PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Agatha Christie's Hjerson Series 1

Agatha Christie's Hjerson Series 1 Created by Patrik Gyllström. Hjerson is a character that appears in the Ariadne Oliver novels that Poirot is reading within the Agatha Christie novels. The Swedish series of 8 episodes aired in 2021. Each story is made up of two episodes which are streaming on MZH.

Hjerson is a retired criminal investigator. As we meet him he's taking the ferry to his hometown in Åland. I'm some what curious about Åland, I collect stamps from island nations. Hjerson meets a woman on the ferry called Klara. They get involved with a murder on the ferry. On the island there's another murder. Hjerson and Klara solve the murders. In the second story Hjerson finds a body on the beach. The man is dead and dressed as a chicken. The body disappears while Hjerson goes to call the police. In the third episodes someone is using fictional murders as the basis of their murders. The fourth story an actor is murdered on a film set, blank bullets have been replaced with real bullets in a scene.

The crimes are decent enough, the real action is the relationship between the quirky Klara and the quirky Hjerson. It's a nice looking show with plenty of nice scenery on Åland. The characters are some annoying but they work well enough together. I enjoyed the series and was sad there aren't anymore. I haven't heard anything on another series. I enjoyed them enough to want to watch them again someday.

Partisan Series 1 - 2

Partisan Series 1 - 2  Two 5 episode series that aired in 2020 and 2022.

A Swedish undercover cop takes a truck driving job for an organic farmer in a gated community. Feras Feras plays Johnny, the undercover cop. He was great in the first 4 films of the Department Q series of a few years back. The organic farmer is suspected of money laundering. Johnny finds out there's something else going on. There's a pure race aspect to the story, the gated community members are quite racist. There's also a genetics part to the story. Something often hand in hand with racists. There's a good number of other bits and bobs to fill up the time, including several murders. Poor Johnny doesn't make it through the first series but his fellow cops are searching for him. Eventually some of the worst of the criminals are gathered up for jail. I hadn't heard if there's going to be a third series.

It was OK but it's just average. I wouldn't be watching it again.

Mayday Series 1 2013

Mayday Series 1 2013 Written by Ben Court and Caroline Ip, directed by Brian Welsh.

I watched all of Mayday and it was a lot like Broadchurch. Way more drama than policing, way too many pregnant pauses, way too much staring off into the distance. It could have been a 90 min movie instead of five 45 min episodes. It’s way too slow for me, so I speed it up a bit after the first episode. There’s only a hint of magic but there is retribution from the grave. Too many red herrings and too many oddball characters. I got a good laugh in the 3^rd episode but have forgotten what the joke was already. I don’t begrudge watching it, I never know if I’m going to find that gem of a show I’m always hoping for. I’m not going to keep it.

Van Der Valk Series 4

Van Der Valk Series 4 Written by Chris Murray and Mania Ward, directed by Michiel van Jaarsveld, Eché Janga and Paula van der Oest. Three 90 min episodes just popped up for viewing.

Marc Warren plays Commissaris Piet van der Valk and Maimie McCoy plays Inspecteur Lucienne Hassell of Amsterdam's National Police Force. The stories are urgently told and there's a fair bit of action.

I enjoyed the other three series and this was much the same. I could do with less of the animosity between Piet and his ex-girlfriend. Why do writers think we all need that personal drama all the time. I'd still watch the series again someday.

Tribal Season 1 2020

Tribal Season 1 2020 Written by Ron E Scott, Adam Frost, Adriana Capozzi, Tamara Moulin and Christina Ray, directed by Ron E Scott and Asaf Benny.

I watched the first season of Tribal today, all 8 episodes. It's a cop show from Canada about the Tribal police serving the 4 reservations around Calgary. The Tribal police and the regular police have been merged and not everyone is liking it.

Samantha "Sam" Woodburn gets placed in the Chief spot, replacing the suspended Chief. He's corrupt, everyone knows but there's little evidence on him. He's still not charged with anything but we know how corrupt he is via some flashbacks. Things get worse and worse for him as the series progresses and he's just the scum on top of the big bowl of rotten apples in the area.

There's an oil company that's run by a fake Native that cheated the government out of over $80,000,000 in grants intended for Native owned companies. There's a native run cigarette smuggling ring that's worth millions and millions of dollars. They'll kill you to keep the product flowing. There's missing natives and plenty of crooked and murderous cops. The animosity between the tribes and the cops is so thick you can hardly walk through it.

It's a dark bleak look at the horrible way people are. I enjoyed the show and see there 1s a second season I've not seen yet.

High Country Series 1

High Country Series 1 An Australian police drama that was created by Marcia Gardner and John Ridley. It came out last March and there were 8 episodes.

Detective Sergeant Andrea 'Andie" Whitford takes a transfer to the small town of Brokenridge in the Victorian Alps, the location is known locally as the High Country. It's hilly and heavily forested. You can hide a lot of dead bodies in those woods. It's a big area, we get to see a good bit of it while everyone drives from place to place. There's a good number of shots of driving looking down from a drone.

DS Andie finds an abandoned car on the road, dispatch tells her it belongs to a missing doctor who's a suspect in a murder. DS Andie finds him a bit later only to have him warn her of coming badness as he blows his brains out. Next DS Andie finds a dead woman in a tree. She spends the rest of the series unraveling the mystery that connects the dead people. I should say mysteries, maybe too many mysteries, revealed little by little during each episode, right to the end.

Several of the locals are involved with the dead people but it takes some digging to get to how. DS Andie and the local constabulary take a bit of a knock or two as they uncover more and more about what's been going on the neighborhood. The baddies are a pretty bad lot, some of them are pretty vicious and murderous. Lucky for the DS and her crew the good guys ride in to save them in the nick of time.

Despite it being a bit unoriginal I was enjoying it so much that I stayed up late and watched all 8 episodes. I liked some of the characters but the script does them in, they've weighted down the characters with way too much personal baggage. Most of them are prone to anger and shouting. There's a vague paranormal theme, a local ex-teacher has visions and DS Andie has visions in her dreams. There's also a dingo visiting mysteriously. The show piles so much personal drama, I was rather tired of it about halfway through and started fast forwarding some bits. Others might find that less annoying, hard to know. I doubt I'll bother watching it again but I'd check out a second series.

Science Fiction Sunday 804

Doctor Who Series 14 BBC/Disney is calling this Season One. I'm hip to the change but I don't care for it. It's annoying enough that they also call this Series 14 and not Series 40.

Russell Davis is back as show runner, he wrote most of the 8 new episodes, one is by Steven Moffat and another is by Kate Herron and Briony Redman. Directors were Mark Tonderai, Julie Anne Robinson, Ben Chessell, Dylan Holmes Williams and Jamie Donoughue.

I liked most of the episodes. Space Babies and The Devil's Chord were fun. Boom, 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble were a bit more serious. I didn't care that much for Rogue, not for any good reason. The two part ending, The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire Of Death seemed drawn out. Announcements last April filled me in about the new companion already in the mix.

I watched some of the first four episodes of DW Unleashed but decided to skip the other 5 episodes because I was fast forwarding through a good bit of the last couple I watched. Maybe some other day.

Piglets Series 1 2024

Piglets Series 1 2024 A 6 episode series that aired on ITV1 yesterday.

The shows about a police training center run by a stern woman and a weak man. Sarah Parish plays Superintendent Julie Spry and Mark Heap plays Superintendent Bob Weekes. Their boss gets relieved of duty in the second episode, the pair decide to try for his job. A batch of new recruits have just started, they've all got some quirks and issues. Some are more clever than others, some are just downright weird. The jokes are like that too.

I hear the police have objected to the humor. Oh well. I enjoyed it and it made me laugh out loud a few times. I'd want to watch it again some time.

The Jetty Series 1 2024

The Jetty Series 1 2024 Created and written by Cat Jones, directed by Marialy Rivas. A 4 part BBC production that aired in July 2024.

Jenna Coleman plays a Detective Constable in a Lancashire town. She's investigating a fire in a boat house and that eventually connects to a missing person case from a few years back.

It's skews a bit to the bleak for me. There's no humor and I didn't like the characters much at all. In the end truth gets covered with lies. No one likes a liar. I wound up skimming through the last couple of episodes and was disappointed with the ending. Some online scamp said it could be the next Happy Valley. Yuck.

Chasing Shadows 2014 Mini Series

Chasing Shadows 2014 Mini Series Created and written by Rob Williams, directed by Christopher Menual and Jim O'Hanlon. Four episodes aired on ITV in September 2014. There were no more episodes.

Reese Shearsmith is Detective Sergeant Sean Stone, he's intense and abrupt, he lacks communication skills and an understanding of how things work around him. His partner DCI Carl Prior, played by Noel Clarke, isn't happy with Sean's inability to work together. Don Warrington is his Chief Superintendent, he hates Sean so much he sends him to work with missing persons where Ruth Hattersley, played by Alex Kingston, tries to help the people of the area. Sean and Ruth start on rocky ground but Sean does prove his worth on two cases, one concerning missing teens and another about the disappearance of a lawyer.

It's a bit grim and a bit violent but the story is brisk and moves you along. The scripts are good and complex, the cast excellent and despite the cliched cliffhanger ending and the bleakness I was sad it was only 4 episodes.