What I watched: 2019

Key: (B) = book | (F) = film | (T) = television series | (P) = podcast series | (TH) = theater performance | (M) = musical performance |[R] = reread/rewatch/relisten | (Tk) = talk

• December
I should note that I saw a bunch of films over the holidays, on flights and on TV, and did not record any of them, essentially because none of them was worth recording.
• 11
• Saw Knives Out at the Nuovo Olimpia F Excellent romp.
• 06
• Watched Goodfellas on Netflix F Such a fine film; The Main Squeeze had never seen it.
• 01
• Started reading The Old Ways: a journey on foot by Robert Macfarlane B Impressive.
• November
• 26
• Started watching Ray Donovan s07 on Netflix T Same old, same old. Emminently watchable.
• 18
• Saw The Irishman at the Nuovo Sacher F Astonishingly good. Can they give three Best Actor Oscars to a single film?
• 17
• Started watching The Crown s03 on Netflix T Class on a stick.
• 15
• Finished watching Jack Taylor s03 on Netflix T Not all that innovative, but solid, clichéed hard-drinking, loner, ex-cop. The murder rate in his patch though beggars belief, as usual.
• 13
• Started watching Lilyhammer s02 on Netflix T I know I shouldn't laugh, but ...
• 12
• Watched Laundromat on Netflix F Quirky would be putting it mildly, and I question how much one would learn if one didn't already understand.
• 06
• Finished watching Peaky Blinders on Netflix s05 T Kind of knew in advance that the ultimate plan could not succeed, but confused as to how, actually, it was thwarted. And the ending was sufficiently open to permit another series, but I kind of hope they'll let it go now.
• 03
• Finished reading Defectors by Joseph Kanon B Cracking good spy thriller, mixing real people with fictional ones and casting the doubt of double agents over everything, right until the very last sentence.
• October
• 29
• Started reading Defectors by Joseph Kanon B and was pretty immediately taken with it.
• 25
• Finished reading Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan B and found myself wondering why it needed to be an alternative history, apart from one very obvious reason.
• 15
• Started reading Machines Like Me By Ian McEwan B
• 12
• Started watching Rotten s01 on Netflix T A bit like being bludgeoned over the head with a farmed salmon, and didn't tell me enough about avocados as plants, other than they are drinking the people's water. Also, [Balls, Nuts & Avocados](https://medium.com/@davidbowles/mexican-x-plainer-balls-nuts-avocados-6611eab0a64f) by David Bowles ought to have cut the head off that zombie factoid, but still it lurches on.
• 12
• Finished The Cockroach B and very good it was too. I still have no idea what reversalism is, or even whether it is a genuine thing, but it worked brilliantly.
• 11
• Started reading The Cockroach by Ian McEwan B Startlingly prescient and very funny.
• 07
• Started watching Peaky Blinders s05 on Netflix T Those haircuts!
• September
• 29
• Started watching Diagnosis s01 on Netflix T Interesting, although I find it too "emotional" and not enough about actual diagnosis. I'm sure I'm in a minority.
• 26
• Started watching Jack Taylor s01 on Netflix T Rather good Irish rogue cop with drinking and family problems.
• 22
• Watched Dogtown and Z-boys on iTunes F It had been on my list for a long time, and now that I've seen it, I'm very glad I have. Such fun, and terrifying.
• 20
• Finished The Spy on Netflix T Really excellent, and in a way I'm glad we were told how it would end. The muted tones of the Israeli scenes were very good. Sacha Baron Cohen was terrifically impressive.
• 16
• Started watching The Bletchley Circle San Francisco s01 on Netflix T Rather good period stuff, a bit anachronistic in places, but ripping good fun.
• 09
• Watched The Spy e01 on Netflix T Promising. Sacha Baron Cohen is very good
• 08
• Watched American Factory on Netflix F Solid, straightforward treatment; no surprises, no prognostications.
• August
• 31
• Watched Blinded by the Light at the Nuovo Olympia F Two fairy tales in one week. My cup runneth over. Great movie, well done. I wonder what the rest of the world will make of Luton?
• 29
• Started watching When they see us on Netflix T Harrowing
• 28
• Started watching Diagnosis On Netflix T A little too "emotional" for my taste, but that goes with the territory.
• 27
• Finished watching Designated Survivor s03 on Netflix F Still tosh, still entertaining.
• Started reading The Crooked Scythe by George Ewart Evans B
• 26
• Watched The Biggest Little Farm outdoors at the Nuovo Sacher F A fairy story for grownups, and enjoyable for all that. But they aren't the first, and, I hope, won't be the last. I'd love to see the balance sheet though.
• 25
• Watched The Man Who Would Be King on iTunes F and a very watchable epic it was too. By Jingo, I do enjoy Kipling.
• Watched The World-wide Work by Ethan Marcotte at New Adventures conference Tk Extremely interesting, though I disagree on one, fairly small, point.
• 24
• Finished reading The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling B Very enjoyable, although one problem with Gutenberg editions is the lack of explanatory footnotes. Things Kipling could take as read, I couldn't always fathom from context.
• 23
• Started reading The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling, from Gutenberg B
• 21
• Finished reading The Appian Way: Ghost Road, Queen of Roads by Robert A. Kaster B Very entertaining; a lot of learning, lightly worn, delightfully transmitted.
• 17
• Watched Baby Driver on Netflix F This I had seen before, on a flight, and loved it then. But the Main Squeeze had not. Is this *The Princess Bride* for boys? (We both enjoyed both, a lot, so do not take this as a serious genedered comment.) Great soundtrack, great chases, good resolution, if a little fabulous.
• 16
• Watched The Princess Bride on Netflix F I know, how can I not have already seen this? But I hadn't. Now I have. And it was delightful.
• 13
• Started reading The Appian Way: Ghost Road, Queen of Roads by Robert A. Kaster B
• 12
• Finished reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling B Comment tk
• 11
• Finished watching Stranger Things s03 on Netflix T Cracking good stuff, and for all the money sloshing about that I moaned about before, very well done. I'm still a bit dubious about the Mindflayer's biomechanics, but that's almost certainly just me. The final tease sequence suggests the vague possibility that Hopper endures, which will be interesting if, as rumours suggest, he may have to face Eleven in s04.
• July
• 29
• Watched Vice on iTunes F Very weird, very entertaining, and overall quite scary.
• 28
• Finished reading Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse, from Gutenberg. B Entertaining, slight romp; not enough about chickens (and especially not about roup and how to treat it ). More to the point, Ukridge is Johnson.
• 25
• The Sheltering Sky in Piazza San Cosimato F A show of two halves; the death of Port Moresby and Among the Tuareg. Beautifully shot, not too much in the way of good sense.
• 22
• Started watching Stranger Things s03 and my, how the kids have grown up. T Some signs that success has gone to the Duffers’ heads, via their wallets. The big, period set pieces are overdone, rather like what happened to Mrs Maisel.
• 21
• Finished watching Years & Years T The very end, with Edith’s brain dump and re-animation, was possibly the weakest part of the show, but I suppose they had to offer some sort of hope. I’d pay money to see the current PM dressed in red and scuttling down a red corridor.
• June
• 25
• The Dead Don’t Die F Absolutely wonderful genre-benre from Jim Jarmusch taking everything everyone knows about zombie movies and subverting it. Superb deadpan performances from Adam Driver and Bill Murray; Tilda Swinton is gloriously loopy; the whole thing a blast from start to (inevitable) finish. Concept reminded me a whole lot of Let The Right One In.
• 23
• Started watching Years & Years in iTunes T Wonderfully prescient, and terrific opening sequence of those few years passing by.
• 22
• Started watching Designated Survivor S03 on Netflix T More heart-warming tosh, I’m glad to say.
• 13
• The Name of the Rose on Netflix T At last it’s over, the huge budget spent, the fake snow swept away, the extras with interesting faces sent home. Alas, William of Baskerville did not utter the immortal “I expect you’re wondering why I’ve asked you to gather in the library,” but he should have.
• 05
• The Power of Metaphor by Mike Hill Tk Really interesting, very detailed look at Joseph Campbell and Carl Gustav Jung in the movies especially, for me, in Jurassic Park, which I now want to see again.
• May
• 30
• The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal B So. Very. Good.
• 14
• Stranger Things S02 T If anything, better than S01. (My verdict after five episodes.)
• 08
• Finished Stranger Things S01 T Great fun, and the kids – especially Eleven – are just great. I still hate the loud noise = scary trope, but there’s not much I can do about that. Will we watch S02? Not entirely a given at the moment.
• Finished Three Hands in the Fountain B Another jolly good Roman romp.
• 05
• Organ recital at San Antonio dei Portoghesi M Improvisation. ’Nuff said.
• 04
• Our Planet S01e01 T Too little, too late, but still stunning.
• Domus Aurea A Absolutely spell-binding, especially the virtual reality. Weekends only, and not cheap, but entirely worthwhile.
• April
• 18
• Godless S01 T Finished, and what a treat it was. Of all the genres, I really do like westerns best of all, I think, and this one was really up there. Predictable, but what’s wrong with that? I can’t imagine there will be a second series, but I can hope.
• 11
• Rebellion S02 T Finished, just as I returned from a week in Ireland. I don’t have any clear notion of how accurate the series is, but the drama is good and gripping and the production values high. Most enjoyable.
• March
• 25
• Stranger Things s01 T Not yet sure what all the fuss is about. I can’t stand the cheap trick of sudden superloud noise = scary. Because it is.
• 23
• Rebellion S02 T Season Two fast forwards four years to the 1920s. Still very watchable.
• 23
• Godless S01e01 T Been meaning to watch this for a while, and luckily it cropped up on a list The Main Squeeze was taking notice of. Good cowboy stuff, all the usual tropes. Should be fun.
• 22
• Triple Frontier F Netflix original, special ops heist movie. Pretty good, with lots of atmospheric jungle and manly, soldierly hugs among the band of brothers. You know it will all go wrong, of course, and when it does there’s a bit of a The Treasure of the Sierra Madre vibe to it. No dead beews though. And a nice open ending.
• 20
• The Vietnam War T Finished, finally. And the reason it took so long was simply that it is so hard to watch. Utterly gripping, and equally hard to make sense of. Were the protests and Nixon’s Silent Majority the start of the current almost complete fission in America’s polity?
• 19
• Rebellion S01 T Finished watching Season One. A bit black and white, but well made and engaging.
• 5
• Rebellion S01E01 T The Easter Uprising and consequences from Netflix. Rather good.
• 3–4
• The Vietnam War e08 T My Lai and Cambodia. Almost unwatchable, and cannot take my eyes off it.
• 2
• The Vietnam War e07 T So harrowing, and so important. This episode closed with Kent State, and if the cops now could see the cops then and vice versa …
• 1
• Mrs Maisel S02 T One or two episodes where they definitely thought too much of themselves, but overall still strong and still funny.
• February
• 11
• Luther s05 finished T So dark. London is the true star, but when were there ever that many serial killers?
• 9
• The Green Book F Very entertaining, very ordinary. And then Spotify played me some Don Shirley Trio.
• 3
• Luther s05e01 T