THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Sherwood

This is what the BBC does better than anyone else, longform drama that you can really invest in. I binged this over a couple of nights this week. It’s one of those miniseries that has you thinking when an episode finishes “I could easily fit another one in. Easily”, then you realize that it’s almost 11pm on a school night, and you have to be up in the morning.

Not so much of a who done it, more of a why done it, as we know who the murderer is from the off. Set in an ex-mining village in Nottinghamshire, but with an interesting twist. During the strike, this village worked. Obviously causing extremely bad feelings amongst the miners who didn’t cross the picket lines. A festering hatred still enacted almost 40 years later, with “scab” casually thrown at those who worked, while others stood by their principles. Some disclosure from me. I was arrested on a Miners Strike demo, and charged with breach of the peace. Fined £10. I was a student at the time, full of left-wing piss and vinegar. But it’s subsequently taught me a lesson as I’ve gotten older. You can’t beat the police. Their gang will always be bigger than yours.

Anyway, back to the programme. This was absolutely stuffed with the cream of British character actors of the highest level. Starring David Morrissey as the cop in charge of finding the murderer, ably supported by Robert Glenister, Clare Holeman, Lesley Manville, Perry Fitzpatrick, Adeel Akhtar (who I think is an outstanding actor, and he’s brilliant in this), Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Stephen Tompkinson, Lindsay Duncan, and a host of others whom you’ll instantly reconise.

If you’re a fan of the stuff The Beeb puts out at 9 on a Sunday evening, Line Of Duty, Bodyguard, The Night Manager, that sort of thing, then you’ll love this, as it’s one of the better ones.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

My Life As A Rolling Stone

A four part series of interviews focused on the three surviving members of The Stones, and poignantly Charlie Watts.

The Stones (or quite simply 'Stones' as they're billing themselves these days) are on tour at the moment, and this came across as nothing less than glorified advertising paid by the licencing fee. Didn't tell us anything we don't already know. I guess the fact that as a band they're as old as I am, 60, you'd have to go some to find something which has not already been covered multiple times. But it came across as a tad anodyne, the Jagger episode especially. He's obviously a master of the interview, but this told us absolutely nothing of interest whatsoever.

Keef did his usual rasping laugh, Ronnie still can't believe his luck that he's actually a member, and the Charlie episode focused almost exclusively on his laconic personally, and excellent dress sense. We've seen it a million times. Brian Jones was barely mentioned. Mick Taylor got a nod as a brilliant guitarist, and poor old Bill Wyman wasn't mentioned at all. I would have loved to hear Mick and Keef finally talk about Altomont, but it hardly got a mention.

The only half interesting thing that I took from this was their branding. Someone, probably Mick, came up with the idea of using a logo, the lips and tongue, to represent them after driving past a Shell petrol station. But that apart, I'd give this a miss if I were you.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

The Undeclared War

Hands up who would've thought that something with Simon Pegg, Adrian Lester, Alex Jennings and the world’s greatest living actor, Mark Rylance in it would be shit? How about if it was written and directed by Peter Kosminsky, would that help?

This six part Channel 4, (I guess you could call it a spy drama, as I’m struggling to define it) series could be best utilized by Nadine Dorries the next time she presents evidence for privatizing the channel. It was utterly appalling. The production values were non-existent. I guess the budget was blown on the aforementioned cast.

Set in GCHQ a couple of years from now, where an intern comes across a hidden program within a malware attack by an emboldened Russia. Now! On her first day at work, her first day, she finds herself in a COBRA meeting with Lester’s PM. She also seems to be able to walk into whichever office she wants to, there’s no locked doors. It’s no wonder the Russians can hack our systems so easily if our cyber defense HQ is so half arsed. If you’re a fan of Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch, then you’ll remember his ‘mind palace’ trick. They try it here with laughingly bad results. I’m also sorry to say that the main star, Hannah Khalique-Brow, is just a really bad actor. I haven't seen her in anything else, so I don’t know if she was directed to be this bad, or if she’s genuinely a poor actor.

After the outstanding Sherwood last week, I watched this so you don’t have to.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

Got to recommend We Own This City on Sky Atlantic. It features many of the same actors that were in The Wire and is also set in Baltimore Police Department, this time focusing on police brutality and corruption within the Gun Trace Task Force.
I've only watched a couple of episodes so far, but it's got me hooked already.
Another one that is looking good after seeing only one episode is Blackbird on Apple TV+. A convicted drug dealer is tasked with befriending a murderer in a maximum security prison in order to extract a location of a murdered girls body and possibly 13 others, in exchange for his freedom.
As I said, only one episode down but have enjoyed that one so far. ...

I agree her acting is not great, I dont think the joyless script she has been given helps here.
Im enjoying the storyline enough though, but could do without all the pointless family emotional stuff that is weighing this down. And the snippets of what's going on inside her head when shes looking through the code are just plain daft.

I've just finished WOTC
It was good for a watch but didn't really serve any purpose other than to confirm what the world already knows about American policing.

Better Call Saul

Just started the final half of Series 6 - no spoilers for people still catching up but it's been a stunning series.

Now catching up with the Breaking Bad timeline and pretty sure we'll have some post BB scenes when Gene/Saul arrives back in ABQ

5 more episodes to go...

This week's episode was fantastic. Especially the opening scene. Outstanding.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

It's like the last few episodes of Breaking Bad - beginning to see it unravelling but not quite sure which way it's going to go.

Trainwreck: Woodstock 99

Some context before we start. Years ago, when I used to surf almost every weekend, I went to Newquey for a long weekend. I wasn't driving, so was therefore subjected to the music that the owner of the car had. He had two CD's. The first, and least offensive, was The Black Crowes covering Led Zeppelin. The second... a white label of the soon to be released third album from those lovable scamps Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. The weekend just flew past.

I hate Limp Bizkit, I absolutely can't stand them. Likewise Korn, Tool and any number of 'Nu Metal' bands from the 90's. I fucking hate them. So bearing that in mind, sitting through three episodes of a show featuring shit like that, not for me Jeff. However…

Someone, original Woodstock promoter Michael Lang, thought that reviving the three days of love, peace and music festival, but with the twist of a bill stuffed with the aforementioned Nu Metal wankers, would be a great idea. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t.

The original ‘69 festival was held on farmland in Bethel, upstate New York. The ‘99 version on an airforce base, covered in concrete. The original had free food. The revival confiscated festival goers own water, then charged them $12 for bottled. Back in ‘69, the bands preached peace and love. The ‘highlight’ of the ‘99 had Limp Bizkit, who unbelievably were the biggest band in the world at the time, who had a song called ‘Break Stuff’.

It’s very good this. Three parts, with a brilliant countdown clock which stops at significant moments. The tone of what was going to happen is set on the first afternoon of the festival as Sheryl Crow is subjected to a barrage of “Show us your tits” from the audience. Which was stuffed with self entitled frat boys. Most of whom thought that as they were white, rich and male, gave them permission to do, and behave, exactly as they liked. Which they most certainly did.

I’m not really aware of Korn, but they’re, or rather were, massive in the 90’s. They came on Friday night and whipped the already hyped up audience into a frenzy. British grunge band Bush, who had to go on straight after, weren’t so hyped however. But fair play to them as they managed to calm the crowd down, for a bit. The tone was set as Saturday night headliners Limp Bizkit (them again) came on and exhorted the crowd to basically raise the site to the ground.

Anarchy followed. Rapes, arson, looting extreme violence, the whole nine yards, which was eventually quelled with the interversion of state troopers. The most disturbing aspect of the whole debacle is the organizers, still to this day, refusing to accept any responsibility for what happened. Lang, who died back in January, stood up in front of a press conference and actually said that it was just a dozen or so “bad apples” that caused the riot. Deluded to the last.

The music was shit. The Bizkit have been canceled. Good. Lang’s legacy is tarnished. Good. There will never be another Woodstock. Good. Festivals are extremely well organized these days. Good.

It’s well worth watching. I don’t like the music, and neither will you, but give it a go. Find it on Netflix.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.