Television reviews – Page 7

Slow Horses–Win the Race

Written by Diana Paul on November 19, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

Slow Horses, a multiple award-winning British spy thriller based on the Slough House series of novels by Mick Herron, will have at least a six-season run due to its phenomenal popularity. [The first four seasons are available for streaming now.] MI5 recruits and some agents who have failed training or...

Moonflower Murders–M is for Murder

Written by Diana Paul on November 11, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

The PBS series Moonflower Murders, the eponymous mystery series by Anthony Horowitz, is the sequel to the PBS series, “Magpie Murders” (see my January 9, 2023 review). Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville), book-editor-turned-sleuth, is known for having discovered and managed the Atticus Pund mystery series by the late Alan...

The Perfect Couple–Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

Written by Diana Paul on October 27, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews.

The Perfect Couple, an American seaside mystery based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, was released on Netflix in September. Set in Nantucket in an opulent mansion, Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman), a famous murder mystery author, is obsessing over the wedding for her favorite son, Benji...

Hotel Portofino–A Pleasant Stay?

Written by Diana Paul on October 13, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

In this three-season British historical drama, Hotel Portofino, Bella Ainsworth (Natasha McElhone), the beautiful middle-aged daughter of a wealthy manufacturer of fabrics, moves to Italy in the 1920s to fulfill her dream of having a luxury boutique hotel in the resort town of Portofino. Problem is that Mussolini is on the verge of...

Happy Valley: A Micro-Exorcism

Written by Diana Paul on October 1, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

Happy Valley, a three-season Acorn mini-series, is an unnerving police procedural based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. The name “Happy Valley” is the local police’s pejorative term for the low-income Halifax neighborhood. It suffers from a high rate of drug addiction and crime. Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire of “Last Tango...

Serpent Queen – Venomous Power Grab

Written by diana on September 18, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

Based on Leonie Frieda’s 2004 biography, Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France, Serpent Queen, a Starz mini-series, follows Catherine de Medici (Samantha Morton). We first see her as a teenager unexpectedly orphaned by a series of unfortunate events. That her bloodline is from the renowned and...