The character, of course! I have no knowledge of what an actor is like in real life. The first inspector, Richard, was very very odd (refused to remove his suit coat despite the heat, etc), Humphrey was thought to be very weird by the islanders, and Neville, the last one, was much disliked by the commissioner at first. The only inspector on the show that was not peculiar in some way was Jack, inspector #3.
The personality displayed by the new inspector, Mervin, is somewhat of a jerk—pushy, obnoxious, orders people around, treats the the island residents as inferior, etc.
Watching the first inspector’s performance, I can see why he was cast in the English version of Professor T. Impossible to top the original Flemish version of that show though.
I saw a TV interview with the actor, Ben Miller, and he stated that he couldn’t play Jasper Tempest without being a bit like him in many ways. His Death in Paradise character was very much like Jasper.
Currently watching Dark Winds. VERY good. It was mentioned on this thread briefly 2 years ago by scout59), so I’m late to the game, but thought it worth mentioning again.
“Reacher” Season 3 released yesterday on Amazon Prime, but just the first three episodes. I watched the first episode last night and, honestly, I wasn’t too impressed. The acting is not good and the characters aren’t that compelling. I’m hoping it’ll get better.
The only interesting thing so far is they’ve introduced a character to the series that is actually larger than Reacher, which is saying something.
Finally got around to watching season 1 of The Night Agent on Netflix. All of the illogical behavior, bad dialogue, and plot holes notwithstanding, I did enjoy it.
I really disliked the assassins. Then I started thinking of them as Boris and Natasha going after Moose and Squirrel and it was fine.
Now to decide if I want to watch season 2. I’ve recently watched all of The Recruit and am watching the new season of Reacher. Conspiracies abound!
Since I blame reality TV for Trump, I’ve sworn it off but I have to admit that I’m watching and loving Baylen Out Loud. This is the kind of reality TV we need more of.
Update from former post. Not enjoying Season 2 of Dark Winds. It seems to have a totally different vibe from Season 1. Sadly, at least the first half of Season 2 is much darker, and more violent. For those who have watched, does that continue? Binge watched tv shows - #9837 by kjofkw
We watched the first three episodes of the new season of Reacher. It was fine. I have read all of Lee Child’s Reacher books, and IMO the books are clearly better than the series. The recent books Reacher books that are authored by Lee’s brother (Andrew) aren’t nearly as entertaining/engaging
I’ve been watching Paradise on Hulu; I don’t want to say anything to spoil it, and I’d encourage people to watch it without reading about it beforehand…
PSA for those who are currently watching or want to watch The Pitt - there is a small but great storyline in Episode 8 of Season 1 about Freedom House, America’s first paramedic organization. This is a piece of black history (and medical history and Pittsburgh history) that most people have never heard or read about. My S and DIL are both in the EMS field and I read an excellent book about Freedom House that was recommended to me - American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics, by Kevin Hazzard. Highly recommend! It goes into great detail about the doctor who recruited and trained the new paramedics, the lives they saved (both patients and those of the struggling black men they recruited from the streets), the growth of the organization, the training and their skills, and their ultimate demise (spoiler alert: white men killed the program.) A long but worthy read; If you don’t want to dive that deep, the Freedom House Wikipedia page provides a pretty thorough narrative for those who might want to learn more about the background of the Willie story.
