The TV and the Drama

I remember one time (and I am unlikely to forget the incident ever) when a student (year 6) in my school in London asked me if I had seen some TV series on Amazon Prime and I responded that I don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime and so I haven’t. They then asked me which platform I watch my TV on? Netflix maybe? I responded in negative saying that since I pay my TV license I stick to good old BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Channel 5 etc. for my entertainment. A few students who were listening in on the conversation looked at me in horror and this student commented that I live a very sad life. I burst out laughing and told them that I am happy with my free views and they are welcome to enjoy their various paid subscriptions (although is it a free view if I am paying for the TV license? that is a thought for another day…not that it makes any difference to me now mind…).

I knew that in India, it is not possible to watch any TV in prominent cities (at least it was 5/6 years ago) unless you get a DTH service and that is why when I was in Bangalore I had to subscribe to either Sun DTH or a local DTH provider based on what language programmes you are likely to watch more. Now it seems that Netflix, Amazon Prime, Airtel XStream, and Tata Sky are the key players (anyone else I missed?). My siblings have both Netflix and Amazon Prime and my nepotes are bored when they come to my home because we have so far refused to subscribe to any of these. I know that I don’t have much time left because just like paying for a TV license in the UK, I have to subscribe to one or more of these services to get my normal TV too, which is very sad indeed. But it is what it is. Now the problem is though, these providers are so smart that we can never find what we need in one of them. We end up subscribing to at least two or even more to switch between the stuff we might end up watching. In this day and age, that seems to be a smart business move but hurts the consumers badly and we are not up for it. I am forever trying to find ways to circumvent the problem. For now, we watch our news and other stuff through the free channels available from Roku (Al Jazeera, Sky News, Wion, Plex etc.)

When I finally decided that it is time to watch Ponniyin Selvan Part 1, it was already out of theatres. It took me a long time to even convince myself that it is ok if they mess up the book which is my absolute favourite one (the first name of my pseudonym is a strong female character from that book…) and just watch it as another grand movie. But it was now available only with Amazon Prime. I have to get a 30-day Free Trial to watch this movie. Whenever my siblings and their children come home, they strongly suggest that I get Netflix. We had already done a free trial of it while we were in the UK, but we didn’t find many programmes that we would watch and it was very American, which Mr M wasn’t very keen on 😀 If we are to get this free trial for Amazon Prime, it would help us check out its contents and see if we would watch any programmes in it at all apart from the odd movies now and then.

Oh! Why does it have to be this hard and so much drama (and money to shell) to watch some good TV heh?

DI Nick Dixon – ****

Finally, I finished the last book (at least for now) of DI Nick Dixon’s series by Damien Boyd. Once I started the first book, I decided that I will finish the series. It was only 8 books. It wasn’t that difficult even though I had to slow down on School days. Each story was unique and different characters were involved in solving the crime and the team with Nick was very efficient. I also loved the small backstories that went into each of these novels. The subtle humour is amazing 😉

If you fancy murder and detective series situated in Somerset and Avon area, try Nick Dixon. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

DI Hillary Greene

I haven’t said much about any books I have read over these three/four months. Since I have some time now, might as well get it written down. I picked up Faith Martin’s DI Hillary Greene books on Kindle Unlimited because it had a female detective and it was a series and you know how I love female based bad-ass characters and a good mystery and detective story. It was a lovely combination to not give it a go. Never did I think that I will be hooked on it once I start it. Whenever I had some time for myself, I had two options: to write something on my blog or to continue with my DI Hillary Greene books (and I had something to always write). There was no competition really. Hillary Greene always won. Here is the list of books of hers in that series I had completed. Only two of them are left but it is because they aren’t available as an e-book on Amazon’s Kindle yet. I am waiting sincerely for those to get published.

I tried to break the series by picking up a couple of romance books in between but couldn’t be on a break for too long. The allure was too much to ignore.

DI Hillary Greene reminded me of Dr Frost (TV series) in many ways, the dry humour, the intelligence, the no-nonsense approach, issues with relationships, workaholic, placed in a small town (Kidlington in Hillary’s case and Denton in Frost’s case) you name it. It also had characters who stay with her throughout the series and many who come and go for a couple of books. There is a natural progression. It was a delightful read and I would love to see this as a TV series (hopefully well written). It also has a lot of English Slang which taught me a few choice words 😉

WftPoftA

When we went to the Odeon Cinemas, the self-service Ticketing machine shows the above as the movie title and it took a while for me to figure it out.  I was worried if the movie, War for the Planet of the Apes, was already out of that cinema given that it wasn’t even a week since it was released. Seriously, can’t they just have it as Planet of the Apes – 3 in case the title was too long?

Mr M hadn’t watched any of the prequels so I had to fill in him on the happenings of the previous movies even before we went in. But I needn’t have bothered because they give you a brief two line synopsis along with the name of the movies. That was clever. And from there the story starts. There is never a dull moment. Humour relief is brought by one new introduction, who introduces himself as the ‘bad monkey’. It is like the life comes a full circle in this movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I ain’t going too much into the story because it might spoil it for you. The Colonel’s story line is such that you find yourself thinking if he is right as does Caesar.  Titbits that include the current situation like ‘the wall’ finds its way into the movie which is also very clever. You know that it will have its own cliche moments. But that is acceptable. That is what this movie was all about. But it does have its own twists and turns.

Mr M also enjoyed the movie even though he thought it a little weird (having seen the old Planet of the Apes movies) but at least it kept him awake and indulged and that is a big plus 😉

All in all, a very enjoyable and a technically very well done movie. Andy Serkis has done a brilliant job. I sincerely hope that they stop the sequel or prequel to this saga here and now. Do not want to corrupt a nice series and dilute the strength of the story and its characters.

Entertainments galore

We are nearing the end of Inspector Lewis. Already on to our 9th season. Wonder what we will do after it is over. Mr. M is already having some withdrawal symptoms 😉 And surprises in Death in Paradise. Out goes Humphrey and in comes, Jack Mooney, played by the Irish actor Ardal O’Hanlon (Mr. M tells me he is from Father Ted…I have seen only two episodes of it so far…so couldn’t really place him). I am sure lot of us would be feeling a bit weird about it, but the transition was smooth, unlike the last time when Humphrey was pulled in because Poole (played by Ben Miller) died. That was a huge change. But I am enjoying Mr. Mooney as I did the other two. Common Sense, a BBC series where a select people from the public all over the UK discuss the weekly happenings, is another series that we are watching regularly. This is very different from the others as this involves real people and how they feel about important issues that were in the news every week. They are really very funny and honest. I like the butcher couple a lot. I am still keeping a tab on Taboo, with all its gory and blood and grime.

Watched a couple of very good movies. Old ones but golden ones, I should say. The first one was 12 Angry Men. If you haven’t watched it, and if you like crime drama, you should try it. 12 jury members of a murder trial are the main characters in this movie. They are sent to discuss the fate of a young boy who was accused of killing his father. They reconstruct the whole story piece by piece. It is a very interesting screenplay. You start with a mindset and slowly and steadily each one’s motives for their decision is questioned. I really enjoyed the movie.

And yesterday we managed to catch up on To Kill a Mockingbird. I haven’t read the book, wasn’t really sure if I would like it. But I enjoyed the movie. I don’t have to tell you much about it because I am sure it is one of the must-see movies of all times. And I am sure it makes sense even in this day and age. Gregory Peck is amazing. If you haven’t watched it either, give it a try.

Another 3-hour long movie we watched a while ago was A Passage to India. Again, I haven’t read the book, but the movie was nonetheless different and managed to hold my attention for all of those three hours. I am not sure I would have had the patience to read the book. But the dynamics of the varied characters are quite intriguing in this one. It could have had some editing done to it, but then the character’s depth would have taken a beating.

We also had been to a couple of museums. Will get around to copying those photographs sometime next week. I am being lazy over the weekend and not participating in the weekend prompts as of now. I hope to get back to it soon. Until then, I do hope you enjoy my photographs and random TV and Movie updates. And I could definitely use another extra day for the weekend. Don’t you? 😉