Short Reviews 25Q3

Being a list of brief notes on other culture consumed over the this quarter of the year that I either abandoned or don’t feel needs a longer discussion.

Agatha All Along- Disney+.I really like Katherine Hahn in this but somehow I just can't keep watching - I don't really understand what is at stake and have no real vested interest in the outcome of the story or the arcs of any of the characters, perhaps a consequence of a lack of interest in the whole Marvel Universe, it is just too big to care about! Abandoned for now.

Sacremento- Netflix?.Road trip movie with annoying side kick, kind of like 'A Real Pain' but at least it held my attention a little more than that did. Might even finish it one day.

Karen Pirie S2- ITVx.I enjoyed the first series but this one just seems so slow I can't get engaged with it. Each scene just seems to go on a bit longer than necessary to tell the story. Abandoned, sadly

Unforgivable- BBC1.Some excellent acting and writing in this story of child abuse and its effects on the whole family. I can't see anything good coming out of this and I’m not sure I want to see these people go from a bad situation to one that is even worse.

Artificial Condition- Martha Wells.The good thing about novellas is that you can read them in a day or so! Although sold (and sometimes priced) as novels some of the murderbot series are quite short and this is no exception. It tells a fairly straightforward tale of our hero invesitigating the massacre buried in his memory and helping out a group of humans to retrieve some research stolen from them, along the way meeting up with a powerful (and helpful) ship AI. Good insights into the human condition and a fun little, undemanding read.

Rogue Protocol- Martha Wells.Another short but fun read. It's largely a brawl on an abandoned terra-forming platform but the premise is set up quite neatly, along with the unwanted but ultimately successfully discharged responsibility to keep yet another group of random humans safe from harm. A neat ending and a clever set up for the ongoing story linking us back to the first book. Clever and fun.

SS-GB- Audible.Inspired to listen by reading 'Britain at War', I probably did not give this Len Deighton classic the attention it deserved as the disjointed listening obscured the clever and carefully thought out plot, but even a superficial listen revealed the convincing depth of atmosphere this novel evokes.

Task- Sky Atlantic.Mark Ruffalo as a washed up FBI agent (was that a prosthetic beer belly or did he over-eat for his art?) Started promisingly but too slow, too much mumbling and looks like getting very dark. Abandoned.