tv review
Big crimes, small screen; true crime television series and TV documentaries that recreate and reexamine some of the mystifying and grisliest cases in history.
Review of 'Slow Horses' 1.1-2
Hey, I quickly caught the first two episodes of Slow Horses on Apple TV+, attracted to it by its name. I recall Arthur Shelby cautioning his brother Thomas about "fast women and slow horses" in Peaky Blinders a few years ago, and my old song-writing partner Ed Fox (he wrote the music to my Looking for Sunsets in the Early Morning, I wrote the lyrics) writing a song called "Fast Women and Slow Horses" in the early 1970s.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Murderville Review
A combination of an absurdly good murder story, comedy and improvisation? Yes, please! I absolutely loved the new series on Netflix with Will Arnett as a senior homicide detective named Terry Seattle who is supposed to solve a murder in every episode with a new partner, a celebrity playing him- or herself. While the show actors have a blueprint for the story, character parameters, and pre-written lines, the celebrities have absolutely no idea of what is about to happen. As true partners to the detective, they interrogate and observe three murder suspects. The episode always starts out with some sort of a test for a new trainee in the form of questions, where Terry and his new partner are supposed to bond. Then they go and investigate the murder. At the end of the episode, they are supposed to solve the case by naming the murderer, usually in a game-show revealing and suspenseful manner, and explain how they arrived at that conclusion. Then Chief Rhonda Jenkins-Seattle (who is also Detective Seattle's estranged wife) comes out and tells whether the celebrity guessed right or wrong, also in a comically suspenseful way with close-ups and dramatic pauses, and explains how the murder was really committed. Throughout the show, the detective and celebrity are fed certain clues that just like in a good murder mystery are supposed to lead the detectives to the right conclusion.
By Lana V Lynx2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Suspicion' 1.5
Superb, delightful episode 1.5 of Suspicion up on Apple TV+. Yes, delightful. [Spoilers follow ... ] My favorite scene was Tara and Sean in undies at the door, pretending to be a couple when the pesky neighbor came calling with a shotgun or a rifle. Perfectly staged and acted. Tara actually enjoying it underneath the pretence. Sean almost reminiscent of James Bond.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Suspicion' 1.4
First, let me say that I'm really liking Suspicion on Apple TV+. It has great ambience, including the music, fine acting (including now Tom Rhys Harries as Eddie Walker), and a plot that keeps slapping you in the face with unexpected developments, often lethal. Episode 1.4 was the best so far, excelling in all of those pulsing qualities.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Inventing Anna'
The wife and I binged Inventing Anna the past few nights, the nine-episode Shonda Rhimes series detailing the real-life rise and fall of Anna Delvey aka Anna Sorokin. It's superb television, for a bunch a reasons. Julia Garner in the title role was perfect, peerless, and Emmy-worthy. Pretty much the same for Anna Chlumsky who plays Vivian Kent, the fictitious name for the real reporter Jessica Pressler whose New York magazine story "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" is the basis of the Netflix series. I haven't read the story, but the story in the movie is an incredible, powerful tale of a con artist, Anna, so charismatic that her lawyer and Vivian in their own ways practically fell in some kind of love with her.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Gypsy Rose Blanchard Says 'The Act' Is Not Based On Facts
Gypsy Rose Blanchard made national headlines when she manipulated her mentally ill boyfriend, Nick Godejohn into murdering her mother, DeeDee Blanchard. She convinced him, if he wanted them to be together, her mother had to die.
By Chrissie Marie Massey2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Suspicion' 1.3
You may recall in my review of the excellent two-episode debut of Suspicion last week, I wondered why, though there were only four masked kidnappers of Leo Newman at the beginning, and only three suspects taken in by London police plus one murdering suspect on the loose (3 + 1 = 4), the description of the series on IMDb, Wikipedia, etc., as well the above publicity photo, say or show five kidnappers not four. Tonight, at the very end of episode 1.3, we find out why: there is indeed a 5th suspect, Eddie Walker, who helped with the getaway but was not in the original hall of the kidnapping. And he's a student at Oxford, where Tara (one of the three London suspects now under surveillance) happily teaches.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal