Of Swords and Parasols

The Bletchley Circle: Like "a series about women who made bombs in WW2" and "midwives who work out of a convent in 1950s London," "a quartet of female Bletchley Park codebreakers reunite in 1952 to catch a serial killer" isn't a series I would have believed would actually be made a year ago. And yet, they all came to be in 2012. None in my own country, but still. So, Bletchley Circle. A 3 part miniseries that just aired in Britain, is about Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean, 4 women who worked in Bletchley Park during WW2, who are reunited in 1952 when Susan, now a housewife, pieces together parts of a serial killer's pattern from a radio broadcast. Some parts reminded me a bit much of why I don't watch many procedurals (various trigger warnings regarding dead bodies, violence against women and disturbing imagery apply, though I wouldn't say that there was anything gratuitous or, except one scene in the second episode, could have really been left out) and I thought parts of the climax happened more for drama than for logic or plot consistency (it's in keeping with Susan's character in one way, but not in another) but I enjoyed it and would not remotely object to a sequel. (Also, it has Anna Maxwell Martin and Rachael Sterling as the main character and nominal second lead character, and so I kept expecting canon lesbianism, which didn't happen. But it was nicely unapologetic about completely failing to pass the Reverse Bechdel Test.)

Covert Affairs 3.7-3.10: Despite this season being rather hit-and-miss with me so far (I still haven't forgiven them for that thing they kicked the season off with, and there was that boring Auggie stuff for a while) I mostly liked these episodes a lot.

( spoilers )

White Collar 4.7-4.10: I will be very surprised if episode 7 isn't my favorite episode this season. And I never pegged White Collar as a show likely to have an "ovaries before brovaries" scene, and yet it did. Not necessarily surprised that it did, though.

( spoilers )World Without End 1-3 (of ?): Nominal sequel to Pillars of the Earth in that it's set in the same fictional town 100 years later. And also, has an abusive husband named Alfred Builder as a supporting character. It's somewhat mixed and while I can't speak for the book, it actually seems to be relying a lot on similar plotlines. There are more women front-and-center than in PotE, but they're also on the receiving end more violence. Most of it is realistic enough as far as that goes (but we're dealing with fictional characters in a fictional town and aren't exactly closely adhering to history here anyway...) but most of it just makes me go "Was that really necessary now?" Though the villains in general aren't quite as over-the-top as in PotE. The romances are pretty decent so far (and neither of the guys in the 2 main romances have abandoned a baby to die in the woods-mindchanging or no-or make me wonder if he's a stalker) and I highly approve of the inclusion of the nuns, but things don't seem to tie together as well as they could. I like large chunks of it and dislike others (creepy monk [and icky plot stuff surrounding him] and Alfred need to diiiiiiiieeeeeeee. Though I was thinking I might like Alfred for a while there.) and will keep watching because I like Gwenda and Carris and the Mother Superior and enjoy Petronella's Eeeevil (mostly) and Isabella's ambition. (Also, Isabella's actress bears such a striking resemblance to Claudia Black that I forgot it wasn't her a couple times, depending on the lighting.) I also suspect it's something I"ll like more once I've seen the whole thing than on an episode-by-episode basis.

Haven and Downton Abbey are both back, but I haven't watched them yet, and I'm very behind on Sinbad without meaning to be (I think I'm grumpy about something in the last episode I watched). I think the season finale of that actually airs tonight. In non-currently-airing TV news, I waatched the pilot for Justified and kinda want that hour of my life back. I was going to watch more just in case, since pilots are often weaker than subsequent episodes and handle various things differently than the pilot would make you think, but then the main character broke into his ex-wife's house in the middle of the night so he could make a man Pain-y speech in which he ponders whether or not he colud kill someone in cold blood, and I decided my time would be better spent elsewhere. I also watched Hogfather, which was apparently in my Netflix queue because it has Michelle Dockery, since I haven't read the book yet, and it was grand fun, and I enjoy how the plot can almost be boiled down to "DiscworldEquivalent!Santa gets kidnapped! Death takes over his job and annoys his granddaughter so that she'll save reality! Hijinks!" I also have a thing for Michelle Dockery in general and her voice in particular. I've also almost finished Prime Suspect (UK version) after about 2 years of watching it off and on (Netflix kept having long waits on some discs). Helen Mirren is always most excellent, but while I'm glad I watched it, it's something I more appreciate than like. It's very Serious Business all the time and the revolving cast means there are no relationships of any variety to develop a real investment in, and no character but Jane to get attached to.

And I've been rewatching Poirot the last couple weeks, and between that and all the above, it rather feels like there's been an endless stream of dead bodies on my sceen lately.