At age 74 Michael Douglas, whom I have loved since his "Jack T. Colton" sliding down the forest hillside in Colombia moment, has a new show playing on Netflix.

The premise is as followed: Michael plays Sandy Kominsky, a once glorious actor turned teacher. His best friend of 47 years and "talent agent" is Norman, played by Alan Arkin. Together they go through life's ups and downs. Douglas is irresponsible, self absorbed, near the line of jerk-ish and Arkin is moody, sad and trying to cope with real life issues. Together, they are kinda the odd couple.

Having said more than enough, on to my Kitty Paws:
One Kitty Paw for Douglas. Love, love, love him!
One Kitty Paw for Arkin.
One Kitty Paw for their great banters and perfect zingers
One Kitty Paw because this show is appropriate for these men and you like them.

At 4 Kitty Paws, I highly recommend it. The first season has 8 episodes that play between 28 to 32 minutes and you can do in one setting.

Be warned though. These are old men, playing old men. If you are looking for slap happy jive this is not your show. This is a show about two old men, trying to get through the day. You will see some of Douglas's favorite pals.

So if you are interested, I suggest cracking open a bottle of your favorite wine, settling in and getting to know these guys.

Fingers crossed there will be more seasons to come.

csk

My husband and I both enjoyed this show watched over 2 nights. We are in our 70s and not many shows are in our demographic. My biggest problem was the Lisa Edelstein character as I recently binge watched 8 seasons of House, and although she was excellent, I just couldn’t not see her as Dr. Cuddy. I also liked the drama students that were cast for his class. What a great opportunity for so many to get exposure.

I loved this show so much! I watched the entire series in one night! I hope there are more seasons!!

I just finished it and really enjoyed it also. It is like the male version of Grace and Frankie.

Thank you so much for making me aware of this show! I don’t really keep track of new shows on Netflix, and I would have missed it. I’ve only watched a few episodes, but I am quite enjoying it!

I wasn't even aware that they had agreed to do a Timeless series finale episode/special/movie, let alone started filming it. But apparently they did film it, because it airs Thursday, December 20th. Looking forward to it!!

TG

Thanks for the word - hadn't known about it, but now I'm looking forward to it, too!

Just speculating, but there are two ways I can think of ending it.

1) Make sure time travel is/was/never will be invented.

2) Go back farther in time and kill the man they tried to kill before.

Whoo hoo watching timeless right now. Wish it wasn't ending.

But they did wrap it up in a nice little package, for Christmas.

And the ending reminds me of the ending of Final Exam.

With Christmas over and now that the family has left, I and my husband have the weekend to ourselves for the first time in months. My choice of activity? Now that the TV is no longer being Fortnite monopolized, binge watching Netflix.

Of the two shows I settled on, Norsemen was one of them. Initially I did not intend to write a review as this show is cruel, crude, out there and, at times, shocking. Per the show these Norsemen are Vikings with their raids, their pillaging, their violating of women or in Froya's case monks, customs, and brutal strength. Despite this description, it is a comedy. And not even a dark comedy, at that.

Set in Norway, it centers around the power and power struggle around the Chieftain of the village of Northeim. This also includes the women of the village, in an "almost reversal of sexual roles". The women are more manipulative and conniving while the men come across as Fargo dumb-witted.

The "charm" of this show is it's characters. The Cheftain, Cheftain Olva has just returned with his band of vikings from a successful raid, having left his obnoxious, foppish dandy of brother in charge. The rivalry between the two is obvious as no one really likes Orm, the brother, and everyone reveres Olva. As Cheftain, Olva is a decent man, dedicated to the ways of their heritage and wants what's best for his village. Olva's right hand man is Arvid, who is kind, not very bright, single, but will kill you, brutally, if need be. You will like him. Also in this returning band is Froya, the only girl warrior viking, who has the sad, embarrassing fate of being Orm's wife. (This must have been an arrangement marriage. I don't really know.) Not part of the band but a quirky character from the village is Kart, the free slave who just wants to be part of the village. Then there's Jarl Vang, who is as one critic put it, is "The Bald of Evil", and then there's that 8th century hot tube scene where you are cringing on your couch, wondering "is this really happening?" Yeah. It is. It is.

Besides the characters, the drive of this show is two-fold. One is the soap opera love story and the other is it's "out of nowhere plots scenes", if you will. For instances, one of Jarl Vang's men starts having PTSD after Jarl Vang's band raids and pillages the people of Northeim. This leads to his wife encouraging him to discuss his feelings openly in front of the Baldness (as I'd prefer) of Evil, which essentially leads to other warriors around the table discussing "what's my motivation to violate women and pillage?" feelings. I highly doubt the real Vikings had these conversations.

Despite it's Nordic setting, it is in English and makes several references to today's society, Trump included. Fair warning, though, it does have adult related moments and references, though not a lot of nudity. One scene maybe?

If you are going to watch this show, you absolutely can not take this show seriously. Seriously. You have to check your American sense of proprieties at the door. This show is considered the Monty Python of Vikings and even though it's set in 790, it's got a 2018 loutish sense of mentality.

As for me, despite it's crass, immaturity and occasional shocking moments of violence, I am not certain I will watch season 3. I became vested and not to spoil anything, but I was not okay with how Season 2 ends. They had a horse whisperer gets killed by a horse moment and it has not sat well with me. So, with my bitterness, I shall refrain from my Kitty Paw ratings.

One more bit of warning though, they do kinda play out Rufus of Rome and Orm in Season 2. Even I was like, someone just kill them already.

csk

As I mentioned in my review of Norsemen, since my TV was no longer a PlayStation vessel, I took the opportunity to binge watch two Netflix original shows. One was Norsemen and, on the opposite side of the spectrum was Bodyguard.

Set in 2018 London, England, it centers around a young police Sargent who is struggling with a failed marriage due to untreated PTSD, and his assignment of protecting the Home Security Secretary.

The first episode opens with Sargent David Budd, played by Richard Madden, the same actor who played Robb Stark in the Game of Thrones, is on the train with his children. He spots a suspicious character outside the train station and over hears a train officer trying to make contact with the suspicious character. Acting upon instincts, he gets involved and ends up talking down a Jihad bomber. This launches his career from a police Sargent to the personal bodyguard of Julia Montague, the Home Security Secretary of the British government.

In contrast to David is Julia Montague, the hard driven politician who is pushing for the passage of a law that gives the British government stronger authority to delve into deeper people's privacy to, in theory, weed out terrorist. Julia's hard pressed attitude of not apologizing for their part in Afghanistan, immediately puts her at odds with David, who fought in Afghanistan and as such now suffers from PTDS. But Sargent Budd has a job to do and despite their political differences, he is determined to do it.

But the question does arise, what's the real job?

Having provided the basis of this 6 episode series, on to my Kitty Paw reviews:
Two Kitty Paws for Richard Madden's performance. He does an excellent job of walking between "on the job" and suffering from the job. Madden has even obtained Golden Globe nomination for this role.
One Kitty Paw for the director. He does a great build of tension, and leaves the audience hanging at the exactly the right spot.
One Kitty Paw for spreading "the suspicion" equally, even including our own man, Budd.

I do have one issue though. In real life, the "real" bad person would never confess. And this, I do assume, is supposed to be the final of two plot twists of the show. Now, I before I wrote this review I spoke with my friend who co-watched from her own couch this show. And I said this to her. And she agreed that it was unlikely in real life that the bomb maker would ever confess but maybe after getting a high profile target I guess I can see the bomb maker's confession. And yes, they do have to tidy up all the loose ends of the show. But think, for me, they did such a grand job of setting up everyone for having motive, that it really could have anyone of them and not the confessed bomber.

Anyhoo, as of November, Madden has met with the creator for a potential Season 2. I don't know how well that will work, especially they did address David Budd's character's flaws in this season.

And lastly, being honest, I watched this series alone, and after everyone went to bed. Why? Even though Madden is not what I consider attractive, somewhere between the Scottish accent, the suit and tie, and the life saving heroic scenes, Madden is extremely attractive. ;o)

csk

Not part of the band but a quirky character from the village is Kart, the free slave who just wants to be part of the village.

Being a slave, he would certainly not be owning anything. Nevertheless, he will eventually be leading someone else's livestock somewhere.

This would turn into a case of putting the Kart before the horse. 😊

C'apn?

All it takes is the accent.....

Just sayin'. 8D

Received 12/31/2018

To: <Name Redacted>
From: Corporate HR
Re: Restroom Etiquette


Mr. <Redacted>:
It has come to our attention, via numerous complaints, that we seem to be having an issue regarding common restroom etiquette. Several employees whose cubicles are near the Men's Restroom have emailed us regarding "loud yelling in a foreign tongue" coming from said restroom recently. These complaints, according to eyewitnesses, seem to revolve around your visits. To be blunt... please stop yelling in the restroom once you have done your "business". It is distracting and, frankly, perplexing. What exactly does "Ja-Loja" mean, anyway?
Sincerely, HR

Great show

While searching for Sarah Water's The Little Stranger, I came across Ordeal by Innocence on Amazon Prime. Seeing that this was based on an Agatha Christie's book, I decided to check this out instead.

The premise is as followed: Heiress Rachel Argyll, unable to have children, adopts 5 children and raises them, along with her husband Leo, played well by Bill Nighy. And with 5 children, a few of them are a bit out of sorts, like the son Jack. Jack, played extremely well by Anthony Doyle, is emotionally sporadic, wild, cruel, a snitch and your basic out of control person, who is aware of his inability to stop or control himself. But he is just one of the "hot" messes in this family, as with most families, there are plenty of secrets running well, secretly, amok.

And between not having an substantiated alibi, and being the wild child with a record, when Rachel is murdered, he is the one charged with the murder. While in prison, Jack is brutally assaulted and dies from his injuries. The family, though sad, carries on.

18 months pass, and a few days before Leo's wedding to his secretary, Dr. Arthur Calargy, played very well by Luke Treadaway, arrives, stating that he was with Jack the night of the murder and that he is Jack's alibi. Unlike the book, this Dr. Calagry has a few secrets of his own. Naturally, his arrival throws the household into a tizzy, all re-living the night of their mother's death. Because they all know if Jack didn't kill Mother, then someone among them did.

Having said more than enough, on to my Kitty Paw Ratings:
One Kitty Paw for Anthony Doyle's performance. Hell, he pissed me off enough, I wanted him dead.
One Kitty Paw for Bill Nighy. He played Leo very well and, having not read the book, I wonder if they wrote his character with him in mind to play it.
One Kitty Paw for Luke Treadaway's performance as the hapless dr.
One Half Kitty Paw for keeping the suspense going, even though I narrowed it down to the killer and another person.
One Half Kitty Paw for the clever use of the staircase set.

But . . .

I have to take away a few Paws.

I have to take away a Paw because they were trying to make Rachel Argyll seem like horrible, overbearing, controlling mother and they really failed. Sure, she was mean at times, but they also showed her being very caring and a good mother. And since Anna Chancellor, the actress who portrayed Rachel has the talent to be cruel and unbending, as she was in Pride and Prejudice as Miss Bingely, they just didn't sell it.

And I have to take away a Half a Kitty Paw for her death scene. It was not done well and it was awkward. Not spoiling the "who", but she was assaulted from behind while standing, falls to the ground, knocking a shoe off, and taking a decanter with her. Then the maid finds her sitting in a chair and when the enters the room, she asks the maid "Well?" like she's perfectly fine and then suddenly there is blood. It was not done well. Too confusing.

So, at 2.5 Kitty Paws, I did enjoy it but there were definitely a few flaws.

csk

Yeah, it's a fun show. I'm 1 for 2 at guessing. I want to know who the bee is.

I haven't watched last night's episode yet (recorded) but am strangely drawn to this silly show. My sister and I are wondering if the boy band singer might be Donnie Wahlberg because that would be hysterical and seems sort of fitting for the style of the show.

I haven't watched last night's yet. Will watch it later. I guessed Tommy Chong pretty easily. Some of the guesses the judges make it's like "Hello? Were you listening to the clues? Do you hear what the person's voice SOUNDS like?" Haha guessing people whose voices you would definitely know them if you heard them and they don't sound anything like Tommy Chong, say. ;). I also want to know who the Bee is ... my guess is Tina Turner.

That's a great guess for the Bee but I am leaning more toward Gladys Knight since she just signed with Fox to sing the National Anthem at The Super Bowl.

I am really embarrassed by how much thought I've put into this. . . .

It's Donny Osmond.

I'm liking it. I want to know who the unicorn is. Guessed?

She's another one of my possibilities.

I agree that the Peacock is Donny Osmond. I still think the Rabbit is Donnie Wahlberg.

The Unicorn sounds a little like Tori Spelling to me but I don't think that really fits with the clues. The clues lead me more toward an athlete (snowboarder, ice skater). I am at a loss there.

Maybe we should all provide our possibility lists. . . .

I'll start with my sad guesses (please no yelling at me for my stupidity):

The Peacock - Donny Osmond
The Bee - Gladys Knight
The Rabbit - Donnie Osmond
The Lion - Rumer Willis

And here's where it gets more guess than feeling confident:
The Unicorn - Tori Spelling
The Monster - Eminem
The Poodle - Kathy Griffin
The Alien - One of the Kardashians
The Raven - I have no idea

So this hiker falls into a cave (after a letterbox?) and comes out a year later?

So this hiker falls into a cave (after a letterbox?) and comes out a year later?

And? What's the punch line?
.
.
.
.
I know, this is what happened in the episode of "Manifest"; it doesn't have a punch line. But, the way you told it certainly sounds like the setup for a joke. I think that they're setting this series up to be another "LOST", but with more people (because they're in the world but not of the world).

Sounds intriguing, right? That's the theme for the next Survivor season. And when there's a new Survivor season, there's a new Survivor pool! All the info is on the tracker. No stamp carving is necessary, and everyone is welcome to join!

TG

I'm watching "Explorers" on TV right now. I thought it was interesting that they attend Charles M. Jones Junior High School. The name sounded familiar, so I looked it up and it is named after the famous animator.

Just an interesting bit I noticed.

I was too.
Never seen the whole thing before.
Fun movie.