If i had access to any more TV channels I wouldn’t have time to watch the true crime story unspooling daily from Washington, DC. Admittedly there’s a lot of dross to sift through in our expanding TV multiverse, but lots of nuggets of gold to discover, too
ironically, several of my recent favorites also take as their theme crime in high places. the best of the bunch is “Babylon Berlin” set in the Weimar era and concerning a provincial cop (Volker Bruch), seconded to the capital to iron out a problem for his father, and a plucky flapper (Liv Lisa Fries) from the mean streets who ends up working alongside him to unravel a dark plot that the powers that be would rather keep hidden.
The two leads are fabulous, especially the endearing, tough as nails Fries, and the supporting cast of corrupt cops, crypto-Nazis, White Russian exiles plotting against Stalin from afar, and louche denizens of the cabaret underworld is equally fine. The historical period is brilliantly evoked in the German production for Sky Deutschland from best-selling German thrillers. Available from Netflix. And if you get hooked, two more seasons are coming.
A second European import from Amazon Prime is also well worth a look. “Riphagen” is the true story of a Dutch mobster of that name who conned Jews fleeing the Nazi occupation to entrust him with their valuables. He promptly betrayed them to the SS and pocketed the proceeds. The series alternates between flashbacks to his misdeeds and postwar efforts to bring him to justice. Jereon van Koningsbrugge as the title character embodies the villain’s combination of a beguiling ability to charm and utter ruthlessness.
Closer to home, fans of the Harry Bosch series starring Titus Welliver have a third season to enjoy, and Billy Bob Thornton is back in a second season of “Goliath” as the not quite washed-up attorney trying reluctantly to procure justice for those unlikely to get it. Both set in a dangerous Los Angeles and both from Amazon.
I probably don’t need to tell anyone to watch “This Is Us.” I came to it late and can only say I am glad to have caught up, but also to have a respite, before it returns in the fall, from the weep-a thon that had myself, my wife and daughter blubbering. There may never have been a more efficient and shameless tearjerking machine.
I moderately enjoyed “Patrick Melrose” from Showtime, but am not rushing off to read the five novels about flamboyant dysfuntion by Edward St. Aubyn from which they were adapted. And it must have taken some adapting to condense five books into five hour-long episodes. But fans of Benedict Cumberbatch and upper class British perversion won’t be disappointed.
Speaking of wealth and its corrosive effects, I have now sat through a feature film, “All the Money in the World,” and a TV series, “Trust,” concerning the kidnapping of the heir to the Getty oil fortune. The best thing about each was the actor playing the reptilian paterfamilias John Paul Getty — respectively 88-year-old Christopher Plummer and 82-year-old Donald Sutherland who put their youthful costars in the shade.
In “Trust” Getty’s cowboy-hat-and-boots wearing, Bible-quoting fixer played drolly by Brendan Frazier is noteworthy aa are the cruel, reluctant, and hapless villains. The Ridley Scott picture is played for suspense, the more flamboyant series by Danny Boyle for black comedy.
“Civilizations,” (PBS) inspired by “Civilization,” the wonderful 1969 Kenneth Clark survey of Western Art (available on YouTube by the way), tries to expand his field of focus to the entire globe and is organized around several themes rather than chronologically. Sometimes the cross-cultural connections are illuminating. Sometimes they seem to be straining to prove a point that doesn’t need to be made.
“The Fourth Estate” from Showtime is a peak inside the New York Times newsroom during their coverage of Trump’s first year. As a former denizen of Podunk papers, it is heartening to see one of the last surviving great news organizations in an industry ravaged by disruption rising to the challenge with zeal, impressive resources, and daring.
They are covering the story of a lifetime and know it, and know that getting it right matters a whole lot when the stakes are so high for the country and their own institution and profession. Doing so with brisk competition from other news hounds and deadlines starring you in the face makes the anxiety and adrenaline rush all the greater. This is the way real news-gathering works at its best, no matter how much its critics may bray ‘fake news.’
Finally, a limited British series, The Split, concerns the three daughters of a martinet mother who runs her own law firm for which one daughter works and another has left to get out from under mother’s thumb. The latter is played by Nicola Walker who is omnipresent lately. She is the farmer daughter in “Last Tango in Halifax,” the mother in the NTLive production of “The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime,” a reverend torn between church and state in “Collateral,” a cop in “River,” both BBC, and a cop on the cold case squad in “Unforgotten” from ITV.
A third sister is about to get married, though she is conflicted. And their father, who vanished years ago, turns up to play father of the bride and claim a share of the business. In the brouhaha that results, it develops that, far from failing to communicate with his children for years, his wife has deliberately withheld knowledge of his attempts to stay on touch. Lies, bad faith, conniving and other soapy complications ensue in court and out. All are fun to watch a fine cast fool around with.
When you can’t stand anymore news, try these on for size.