BINGE OR BOMB

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast- An Irish comic mystery where 3 best childhood best friends try to solve the disappearance of another long lost friend whose funeral they attend. Trouble ensues when they find it's not her in her coffin.

Inside Number 9- A British anthology series where episodes can be funny, poignant, weird, scary or all of the above.

Museum of Innocence- A Turkish series based on the best-selling novel in which an upper class young man falls for the wrong young woman on the eve of his marriage.

 Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine- This series is a prequel to the popular Money Heist, the Spanish smash hit Netflix series. Here we center on Andrés, better known as Berlin, a charismatic and brilliant master thief. He has been reunited with his trusted friend Damian to pull off a daring robbery. This time the mission is revenge as well as monetary gain. Set in the gorgeous city of Seville, the coveted object of theft is a Davinci masterpiece called The Lady with an Ermine. However that theft is just a distraction from the real mission, to bring down the wily and corrupt Duke of Malaga whose fortune is derived from all manner of heinous enterprises.

HIP- is a French crime dramedy  about a rebellious, messy, working-class single mother who happens to have a genius IQ.  While working as a cleaner at a police station, she accidentally spots a clue that cracks a murder case, and the police reluctantly hire her as a consultant, pairing her with a buttoned-up detective.

Scenes After a Marriage -Apple TV- Sweden- is a limited series  chronicling the potential uncoupling of a married couple with two young children. In each episode they meet at a roadside café midway between their two homes, she in Sweden and he in Copenhagen where he’s running a successful new restaurant. Its for the purpose of handing over their children for visitation to each parent. During these logistical meets we see the couple revisit the ways their marriage has worked and failed as well as examine the strengths and weaknesses each has brought to the relationship. It’s funny and brutally honest.

Detective Hole- Netflix-Norway-Based on the character created by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo, this series weaves together several stories all involving the flawed but skilled detective Hole. The emotionally damaged Hole has tentatively embarked on a new relationship. But there is a serial killer on the lose who dispatches his victims in ritualistic and barbaric ways. In addition there is rot at the core of the police department pitting Hole against a charismatic, powerful detective who serves as his  treacherous foil. 

Bad Influencer-Netflix- South Africa- Juxtaposes the world of glamour, influencers and aspiration with the poverty and harsh realities of city living. BJ is a struggling single mom in Johannesburg, South Africa. In an effort to afford a better school for her young son, BJ, a talented craftsperson, has taken to creating impeccable fakes of designer handbags. When she is outed as producing fakes she finds an alliance with Pinky, a bling-laden upscale influencer who has been booted out of her cushy existence when her married sugar daddy dumps her. BJ will produce the bags. Pinky will sell them to unsuspecting customers. This works until the mob gets involved and the two women must use their skills to save themselves.

BLUE LIGHTS

Blue Lights” set in Belfast, is a tough emotionally honest cop drama. The crimes are mainly ones perpetrated by the entrenched gangs that have been controlling swathes of the city for decades. Over 3 seasons we follow three probationary officers as they try to keep the peace in explosive neighborhoods. Setting it in Belfast provides a rich layer to the story as it intermingles politics, crime and the never-ending conflict in Ireland. 

RIOT WOMEN  focuses on five very different women in West Yorkshire. The one thing they have in common? They are all professional women with families,  and they are all now menopausal and alternately resigned and pissed off about the next chapter in their lives. But then, initially to enter a local talent contest, one of them urges three of her neighbors to  form a band. To everyone’s surprise,  the band provides not only a new future for all five but also acts as a catalyst in the lives of each while taking on the normally taboo subjects of menopause, sex, female rage, ageism and as one character puts it “being on the wrong side of 50."

YOUNG SHERLOCK follows the adventures of a twenty-something Sherlock Holmes and his then buddy James Moriarity as they encounter all manner of villains in their efforts to solve the murder of four Oxford professors and the mystery of a disappearing set of ancient Chinese scrolls. 

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Blue Lights is a gritty emotional cop prodcedural set in the tough streets of Belfast where entrenched gangs have plagued the city for decades. 

Even more complicated is the fact that many of the cops or their familes have grown up alongside the very lethal gang members they encounter. 

Over 3 seasons we follow three probationary officers with their own  raw emotional backstorys as they try to keep the peace in an increasingly complicated web of violence, gangs and even white collar crime. Grace is former social worker, and mother to a teenage son. Tommy, a bright idealistic young man and the tough but tender Annie is a great cop but one with a the occasional out of control temper. 

Setting it in Belfast provides a rich layer to the series as it intermingles politics, crime and the never-ending old conflicts in Ireland. 

RIOT WOMEN  focuses on five very different women in West Yorkshire. Professional women with families,  they’re all now over 50, menopausal and alternately resigned and pissed off about the next chapter in their lives. One of them organizes the others, all very much amateur musicians, into a rock band to compete in a local talent contest. To everyone’s surprise,  the band provides not only a new future for all five but also acts as a catalyst in the lives of each while taking on the normally taboo subjects of menopause, sex, female rage, ageism and “being on the wrong side of 50. “ Each has emotionally raw and realistic back story including that of the band’s lead singer who is a musical powerhouse but is plagued by demons from her abusive complicated past. The women’s relationships to each other are slow in developing but ring true. “Riot Women” is both outrageous and thoughtful. 

YOUNG SHERLOCK

This is an imagining of what Sherlock must have been like as a brilliant audacious young man just beginning to hone his skills at detection and deduction. Brash, at lose ends and getting into trouble, Sherlock is relegated to a porter position at Oxford by his brother Mycroft who hopes to reign in his reckless sibling. When valuable scrolls are stolen and  several professors are killed Sherlock is at first a suspect. But with the help of his new found friend James Moriarity who will later become his  nemesis, Sherlock uses all his wiles to uncover the mystery and in so doing unravels the mystery of his own family’s complicated and disturbing past. 

One Day in October- This 7 part Israeli series chronicles 7 different true stories of how a varied group of people experienced the tragedy of October 7th in Israel. One episode depicts 2 teen girls hiding for hours in a PortoSan at the music festival. Another concerns the heroic actions of an Orthodox volunteer ambulance driver who risks his life to rescue wounded survivors. The stories are unexpected and moving.

Down Cemetery Road- From Mick Heron, author of the “Slow Horses” series, this thriller pairs Emma Thompson as a clever, snarky private investigator and Ruth Wilson as an academic struggling to find meaning in her life. Both unite to find a missing young girl and unravel the mystery of a war crime committed years ago.

Code of Silence-An unusual thriller that has as its lead a young underappreciated deaf woman who is pulled from her job as a food services worker to help police. She is an expert lip reader and they need her to thwart a gang of dangerous thieves hoping to pull off a daring jewelry heist. Things get more complicated when she winds up emotionally involved with a young tech expert who is part of the gang.

Envious-( Netflix, Argentina) Attractive, successful 40-year-old Vicky is a force to be reckoned with. But she’s her own worst enemy as she tries to find happiness with a man who ticks off all the boxes. What Vicky learns is no one ticks off all the boxes and her quest is more about what she needs to do to understand herself.

The Ladies Companion- (Netflix-Spain) A feisty young woman becomes the live-in chaperone to 3 sisters in colorful 19th century Madrid. The cheeky series involves her adventures in securing happiness and future mates for the wealthy sisters while she tries to navigate her own future.

Department Q- ( Netflix, England)  A sullen but talented detective is recovering from a traumatic shooting and given charge of a one- man division dedicated to cold cases. He assembles a rag-tag team who try to unravel the case of a controversial kidnapped prosecutor who has never been found.

Adolescence- a powerful, groundbreaking drama which centers around a 13 year-old-boy and his family when it is revealed that the boy has stabbed a fellow girl classmate to death. Layers of the boys personality are stripped away in order to understand his motivation. Also paramount are the effects on the family and those around him in their effort to understand what led up to this heinous act 

The Leopard-  A remake of a book and movie which, in the 19th century,  takes a look at an area of Sicily which, like all of Italy, was ruled by aristocracy. The man in charge is a charismatic nobleman nicknamed The Leopard. The series examines the changes for both nobility, the rising middle class and the working class as political unrest infiltrates the country, the aim being to unite Italy into one democratic country. 

When No One Sees Us- Two murders  take place In the Andalusian region of Spain in a small town located near a US military base where a week long religious festival is taking place, attracting tourists and locals. Two female investigators, one an American military officer and the other a Spanish Civil Guard  officer and the  single mother of a troublesome teen daughter need to solve two different cases. One involves the death of a US military officer and the other case centers on the drug related deaths of several young men in the town and the disappearance of  another local youth who also be involved in the drug culture.

Get Millie Black is a detective thriller set in Kingston, Jamaica. Mille is a brilliant Jamaican born Scotland yard detective who asks too many questions and doesn’t take no for an answer. When she returns to Jamaica she must solve two cases one involving a missing teenage girl and the other a potentially trafficked young boy. Complicating matters is Millie’s need to reconcile with her transgender sister as well as her conflicted detective partner who faces his own demons.

Inspired by real events In FALSE FLAG, an Iranian defense minister is kidnapped. 5 seemingly ordinary and unrelated Israeli citizens are caught on  tape near the abduction. and to their surprise these 5 find themselves under suspicion . Although appearing to be everyday people it will turn out that all of them are keeping secrets which may or may link to the kidnapping.

Based on the hit French series Le Bureau, The Agency deals with an undercover American CIA agent who has just been called back to CIAs London office forcing him to abandon his false identity and the woman with whom he’s fallen in love. But he’s still an agent and his new role forces him to make difficult choices which may compromise himself and the Agency.

BLACK DOVES has us believe there is an elite organization that enlists spies and assassins  to steal state secrets from any country and sell them to anyone else…busineses, other governments, whoever. Working for this group are a spy who is the lovely wife of an English politician and her friend, an assassin with a conscience. How both balance their secret and public lives and the toll it takes is the core of the series.

LA MAQUINA chronicles the friendship and conflict between two men involved in the upper echelons of Mexican boxing.Esteban is a successful fighter now battling physical and emotional demons as he faces his last fight. His manager Andy is a driven businessman balancing his friendship with Esteban and the monetary and societal dues he must pay to the shady boxing syndicate that seems to control Mexican boxing, Mexican society and even circles outside the country.

RIVALS- Set in the 80s this series is a look at upscale English Cotswald society as seen through the world of a local TV station. When an irascible TV host is brought on to spice up the programming it triggers conflicts between the station’s talent roster and the business running the organization. Several families and couples are featured and all seem to be involved with each other either romantically or as rivals for screen time or power.