LOI day has passed and Spring Practice is still two months away. The Penguins are in free fall. The Steelers are a carnival show. The Pirates have been eliminated from postseason contention even though the season is two months away.
So, to pass the time, until the final season of Game of Thrones premiers, any good new movies out there? How about TV shows?
My own contribution: I’m a big fan of British detective shows. If you have Prime Video, there are three excellent ones available: “Inspector Morse,” about a senior inspector and his “bagman” Detective Sergeant Lewis. In British police parlance, bagman doesn’t have a negative connotation. It simply means the junior partner who does errands or whatever else the senior man wants while simultaneously soaking up his experience. Morse is an Oxford educated man who didn’t graduate, joined the British army and then took up police work. He loves classical music, especially opera, is fluent in Latin and completes the Times crossword puzzle every morning. (Just your typical detective, much like Sipowitz on “NYPD Blue.”) The show is set in Oxford, so Morse occasionally runs across old professors or fellow students.
It was voted the best British detective show ever in two separate polls last year, but in my mind it is bettered by each of two subsequent spinoffs: “Inspector Lewis,” about the aforementioned “bagman” who now is the senior partner. His bagman is Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, a young Cambridge educated detective in keeping with the tradition of one streetwise and one educated partner. Also set in Oxford, the show premiered a few years after Inspector Morse ended.
“Endeavour” which in my mind is the best of the three, is the most recent and is about the young Detective Morse (whose first name is Endeavour, a secret he attempts to protect at all cost) when he was the bagman for Senior Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, who is, of course, a streetwise policeman. Set in the 1960s, it has been on for 5 seasons and they have been filming season 6 which will soon be available on PBS’ Masterpiece Theater. The 5 earlier seasons are on Prime.
Finally, and also available in PBS, my choice as the best: “Shetland” about Detective Jimmy Perez who solves crimes on the British island between Scotland and Norway, which has more sheep than people. There aren’t a lot of crimes, but most of them take a full 8 episode season to solve. Remember these British shows each run 90 minutes to 2 hours without commercials, so the fact that a season is between 4 and 8 episodes doesn’t mean you won’t have hours of entertainment.
Suggestions of additional series warmly welcomed!
So, to pass the time, until the final season of Game of Thrones premiers, any good new movies out there? How about TV shows?
My own contribution: I’m a big fan of British detective shows. If you have Prime Video, there are three excellent ones available: “Inspector Morse,” about a senior inspector and his “bagman” Detective Sergeant Lewis. In British police parlance, bagman doesn’t have a negative connotation. It simply means the junior partner who does errands or whatever else the senior man wants while simultaneously soaking up his experience. Morse is an Oxford educated man who didn’t graduate, joined the British army and then took up police work. He loves classical music, especially opera, is fluent in Latin and completes the Times crossword puzzle every morning. (Just your typical detective, much like Sipowitz on “NYPD Blue.”) The show is set in Oxford, so Morse occasionally runs across old professors or fellow students.
It was voted the best British detective show ever in two separate polls last year, but in my mind it is bettered by each of two subsequent spinoffs: “Inspector Lewis,” about the aforementioned “bagman” who now is the senior partner. His bagman is Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, a young Cambridge educated detective in keeping with the tradition of one streetwise and one educated partner. Also set in Oxford, the show premiered a few years after Inspector Morse ended.
“Endeavour” which in my mind is the best of the three, is the most recent and is about the young Detective Morse (whose first name is Endeavour, a secret he attempts to protect at all cost) when he was the bagman for Senior Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, who is, of course, a streetwise policeman. Set in the 1960s, it has been on for 5 seasons and they have been filming season 6 which will soon be available on PBS’ Masterpiece Theater. The 5 earlier seasons are on Prime.
Finally, and also available in PBS, my choice as the best: “Shetland” about Detective Jimmy Perez who solves crimes on the British island between Scotland and Norway, which has more sheep than people. There aren’t a lot of crimes, but most of them take a full 8 episode season to solve. Remember these British shows each run 90 minutes to 2 hours without commercials, so the fact that a season is between 4 and 8 episodes doesn’t mean you won’t have hours of entertainment.
Suggestions of additional series warmly welcomed!
