The Literate Kitty

For anyone who’s been jonesing for a Broadchurch replacement since that series ended back in 2017 (and honestly, who *hasn’t* been missing it?!), I’d urge a look at the six-episode season of  The Bay (available to stream via Amazon Prime channel BritBox). _______________  At first, The Bay feels like it’s shaping up to be a standard missing-persons story, when a pair of teens—twins Dylan and Holly Meredith—vanish from a youth center in the coastal town of Morecambe, Lancashire.  Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong, a Family Liaison Officer, is assigned the case, and given a still-wet-behind-the-ears Detective Constable, Ahmed Kharim, to shadow her. Begrudgingly, Lisa drags Med along with her to question the twins' family, where they're greeted with fear and no small amount of hostility by the extended Meredith clan: pregnant stay-at-home mom Jess, trawler stepdad Sean, two younger children, as well as Jess’s loud-mouthed mother and shifty younger brother, wh...

On crazy-busy days when my Fitbit annoyingly beeps hourly reminders about those steps I still need to complete, cardio equipment is a lifesaver. But let's be real: treadmills, exercise bikes, and elliptical machines are deadly dull.  My life hack? Streaming while pounding out those miles. Over the next two days, then, I'll be walking (haha) you through two of the best things I streamed—while working out—over the past month. Call it inspiration, if you will... Bosch I’ve been a Michael Connelly fan—including his long-running Harry Bosch police detective series (at the time of this writing, twenty books in)— forever.   So, the Amazon show which he exec-produces—based on those same characters, and simply called, Bosch —has been a welcome addition to Connelly’s oeuvre, and the recently-released Season 4 is, for me, the best one, yet.  In the fourth season, the L.A. cop finds himself investigating the murder of a prominent civil rights attorney (killed the ...

On the heels of a major bust—one which resulted in his naming a fellow, decorated, senior cop as a young woman’s murderer—detective Nikolai Andreassen (played by Tobias Santelmann) is given some time off… to decompress, and to let things settle around the police station and in the media.  Before leaving town, though, he’s roped into attending a party thrown by the victim’s family—jubilant at receiving some closure—in his honor. And there, amidst all the merry-making, Nikolai shares a tender, passionate kiss with… the victim’s brother. Thus begins the never-predictable Borderliner (or Grenseland , in its native Norwegian), one of the latest in a recent crop of totally-immersive Scandi-Noir crime dramas, streaming on Netflix.  ___________________________________ So, where does a suddenly-in-the-spotlight detective go after being commanded to hole up for awhile? The same place a lot of people would: back home, which in Niko’s case is a small town in the beautiful ...

"Movie Monday" ... Ah, life. Mine has been throwing all manner of "stuff" at me lately, meaning the blog has suffered. (Sorry about that, but I'm betting you know how it goes, too.) Still, in between all that "just tryin' to keep my head above water" business, I've also managed to watch (and read) a few things. And, since today is Monday, well... you know what that means.  So, the Oscars. They're upon us once again, and, as usual, I've found myself trying to cram in as many nominated films that I had yet to see, as possible. Last week, I actually managed three(!): The Shape of Water ,   Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Lady Bird . (I know, I know... it's like feast or famine, innit?) ____________________ Director Guillermo del Toro has said that The Shape of Water is a movie that was pulled from his very soul, and I believe it. Exquisitely beautiful--both visually and thematically--it's a movie unlike any ...

If all you had to go by was what you know of my reading and watching habits, you might assume I'm a grim, humorless thing. (In reality, that couldn't be farther from the truth, but like I said... going by the stuff that pulls me in, you'd be forgiven for assuming so.) But sometimes, even I'm surprised by how dark something is.  If  " Hinterland "-- which I've finally gotten around to watching--were a color, it might be a super-dark and utterly-depressing shade of green, like sodden, rotting vegetation. Or maybe it would be a blue so murky and opaque that it was nearly black, like the bottom of the ocean. That's how the characters in " Hinterland " strike me. There is, you see, no smiling in " Hinterland ". Seriously. I've watched all but the last couple of episodes, and I can't remember anyone smiling. Now, maybe-- surely(!) --someone showed a smidgeon of humor, for a split second, at some point... but if that...

As much as we (probably) hate to own up to it, most of us—to one degree or another—harbor a perverse desire to see Really Bad Things.  For some, that craving gets fulfilled via rags (or now, their online successors) dealing in sensational “news”… with headlines like “Batboy Eats Own Mother!” and “Woman Undergoes 128 Surgeries to Look Like Barbie!”. For others, it’s binging on trash TV, from the Jerry Springers of the world to gems like “ Toddlers in Tiaras ”. And for a lot of people, the wish to see bad stuff might take the form of the simple (but incredibly-annoying-to-others) act of always slowing waaaaaaaay down to rubberneck at any accident (on either side of the freeway). As for me, I’m much more fascinated with stories (whether true or figments of someone’s imagination) about how strange, warped, or downright evil that people can be. Why? Because, as scores of real stories attest, we never truly know what anyone else is thinking… plotting… or doing… from the merely...

There's a lot to be said for giving things a shot. That vegetable you think—for no good reason—you don’t like (because crazy Aunt Bonnie managed to massacre it into oblivion each Thanksgiving, and you vowed to never, ever let it pass your lips again)? It may be absolutely delicious prepared by more skillful hands. That book your workmates are raving about, which just isn’t "your genre"? Could prove to be as all-absorbing as the watercooler talk purports it to be. Or that guy/girl who, at first blush, isn’t really your “type”? Might turn out to be the one who values your worth and ends up stealing your heart. The point is, you just never know… which is why I always try to give things that don’t immediately hook me a fair shake. I’ll read sixty pages into a book I’m not enjoying if I have reason (say, trusty recommendations) to think it might actually be good. I’ll give a food I’ve never tried—or never experienced made really well—a shot, if it sounds or looks appe...