Just finished season 1 of this good Australian serie.
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Karen Pirie, Season 2: A Darker Domain
The second series based on the novels by Scottish crime novelist Val Mc Dermid about DS Karen Pirie, who works for the Scottish Historic Case unit, a unit specialized in Cold Cases. The story is about a kidnapping from forty years ago that was never solved.
Those of you who are familiar with her writings will know that McDermid can be a bit biased at times (she’s a feminist and a socialist), but she excels at crafting multi-layered crime plots. Luckily I had not read the novel this second season was based on. It boasts a script full of interesting characters, surprising twists, and will keep viewers in suspense until the very end. Okay, that very last plot twist was perhaps a bit much: crime writers always want to pull a rabbit out of the hat at the very last moment, as if they were professional magicians. But aside from that, this is Tartan Noir at its best.
**** out of 5
“Death by Lightning” was really good. Four episode Netflix limited series. A historical drama about President Garfield. Highly recommended! Surprisingly funny at times. I won’t spoil anything–but it would make a great companion piece to anyone watching Gemma’s “A Bullet for the President” this Spagvember.
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I started Mad Men a few months ago and just finished it recently.
Very fond of it. I’m going to miss some of the main characters.
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I began 2026 by watching ‘Masada’ (1980); a four-part, six hour TV epic, detailing the true story of a Jewish fortress holding out against a force of Romans 2000 years ago.
It’s an excellent tale, which had been sitting on my shelf for almost 20 years. The wait was most certainly worth it…Recommended if you can get hold of a copy.
On Bluray, I have also started watching a few favourites from yesteryear…
UFO
SPACE 1999
DEPARTMENT S
RANDALL AND HOPKIRK
THE PROFESSIONALS
About as non PC as you can get…I love it!
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‘Department S’ and ‘Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)’ are all time classics with me, which get played a lot at my place … but, most recently I got caught in a ‘Minder’ marathon, which was a real surprise, as I’d enjoyed it as a young teen, but didn’t realize just how funny it was at the time … Nor does the censoring police, as they fail to cut out and ruin some really hilariously rude cockney slang. Great series with some brilliant guest actors
PS: I’ve also had, ‘Masada’ on DVD for an age, and never got around to it yet … maybe I’ll seek it out after your recommendation. Cheers.
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A belated Happy New Year to you, amigo. I’m sure you will enjoy ‘Masada’…it features some quality actors, and has a rousing main theme by Jerry Goldsmith. 
As for the other TV progs I mentioned…absolutely priceless, and totally irreplaceable!
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Aldo, if you do get around to watching it, please let me know what you think of it…
There are some very familiar character actors in it…Anthony Quayle, Dennis Quilley etc…
I lent my copy to a friend the other day, who watched and enjoyed it. Funnily enough, neither of us can remember it being on TV in, or about, 1980…
Will do … though I’ve a lot of stuff to get through, as always … so, don’t hold your breath.
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