Watchlist is an irregularly scheduled series of posts featuring short reviews and observations on streaming TV series I’m watching.
I’ve watched a lot since the last appearance of “Watchlist” here on innocent-bystander.com, but lately my streaming choices seem to be confined to the British side of shows. Here’s what I’ve watched—and pretty much liked—in the almost-five months since I wrote last.
Black Doves Season 1 • Netflix • 6 Episodes
I really enjoyed this spy thriller series on Netflix, starring Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and the always great Sarah Lancashire. The Black Doves are a secret organization with agents that infiltrate the personal lives of important—or soon to be important—British individuals. Knightley plays Helen Webb, married to an up-and-coming British politician, who may someday be the Prime Minister. Sarah Lancashire (of Happy Valley fame, one of my all-time favorite British series) plays her mysterious boss, Mrs. Reed, who sells the information Webb gathers to the highest bidder. Ben Whishaw is Sam Young, a paid assassin in Reed’s employ who is friends with Webb and watches over her. The plot is suitably convoluted and twisty, and the whole show reminds me a bit of Slow Horses (only not quite as good). It’s already been renewed for a second season.
Blue Lights Seasons 1 & 2 • Britbox • 6 Seasons Each Season
I fell in love with this show after a very slow start. I had read that it was popular in the UK, so I watched the first episode and was underwhelmed. Then, in a moment of extreme boredom coupled with “What can I watch tonight?” ennui, I watched the second episode and I was hooked. The first season deals with four rookie coppers at the end of their probationary period, where they either make or break as Belfast police. The four include an older woman who was a social worker, Grace Ellis (played by Sian Brooke), and three young newcomers, Tommy Foster (Nathan Braniff, who reminds me of a taller, more buff Tom Holland, or maybe a shorter, less buff, Richard Madden), Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin), and Jen Robinson (Hannah McClean), who prefers to just stay at the station and file reports, and who just happens to be the daughter of one of the top cops, and is having an affair with her boss. All four are teamed up with more seasoned officers (played by Martin McCann and Richard Dormer). They each have their own assorted problems, making this series really two-thirds copper show and one-third soap opera, but God … it’s engrossing and well-done. Filmed in Belfast (I even recognized a street and house from my beloved Line of Duty in the final scene of series one, episode six), still haunted by “The Troubles,” I look forward to further seasons. Season 2 is just as good as season 1, if not better, picking up a year after the first.
Sherwood Season 2 • BritBox • 6 Episodes
This fascinating series about crime in the town of Nottingham, UK had a great first season starring David Morrissey (The Walking Dead), Lorraine Ashbourne, and my favorite, Lesley Manville. Morrissey’s character, DCS Ian St. Clair, is called back to duty as a war between two crime families erupts in the second season (the first season played off the real-life miners strikes in the 1980s and their impact on modern day life in the town). Manville isn’t in this one as much as the first season, but she’s still wonderful. A third season has been approved by the BBC
The Tower Season 3 • Britbox • 4 Episodes
This British copper show stars Gemma Whalen (Yara Greyjoy on Game of Thrones) as DI Sarah Collins and is based on a series of books by the appropriately named Kate London, as the series takes place in that storied city. The Tower starts off in season 1 as a story about a housing tower where a death occurs, and that one incident has ramifications throughout all three seasons. Sadly, while the books are continuing, the TV series is not. It was announced in November 2024 that season 3 was the last one. Still, all three seasons are worth a look and offer 12 great episodes of British TV.
Until I Kill You • Britbox • 4 Episodes
This disturbing four-part, one-and-done series stars the always great Anna Maxwell Martin (the imposing Inspector Carmichael on Line of Duty, a character who deserves her own series) and the equally great Shaun Evans (nine seasons of Endeavour, Oxford’s favorite detective). Martin is Delia Balmer, an odd and unlikable nurse who picks up John Sweeney (Evans) at a bar and enters into a relationship with him. Sweeney slowly reveals his true colors—he’s a serial killer—and repeatedly tries to kill Balmer in this true story. What makes it even more harrowing is all the abuse Balmer goes through from the police and the court system while trying to make Sweeney pay for his crimes. Both Martin and Evans are wonderful in this series, even if it’s heart-breaking at times.
Other Shows
Bad Monkey • Apple TV+ • 10 Episodes
I really enjoyed this adaptation of the Carl Hiaasen novel about a not-so-nice cop (Vince Vaughn) in southern Florida, from the executive producer of Ted Lasso and Scrubs, Bill Lawrence. It’s funny, surprisingly warm at times, and just an all-around great show. And yes, there is a bad monkey in it, alongside voodoo, real estate fraud, and a very obnoxious neighbor, plus a great voice-over intro to each episode. I hope there’s a second season.
Bad Sisters Season 2 • Apple TV+ • 8 episodes
Not sure if we needed a second season of Sharon Horgan’s Bad Sisters, but i did enjoy it, even if it wasn’t quite as good as the first one. Spending more time with the Garvey sisters in picturesque Ireland is always a good idea, but I don’t see a third season coming anytime soon. And god, Fiona Shaw is absolutely wonderful in this.
Moonflower Murders • Masterpiece on PBS • 6 Episodes
Lesley Manville returns as former editor Susan Ryeland in this sequel to the Magpie Murders, written by original book author Anthony Horowitz. Once again, Ryeland shares the screen with the fictional detective Atticus Punt, as she’s forced to investigate a missing persons case at a quaint British countryside hotel that might be connected to one of her former author’s books, featuring Punt. There’s a third book—Marble Hall Murders—in May, so hopefully an additional series is in the offing.
The Marlow Murder Club Season 1 • Masterpiece PBS • 4 Episodes
I enjoyed this short series based on the first novel by Robert Thorogood in his Marlow Murder Club series. Former Moneypenny from the Pierce Brosnan 007 era, the aptly-named Samantha Bond stars as a retired archeologist solving murders in her beautiful, little British town—Marlow—alongside her new friends, played by Cara Horgan and Jo Martin in this enjoyable series, which is the epitome of a nice little cozy mystery.
Protection • Season 1 • Britbox • 4 Episodes
Protection concerns a UK witness protection officer—played by Siobhan Finneran (Sarah Lancashire’s sister in Happy Valley)—who loses a family under her protection, when a mole in the protection office reveals their whereabouts. She has to protect the surviving 12-year-old daughter, find the mole, while covering her own butt because she had an affair with a fellow officer (Barry Ward from Bad Sisters), who may or may not be bent. It was enjoyable, but in the end the conspiracy behind it was a bit to far out in the weeds to fathom without too much exposition. Still, it’s nice to see Finneran in a starring role.
Rogue Heroes Season 1 • MGM+ • 6 Episodes
Boy, I had a hard time with this series, which was on Amazon Prime for a short period (a second season debuts any day now, as I write this). It’s about a group of unruly and borderline insane British soldiers who form the basis for England’s SAS (Special Air Service), an elite miltary group, during WWII. It has a great cast—Connor Swindells, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Allen, Sofia Botella, and Dominic West—and a pedigreed producer/showrunner in Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. But it has loud, inappropriate music and at times impenetrable Irish accents, both of which are somewhat offset by great action sequences. I didn’t really like this series until the final episode of season 1, and it looks like there’s some major cast changes for the second season, which is on MGM+, a streamer I don’t subscribe to … hopefully it will eventually show up on Prime again.
Sad News, Bosch Fans …
Well, Bosch Legacy is no more. The impending season 3—due in March, I believe—is the final one. I’m hopeful that the still unofficially titled Ballard series, starring Maggie Q as Renee Ballard, is actually titled Ballard & Bosch and we’ll have both Titus Welliver and Madison Lintz as recurring characters. I’m guessing the Legacy show kind of priced itself out, and it’s cheaper to have the Bosches—Harry and Maddie—as guest stars rather than regulars, but we’ll see. Renee Ballard will be introduced in the final episode of Legacy season 3, so by then, we should know the fate of the Bosch Universe on Amazon Prime, which seems more set on a Reacher Universe these days (the proposed Jerry Edgar series with Jamie Hector is evidently dead, while a Reacher spinoff starring Maria Sten as Frances Neaghley is in the works). Nobody—including Bosch creator Michael Connelly and stars Welliver and Lintz—are talking much about the future of Bosch online, but also neither have been announced as being in any other series as regulars, so here’s hoping Ballard is really Ballard & Bosch.
ADDED: Well, I guess I jinxed it. It was announced hours after this post went live that Titus Welliver is going to guest on The Equalizer series on CBS with a possible spin-off featuring his character. From Deadline: “Welliver will play Hudson Reed, a former top CIA operative with a dark secret who is connected to Robin McCall (Queen Latifah) by an old mentor.” I hope it doesn’t stop him from playing Bosch on the Ballard show.
Double Standard …
I enjoyed both first seasons of the Netflix shows The Night Agent and The Recruit when they first debuted a couple of years back. Both have second seasons debuting soon—The Night Agent on January 23 and The Recruit on January 30 on the streamer. Why Netflix decided to show these one week apart is beyond me; maybe they want to get them on the air before Prime’s blockbuster Reacher releases its third season in mid-February. But both these shows are very similar, at least to me. Both have young white leads of a similar appearance, both are guys thrust into heroic roles that they never planned for. Recruit is more humorous and has the added allure of Laura Haddock as a mysterious spy-type who helps recruit Noah Centineo out, and Night Agent is more serious and has better action sequences, I feel. I’ll watch both, but I think Netflix would be better off releasing them farther apart from each other … spreading the wealth, so to speak, if each has second seasons as good as their firsts.
What I’m Watching Now …
Lucy Worsley Investigates Season 2 is on PBS on Tuesday nights, just a few days after its BBC debut each week. So far I’ve seen episodes 1 and 2, on Jack the Ripper and William the Conqueror and enjoyed both. I first discovered Worsley while channel-surfing on a trip to London a few years back and promptly went out and bought her book, A Very English Murder (which might be called The Art of the English Murder here in the states), which was the basis for the TV series I found while surfing. She’s had two other good standalone PBS series, one on Agatha Christie (also based on her great biography of the mystery queen), and the other, more recent one on Sherlock Holmes and author/creator Arthur Conan Doyle. Both are available on the PBS app if you’re a member.
@innocent-bystander.com 