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TV

TV

Shows I recommend

  • Slow Horses!

  • The Bear

  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas

  • Foyle’s War

  • Welcome to Wrexham

  • Broadchurch (British Version)

  • The Killing (American Version)

  • The Zen Mysteries

  • Queen’s Gambit

  • A Charlie Brown Christmas & It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (vehicles for some of my favorite music ever - Thank you Vince Guaraldi)

  • Fleabag

  • True Detective

  • Rectified

  • Justified

  • The Wire

  • Downton Abbey

  • The Bletchley Circle

  • Better Call Saul

  • Curb Your Enthusiasm

  • Sneaky Pete

  • The Law According to Lidia Poet (Italian)

  • Capitani

  • Fisk

  • Granchester

  • Middlemarch

  • The Detectorists

  • X-Files

  • Twin Peaks

  • Midsomer Murders

  • Taskmaster (British Panel Show - sort of)

  • Would I Lie to You (British Panel Show)

A Friend’s List

  • Breaking Bad

  • Game of Thrones

  • The Good Wife

  • The Wire

  • Rome

  • Sons of Anarchy

  • Mad Men

  • Boardwalk Empire

  • Deadwood

  • Homeland

  • Hell On Wheels

  • Orange is the New Black

  • The Borgia’s - Jeremy Irons

  • Ray Donovan – Showtime series – check if available “on demand”

  • Fargo – Billy Bob Thornton – dark comedy – Netflix discs

  • Blue Bloods – Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlburg

  • Peaky Blinders – early 1900’s London crime family – Sam Neil as cop

  • Copper

  • Hatfield and McCoys

  • Burn Notice

  • John Adams - Paul Giamatti

  • House of Cards - American version with Kevin Spacey

  • Borgia - John Doman

  • Spartacus

  • Prison Break

  • Scandal

  • The Killing

  • Treme – catchy theme song

  • Damages

  • Low Winter Sun – dirty cop series based in Detroit

  • Eastbound and Down – HBO Go

  • The Following – Kevin Bacon

  • Suits - AMC

  • Revenge

  • Brotherhood – Showtime – Irish politician and crook brother in Providence, RI

  • The Affair

  • Bosch – Amazon Prime streaming

  • Lilyhammer – Steven Van Zandt (E-Street Band – Springsteen/Soprano’s)

  • Graceland – California undercover FBI/DEA

  • Bloodline

  • Magic City – Miami 1950’s hotelier and Jewish mobsters

  • The Americans – Russian spies in America

The following are British:

  • Downton Abbey

  • Pride and Prejudice

  • House of Cards - Ian Richardson

  • North and South

  • The Tudors – Jonathon Rhys Meyers

  • Parade’s End

  • Multiple short series adaptations of author Catherine Cookson novels

  • Brideshead Revisited

  • Upstairs Downstairs

  • Elizabeth - Glenda Jackson

  • Bleak House

  • Cranford - Judi Dench

  • Little Dorrit

  • The Way We Live Now

  • Poldark

  • Middlemarch

  • Daniel Deronda

  • The Forsyte Saga – 2002

  • Call The Mid Wife

  • The Bletchley Circle

  • Bomb Girls – Canadian WWII

  • The Mystery of Edwin Drood

  • The Duchess of Duke Street – Amazon (not Netflix)

  • Single-Handed – Irish mystery series

  • Mr. Selfridge – Jeremy Piven

  • Pillars of the Earch

  • World Without End

  • The White Queen (1400’s England)

  • The Ambassador – Shirley Valentine – Brit in Ireland

  • Broadchurch

A Couple of British-in-India series:

  • The Far Pavilions

  • The Jewel in the Crown

  • And a couple of movies you may or may not have seen, but are two of our

  • favorites: Shirley Valentine and Crossing Delancey.

Movies

There are too many good films to even create a solid list, and too many good films I haven’t seen, but these are a few that might not be on everyone’s radar:

  • Local Hero

  • The Paper

  • Chinatown

  • Good Will Hunting

  • O Brother Where Art Thou?

  • The Florida Project

  • Il Postino

  • Il Gattopardo

  • Inside Man

  • Lincoln Lawyer

  • Big Night

  • North by Northwest

  • Casablanca

  • Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads Concert)

  • Sabrina

  • Duets

  • Silver Linings Playbook

  • Pulp Fiction; Inglorious Basterds

  • The Usual Suspects

  • Ronin

  • Unforgiven

  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

  • High Noon

  • Dune (for the visual design)

My answers to Brett Goldstein’s (a.k.a. Ted Lasso’s Roy Kent) Films to be Buried With podcast questions:

  • How I died: Swimming like I was still 20 years old

  • First Film: Fantasia

  • Funniest Film: The Trip (Honorable Mentions: Midnight Run (Charles Grodin is the GOAT); Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Muse; Lost in America; The Big Lebowski)

  • Saddest Film: Dumbo (original)

  • Scariest Film: The Shining (despite having almost no interest in horror)

  • Film I think is great despite critical panning: Duets (Bill Lawrence claims this is the worst film of all time)

  • Sexiest Film: Zen - Vendetta (is this TV or Film?)

  • TBWWO:

  • Film that changed my outlook on the world: Planet of the Apes (original)

  • Filmgoing Experience that Meant the Most to me: First film I took my daughters to

  • Film I most relate to: The Paper

  • Objectively Best Film: Chinatown (runners up: Shawshank Redemption; Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?; Pulp Fiction)

  • Film I could watch the most repeatedly: Zen trilogy

  • Worst Film: Citizen Kane - Obviously this isn’t the worst film ever, but it’s held up nearly universally as the best film ever, so my expectations were high. I found it nearly unwatchable, particularly the first half, and couldn’t wait until it was over. I get that it was cinematically groundbreaking, but that doesn’t make it an enjoyable film. It wasn’t even the best film for its time; Casablanca was released just 1 year later.

  • Favorite Film: Local Hero

  • Film to Be Buried With (the film that will get shown in heaven on my movie night): How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Podcasts

  • 13 Minutes to the Moon

  • Heavyweight

  • Mystery Show

  • Coffee Break Italian (if you want to learn Italian Grammar)

  • The Journal: Catch me if you can.