AKIN BY EMMA DONAGHUE, HarperCollins 2019 - Noah Selvaggio, a widower living in New York, is within days of turning eighty. Noah’s father was a famous photographer whose work is now valuable and often found in museums. Noah’s sister Fernande, mother of Victor, died recently, leaving Noah an envelope with some photos taken in …
Tag: reviews
THE NEW MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
Malcolm in the Middle - Life’s Still Unfair (in four episodes produced by Hulu, 2026) The original ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ ran from 2000 until 2006 and produced some of the funniest episodes in the history of sit-com. I suppose someone must have thought it was a brilliant idea to assemble the original cast, twenty …
THE GREAT ESCAPER
THE GREAT ESCAPER Bernie Jordan (played by Michael Caine), a 90 year old WWII veteran, missed the deadline to sign up for the official bus to attend the services to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day in France. Stuck in a care facility in Brighton, he’s torn between his desire to go and his need …
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
The Thursday Murder Club, Netflix 2025, directed by Chris Columbus and based on the 2020 book of the same name by Richard Osman - Enter the Cooper Chase Retirement Home. It’s an old manor house redesigned for the elderly and, from the look of things, available only to those with substantial life’s savings. Elizabeth Best …
FISK
Fisk - Australian series from 2021 with three seasons on Netflix - I’m rather partial to off-beat humor and Fisk is one of the funniest things to escape Australia since Barry Humphries found drag, a dazzling pair of gigantic sunglasses and became Dame Edna. Helen-Tudor Fisk (played by Kittie Flanagan) is a lawyer looking for …
THE LADY’S COMPANION
THE LADY’S’ COMPANION is a 2025 Netflix eight part series. It might be described as a Spanish period romantic comedy set in what looks like it might be late 19th Century Madrid. It features an occasionally witty script interspersed with narration with asides to the audience from the main character, Elena Bianda (played by Nadia …
THE RESIDENCE
The Residence is a 2025 eight part Netflix mini-series created by Shondaland productions. It’s described as a comedy/mystery/drama and stars Uzo Aduba as consulting detective Cordellia Cup. Cordellia is in the Sherlock Holmes tradition of detectives - similar methodology but differing perhaps in that she has an obsession with birding rather than playing the violin. …
Richard's Left Bank 