WWII in the Pacific. The course has 24 lectures, so we ended up switching between The Pacific and the course lectures to keep them in sync.

Ended up with a blend of the strategic and large-scale factual aspects of the war effort and the personal stories.

The Pacific is on Netflix. "World War II: The Pacific Theater" is on Wondrium, (the streaming version of the Great Courses).

So what did we learn from both these shows?

• The Japanese strategy was to make the cost to the US in lives so expensive, that we would grow tired of the losses and negotiate.
• The Pacific did show the impact of that "defend every island to the last man" approach by Japan.
• But the US decided not to take every island, but to leapfrog over some of the less important ones.
• It was American manufacturing that was the deciding factor. With each passing year, the US was producing more and more ships and aircraft eventually overwhelming the dwindling Japanese forces.

  The growing disparity in numbers of ships, aircraft, guns, and munitions, for both the European and Pacific wars, was staggering.

Set in the Joseon Dynasty, this series starts with the birth of twins, (a boy and a girl), to the Crown Princess, but as twins are considered bad luck, the girl is ordered to be killed. The mother, however drugs the girl, announces that she has died, and quickly has her removed from the palace and placed with a family that lives just outside the palace.

Fast forward a few years. The king ...

Set in the Joseon Dynasty, this series starts with the birth of twins, (a boy and a girl), to the Crown Princess, but as twins are considered bad luck, the girl is ordered to be killed. The mother, however drugs the girl, announces that she has died, and quickly has her removed from the palace and placed with a family that lives just outside the palace.

Fast forward a few years. The king had died and the young boy is now the Crown Prince. One day the boy meets the girl and realizes if she dressed in his clothes, she could pass for him. He sees this as a way to be able to sneak out of the palace to go to places and festivals he could not normally be able to see.

He recruits his servants and they arrange to sneak the girl into the palace and swap clothes. This works several times, but then one night the crown prince does not return and they must continue the charade for if anyone finds out, they would all be killed.

All goes fairly well until puberty hits and then things get complicated. This is a romance, but you will need to watch to see how that develops.

Don't be put off by the Horror genre or subtitles, this is an excellent show and worth watching.

About a third of the way through I thought I had it figured out. But then I read an overview of the show (without spoilers), and learned the same production team made it as the series Dark. At that point, I knew my simplistic explanation ...

Don't be put off by the Horror genre or subtitles, this is an excellent show and worth watching.

About a third of the way through I thought I had it figured out. But then I read an overview of the show (without spoilers), and learned the same production team made it as the series Dark. At that point, I knew my simplistic explanation would be wrong.

Like the show "Dark", it also uses a very dark color palette, so watch with your room lights dimmed or off. If you check the language and subtitles options you will see that the default is English (dubbed). This is OK, but this is about a boat with immigrants going to America, so there is a mix of languages used by the characters. I recommend you set it for English (original) with English subtitles. Then you will hear German/French, Danish, etc. (with subtitles). This is useful because, with a mix of languages on the ship, there are scenes where the characters are not supposed to understand each other. (I read that in some cases the cast was not told what other characters would be saying, so their reaction to not understanding was real).

I would say this series is more of a mystery. You need to pay attention while watching! There are some small details that you can easily miss that can help you guess what is actually happening. Hint: There is one clue early in the first episode, but it is easy to miss.

Jan-2023 - Disappointed to hear that this series has not been renewed for a second season.

This is a show that can be described as a "slice of life" looking into the world of becoming a Geisha in modern-day Kyoto. You learn a lot about this life by watching this series, but there are some details that can best be understood by visiting the link at the bottom of the page.

One thing to know is the difference between Maiko and Geiko (Geisha is the word used in northern Japan and ...

This is a show that can be described as a "slice of life" looking into the world of becoming a Geisha in modern-day Kyoto. You learn a lot about this life by watching this series, but there are some details that can best be understood by visiting the link at the bottom of the page.

One thing to know is the difference between Maiko and Geiko (Geisha is the word used in northern Japan and Geiko in the Kyoto/Osako regions). Maiko are apprentice Geiko and spend years learning the skills needed to be a Geiko. Their first skill is dancing and Maiko actually means Dancing Girl. A Maiko will perform with a Geiko but will leave the conservation to the Geiko. Maiko are much more flashy in their dress (perhaps to distract from the fact that they don't say much).

This story is about two BBFs (Kiko and Sumare), that leave their small town and travel to Kyoto in hopes of becoming Maiko and then perhaps Geiko. All of the students and Maiko live in a house where the senior/retired Geikos are considered the house mothers.

But before being a Maiko, there is a lot to learn and Kiko just doesn't have quite what it takes. However, it turns out she is really good at cooking and as the house needs a new cook, she stays to be close to her friend.

So these two friends are on very different paths in their lives. Along the way, you meet the other residents of the house.

You come to appreciate that Maiko/Geiko are really living works of art in not only their appearance but also their presentation of skills. But Kiko is the star of this series and is shown to be an artist in her own right when it comes to cooking.

Dubbed in English.

See Differene between Maiko and Geiko

A woman works with the Dutch Resistance in WWII and poses as a sympathizer to get information from the Nazis.

Stars Carice van Houten (who Game of Thrones fans will recognize as the red witch 'Melisandre')

From film trivia: "Most actors speak more than one language in the film. Carice van Houten speaks four languages fluently in the course of the film: Hebrew in the scenes in ...

A woman works with the Dutch Resistance in WWII and poses as a sympathizer to get information from the Nazis.

Stars Carice van Houten (who Game of Thrones fans will recognize as the red witch 'Melisandre')

From film trivia: "Most actors speak more than one language in the film. Carice van Houten speaks four languages fluently in the course of the film: Hebrew in the scenes in Israel, German with Nazi soldiers, English with Canadian army personnel, and Dutch for the majority of the film."

A bit of a mystery plus action movie. Hanna is a teenager that is raised deep in the forest and taught to trust no one and to defend herself: First, you hide, then Run, then Attack. And she is very good at attacking.

But why is she hiding in the forest with her father? Where is her mother? Who is after her and why?

Several seasons, she does make it out of the forest, but her skills ...

A bit of a mystery plus action movie. Hanna is a teenager that is raised deep in the forest and taught to trust no one and to defend herself: First, you hide, then Run, then Attack. And she is very good at attacking.

But why is she hiding in the forest with her father? Where is her mother? Who is after her and why?

Several seasons, she does make it out of the forest, but her skills are still needed.

Oh yes, there is an evil government organization involved too.

A young girl's body is discovered at a construction site and detective Sofia Karppi is tasked with the investigation. Sophia has some issues of her own to deal with.

Sofia's family issues continue throughout three pretty good seasons that are described as "Nordic Noir".

From Wikipedia: Nordic noir, also known as Scandinavian noir or Scandi noir, is a genre of crime fiction usually ...

Only one season, but tells a fairly complete story of a private detective in a future South Africa who one day finds himself in an alternate very different version of earth, but then somehow returns.

What is happening to him? Is he the only one that can 'travel'?

Has a sort of Blade Runner design style (or at least one version of Earth does). Pay attention to the lighting palette ...

Only one season, but tells a fairly complete story of a private detective in a future South Africa who one day finds himself in an alternate very different version of earth, but then somehow returns.

What is happening to him? Is he the only one that can 'travel'?

Has a sort of Blade Runner design style (or at least one version of Earth does). Pay attention to the lighting palette that differentiates each version of earth.

There is of course an evil corporation involved.

No longer available to stream, but look for it.

These are 4 separate series, that are related only by being British legal shows. If you are confused by the difference between a barrister and a solicitor these shows will sort that out for you.

Silk - A six-part series about life at the Bar, the dilemmas and problems that modern-day barristers have to face, and what it means to become a silk.

The Brief - Henry ...

These are 4 separate series, that are related only by being British legal shows. If you are confused by the difference between a barrister and a solicitor these shows will sort that out for you.

Silk - A six-part series about life at the Bar, the dilemmas and problems that modern-day barristers have to face, and what it means to become a silk.

The Brief - Henry Farmer is a clever criminal law barrister whose every day is a juggling act between surviving his messy personal life and pleading cases only he can win.

The Jury - A white boy has been killed in cold blood, and his classmate, a reclusive Sikh, is on trial for murder. The eyes of the country turn to the jurors.

The Trial - The five-part series follows a fictional court case in which university lecturer Simon Davis is tried for the murder of his wife, in an attempt to recreate an accurate portrayal of an English legal trial. The prosecuting counsel, defense counsel and judge featured in the series are real professionals; and the jury is made up of twelve members of the British public.

Fifty years from now there has been some global catastrophe and the reduced population is living in tribes. Three siblings get separated from their tribe, and must fend for themselves.

Along the way they encounter a cube that has what seems to have magical abilities (remember Isaac Asimov's quote about advanced technology).

I was intrigued, and hope there will be a season 2 to resolve ...

Fifty years from now there has been some global catastrophe and the reduced population is living in tribes. Three siblings get separated from their tribe, and must fend for themselves.

Along the way they encounter a cube that has what seems to have magical abilities (remember Isaac Asimov's quote about advanced technology).

I was intrigued, and hope there will be a season 2 to resolve the story.

A fictional story set against the building of the transcontinental railroad.

This story has a good set of main characters that are complex. New characters are introduced periodically so there are new subplots for the main characters to react to. Good photography too.

"Hell on Wheels" was the temporary town that housed workers at the end of the railroad, which periodically moved as more ...

A fictional story set against the building of the transcontinental railroad.

This story has a good set of main characters that are complex. New characters are introduced periodically so there are new subplots for the main characters to react to. Good photography too.

"Hell on Wheels" was the temporary town that housed workers at the end of the railroad, which periodically moved as more rail was completed. It was a pretty wild place.

Five seasons with no premature cancellation.

This is set during the Roman invasion of Britain. We have quite a few tribes each with its own King or Queen, and the Druids, which are the spiritual connection between the tribes. Sort of like (centuries later, the kings of Europe were influenced/directed by the church in Rome.

Probably not terribly historically accurate, but I liked seeing the relationship between the Druids and the ...

This is set during the Roman invasion of Britain. We have quite a few tribes each with its own King or Queen, and the Druids, which are the spiritual connection between the tribes. Sort of like (centuries later, the kings of Europe were influenced/directed by the church in Rome.

Probably not terribly historically accurate, but I liked seeing the relationship between the Druids and the Tribes. From one source: In simple terms, the Druids were the priests of the Celtic tribes in Britain. But to state that fact does not convey the breadth of their influence in Celtic society. The Druids were a sort of super-class of priests, political advisors, teachers, healers, and arbitrators among the Celtic tribes. I think the show portrays the above fairly well.

I enjoyed the first season and had to wait until now for season 2. As expected in battles with melee weapons, there are gruesome parts.

I found this six-part series very engaging. It's like a very large mural that's being painted small pieces at a time and it is not until the end that you see the big picture.

It starts with a woman running through the woods and then onto a road and where she is hit by a car. When an ambulance arrives there is also a young girl there who tells them that the woman is her mother. You very ...

I found this six-part series very engaging. It's like a very large mural that's being painted small pieces at a time and it is not until the end that you see the big picture.

It starts with a woman running through the woods and then onto a road and where she is hit by a car. When an ambulance arrives there is also a young girl there who tells them that the woman is her mother. You very quickly notice that there's something a little odd about this girl.

Some of the characters do things that seem to be a little out of character what you would expect in real life, but that does help move the plot along and allow the story to be told and only six episodes

It is dubbed in English but I quickly found that the voice provided for the young girl just didn't seem to match her and so I switched to German with subtitles.

The slightly above average rating from Internet Movie Database was a result of people being just okay with it or really loving it. So take a look at it and see which group you are in.

Troppo refers to the oppressive heat in the Australian outback causing people and critters to do strange things. As illustrated in the opening scene, we see a man walk into a river with crocodiles ignoring cries from bystanders to stop. But his odd death is not the main focus of this detective story.

Troppo has lots of interesting characters: a disgraced big-city detective, lying low in ...

Troppo refers to the oppressive heat in the Australian outback causing people and critters to do strange things. As illustrated in the opening scene, we see a man walk into a river with crocodiles ignoring cries from bystanders to stop. But his odd death is not the main focus of this detective story.

Troppo has lots of interesting characters: a disgraced big-city detective, lying low in this small town; several crusty outback people -- such as a guy who injects himself with snake venom every day; and a woman with a dark past who is hired as a private detective to find out the reason a Korean oil executive has gone missing.

For the PI, this is her first case and she reaches out to the detective for assistance. So both of the investigators are hampered by people looking at them with a certain amount of suspicion given their pasts.

Two seasons and several twists along the way to keep you interested.

"Three-Body" is a Chinese adaptation of the same book as Netflix's "3 Body Problem". So you have chance to see two different concepts based on the same original book. Here is my review of 3 Body Problem

Three-Body" is more faithful to the book (based on other reviews), than the Netflix version. With ...

"Three-Body" is a Chinese adaptation of the same book as Netflix's "3 Body Problem". So you have chance to see two different concepts based on the same original book. Here is my review of 3 Body Problem

Three-Body" is more faithful to the book (based on other reviews), than the Netflix version. With 30 forty-minute episodes, it feels like you are reading chapters in a book. There is a lot of character development and backstory and it never feels rushed. If anything it might be a little too slow at times.

The basic story is that Aliens have had to abandon their homeworld and are coming to Earth. But are they coming hat-in-hand, asking for a place to live, or to conquer us? But how did they find us? How do we know they are coming? And why are scientists killing themselves? There appear to be some strange things happening. Are some of them already here? Are some people on earth working for them? These are just a few of the many questions that are raised in the first part of the series and will eventually be answered.

The Three-Body Problem is the first of a trilogy of books called Remembrance of Earth's Past by Cixin Liu and are reported to be excellent.

Between the two shows, I recommend watching this one first as it explains more of the questions and in more detail than the Netflix variation does.

Better than expected series about a family from Chicago that is forced to move to Lake of the Ozarks and attempt to setup up a money laundering operation for a Mexican drug cartel.

The husband was already involved, but at a distance just setting up hell companies and moving money around.

But when things fall apart with his partner, he has to move to Missouri and involve his wife and ...

Better than expected series about a family from Chicago that is forced to move to Lake of the Ozarks and attempt to setup up a money laundering operation for a Mexican drug cartel.

The husband was already involved, but at a distance just setting up hell companies and moving money around.

But when things fall apart with his partner, he has to move to Missouri and involve his wife and two teenage kids. There he has to become more hands-on with millions of dollars in cash to hide and somehow inject into businesses to make it seem it was earned legitimately.

There are complications.

A Spielberg movie about a contest with a real-world prize played in a virtual world. This virtual world is to Second life as Second Life is to Minecraft.

The story of how the inventor of an incredible virtual world has died and the terms of his will state that whoever finds special objects in his world will inherit the product.

There are corporate types that desperately want it, but ...

A Spielberg movie about a contest with a real-world prize played in a virtual world. This virtual world is to Second life as Second Life is to Minecraft.

The story of how the inventor of an incredible virtual world has died and the terms of his will state that whoever finds special objects in his world will inherit the product.

There are corporate types that desperately want it, but also ordinary players that are seeking it.

A crowd-sourced fantasy series. Six episodes of season one were released in 2016. Released to YouTube as individual episodes of 7 or 8 minutes each. You can see season one combined on Amazon as "Episode One"

A second season was announced in early 2019, and a Kick Starter campaign was started in 2020, but there has been no status from the production team since then. Too bad, I thought it ...

A crowd-sourced fantasy series. Six episodes of season one were released in 2016. Released to YouTube as individual episodes of 7 or 8 minutes each. You can see season one combined on Amazon as "Episode One"

A second season was announced in early 2019, and a Kick Starter campaign was started in 2020, but there has been no status from the production team since then. Too bad, I thought it was a good beginning.

Did not get great reviews on IMDB, but interesting to watch and see what a low budget team can accomplish.

Capricia is the prequel to Battlestar Galactica.

It shows the creation of the first Cylons that are intended to be workers and security guards. (It's that security guard part that turned out now to be such a good idea).

The show did not have the spaceships and battles that BSG had and viewership was down. This led to it being canceled after one season. But the team had enough advance ...

Capricia is the prequel to Battlestar Galactica.

It shows the creation of the first Cylons that are intended to be workers and security guards. (It's that security guard part that turned out now to be such a good idea).

The show did not have the spaceships and battles that BSG had and viewership was down. This led to it being canceled after one season. But the team had enough advance notice to quickly wrap up the story threads and bridge it to BSG.

Some of the best science fiction can often be more about ideas than space lasers and that is the case here. The show explains why the Cylon robots have a religious belief in a single god --- compared to the pantheon of gods their creators believed in.

Zooey Deschanel ("New Girl", "Tin Man" & "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), plays the key role of the first genuinely sentient Cylon.

Nice little series about an elderly couple that discovers a doorway to another planet in their root cellar.

When they go through the door, they are in a room with a large picture window looking out on a bleak, but beautiful landscape. There is an airlock/door, but they have never gone outside. Content to bring a couple of chairs and sit, have their coffee, and enjoy the view.

But is ...

Nice little series about an elderly couple that discovers a doorway to another planet in their root cellar.

When they go through the door, they are in a room with a large picture window looking out on a bleak, but beautiful landscape. There is an airlock/door, but they have never gone outside. Content to bring a couple of chairs and sit, have their coffee, and enjoy the view.

But is it the only one on earth? Are they in danger? Then there is the nosey neighbor.

A slow-developing story, that is character-driven. Sadly not renewed for a second season. But no matter, season one is a fairly complete story focusing on this couple.

The following quote pretty much sums up this show: "Through the five-episode epic, Cunk asks experts the sort of hard-hitting questions Attenborough would never dare to ask. How did being shot in the head affect Lincoln’s ability to lead?"

The experts - really are and they were told it was a documentary ...

The following quote pretty much sums up this show: "Through the five-episode epic, Cunk asks experts the sort of hard-hitting questions Attenborough would never dare to ask. How did being shot in the head affect Lincoln’s ability to lead?"

The experts - really are and they were told it was a documentary beforehand. Some handled the absurdity better than others. Here's a few more lines:

“Trains use up less resources than other forms of transport because they tend to be cancelled, which is better for the planet. This means people can get on buses instead, and take up space on the roads, which encourages more people to leave their cars at home and get the train, which they can’t, because there isn’t one.”

"It’s almost unbelievable that before Charles Darwin invented evolution in 1859 no had ever evolved. Without him, none of us would be here today, except in the form of fossils or gibbons." If you like Drunk History, you should get a laugh out of this one

Created by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, we see a dystopian society with a massive bureaucracy. One low-level civil servant finds a mistake has been made and sets out to correct it and the story spirals out of control from then on. But in a very funny way.

There are dream sequences, a masked vigilante that goes around fixing ventilation systems without proper authorization from the ...

Created by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, we see a dystopian society with a massive bureaucracy. One low-level civil servant finds a mistake has been made and sets out to correct it and the story spirals out of control from then on. But in a very funny way.

There are dream sequences, a masked vigilante that goes around fixing ventilation systems without proper authorization from the government, and the song Brazil, which is heard frequently during the film.

Has been suggested the film is so named just because of the song. It has nothing to do with the country or the story.

So what is the story? It's hard to say. Just enjoy a fun couple of hours watching a lot of big stars when they were younger doing crazy stuff.

You know this is primarily a comedy when the theme music has a 'oompah, oompah' motif. But it does get serious later on when, as with most Joeson period shows, palace intrigue starts to get deadly.

The main character starts out as a man who is the top chef in Seoul, but when a fish he prepares for a visiting ambassador has a hook in it, he ends up being chased by security guards and ...

You know this is primarily a comedy when the theme music has a 'oompah, oompah' motif. But it does get serious later on when, as with most Joeson period shows, palace intrigue starts to get deadly.

The main character starts out as a man who is the top chef in Seoul, but when a fish he prepares for a visiting ambassador has a hook in it, he ends up being chased by security guards and falling into the water and hitting his head.

When he comes to, he finds himself 200 years in the past and in the body of a young woman, who is about to marry the king the next day. So you can see the opportunities for comedy are extensive. BTW, the chef is still alive but in a coma for most of the show. So this is all about his life in the past.

He/she has the presence of mind to claim she has lost her memory, so that is able to explain a lot of her change in behavior.

Also, lucky for him/her, the King is in love with another woman and so she can avoid the wedding night concerns from the start. But producing an heir is the top priority for everyone around her.

But the king does have to deal with her and resorts to compiling a dictionary of all the new words his queen suddenly starts using, like 'no touch' to describe their relationship. Or all in, Anti-fan, Special Forces, Attention seeker, user avatar, Ill-mannered, Brunch, Lotto, Big Belly, kitchen police, awesome, and fan club.

As for the palace drama, there are two families that are competing for power in the government administration -- the Kim and Jo families. And to complicate the queen's life, her mother-in-law (the Queen Dowager) is a Jo, and her grandmother-in-law (the Grand Queen Dowager), is a Kim.

The show is a little confusing at first until you figure out who's who in these two families. But stick with it for 3 or 4 episodes. Check the AsianWiki as it has photos of the character groups with photos.

It also turns out that the king was enthroned when he was young and it is the Grand Queen Dowager, who is really running things -- continuing to tell him what to do even though he is now old enough to assume full power.

Queen is wonderfully played by Shin Hye-Sun, who is able to adopt enough masculine mannerisms to make her gender confusion plausible. The story provides an opportunity to highlight the gender differences present in Joeson culture and especially the expectations of being a woman in the palace

So ... how will the Queen deal with the natural instincts of a young woman's body? How will food factor into this story? Does the King have the strength of character to be more than a puppet? Will her knowledge of the future change history? Will the chef come out of his coma, and then what happens to the Queen?

Note that this show was removed from Netflix in Korea due to a lot of complaints about historical inaccuracies, so just enjoy the fun.

The Aliens have arrived, and they are pretty much in control, but not of everything. They have walled off large sections of land mostly inclosing major population areas, but there is resistance in the country outside of those walls.

The show is centered around the Bowman family as they try to survive inside one of the walled areas in southern California.

There are various degrees of ...

The Aliens have arrived, and they are pretty much in control, but not of everything. They have walled off large sections of land mostly inclosing major population areas, but there is resistance in the country outside of those walls.

The show is centered around the Bowman family as they try to survive inside one of the walled areas in southern California.

There are various degrees of collaboration, that are required just to survive.

Only three good seasons -- could have used a fourth to finish the story.

Really good detective series out of the UK.

Luther is really good at solving cases, but rubs some people the wrong way and can be considered by his commanders sometimes to be more trouble than he is worth. This is not your typical British detective.

Looked it up... there were 5 series between 2010 and 2019, and each one had more viewership than the previous. So not a show that runs ...

Really good detective series out of the UK.

Luther is really good at solving cases, but rubs some people the wrong way and can be considered by his commanders sometimes to be more trouble than he is worth. This is not your typical British detective.

Looked it up... there were 5 series between 2010 and 2019, and each one had more viewership than the previous. So not a show that runs out of ideas.

Dexter is one of those shows where you are cheering for the 'bad' guy.

When Dexter was a child he was traumatized by seeing the murder of his mother and becomes one of those kids that started killing small animals. His father, a police detective, realizes that his kid is never going to be normal, and gives him a code to live (err... kill) by. If you feel the compulsion to kill a person, it ...

Dexter is one of those shows where you are cheering for the 'bad' guy.

When Dexter was a child he was traumatized by seeing the murder of his mother and becomes one of those kids that started killing small animals. His father, a police detective, realizes that his kid is never going to be normal, and gives him a code to live (err... kill) by. If you feel the compulsion to kill a person, it must be someone that deserves to die. And there are 'rules' to ensure he will not get caught.

And so Dexter becomes a serial killer that only kills serial killers. To do this, he trains as a forensic expert in blood splatter and works in the Miami police department.

He really wants to have a normal life, but makes the best of his situation. Fortunately, there are a lot of serial killers that need to be taken care of and satisfy his needs.

This is a light, fun romantic comedy with not one but four relationships that are in various stages. The focus is on an unlikely pair that meet when Hye-jin arrives in a small seaside town to start a dental practice. She meets (again and again), Chief Hong who apparently does a little of everything (realtor, plumber, fisherman, market seller, helping out at the restaurant, and much more). ...

This is a light, fun romantic comedy with not one but four relationships that are in various stages. The focus is on an unlikely pair that meet when Hye-jin arrives in a small seaside town to start a dental practice. She meets (again and again), Chief Hong who apparently does a little of everything (realtor, plumber, fisherman, market seller, helping out at the restaurant, and much more).

Coming from Seoul, Hye-jin is immediately out of place in this small town where everyone knows everyone else and functions more like a large family. She and Chief Hong apparently have very little in common.

There are a lot of connections between the characters, some are obvious early in the show. Others are part of the mystery of Chief Hong's five years away from this village where he had otherwise spent his entire life.

Those unexplained years are a time bomb waiting to derail the relationship with "Doctor Dentist" as he calls her.

I found this show to be a pleasant visit to a type of community that is hard to find in today's world.

Three women, best friends for 20 years, are all 39 and face introspection, decisions, and tragedy at this midpoint of their lives. Slowly pulls you in as you learn more about their lives and friendships.

Great acting by the 3 leads as they deal with some hard issues and a range of emotions. Some of the subplots could have been given more screen time, but overall a good story

Anything ...

Three women, best friends for 20 years, are all 39 and face introspection, decisions, and tragedy at this midpoint of their lives. Slowly pulls you in as you learn more about their lives and friendships.

Great acting by the 3 leads as they deal with some hard issues and a range of emotions. Some of the subplots could have been given more screen time, but overall a good story

Anything with Son Ye-jin is worth watching. But Joen Mi-do steals the show?

Vincenzo is a complicated character. He was adopted by the head of an Italian mafia family and is now their Consigliere (advisor and lawyer). We meet him as he is dealing with the death of his father and a dispute. He then leaves Italy to return to Korea, where he has some business with another man and a small building that has apartments with small shops on the ground floor.

It ...

Vincenzo is a complicated character. He was adopted by the head of an Italian mafia family and is now their Consigliere (advisor and lawyer). We meet him as he is dealing with the death of his father and a dispute. He then leaves Italy to return to Korea, where he has some business with another man and a small building that has apartments with small shops on the ground floor.

It seems that a mega-corporation (Babel) is set on demolishing the building to make room for a super high-rise office tower. For some reason, Vincenzo does not like this and agrees to "help" the building residents keep their homes and shops. But why?

Why is he staying in an apartment in this little place instead of a luxury high-rise? What is his real motive?

The building is full of interesting characters. All of them have backstories that go partially untold for most of the show. They contribute to the mystery and provide some much-needed comic relief as Babel is not above dirty tricks and murder to get what it wants.

A female lawyer is working for the residents and they develop a relationship that reaches the "like a lot" stage but is not a romance.

Vincenzo claims and appears to be a very 'clean' mafia lawyer. He is smart and always seems to be "10 steps ahead", but is he also a killer wearing an expensive Italian suit?

Secrets can be hard to keep, especially in this digital age. This 8-episode series starts with a man being approached by a woman who simply tells him that his wife's last pregnancy was fake. Each of the next few episodes also starts with a secret reveled, but this time for blackmail.

As the series progresses we learn that there is a very tangled web of relationships and secrets in this ...

Secrets can be hard to keep, especially in this digital age. This 8-episode series starts with a man being approached by a woman who simply tells him that his wife's last pregnancy was fake. Each of the next few episodes also starts with a secret reveled, but this time for blackmail.

As the series progresses we learn that there is a very tangled web of relationships and secrets in this community. Some good twists to enjoy.

A taxi driver is told by his dispatcher to pick up a fare on a lonely country road. He is surprised when there is actually an attractive well dressed woman waiting by the size of the road. They have a pleasant, fun conversation before driving into a thunder storm. But after nearby bolt of lightning, she just varnishes.

This scene then repeats over and over in a time loop with ...

A taxi driver is told by his dispatcher to pick up a fare on a lonely country road. He is surprised when there is actually an attractive well dressed woman waiting by the size of the road. They have a pleasant, fun conversation before driving into a thunder storm. But after nearby bolt of lightning, she just varnishes.

This scene then repeats over and over in a time loop with increasing variations. Very quickly you realize that you are in "The Twilight Zone".

The challenge for you is to see if you can figure out what is going on before before the end. There are hints, almost from the woman's first appearance, but only in looking back will they connect.

Enjoy!

A few fun facts ... the woman (Brinna Kelly), wrote the screenplay and co-produced the film. The whole film was shot in six days.

Invisible City has two storylines. It starts as a well-known tale of a corporation wanting to mine in an ecologically and culturally important area. Eric, whose wife Gabriela was an advocate for protecting the "forest area", was found dead and he is certain she was killed for her opposition. (But it is much more complicated than that.)

The second layer of the show appears as we meet more ...

Invisible City has two storylines. It starts as a well-known tale of a corporation wanting to mine in an ecologically and culturally important area. Eric, whose wife Gabriela was an advocate for protecting the "forest area", was found dead and he is certain she was killed for her opposition. (But it is much more complicated than that.)

The second layer of the show appears as we meet more of the natives, many of whom are also mythical creatures from Brazilian folklore. While Eric does not believe in such things, his young daughter is growing up surrounded by the stories. As Eric pursues an explanation for his wife's death, he (and us), are pulled deeper into this magical world.

The first season has to set up a lot of the characters and backstories. The second season ties everything together.

I usually recommend watching foreign language shows in the original language with subtitles, but I found the English dubbing for this one to be pretty good. The voices seemed to be a good fit for the characters.

This 16-part series is set in the Joseon dynasty. The king is an avid baduk player. Baduk is what we know as the game of Go.

Kang Hee-soo is also a baduk player. Taught by her father, she is very very Good. She roams the city's public places looking for people to play with that will challenge her. But, that is not something a woman would be allowed to do, so she goes out dressed as a ...

This 16-part series is set in the Joseon dynasty. The king is an avid baduk player. Baduk is what we know as the game of Go.

Kang Hee-soo is also a baduk player. Taught by her father, she is very very Good. She roams the city's public places looking for people to play with that will challenge her. But, that is not something a woman would be allowed to do, so she goes out dressed as a man to find people to play with.

When the king hears of this excellent player he arranges to have a game with him and thus begins a complicated relationship.

The show includes mandatory palace intrigue, murder, and spies. But also a twist that has Hee-soo almost killed by the king and her later return intent on revenge.

How long can her masquerade last? Apparently, people of that time were pretty stupid because it is really hard to see the actress Shin Se-Kyung as a man --- she is just too beautiful.

This is the second show we've seen where the lead actress poses as a man. But in the Kings Affection the situation is more believable.

A young Sigmund Freud, before he is famous for anything, investigates a murder. Not really biographical.

I found this interesting enough to watch the whole series over two days.

There are some comments by a viewer that thought everyone missed the point of the show...

the title of each episode covers the name of a chapter in Freud's book ("Introduction to Psychoanalysis), and ...

Olivia Pope runs an agency that "fixed" problems for people in Washington D.C. And business is good as politicians often have problems that they don't want to appear on the news.

Olivia has issues of her own with her father and lover, which have more presence during later seasons. And her team members also have a few individual issues that come front and center.

A Good cast, whose ...

Olivia Pope runs an agency that "fixed" problems for people in Washington D.C. And business is good as politicians often have problems that they don't want to appear on the news.

Olivia has issues of her own with her father and lover, which have more presence during later seasons. And her team members also have a few individual issues that come front and center.

A Good cast, whose stories evolve during the show.

Ran for 7 years on ABC.

The Last Princess is based on the life of Princess Deok-hye (1912-1989) who was born into Korea's last royal family in 1912 as the youngest and only daughter of the last King of Jo-seon.

With the slow taeover of Korea by Japan, the King became a figurehead. When her father dies (probably poisoned), she was taken to Japan for her "education". But really to remove any symbol that the Korean ...

The Last Princess is based on the life of Princess Deok-hye (1912-1989) who was born into Korea's last royal family in 1912 as the youngest and only daughter of the last King of Jo-seon.

With the slow taeover of Korea by Japan, the King became a figurehead. When her father dies (probably poisoned), she was taken to Japan for her "education". But really to remove any symbol that the Korean people might use to resist.

An interesting story. it also features Son Ye-jin as the princess, who we have enjoyed seeing in several other K-TV series.

A series related to this would be Mr Sunshine.

We see very early on that the show is playing with time as there are some odd references to things that have not happened yet, ...

We see very early on that the show is playing with time as there are some odd references to things that have not happened yet, people keep having some odd momentary flashbacks, and some things seem out of place. There is something unique about Capaldi's character. But it is going to take a while to have all this explained.

This is a 'slow burn' that is worth staying with. The series has been approved for 2 more seasons.

While she works on writing her appeal, she has her lawyer ...

While she works on writing her appeal, she has her lawyer brother speak in court while she does all the investigation and preparation. So the show is about the cases she works on during her appeal process.

The cases are interesting enough, but we were content just to watch an episode a night. Loosely based on a true story, but with the details of her private life probably embellished

A young girl finds a watch that, when turned backwards, takes you back in time. The catch is that you wake up older by the same amount the next day. During her childhood she uses it occasionally to go back a day when she doesn't get her homework done and things like that. But she has to stop when she starts appearing older than other kids. Until one day, when she is 25, something happens ...

A young girl finds a watch that, when turned backwards, takes you back in time. The catch is that you wake up older by the same amount the next day. During her childhood she uses it occasionally to go back a day when she doesn't get her homework done and things like that. But she has to stop when she starts appearing older than other kids. Until one day, when she is 25, something happens that makes her use the watch over and over with the consequence that she wakes up an old woman.

This is more of a look at how she must adapt to her new life than a sci-fi time travel story. There are some comedy scenes, and some rather improbable things happening. You begin to start feeling that there's more to this story than what it appears. And indeed there is a twist in episode 10 that turns the story upside-down.

Give this show 3 episodes to pull you in, and pay attention so you get to know the characters.

A final quote from the ending..."Even if you're struggling right now, everyone alive has the right to enjoy all this. Even if one ordinary day is followed by another ordinary day, life is still worth living. Don't waste the present regretting the past and worrying about the future. Live this day beautifully with light in your eyes."

The naked body of a man with a gunshot to the head is found in a narrow London street. We then see what appears to be the same body, is also found (in the same place), back in 1941, and 1890. So we are going to follow the the lead detectives and their investigations in different time periods with different technologies and personal issues involved.

At this point we are as clueless as ...

The naked body of a man with a gunshot to the head is found in a narrow London street. We then see what appears to be the same body, is also found (in the same place), back in 1941, and 1890. So we are going to follow the the lead detectives and their investigations in different time periods with different technologies and personal issues involved.

At this point we are as clueless as the detectives, except that we know of the three cases. In 1941 that detective gets a phone call that reveals that someone is attempting to control the situation and investigations. Then a similar intrusion enters into the story in 2023 and 1890.

When the catchphrase "know you are loved" is used, that confirms that there is another layer to this story.

Eve is an average analyst for MI 5, the British equivalent of the FBI, when several murders occur that are believed to be connected in some way. She blurts out in a meeting that she thinks, (in contrast to everyone else), that the killer is a woman, but her opinion is dismissed. When then, without permission, she attempts to interview a surviving witness in the hospital to confirm her idea, ...

Eve is an average analyst for MI 5, the British equivalent of the FBI, when several murders occur that are believed to be connected in some way. She blurts out in a meeting that she thinks, (in contrast to everyone else), that the killer is a woman, but her opinion is dismissed. When then, without permission, she attempts to interview a surviving witness in the hospital to confirm her idea, she is fired. But Eve then has an unexpected offer to join an MI 6 (like the CIA), task force that is investigating a series of international killings.

She learns that that the killer is indeed a woman, named Villanelle, and that she is working for a mysterious group called "The Twelve". So Eve is pulled into a hunt for this woman and the secret group that is directly Villanelle's assassinations. Along the way, many people are not what they appear to be. Figuring out who is an agent or even a member of the Twelve is only one of the mysteries.

Eve and Villanelle eventually meet, and their cat-and-mouse relationship takes several turns along the way. The show is as much about Villanelle's story arc as Eve's.

A good series that keeps you interested. You can watch an episode a night and not feel -- "Oh I just need to watch one more", but it does keep you coming back.

In my review of Memories of Alhambra, Park Shin-Hye played an innocent young woman caught up in a great deal of chaos while the male lead seemed to be always killing people in an AR game and having people try to kill him IRL.

In Sisyphus, Shin-Hye is a bad-ass, time-traveling warrior trying to save a man's life and stop a war that results in a nuclear bomb turning Seoul into a ...

In my review of Memories of Alhambra, Park Shin-Hye played an innocent young woman caught up in a great deal of chaos while the male lead seemed to be always killing people in an AR game and having people try to kill him IRL.

In Sisyphus, Shin-Hye is a bad-ass, time-traveling warrior trying to save a man's life and stop a war that results in a nuclear bomb turning Seoul into a wasteland.

The time travel 'sort of works, but don't think about it too hard. Suffice it to say that there are apparently several loops in which she tries over and over to prevent the war --- hence the name of the series. But you don't have to keep up with all those loops, the series only focuses on one of them. Turns out there are quite a few time travelers in this show, and not all of them are just trying to escape a horrible future.

Overall a pretty good show, but you need to pay attention to understand when there is a reference to a prior loop. The time travel is only about 15 years back, so you can have a character's younger self show up.

Other user reviews seem to be 1 star or ten stars. Park Shin-Hye seems to be very high on reviewers' reasons to watch. The male lead (Cho seung-woo) was the lead in Stranger, which I also rated pretty high.

Turkish show about a young woman who is an artist, and whose work has incorporated a unique symbol that she has been drawing since she was a child.

(Apparently variations on that is about all she draws, so I'm not sure why she is considered so talented, but anyway ...)

It turns out that an archaeological team working on the world's oldest temple (a real place) has found a cave ...

Turkish show about a young woman who is an artist, and whose work has incorporated a unique symbol that she has been drawing since she was a child.

(Apparently variations on that is about all she draws, so I'm not sure why she is considered so talented, but anyway ...)

It turns out that an archaeological team working on the world's oldest temple (a real place) has found a cave (not a real place) under it and that artifacts in the cave date to over 10000 years ago. It has this same symbol the woman paints carved on the wall.

Something very old is calling to her. It's not evil, but there are evil men that are also interested.

Not super great, but keeps you engaged. Some interesting visuals. Beautiful lead actress. Lots of symbolism. Are the events imaginary or mystical? Watch out for the time shifts.

As often happens, the English dubbing is overacted, so watch with subtitles if possible.

Four good seasons that tell about a woman in a world that has been overrun by vampires.

She apparently survived a bite and did not turn. Why? Although she survived, she was severely injured and has been unconscious in a hospital - turned fortress - since the 'rising' first began.

She is being safeguarded by a marine whose last orders were to safeguard her at all costs.

As expected ...

Four good seasons that tell about a woman in a world that has been overrun by vampires.

She apparently survived a bite and did not turn. Why? Although she survived, she was severely injured and has been unconscious in a hospital - turned fortress - since the 'rising' first began.

She is being safeguarded by a marine whose last orders were to safeguard her at all costs.

As expected lots of blood and gore, so be warned.

Gets a good IMDB rating, but I found it just OK. Had this title in my list of watched shows, but that was a year ago, and had to look up details of the plot

From Wikipedia: Black is the story of a grim reaper who is forced to track down his fugitive partner. In the process, he uncovers the truth about a series of cold case murders from 20 years ago. Investigating the murders complicates ...

Gets a good IMDB rating, but I found it just OK. Had this title in my list of watched shows, but that was a year ago, and had to look up details of the plot

From Wikipedia: Black is the story of a grim reaper who is forced to track down his fugitive partner. In the process, he uncovers the truth about a series of cold case murders from 20 years ago. Investigating the murders complicates the reaper's primary role of guiding the deceased to their respective afterlife, especially after he falls in love with a mortal woman - which leads him to break supernatural rules against involvement in human affairs.

Has a pretty good IMDB rating, but it was just so-so for me.

Just accept that there is magic in the world and go with it.

If some people have magic powers, wouldn't it be a good idea to have a special school/college where they can get some training so they don't make a mess of things?

There are three locations for this tale: the real world, the school, and a magical land called Fillory. You will follow the adventures of a group of new students ...

Just accept that there is magic in the world and go with it.

If some people have magic powers, wouldn't it be a good idea to have a special school/college where they can get some training so they don't make a mess of things?

There are three locations for this tale: the real world, the school, and a magical land called Fillory. You will follow the adventures of a group of new students at the school, (as well as a few rejects). There are some very interesting characters, sometimes played a little over the top, but it's still fun to watch.

Carnival Row on Amazon does what many good Sci-Fi/fantasy shows do, it creates a fantasy world similar to but not quite like our own which can shine a light on injustices and prejudices without being directly associated with our reality.

The story is set in a Victorian/steampunk era in which there are two major countries that are at war, the Pact and the Burgue. Caught in the middle are ...

Carnival Row on Amazon does what many good Sci-Fi/fantasy shows do, it creates a fantasy world similar to but not quite like our own which can shine a light on injustices and prejudices without being directly associated with our reality.

The story is set in a Victorian/steampunk era in which there are two major countries that are at war, the Pact and the Burgue. Caught in the middle are the Fae Folk which live in a land called Tirnanoc. Tirnanoc is being plundered for its resources by the Pact and the Burgue is fighting them there. Not so much because they want to protect the land of the fae, but because they want those resources too.

The Fae are fantasy creatures and several of the main characters are Fares -- think full-size Tinkerbells with wings. There are also Fawns, and the occasional very strange-looking creature that's not human-like at all. And oh yes, some have a bit of magic.

The Burgue has a sizeable population of refugee Fae that have fled from the fighting in their homeland. Most of them live in an area called Carnival Row, but also work in factories and or as servants in the city. They generally have very few rights and are always the first to be suspected whenever there's a crime and are certainly not part of polite society.

The two main characters are a policeman named Philo and a Pix named Vignette. Philo is a very good investigator and is also sympathetic toward the Fae. He is tasked with a series of killings that are associated with them. He and Vignette have a history that will be learned about early in the show.

There are a lot of memorable characters and groups with some interesting names.

I found that you need to give yourself two or three episodes to really understand this world and the people that live in it. After that, it becomes a very binge-worthy show but only two seasons as the pandemic interrupted production.

The ending of season 2 is obviously a little rushed and intended to be kind of a wrap-up for what should have been a four-season story arc. This is a shame as I really enjoyed the show and it would have been interesting to have more stories about this world.

Mask Girl is about obsession. Obsession with beauty, acceptance, love, and revenge. This series is quite a departure from the Korean rom-coms we have watched. It has violence and adult themes. It starts really strong. I found it a bit slow in the middle but turns into a bit of a thriller toward the end.

Mask Girl is a very plain, if not ugly, office worker who is completely overlooked by ...

Mask Girl is about obsession. Obsession with beauty, acceptance, love, and revenge. This series is quite a departure from the Korean rom-coms we have watched. It has violence and adult themes. It starts really strong. I found it a bit slow in the middle but turns into a bit of a thriller toward the end.

Mask Girl is a very plain, if not ugly, office worker who is completely overlooked by any men she might be interested in. She starts a streaming channel on a website and chats and dances wearing a fancy, glittery full face mask. She is enjoying this anonymous love until she decides to meet one of her followers. That's when the series turns dark and the first murder occurs.

There are two-time jumps -- one small and one large, and three actors play MaskGirl. Well, four if you count the model that actually does the dancing.

A good series, if you like psychological crime dramas.

War Sailor is about a Norwegian merchant marine sailor that leaves his family for what is expected to be a trip of a month or so. But within a few days the Nazis invade Norway and all merchant ships and crews are put into service in support of the supply of war materials for Great Britain.

The short series gives you a look at a look at an unknown chapter of the war, but the focus is ...

War Sailor is about a Norwegian merchant marine sailor that leaves his family for what is expected to be a trip of a month or so. But within a few days the Nazis invade Norway and all merchant ships and crews are put into service in support of the supply of war materials for Great Britain.

The short series gives you a look at a look at an unknown chapter of the war, but the focus is on the struggles of this one man. It steps through the war years with small samples of the hardships experienced by the man and his family. The bulk of the story happens after the war is over. .

Another show with a very high-tech theme. So Hi-tech that the technology is impossible !! It's sort of like that old commercial where the woman is "posting" pictures to her living room wall, and a friend says "that's not how any of this works". So just go along for the ride and don't think to much about how it can't work.

The leading man is the CEO of a company that has developed a ...

Another show with a very high-tech theme. So Hi-tech that the technology is impossible !! It's sort of like that old commercial where the woman is "posting" pictures to her living room wall, and a friend says "that's not how any of this works". So just go along for the ride and don't think to much about how it can't work.

The leading man is the CEO of a company that has developed a contact lens that acts as an AR interface. (AR - stands for Augmented Reality - where computer graphics are overlaid onto your real-world view. Pokeman was a simple example of AR)

He is offered an AR 'game' that uses the lens. He goes to Granada and to Alhambra where he "sees" a statue of a famous warrior seemingly come to life and attack him. After dying many times in the game, he eventfully defeats the warrior and 'levels up', getting a better sword to use in future combat.

Oh yes, with this lens, when you get injured it actually hurts. (I told you the tech was impossible). This is a key point in the show.

Turns out the game was made by a kid who tells him to meet him at this hostel in Granada where he "sometimes stays" to talk about buying the game. The CEO arrives to find that the only room that is not shared with 5 college kids is on the 6th floor with no elevator and is more of a store room than fit for guests. But he insists on staying there anyway.

The next morning, after finding rats in the room and no working outlet where he can charge his phone, he yells at the owner about how run-down this place is and what a horrible proprietor she is. But guess what, the kid is only 15 and he must make a deal for the game with the kid's older sister who is his guardian. That older sister is of course the owner of the hostel.

So this is sets up the romantic relationship. But this is more of an action/drama than a romance show. There are also ex-wives, a competitor company, several deaths, plus --- the kid goes missing, a dead person or two shows up in the game as a NPC, then the CEO starts seeing the AR world when NOT wearing the contact lenses and everyone thinks he is crazy.

The kid's sister, even turns up in the game as a classical guitar playing NPC. She is really beautiful and especially so as the game character.

Interesting note: the actress (Park Shin Hye) learned how to play "Memories of Alhambra", which I understand is a fairly difficult guitar piece. Don't know if we are actually hearing her on the soundtrack, but it looks like it could be. At least her hand movements don't look totally out of sync with the music as you sometimes see.

There does seem to be a lot of product placement in K-TV and it you see here (as well in Bride of Habaek when I previously reviewed). Great graphics and production values.

Micky Haller is a lawyer, that is recovering from opioid addiction and has not worked in a couple of years when he 'inherits' another lawyer's practice and cases. One is a really big case that could re-establish himself.

But was this high-profile case what got the first lawyer killed?

He likes to think while in the car between appointments, and his car of choice is a big Lincoln. ...

Micky Haller is a lawyer, that is recovering from opioid addiction and has not worked in a couple of years when he 'inherits' another lawyer's practice and cases. One is a really big case that could re-establish himself.

But was this high-profile case what got the first lawyer killed?

He likes to think while in the car between appointments, and his car of choice is a big Lincoln.

Good show if you like crime/mysteries.

An airliner lands at its destination. The only problem is that while the plane has been missing for five years, the passengers think it was a normal flight.

There is a great deal of confusion of course. Is this supernatural and are these people angels or demons? Is it the work of some government agency somewhere in the world (think The Philadelphia Experiment).

The setup provides lots ...

An airliner lands at its destination. The only problem is that while the plane has been missing for five years, the passengers think it was a normal flight.

There is a great deal of confusion of course. Is this supernatural and are these people angels or demons? Is it the work of some government agency somewhere in the world (think The Philadelphia Experiment).

The setup provides lots of possibilities for storylines.

Some parts are better than others, but it hung in there for 3 seasons on broadcast TV, and I kept watching.

While different characters interpret what's happening to them based on their own beliefs, the series pulls bits and pieces of the story from many mythological, magical, and religious sources. And there are scientists trying to find technological explanations.

The big question is if there is special about the passengers. There seems to be something they have to accomplish with this second chance, and there are a lot of puzzles and symbolism for the main characters to figure out.

Update: I just finished watching the 4th and final season which was delayed due to Covid. This season was 20 episodes, (instead of the usual 13), and they brought it to as much of a satisfying conclusion as they were probably able to. This last season has a much higher rating by critics than the earlier one.

Overall a decent series. .

4400 people that have disappeared over the years suddenly reappear all in one place.

The Government is suspicious and concerned. Loved ones are reunited. People from long ago are confused with the modern world. Is it aliens or God?

There are a lot of individual stories that can be told, but there are some core characters that tie them together. You could argue that all of the ...

4400 people that have disappeared over the years suddenly reappear all in one place.

The Government is suspicious and concerned. Loved ones are reunited. People from long ago are confused with the modern world. Is it aliens or God?

There are a lot of individual stories that can be told, but there are some core characters that tie them together. You could argue that all of the individual stories get pushed aside for a couple of long story arcs to the detriment of the series.

But before you can even start to look for answers you are told that you must play a game. The winners will earn a card such as the "2 of ...

But before you can even start to look for answers you are told that you must play a game. The winners will earn a card such as the "2 of Hearts". And the goal is to collect an entire deck of cards. As the card numbers increase, the difficulty of the game goes up. Oh, and one more thing -- the losers of each game are killed by something like a laser from the sky.

The suits for each game have meanings: Clubs games are team games. Hearts are psychological games of trust. Diamonds are about critical thinking and strategy. And Spades games are about physical endurance.

Friendships develop that complicate gameplay as you don't want to sacrifice a friend. And all along you are asking why and how is this happening and if you will can you return to the real world if you win?

So as I said, sort of like The Squid Game, but played in an alternate reality version of Toyko.

I did fast-forward through some parts of the games at first, but then realized that the nature of the games was revealing a lot about the characters.

The second season is better than the first. The ending is worth the wait.

In Japanese, but the English dubbing is very good.

You may have grown up watching the TV series or seen the show on classic TV networks. The show featured a wrongly accused defendant that is gotten off by Perry Mason's team's investigations and courtroom drama in which the real killer often confessed on the stand.

This new series takes place in 1932 with prohibition still in effect and with most of the country dealing with the ...

You may have grown up watching the TV series or seen the show on classic TV networks. The show featured a wrongly accused defendant that is gotten off by Perry Mason's team's investigations and courtroom drama in which the real killer often confessed on the stand.

This new series takes place in 1932 with prohibition still in effect and with most of the country dealing with the depression. Mason (Matthew Rhys, of The Americans), is in short supply of money, drinking quite a bit, and picking up some money as an investigator working for a lawyer (Jonathan Lithgow) who looks more like the character of the Mason of the TV show. It has many of the elements of the classic TV show: a woman accused of murder, stereotypically abusive and corrupt police, a District Attorney that sees this case as a stepping stone to the mayor of Los Angles, and a good dose of things not being what they appear to be at first. It also includes the church of a radio evangelist (played by Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black, a great series that I recommend.)

We do have the familiar supporting characters from the classic show, but they are portrayed a little differently from the original series: Della Street is the legal secretary, but she has a secret girlfriend; Paul Drake is a black policeman. And toward the end of season one we meet Hamilton Burger, Mason's frequent counterpart as a prosecutor in the TV series. So all the characters are in place, except that Mason is not a lawyer! You know this is an origin story, so the question is how will he become a lawyer and will it happen in season one or two?

Tom Hanks is a man called Otto whose wife recently died and he now finds that he has little reason for living. So he's become this crotchety old man that goes about his daily routine and likes to have everything just so.

That is until a young family moves in and begins to make quite reasonable favors of him that he finds very unreasonable.

But he is basically a very nice man, who ...

Tom Hanks is a man called Otto whose wife recently died and he now finds that he has little reason for living. So he's become this crotchety old man that goes about his daily routine and likes to have everything just so.

That is until a young family moves in and begins to make quite reasonable favors of him that he finds very unreasonable.

But he is basically a very nice man, who is slowly pulled reluctantly back into a life worth living.

This is a cute show about a young girl that remembers her past lives. In this fantasy series, a girl of about 11 is bored with her life and meets a boy a few years younger. She thinks he is the most interesting person she has met in a couple of hundred years.

You see, she reincarnates, and around the ages of 8 to 12 memories of her past lives come back to her. When she and this boy are ...

This is a cute show about a young girl that remembers her past lives. In this fantasy series, a girl of about 11 is bored with her life and meets a boy a few years younger. She thinks he is the most interesting person she has met in a couple of hundred years.

You see, she reincarnates, and around the ages of 8 to 12 memories of her past lives come back to her. When she and this boy are in a car accident and she dies, the one thing she must do in her 19th life is to find him and see if he is still alive.

He is but is now several years older than she is. So the series is going to be about her trying to reestablish a relationship with him when she is nothing more than a childhood memory to him (and of course now looks different).

So a cute, fun, lightweight series, but there is one little bit of drama. seems It is not just luck that allows her to remember those past lives, and doing so can have side effects. She is going to have a difficult decision to make.

At home, her mother-in-law lives with the family and enjoys spending her son's money and sending her daughter-in-law out on errands to buy her things the mother-in-law is very preoccupied with status and is a colorful addition to the household.

When Jeong-Suk the sides that she wants to complete her residency and become a full doctor she meets a great deal of resistance from her husband and her mother-in-law. Unknown to her, her husband is having an affair with another doctor at the hospital which explains why he doesn't want her there as well.

When she gets accepted to be a first-year resident in the same department where her husband works and also her son the groundwork is set for some crazy situations as she decides not to tell anyone that she is married to the chief surgeon or that her son works there. Of course, the secret is not going to last very long, and then there's the husband's mistress who just happens to be an old college friend of Jeong-Suk's as well.

The husband overacts many of his reactions to the steady stream of reveals during the show -- remember this is a comedy. I thought the show was about two episodes too long but it's held my interest so if you're looking for something kind of light and fun, and you enjoy Hospital related dramas, then this show might be for you

A man wakes up in a small hospital in outback Australia and can't remember who he is. We see the accident that starts the story, but he has no idea who he is or what sort of person he is. A newbie police officer (Helen) is assigned to look in on him and takes a personal interest in trying to help him find himself. They do learn his name is Eliot Stanly. But when a bomb almost kills him, it is ...

A man wakes up in a small hospital in outback Australia and can't remember who he is. We see the accident that starts the story, but he has no idea who he is or what sort of person he is. A newbie police officer (Helen) is assigned to look in on him and takes a personal interest in trying to help him find himself. They do learn his name is Eliot Stanly. But when a bomb almost kills him, it is obvious that there is a lot more to his backstory to uncover. We also meet Helen's obnoxious boyfriend who is not what most would consider a good match. (For Helen or any woman).

Part of the mystery is that when we meet people, we, and Eliot, can only take them at face value --- not knowing if they are telling the truth.

Just when you think things are all sorted out, season two takes us to Ireland and there is another layer to Eliot's story.

Not really a "got to see on more episode" sort of show for me, but if you like mysteries with several twists, you should enjoy it.

Our heroine in this one suffers from face blindness ( a real thing where you don't recognize faces) and stumbles through life because of it.

When she accidentally comes in possession of a prototype pair of glasses (think Google Glass sort of thing), that lets her see a hologram interface to a powerful AI. The AI is programmed to want to help her in any way it can and now starts to prompt ...

Our heroine in this one suffers from face blindness ( a real thing where you don't recognize faces) and stumbles through life because of it.

When she accidentally comes in possession of a prototype pair of glasses (think Google Glass sort of thing), that lets her see a hologram interface to a powerful AI. The AI is programmed to want to help her in any way it can and now starts to prompt her with names of people she meets. It also helps with work assignments.

The owner of the company (who the Hologram is programmed to look like), wants the glasses back. But when she resists, the company decides to let her use them and monitors her use as part of the beta test.

The Hologram is very friendly and the nicest 'person' she has ever met. The real-life version of him -- not so much. But then something unexpected happens, the AI appears to be falling in love with her and likewise.

Oh, and of course, there is also a competitor company that wants to get its hands on the glasses.

Anyway a worthwhile and fun, if lightweight series. The technology in this one is somewhat plausible. It is dubbed in English, so good to put it in a corner of your screen while you work on your computer.

The Joesen Crown Prince has an accident and is helped by people in a small village who do not know who he is. He has lost his memory and so begins living a life as a peasant.

This is a pleasant show to watch. It's a romcom and does not get too serious. Yes, there are elements that don't quite make sense. But overall user reviews seem to be very positive on average with not many really ...

The Joesen Crown Prince has an accident and is helped by people in a small village who do not know who he is. He has lost his memory and so begins living a life as a peasant.

This is a pleasant show to watch. It's a romcom and does not get too serious. Yes, there are elements that don't quite make sense. But overall user reviews seem to be very positive on average with not many really negative ones.

It held my interest and so 3 hearts.

This starts as a mystery ... 20 years ago a school graduating class on a bus disappeared, except for one person, who can not remember what happened. When this survivor dies suspiciously, Astrid, whose sister disappeared as well, decides to try and get some answers.

We slowly get some answers through a series of flashbacks. It is a little confusing at times and develops slowly.

Along ...

This starts as a mystery ... 20 years ago a school graduating class on a bus disappeared, except for one person, who can not remember what happened. When this survivor dies suspiciously, Astrid, whose sister disappeared as well, decides to try and get some answers.

We slowly get some answers through a series of flashbacks. It is a little confusing at times and develops slowly.

Along the way, you will learn about the Spring Goddess Ostara and the Hare King, from which we get the rabbit and eggs at Easter.

This Japanese series has a number of young people waking up to find themselves in an alternate version of Tokyo that is empty of most of people. They soon learn that they are part of a game where losing means death.

Each episode presents them with a different challenge. I found some more interesting than others.

It is almost like live-action manga.

There is a second season coming, ...

This Japanese series has a number of young people waking up to find themselves in an alternate version of Tokyo that is empty of most of people. They soon learn that they are part of a game where losing means death.

Each episode presents them with a different challenge. I found some more interesting than others.

It is almost like live-action manga.

There is a second season coming, which is good because there is not yet an explanation for all this.

There is a whole world of supernatural beings out there called Fae that have a clan system and rules. And now that her abilities have developed, she is pressured into joining them and ...

There is a whole world of supernatural beings out there called Fae that have a clan system and rules. And now that her abilities have developed, she is pressured into joining them and embracing their rules.

But Bo is not interested and wants a more independent life.

This series was more fun than I thought it would be. I felt it fell off some in the last couple of seasons and so only 3 Hearts for me.

An FBI agent (Emily), goes missing for 6 years when police get a tip about where she is. They barely get there in time to prevent her from being drowned. Despite her having very little memory of those years, she is instated and works on the case. It has been assumed she had been the victim of a serial killer.

There are a lot of twists and turns. You are never quite sure who might be ...

An FBI agent (Emily), goes missing for 6 years when police get a tip about where she is. They barely get there in time to prevent her from being drowned. Despite her having very little memory of those years, she is instated and works on the case. It has been assumed she had been the victim of a serial killer.

There are a lot of twists and turns. You are never quite sure who might be involved, even Emily may not be completely innocent. After about 7 episodes we thought it must be about over, but no, another twist and three more.

Overall a pretty good mystery, but not great. We only watched Season One.

An after-death fantasy based on some Buddhist quote. When you die, your life is examined and you are judged in 7 trials to see of you are worthy of being reincarnated. (Hummm, I thought is was a matter of what you came back as not if.)

Anyway, the trials are:

An after-death fantasy based on some Buddhist quote. When you die, your life is examined and you are judged in 7 trials to see of you are worthy of being reincarnated. (Hummm, I thought is was a matter of what you came back as not if.)

Anyway, the trials are:

Special Ops: Lioness is a six-part series that is focused on a young woman who is recruited into the CIA's Lioness program.

Lionesses are embedded into targeted organizations, such as terrorist groups, trying to get information on where a high value target is so the CIA can either strike the target with a drone or the Lioness can kill them directly.

there are a couple of side stories ...

Special Ops: Lioness is a six-part series that is focused on a young woman who is recruited into the CIA's Lioness program.

Lionesses are embedded into targeted organizations, such as terrorist groups, trying to get information on where a high value target is so the CIA can either strike the target with a drone or the Lioness can kill them directly.

there are a couple of side stories that help understand some of the characters motivations but they don't really get in the way of the action.

Good casting.

Saving Mr Banks is the story of how the film Mary Poppins was made by Walt Disney. We meet the author of the books -- Mrs Travers, and quickly learn that she has a lot of reservations about letting Disney have her precious work. She is adamant that it's not to be a cartoon and that it have no music. Of course we all know what the result was. But there are quite a few new things to be learned ...

Saving Mr Banks is the story of how the film Mary Poppins was made by Walt Disney. We meet the author of the books -- Mrs Travers, and quickly learn that she has a lot of reservations about letting Disney have her precious work. She is adamant that it's not to be a cartoon and that it have no music. Of course we all know what the result was. But there are quite a few new things to be learned about the process of making this film.

First is that there are a lot of elements of Mrs. Travers' childhood in the story, and we see these in frequent flashbacks. Emma Thompson plays Mrs Travers and Tom Hanks is Walt Disney, and they both portray their characters very well.

I did feel that Mrs Travers final conversion to the idea of having some animated penguins in the film and making it a musical was just a little bit too easy.

And also, while the film sort of gives you the idea that she approved of the final result, the fact that she had already written a number of sequels and none of them were made into additional films suggests that she really wasn't that happy with it.

But you will enjoy it even if it is a little predictable.

Pretty good series, especially if you like romances. Saw this a few years ago, so so here is the storyline from IMDB:

A love story between Sun-Gyeom and Mi-Joo.

Sun-Gyeom was once a popular sprinter for the national team. After an incident that caused him to leave the team, he begins to work as a sports agent.

Meanwhile, Mi-Joo writes subtitle translations for movies. She is ...

Pretty good series, especially if you like romances. Saw this a few years ago, so so here is the storyline from IMDB:

A love story between Sun-Gyeom and Mi-Joo.

Sun-Gyeom was once a popular sprinter for the national team. After an incident that caused him to leave the team, he begins to work as a sports agent.

Meanwhile, Mi-Joo writes subtitle translations for movies. She is thrilled when she first sees her name as a translator during the end credits when she meets Sun-Gyeom.

There is also another couple: Dan-A is the CEO of a sports agency but not her father's favorite to advance higher in the family business. Then she meets Young-Hwa who is a university student, majoring in art.

Fairly good typical romance show. Doesn't keep you up all night binging episodes.

Features Shin Se-Kyung, who was in my first K-TV show, Rookie Historian, which is one of my more highly related shows.

When something goes wrong with the Sun and it releases some dangerous radiation. Sort of like a solar flair, but more dangerous apparently, everyone is killed unless they are underground. Lucky for this series, the survivors are on an overnight flight and are able to figure out (yes they have a scientist and some EU people on board), that they need to keep flying and stay ahead of sunrise. ...

When something goes wrong with the Sun and it releases some dangerous radiation. Sort of like a solar flair, but more dangerous apparently, everyone is killed unless they are underground. Lucky for this series, the survivors are on an overnight flight and are able to figure out (yes they have a scientist and some EU people on board), that they need to keep flying and stay ahead of sunrise.

Of course they need to land and refuel and get back in the air quickly, so that is the immediate crisis. Then, where can they land and find a safe haven?

Season 1 was pretty good. Season 2 lost some of the edge.

Note: there is a spinoff about a group on a submarine.

Nice spy thriller staring Robert Redford who recruits Brad Pitt and trains him to be a field agent. Redford is on his last day with the agency when he is pulled into a meeting because Pitt has gone off script and ended up in a Chinese prison. They want to know all about Pitt and seem more interested in avoiding an incident and bad press than getting him out.

The story is mostly ...

Nice spy thriller staring Robert Redford who recruits Brad Pitt and trains him to be a field agent. Redford is on his last day with the agency when he is pulled into a meeting because Pitt has gone off script and ended up in a Chinese prison. They want to know all about Pitt and seem more interested in avoiding an incident and bad press than getting him out.

The story is mostly flashbacks of Pitt's and Redford's relationship. Is there anything that Redford possibly do to help his friend in less than a day from halfway around the world?

Unthinkable is not for the squeamish, It has a homegrown terrorist who has managed to build 3 nuclear bombs and he has some demands.

There is considerable tension between the by-the-book FBI agent and a special black ops interrogator who is willing to do, well the unthinkable. Can they get the terrorist to reveal the locations before the bombs reach zero?

The question for all ...

Unthinkable is not for the squeamish, It has a homegrown terrorist who has managed to build 3 nuclear bombs and he has some demands.

There is considerable tension between the by-the-book FBI agent and a special black ops interrogator who is willing to do, well the unthinkable. Can they get the terrorist to reveal the locations before the bombs reach zero?

The question for all parties is what would you be willing to do in pursuit of what you believe?

Just finished season one of 3 Body Problem which is being hyped so much. We watched one, sometimes two episodes a day. But while it was interesting, it just didn't grab me for some reason. It was easy to stop and wait another day to watch the next episode.

This was inspired by a series of books written in China. Those who have read the books say it is a fairly good adaptation, but being ...

Just finished season one of 3 Body Problem which is being hyped so much. We watched one, sometimes two episodes a day. But while it was interesting, it just didn't grab me for some reason. It was easy to stop and wait another day to watch the next episode.

This was inspired by a series of books written in China. Those who have read the books say it is a fairly good adaptation, but being compressed into just 8 episodes you have to read between the lines sometimes.

There are a lot of unexplained things happening and many of them we will have to wait for season two to understand. The basic story is that an alien civilization is coming (in 400 years), but using faster-than-light communications they seek to influence things happening on Earth to pave the way. What is not clear at all is that there is evidence of some very advanced technology being created on Earth and we don't know who could be aiding the aliens by building and using it. At the same time, there is an effort to keep our scientists from making advances in technology that might be able to stop the aliens.

I feel like I'm rambling a bit here, but that is what watching this is like. Season One is as much of a mystery as a sci-fi show, with more questions than answers. The series is very much about ideas and I think that part of my ambivalence about it is that they have packed a lot of information into each episode. And so it's easy to sort of get lost trying to process what you've just seen before they move on to another scene.

Why "3 Body Problem"? This refers to the difficulty of calculating the orbits of 3 bodies (earth, moon, sun for example) exactly over long periods of time. You can do 2 bodies easily using Newtonian equations. but add another and the reality begins to drift from predicted. But when you have a planet and the masses of two stars involved, orbits can occasionally get very chaotic. So this can refer to actual orbits or just an impossible problem to solve.

it also refers to an immersive video game that is used to recruit humans to help the aliens.

The series does have very high production values and many of the visual effects are impressive!

The writing team for the series is the same duo that did Game of Thrones. So lovers of the book are holding their breath to see if they will screw this up like they did the ending of GoT. Also, there are five actors you will recognize from GoT in this show.

Worth watching, but you will have to wait a while for many answers.

Or... watch the Chinese version named "Three=-Body" on Amazon Prime. In comparing the two, most of the questions are indeed answered in 3 Body Problem, but sometimes very quickly without a lot of detail. The pace is so fast, you can miss the importance of some parts. For example, scenes that are given 15 minutes in this show are given an entire episode in the Chinese version.

In a post-apocalyptic future life for most people is a matter of just getting by. But there is a place, an island, where there is plenty and you can live in comfort. The problem is that space is limited.

On kid's 20th birthday, there is an evaluation, (a series of puzzles), designed to pick only the best and brightest to go to the island. But only 3% will make it.

I enjoyed the first 2 ...

In a post-apocalyptic future life for most people is a matter of just getting by. But there is a place, an island, where there is plenty and you can live in comfort. The problem is that space is limited.

On kid's 20th birthday, there is an evaluation, (a series of puzzles), designed to pick only the best and brightest to go to the island. But only 3% will make it.

I enjoyed the first 2 seasons but never got back to it.

A boy physics whiz and friends travel between parallel versions of Earth. The only problem is that there is no "back" button. The handheld device has a timer that should automatically return them to their home world. But when they had to activate it prematurely the device lost track of where their homeworld was. They now keep "sliding" between worlds hoping the next will take them home.

Oh ...

A boy physics whiz and friends travel between parallel versions of Earth. The only problem is that there is no "back" button. The handheld device has a timer that should automatically return them to their home world. But when they had to activate it prematurely the device lost track of where their homeworld was. They now keep "sliding" between worlds hoping the next will take them home.

Oh and the timer has become random, so they sometimes have only minutes in the new world, sometimes months.

This allows a wide variety of worlds and societies for the travelers to interact with. Some worlds are similar to theirs, some drastically different, and some hostile.

A broadcast TV show from the mid-1990s --- sometimes a little silly, but I enjoyed it enough to keep streaming it.

This is a small four-part series with each episode being a different story. The lead in each story is played by IU (a K-Pop singer/actress) and as expected from the title she plays four very different characters. Each episode is 20-25 minutes long, so not a large investment of time. I found some stories more interesting than others.

Here's a summary from Wikipedia"

This is a small four-part series with each episode being a different story. The lead in each story is played by IU (a K-Pop singer/actress) and as expected from the title she plays four very different characters. Each episode is 20-25 minutes long, so not a large investment of time. I found some stories more interesting than others.

Here's a summary from Wikipedia"

Asteroid City is all about visual style with quirky characters and situations. There's some romance, some 1950's paranoia, geeky kids, and a lot of high-quality actors that somehow manage to make their characters seem serious.

It's really hard to say what it is actually about. If you like pastel colors, you will overdose on this film. It's fun to watch but you may not take away any ...

Asteroid City is all about visual style with quirky characters and situations. There's some romance, some 1950's paranoia, geeky kids, and a lot of high-quality actors that somehow manage to make their characters seem serious.

It's really hard to say what it is actually about. If you like pastel colors, you will overdose on this film. It's fun to watch but you may not take away any profound ideas.

After Yang is a quiet film about a family, Jake and Kyra, with an android (Yang) companion they obtained primarily for their adopted Chinese daughter to talk with about her Chinese heritage. We get the sense that there is some dysfunction within the family. Sometimes they all seem a bit withdrawn. Yang has the role of an older brother to Mika.

When Yanag starts to malfunction, and it ...

After Yang is a quiet film about a family, Jake and Kyra, with an android (Yang) companion they obtained primarily for their adopted Chinese daughter to talk with about her Chinese heritage. We get the sense that there is some dysfunction within the family. Sometimes they all seem a bit withdrawn. Yang has the role of an older brother to Mika.

When Yanag starts to malfunction, and it appears likely that he can not be repaired, it is suggested that perhaps some of his stored memories might be useful in understanding the problem. This turns out not to be the case, but when Jake starts reviewing those memories he learns something about Yang's previous life and those moments with his own family that Yang decided were important to save.

Seeing those moments that Yank has considered important, prompts Jake to take a look at his own life and relationships. In that way it sort of taps into Blade Runner's ideas of what it means to have meaningful relationships and to be 'human'.

May not be for everyone and it's a bit slow at times. But if you like stories that are about ideas it's worth taking a look

Light detective/comedy show that was on broadcast TV.

What happens when the devil gets bored with managing hell and wants a vacation on Earth? He buys a nightclub of course and names it "Lucifer's".

But then he meets a detective and falls in love with her while trying to tag along and help her solve cases.

Along the way we meet a variety of human and immortal characters: His ...

Light detective/comedy show that was on broadcast TV.

What happens when the devil gets bored with managing hell and wants a vacation on Earth? He buys a nightclub of course and names it "Lucifer's".

But then he meets a detective and falls in love with her while trying to tag along and help her solve cases.

Along the way we meet a variety of human and immortal characters: His brother; his evil twin (yes Lucifer is a fairly nice guy while on Earth); a psychologist trying to help him; Eve; his mother; and eventually God.

But my favorite character is Mazikeen, the demon sent by God to protect him while on Earth.

Primarily a comedy it is about a woman that falls down the stairs at her birthday party, dies, and then wakes up early on that same day. Over and over, but waking up at different times.

She of course tries to avoid those stairs, but then other things kill her.

What is going on and why? Similar to Groundhog Day, but with a comedian in the lead role.

You may recognize the red-headed ...

Primarily a comedy it is about a woman that falls down the stairs at her birthday party, dies, and then wakes up early on that same day. Over and over, but waking up at different times.

She of course tries to avoid those stairs, but then other things kill her.

What is going on and why? Similar to Groundhog Day, but with a comedian in the lead role.

You may recognize the red-headed star from Orange is the New Black.

When the Locke family moves into their ancestral home, they discover that there are magical keys hidden -- well everywhere. that enable a person do to some amazing things such as:

When the Locke family moves into their ancestral home, they discover that there are magical keys hidden -- well everywhere. that enable a person do to some amazing things such as:

My Name is a story of a daughter who is determined to avenge the murder of her father. The police tell her that there is little evidence, and as the gun used to kill him was not found, they have no leads. She knows that her father was involved with a criminal drug gang and goes to the boss to see if he knows anything about it. She is told that her father was killed by someone in the police. ...

My Name is a story of a daughter who is determined to avenge the murder of her father. The police tell her that there is little evidence, and as the gun used to kill him was not found, they have no leads. She knows that her father was involved with a criminal drug gang and goes to the boss to see if he knows anything about it. She is told that her father was killed by someone in the police.

The boss provides her with a new identity and suggests that she join the police where perhaps she will be able to learn more from the inside. And of course, provide information to him about possible raids.

Things are of course not what they seem to be at all. Do the police know more than they are saying? Is the crime boss only using her?

More martial fights than what we've seen in Korean shows, but not in excessive slow motion. Thought the action and acting were good. Only eight episodes and I think that was about right for this story.

Fun little film about two sheep farmer brothers (Sam Neill is one of them), that live side by side but don't talk to each other. A crisis occurs when a sheep is diagnosed with a highly contagious infection that requires all the sheep in the valley to be killed and all facilities serialized. The sheep in this valley are a rare breed and really loved by the brothers.

Can the sheep be ...

Fun little film about two sheep farmer brothers (Sam Neill is one of them), that live side by side but don't talk to each other. A crisis occurs when a sheep is diagnosed with a highly contagious infection that requires all the sheep in the valley to be killed and all facilities serialized. The sheep in this valley are a rare breed and really loved by the brothers.

Can the sheep be saved from the government agents? Will the brothers reconcile?

A pleasant way to spend 2 hours.

In a poor part of Poland in the 1980's still under oppressive rule, there are two murders and a couple of fo teen suicides. When a journalist comes to write about the murder, he suspects there is more going on than the local police are saying.

Good series if you enjoy crime stories. There is a mucky swamp nearby that the title refers to. The second season takes place 12 years later in a ...

In a poor part of Poland in the 1980's still under oppressive rule, there are two murders and a couple of fo teen suicides. When a journalist comes to write about the murder, he suspects there is more going on than the local police are saying.

Good series if you enjoy crime stories. There is a mucky swamp nearby that the title refers to. The second season takes place 12 years later in a much different political environment, but this town still has secrets.

A Young reporter at a Turkish newspaper, who is being assigned generic interest stories to cover, and accidentally finds herself transported back in time when she decides to take a nap inside one of the rooms of a historic hotel.

She realizes that history as she knows it, is in the process of being changed and tries to do something to set things right.

Worth watching, but you're ...

A Young reporter at a Turkish newspaper, who is being assigned generic interest stories to cover, and accidentally finds herself transported back in time when she decides to take a nap inside one of the rooms of a historic hotel.

She realizes that history as she knows it, is in the process of being changed and tries to do something to set things right.

Worth watching, but you're probably not going to binge it.

Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency is a lightweight Korean rom-com. Flower Crew is a three-person (all guys) marriage agency that arranges the marriage between a blacksmith and street smart girl in this little village just outside the capital. But when the king dies and the crown prince is killed, it is discovered that the groom is a secret son of the king and is snatched away on his wedding ...

Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency is a lightweight Korean rom-com. Flower Crew is a three-person (all guys) marriage agency that arranges the marriage between a blacksmith and street smart girl in this little village just outside the capital. But when the king dies and the crown prince is killed, it is discovered that the groom is a secret son of the king and is snatched away on his wedding day and installed as a puppet king with the Queen acting as regent.

Of course, he can not possibly marry a commoner and he is told to forget about her. The bulk of the story is about how the flower crew attempts to pass off this girl as nobility.

There is the usual amount of palace intrigue as high ministers vie for power in the background. Nothing too serious here, but enjoyable enough for an episode per day.

Needed to pass the time while babysitting the grandkids this week and so found this old show called The Pretender. Didn't really need to pay close attention to it, just watch for maybe seven or eight minutes, off and on, out of the 45 minutes of the episode and you can just listen to the dialogue and tell what's going on.

So it's good if you just want something on while sorting through ...

Needed to pass the time while babysitting the grandkids this week and so found this old show called The Pretender. Didn't really need to pay close attention to it, just watch for maybe seven or eight minutes, off and on, out of the 45 minutes of the episode and you can just listen to the dialogue and tell what's going on.

So it's good if you just want something on while sorting through things or doing chores. It's sort of a combination of Quantum Leap, Catch Me If You Can, and Stranger Things. I'll explain:

Jared is a highly intelligent person that can learn to do anything just by reading enough about it. As a child he was separated from his parents by some unknown means and raised at "The 'Centre", where even as a young child they were doing experiments on him and using him to predict behavior of people by having him imagine that he was that person.

At the age of 30 he runs away and Miss Parker and Sydney spend each episode trying to find him, but always being 5 minutes later

Jared, moves about assuming different roles and trying to help people, or solve crimes. All the while looking for his parents.

So, an ok show, but not one you can't wait too see the next episode.

Elysium has all the looks of a good summer action film.. with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and an interesting premise. And it does give a provide a good story as long as you don't think too much about the big plot holes and actions characters take without much explanation.

Set in 2150's the rich have moved to an orbiting colony with almost magical healing machines as part ...

Elysium has all the looks of a good summer action film.. with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and an interesting premise. And it does give a provide a good story as long as you don't think too much about the big plot holes and actions characters take without much explanation.

Set in 2150's the rich have moved to an orbiting colony with almost magical healing machines as part their carefree lives of luxury. But back on Earth, people live desperate lives in squalor.

When Damon's character receives a lethal dose of radiation he has days to live when a plot is hatched to get up to Elysium where he can easily be cured.

Good, but not great, action movie.

This movie tells the true story of a young woman that becomes a handler for a military combat dog (Rex). Two tours in Iraq and 100 missions later she and the dog are injured when an IED goes off nearby.

They are separated during their recoveries. Still suffering from PDTS, she leaves the Marines and is dismayed when Rex is deemed too dangerous a dog to be allowed to be adopted and is ...

This movie tells the true story of a young woman that becomes a handler for a military combat dog (Rex). Two tours in Iraq and 100 missions later she and the dog are injured when an IED goes off nearby.

They are separated during their recoveries. Still suffering from PDTS, she leaves the Marines and is dismayed when Rex is deemed too dangerous a dog to be allowed to be adopted and is deployed again.

Her biggest battle is to be reunited with her dog.

Another virtual reality-themed show. This time players wake up and find themselves in the game world as their character with apparently no way to get out. (Sort of like Tron).

Is there a way out? What happens if you die in this world? Do you return to the real world or are you dead in both?

Not great acting, but sort of a fun concept.

Click ...

Click here to watch on the web

Messiah features an Arabic man that appears in the middle east and slowly gathers followers that come to believe he is either a prophet or the second coming of Christ. He is quiet and projects calm confidence in the midst of turmoil. As he gains more and more followers worldwide, governments want to know if he is the real thing or a threat.

A woman CIA officer is given the job of ...

Messiah features an Arabic man that appears in the middle east and slowly gathers followers that come to believe he is either a prophet or the second coming of Christ. He is quiet and projects calm confidence in the midst of turmoil. As he gains more and more followers worldwide, governments want to know if he is the real thing or a threat.

A woman CIA officer is given the job of finding out. Eventually, she finds out who he really is and about his past which points to him being a fraud. But that does not explain the apparent miracles.

Not a great show, but held my interest for 10 episodes. The show walks a fine line between him being fake or divine. But since it was canceled after one season, we will never know.

This small film has a good cast. It is about two families that end up staying in a vacation home during some sort of crisis. This reminds me of some M. NIght Shyamalan films where something big and mysterious is happening, but we would see things from a few people's POV,

Good character development. We at first don't like some people, but then learn more and then reconsider. The film does ...

This small film has a good cast. It is about two families that end up staying in a vacation home during some sort of crisis. This reminds me of some M. NIght Shyamalan films where something big and mysterious is happening, but we would see things from a few people's POV,

Good character development. We at first don't like some people, but then learn more and then reconsider. The film does play with your opinions of the characters. Can you trust these characters to be what they seem to be?

Some good moments and illustrates of our increasing dependency on technology.

So, a good story with what I think is one negative. It just ends.

But the more I think about it this is sort of OK. But it also seems like it could have been the start of a mini-series.

Maestro is a look at the life of Leonard Bernstein and this relationship with his wife Felicia. In many ways this reminded me of the film In the Still of the Night, about Cole Porter, in that both have complicated relationships and substance abuse issues along with their musical talents.

The film's soundtrack was just a matter of selecting parts of his works that fits the story at the ...

Maestro is a look at the life of Leonard Bernstein and this relationship with his wife Felicia. In many ways this reminded me of the film In the Still of the Night, about Cole Porter, in that both have complicated relationships and substance abuse issues along with their musical talents.

The film's soundtrack was just a matter of selecting parts of his works that fits the story at the moment. This film will appeal to those that like classical music, or perhaps remember his eYoung People's Concerts on TV.

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a fairytale about a lonely woman who tells herself that she is content with her life as a "narrativist" -- an academic who studies stories and myths. (Like Joseph Campbell). While in Istanbul at a conference she buys an old bottle as a souvenir and of course, it turns out to have a Djinn inside.

The Djinn is eager to have her make her 3 wishes so he can ...

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a fairytale about a lonely woman who tells herself that she is content with her life as a "narrativist" -- an academic who studies stories and myths. (Like Joseph Campbell). While in Istanbul at a conference she buys an old bottle as a souvenir and of course, it turns out to have a Djinn inside.

The Djinn is eager to have her make her 3 wishes so he can be free to return to the Djinn Realm, but knowing all the cautionary tales about the dangers of making such wishes, she is in no hurry to do so. So most of the movie is him telling her about the up and downs of his life in and out of the bottle.

This movie had the potential to be so much more than what we get, but the stories of the Djinn's life are just interesting narratives that don't really pull you in. Factual, and visually beautiful, but not very exciting.

But what of her wishes? Will she make good choices?

Overall it has some beautiful photography and is worth the time, but it doesn't live up to its potential.

Fun little film about a so-so musician, who struggles to come up with anything original. But after being in an accident, he wakes up to realize that no one had ever heard of the Beatles. He frantically starts to write down the lyrics to all of their songs.

He will of course become a big star, but at what cost?

This film doesn't try hard to be anything but a fun tribute to some great ...

Fun little film about a so-so musician, who struggles to come up with anything original. But after being in an accident, he wakes up to realize that no one had ever heard of the Beatles. He frantically starts to write down the lyrics to all of their songs.

He will of course become a big star, but at what cost?

This film doesn't try hard to be anything but a fun tribute to some great songs. So OK just to pass the time while doing other things.

So at the end of a successful operation, she plans to meet with her boyfriend, but instead, 3 guys show up and try to kill her. She shows off her skills ...

So at the end of a successful operation, she plans to meet with her boyfriend, but instead, 3 guys show up and try to kill her. She shows off her skills and kills them but not without being shot in the stomach.

Cut to a scene of her running and training sometime later, after which she shows back up at work and we learn that no one had seen or heard from her in a year -- or even that she had been shot.

So the question of the series is, who was trying to kill her, and do they still want her dead and why. She has returned from obscurity to find that answer.

Worth watching, but not great. Additional seasons were teased, but eventually canceled.

The real-life story of William Colby, a CIA Spymaster.

I remember hearing his name in the news, but that was I while ago. Mostly a documentary and can be a little dry at times. But the time he was in and head of the CIA was when so much it what they did was never talked about.

But after Watergate and Nixon, congress had questions. And those questions changed how the CIA operated going ...

The real-life story of William Colby, a CIA Spymaster.

I remember hearing his name in the news, but that was I while ago. Mostly a documentary and can be a little dry at times. But the time he was in and head of the CIA was when so much it what they did was never talked about.

But after Watergate and Nixon, congress had questions. And those questions changed how the CIA operated going forward.

This was an interesting movie -- but not great. It held my interest, but at times could have been executed better. So from my POV it's an OK mystery/crime/sci-fi show.

Story is centered on a police detective that over his career is confounded by a serial killer that shows up periodically (like years apart). There are even opportunities to talk briefly to the killer, and the killer seems ...

This was an interesting movie -- but not great. It held my interest, but at times could have been executed better. So from my POV it's an OK mystery/crime/sci-fi show.

Story is centered on a police detective that over his career is confounded by a serial killer that shows up periodically (like years apart). There are even opportunities to talk briefly to the killer, and the killer seems to know him. So there is a mystery here. and the fact that it is a Sci-Fi show may give you a clue about that.

I thought it was better than many reviews rated it. A lot of people reviewing the movie thought it was about making a political statement, but to me, that was just a plot element.

What is a large problem for me is the ending. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that's it OK if you don't think too much about it.

Paradise takes place in the near future where a company has found a way to transfer years of age from one person to another, provided they have a compatible DNA match. Young people living in desperate conditions can sell 10 or 15 years and get paid 100's of thousands. The. Receipants get age regressed those same number of years,

When a man's wife has 40 years taken from her to pay ...

Paradise takes place in the near future where a company has found a way to transfer years of age from one person to another, provided they have a compatible DNA match. Young people living in desperate conditions can sell 10 or 15 years and get paid 100's of thousands. The. Receipants get age regressed those same number of years,

When a man's wife has 40 years taken from her to pay off a debt, her husband puts a desperate plan in place to save her.

In addition to the ethical questions raised by the story, the last half has some good action sequences as the couple is on the run. There is a twist for the characters near the end.

One of those films that has high praise, or considered disappointing. Subtitles, but also dubbed in English.

Another Korean TV series starring Shin Se-Kyung (who was the lead in Rookie Historian, but this show was shot a few years before).

This is a much lighter show with a bit of fantasy about the next king of the gods (of land, sky, and water), that must come to Earth and find 3 sacred stones on Earth before he can be enthroned.

Things go amiss when he arrives and something causes him to ...

Another Korean TV series starring Shin Se-Kyung (who was the lead in Rookie Historian, but this show was shot a few years before).

This is a much lighter show with a bit of fantasy about the next king of the gods (of land, sky, and water), that must come to Earth and find 3 sacred stones on Earth before he can be enthroned.

Things go amiss when he arrives and something causes him to lose his powers, and a map, that will show where the three stones are.

So he is own in present-day Seoul with no money, (can't simply turn a rock into gold without his powers).

He does have a comic sidekick and, (if he can find her) a descendant of a family that promised to serve the gods for all time, (back a few thousand years ago). The descendant turns out to be our heroine who is a struggling psychiatrist.

She of course thinks that Habaek is delusional and needs her professional help. He thinks she should be in awe of him and be his servant.

Much more of a romantic comedy than a drama. It's an OK series with some funny situations.

Good crime show, but can be a little slow sometimes. The "Thriller" part of the description is every now and then.

This is actually the 3rd in a series, Seasons 1 and 2 are on Amazon Prime and call "Trapped". Each season takes place a couple of years after the previous one. I think the Trapped series is a bit better.

This is about a conflict between a biker gang and a cult. but there ...

Good crime show, but can be a little slow sometimes. The "Thriller" part of the description is every now and then.

This is actually the 3rd in a series, Seasons 1 and 2 are on Amazon Prime and call "Trapped". Each season takes place a couple of years after the previous one. I think the Trapped series is a bit better.

This is about a conflict between a biker gang and a cult. but there is more going on. There is also a new power plant that has some political proponents and detractors.

The detective has a career in Reykieik, but something happened that got him assigned to his little backwater of a town.

Watch "Trapped"on Amazon before watching this.

No not the Ultraviolet you are thinking of.

This is a crime show out of Poland, where a woman driving home sees what is an apparent suicide. And the police decided that was what it was and have moved on. But she is not so sure and starts asking questions. She then crowdsources help from her online friends to investigate.

I loved the concept and story of Season 1, but thought season 2 ...

No not the Ultraviolet you are thinking of.

This is a crime show out of Poland, where a woman driving home sees what is an apparent suicide. And the police decided that was what it was and have moved on. But she is not so sure and starts asking questions. She then crowdsources help from her online friends to investigate.

I loved the concept and story of Season 1, but thought season 2 lost what made the first season special.

Foe is about a marriage that has stagnated and interrupted by a visitor with a proposal. It is set in 2065 and the world is struggling to feed its population. A man visits this couple on their small farm explains that the man has been selected to work and live in a space station that is being built for a year and that he has no choice in the matter.

We know from the prolog that Human ...

Foe is about a marriage that has stagnated and interrupted by a visitor with a proposal. It is set in 2065 and the world is struggling to feed its population. A man visits this couple on their small farm explains that the man has been selected to work and live in a space station that is being built for a year and that he has no choice in the matter.

We know from the prolog that Human Substitutes exist to replace workers, but not how this will playout in the film.

If watch closely you will get some hints about what is actually happening. But the reveal at the ending can be a surprise.

This film is more about relationships than typical sci-fi stuff, and there are scenes with excellent acting. But it is not very steady is its delivery. Elements of interstellar and blade runner, but not up to that level

I thought it was better than the average reviewers, especially if you like this genre.

Starring David Tennant and Stanley Tucci, this is a psychological crime drama, but not a mystery. The David Tennant story is very much a slow-motion train wreck. While Stanley Tucci, (literally a man inside a prison), gives us an intriguing glimpse of ...

Starring David Tennant and Stanley Tucci, this is a psychological crime drama, but not a mystery. The David Tennant story is very much a slow-motion train wreck. While Stanley Tucci, (literally a man inside a prison), gives us an intriguing glimpse of what Sherlock Homes behind bars might be like.

A good show, if at times a little unbelievable, but people really do stupid things at times.

There are no plans to have a second season, so there will be one teaser that remains untold and leaves you wanting 20 minutes more to get that answer.

Dr. Garcia supports the Republic at the start of the Spanish Civil War. In the early days of the conflict, he is asked to treat a man that has been shot by the Franco's Nationalist, but must do so outside the hospital. The man, Manuel Arroyo, recovers and is given the identity of someone else that recently died. At this point, arrests are being made left and right and when the doctor's wife ...

Dr. Garcia supports the Republic at the start of the Spanish Civil War. In the early days of the conflict, he is asked to treat a man that has been shot by the Franco's Nationalist, but must do so outside the hospital. The man, Manuel Arroyo, recovers and is given the identity of someone else that recently died. At this point, arrests are being made left and right and when the doctor's wife (who supports Franco), leaves with their son, the Doctor decides to disappear and take a new identity himself -- but not as a doctor. (So despite the title, he has very few patients in this film).

Most of this series takes place at the end of WWI when there are a lot of Nazies wanting to get themselves and their loot out of Europe. Going to Argentina via Spain is one way out. The bulk of this series has the Doctor and this former patient re-united in an undercover effort to infiltrate this Nazi relocation and smuggling organization.

Overall it is an interesting look at this period of history, but I really didn't feel compelled to want to watch more than one episode a night. It does have a lot of plot twists and moments of tension, but it is not really and edge of your seat spy thriller.

The English dubbing is OK but a little flat a times. Sort of wished I had watched in Spanish with subtitles.

This is a bank heist story told in 8.25 episodes. The 0.25 episode is an introduction that explains how you can watch the episodes in any order. Each has a color for a name and if you watch them in the default order, White (the Heist) will be the last one.

But if jumping around in time bothers you, to watch in chronological order do this:

This is a bank heist story told in 8.25 episodes. The 0.25 episode is an introduction that explains how you can watch the episodes in any order. Each has a color for a name and if you watch them in the default order, White (the Heist) will be the last one.

But if jumping around in time bothers you, to watch in chronological order do this:

This starts with the recovery a sample-return mission to Mars to bring back soil and see if they find any evidence of life in it.

Well, of course they do find life in it. It's microscopic, but when they experiment with finding out what kind of conditions might make it wake up out of its hibernation ... it does. Then it starts to slowly grow, reaches the size of a couple inches across. ...

This starts with the recovery a sample-return mission to Mars to bring back soil and see if they find any evidence of life in it.

Well, of course they do find life in it. It's microscopic, but when they experiment with finding out what kind of conditions might make it wake up out of its hibernation ... it does. Then it starts to slowly grow, reaches the size of a couple inches across. When it then goes inactive again, they decide to see how it reacts to an electric shock. Well it certainly does react. And you can probably guess how the story goes from there.

A very good cast and reasonable special effects. There are several complications that happen that seem improbable if not impossible from an engineering point of view.

It's just OK.

Sort of a twilight zone film with a good twist. Low budget and so-so acting.

Helena is living on a spaceship in isolation and traveling to another planet when she meets another person for the first time when a repair is needed.

It's love at first sight, and after a night together that should be the end of their relationship. But her world gets turned upside down when he decides he ...

Sort of a twilight zone film with a good twist. Low budget and so-so acting.

Helena is living on a spaceship in isolation and traveling to another planet when she meets another person for the first time when a repair is needed.

It's love at first sight, and after a night together that should be the end of their relationship. But her world gets turned upside down when he decides he needs find a way to see her again. It's OK, but the second half gets less inspired.

Extrapolations is a look at what the effects of climate change might be if we can't reduce the carbon in the atmosphere. But rather than simulations of climate disasters on a global scale, this series looks at the lives of a number of individual people. Yes, there are some scientists but also businessmen and politicians, religious leaders, and a few ordinary people. Each episode jumps about 15 ...

Extrapolations is a look at what the effects of climate change might be if we can't reduce the carbon in the atmosphere. But rather than simulations of climate disasters on a global scale, this series looks at the lives of a number of individual people. Yes, there are some scientists but also businessmen and politicians, religious leaders, and a few ordinary people. Each episode jumps about 15 or 20 years further into the future.

In addition to the direct effects of climate change, there is also speculation on changes in social interactions and lifestyles due to new technologies unrelated to climate change.

It is speculative and some of the episodes focus on some unusual aspects of societal change. If there's an overall theme, it seems to be "How can we keep making money while this is happening".

It is at the same time fascinating but also uneven. There are some loose threads between the stories but it's like each episode had a different writer.

If this is a topic that's of interest to you, you'll find some of the suggested side effects of climate change to be new ideas.

Citadel is a NGO spy organization that keeps the world safe, because apparently governments can't. This first season starts with a rival NGO spy group (yes there are two of them), attacking Citadel operatives in an attempt to destroy them. In order to protect their key agent, a device implanted in him activates and wipes his memory. When he is is later contacted by remnants of the group, he ...

Citadel is a NGO spy organization that keeps the world safe, because apparently governments can't. This first season starts with a rival NGO spy group (yes there are two of them), attacking Citadel operatives in an attempt to destroy them. In order to protect their key agent, a device implanted in him activates and wipes his memory. When he is is later contacted by remnants of the group, he can't believe he is actually some super spy.

But when his new family is in danger, he is forced into action. This lack of memory of his former life and skills is the major plot device of the entire season.

It has a lot of "Mission Impossible-like" action sequences and tech devices. Each episode is less than a hour so you are OK with watching more than one at a time, but the twists come so fast that I found myself saying "wait -- what just happened".

From Netflix: Three young doctors are sent to a remote village in Pantanal to vaccinate residents against the Zika virus. Their efforts to bring medical aid are refused, and the doctors find themselves trapped in an isolated community shrouded in secrets and devoted to a healer who forces them to confront the power of faith over science.

Watched this one a while back while working ...

From Netflix: Three young doctors are sent to a remote village in Pantanal to vaccinate residents against the Zika virus. Their efforts to bring medical aid are refused, and the doctors find themselves trapped in an isolated community shrouded in secrets and devoted to a healer who forces them to confront the power of faith over science.

Watched this one a while back while working at my computer. The description above is about right. Interesting enough and worth it for some of the scenery. Don't think the second season held my attention as I didn't readily remember it.

The Signal on Netflix, is a four-part mini-series that starts with an astronaut (Paula), on the International Space Station that's doing private research for a very wealthy person when she accidentally discovers a radio message coming from deep space repeating the word "hello" every few hours. She determines that the source is headed directly to Earth.

Paula is told to keep it a secret ...

The Signal on Netflix, is a four-part mini-series that starts with an astronaut (Paula), on the International Space Station that's doing private research for a very wealthy person when she accidentally discovers a radio message coming from deep space repeating the word "hello" every few hours. She determines that the source is headed directly to Earth.

Paula is told to keep it a secret for the moment. But when her plane crashes after her return to Earth, we see that there are several groups with different agendas attempting to control this news.

Caught up in the middle of this is the woman's husband and daughter who are trying to understand what has happened and what this is all about.

I thought it was a little slow in the middle. You do need to ignore some of the bad science. It is more of a mystery trying to figure why people are doing things and if there are any 'good guys'.

The English dubbing is good enough to not need subtitles.

Lena Headly, a.k.a Cersi from GoT, but with her natural black hair, is not enough to keep this show from disappointing. I found it very uneven with some episodes better than others.

The show reveals details of the plot very slowly and sporadically. It's not until the last half that you begin getting full episodes dedicated to the backstory that helps to explain what's going on. But even ...

Lena Headly, a.k.a Cersi from GoT, but with her natural black hair, is not enough to keep this show from disappointing. I found it very uneven with some episodes better than others.

The show reveals details of the plot very slowly and sporadically. It's not until the last half that you begin getting full episodes dedicated to the backstory that helps to explain what's going on. But even then, the ending doesn't really deliver.

As you can tell from the Genre listed, this show is trying to be a lot of things, but I'm not really sure it succeeds at any of them. It is a parody/satire about murder mysteries and each episode has a new twist that will keep you guessing about what is going on.

Anna (Kristen Bell) who has had a tragedy in her life, now self-medicates with wine and sometimes pills, and sees a woman ...

As you can tell from the Genre listed, this show is trying to be a lot of things, but I'm not really sure it succeeds at any of them. It is a parody/satire about murder mysteries and each episode has a new twist that will keep you guessing about what is going on.

Anna (Kristen Bell) who has had a tragedy in her life, now self-medicates with wine and sometimes pills, and sees a woman across the street being murdered. Or was it just the wine and pills? There are a lot of cliches and improbably things, but that is part of the fun of it.

Light watching while you are sorting mail or other chores.

If you are a fan of Kristen Bell then rate it higher as she is just about in every scene.