About to go on hiatus…

This post will be short and sweet! My son Jon is visiting us in Thornbury this weekend and we leave for our Cape Breton/Cape Cod trip in a couple of days. I won’t be watching much TV over the next 10 days or so, but here are a few recommendations in the mean time:

On the Big Screen

Atomic Blonde is a fast paced action flick starring Charlize Theron and James McEvoy. I found it pointless and repetitive. Charlize does look amazing though. If you want something completely mindless for the summer, this is your movie.

Streaming

Gifted is a lovely, yet completely predictable movie about a little girl being raised by her handsome hunk uncle Chris Evans (aka Captain America). Great rainy afternoon flick.

A Cure for Wellness is a very dark look at a mysterious Swiss rehab clinic. Stars Jason Isaacs as the clinic director and was actually too dark for me to persevere with.

Younger, Animal Kingdom, The Bureau were all series favourites this week. I binged on The Bureau‘s French espionage suspense through two 10-episode seasons. Season 3 is just now airing on Sundance Now in the US and I yearn for it.

Netflix

Ozark is an addictive look at what happens when a financial advisor decides to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel. Stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linnea as a couple on the run.

Here’s a great article from the NYTimes on romantic comedies you can catch on Netflix:

https://www.nytimes.com/watching/lists/best-indie-rom-coms-netflix

 

Amazon

The Last Tycoon with Matt Bomer and Lily Collins debuted this week on Amazon. Beautiful depiction of the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930’s, but essentially vacuous. None of the characters engaged me and I may not persevere beyond the first episode. Here’s the NY Times review:

 

HBO

Room 104 (anthology suspense) made its debut on Friday. Twilight Zone revisited!  You may not sleep well afterwards.

Game of Thrones  (Sundays) has been going gangbusters in its first episodes of this penultimate season. There will be dragons!

PBS

Grantchester and Remember Me continue on Sunday nights. Father Brown serves up corny mysteries (why do so many people in charming villages die so horribly?) on Thursday nights. British bliss!

CBS

Extraordinary awfulness continues with summer series ZOO (Thursdays)  and Salvation (Wednesdays). I am now able to look away! Yay!

NBC

Midnight, Texas (Mondays)  is a summer fantasy series adapted from the Charmaine Harris novels. It makes you appreciate just how special True Blood was. There is nothing magical about this very lame fantasy series.

AMC

Preacher (Mondays) is crazy but extraordinary in the power of its images.

Loaded (Mondays) is a British Silicon Valley type show that drags in its 60 minute length with charmless characters and a total lack of humour.

FX

The Strain (Sundays) continues its wacky weird vampire apocalypse tale.

ABC

Somewhere Between (Tuesdays) is a just plain awful tale of time travel. So lame, it’s painful.

W

Nashville (Thursday) is so bad it’s good. You may want to throttle most of the main characters, but somehow it’s addictive.

CBC

Baroness Von Sketch (Tuesday) is awfully funny and the soccer series 21 Thunder debuts Monday night.

 

Reading Material

We’re listening to the Truman Capote inspired novel The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin.  Such a sad faux memoir of a bygone era when artists had glamorous patrons.  I have dived into Daniel Silva’s House of Spies.  This is the most recent of Silva’s 20 espionage novels.  A terrorist incident in London has spurred a multi-agency effort to catch the criminal mastermind behind this latest outrage.  Silva is a terrific writer who delivers great background, fully drawn characters and plots that are torn from today’s headlines.  Get ready to immerse yourself in the murky world of international spy craft.

Humour and Zen

This past week of the Trumpnado has been full of surprises!  From Spicy’s resignation, to Scaramucci’s appointment, to Reince Priebus’s resignation, to John Kelly’s appointment, etc.,  I didn’t think anything could possibly top Trump’s horrific address to the Boy Scout Jamboree last week, but he has succeeded in being the centre of a vortex of incredible tweets and rants this past week.  He has provided fodder for all the political satirists including, Colbert, Noah, Bee, Meyers and The President Show.  The President Show (Comedy Thurs. at 11:30) introduced Mario Cantone as Anthony Scaramucci.  Inspired!!!! He was born to play this role!!!  Needless to say, I have had to fall back on  my British shows and my CBS Sunday Morning show to provide solace and soothing during this very difficult time.

 

Closing Thoughts

We are finally having a gorgeous summer weekend.  All of our meals have been eaten outdoors! Our pool is open for business and it’s actually too warm to soak in the hot tub.  The Thornbury pier is overflowing with children taking their ritual leaps into Georgian Bay and the local ice-cream parlour is thronged with young families taking their children out for a summer treat.  The restaurant patios are packed and the summer Jazz Concerts in the Park are full of appreciative listeners.  We leave for a road trip this week that includes a wedding in Cape Breton, a stay with friends in Rothesay, NB, a trip to see friends in Cape Cod and a visit with our Florida neighbours in the Boston area.  Enjoy the week wherever you are.  My next post will likely be on August 13.