Watchlist is an irregularly scheduled series of posts featuring reviews and observations on streaming TV series and movies I’m watching.
Some really good shows, some really bad shows, and some good news, all in the latest Watchlist!
The Diplomat Season 3 (8 episodes, Netflix)
I firmly believe The Diplomat is one of the best-written series currently on TV. The writing, headed by showrunner and creator Deborah Cahn, is among the smartest and most provocative and you just never know what’s going to happen next. There are a few moments like that in this latest season, which I went through quickly. Season 2 had only six episodes (3 is back to eight episodes), and it really feels like the first two episodes of season 3 belonged at the end of season 2, but oh, that cliffhanger was too good to pass up (the final scenes of season 2 are among the best I’ve ever seen on a streaming season). Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell are once again at the top of their respective games as the titular diplomat and her husband, and the addition of Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford just totally compliment the other cast members: Ali Ahn, Ato Essandoh, Rory Kinnear—as the bonkers British PM!—and Nana Mensah. These episodes go by far too quickly and I can’t wait for season 4!
Task Season 1 (7 episodes, HBO, HBO Max, Max, or whatever they happen to be calling it this week)
I enjoyed this series when it stuck to “task,” that is the main story featuring the chase between Mark Ruffalo (an FBI task force member) and Tom Pelphrey, who rips off a drug dealer’s house of a huge amount of Fentanyl and, unfortunately, a young boy who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, forcing a kidnapping. But when the show veers off into Ruffalo’s character’s personal life, it absolutely loses me. Task was created by Brad Inglesby, who did Mare of Easttown, another HBO cop show set in southeastern Pennsylvania, and starring Kate Winslet as the title character. Ruffalo’s Tom Brandis and Winslett’s Mare Sheehan could definitely exist in the same universe, but Ingesby’s depiction of this area is depressing to say the least. Everyone seems to be a drug dealer, or a biker gang member, or depressed, corrupt, and screwed up. At this point, I would find it really refreshing if HBO would do a cop show where the protagonist isn’t haunted by some tragedy in his or her life, doesn’t have alcohol or drug abuse issues, and doesn’t have troubled kids at home. I mean, did Columbo bitch and moan about his wife and kids? (Did he even have kids?) Task was a bit of a slog for me over the first few episodes, but it redeemed itself with eps 6 and 7, which were exciting and well-written. Should there be another season? Sure, but team up Winslett with Ruffalo and make it extra depressing.
Slow Horses Season 5 (6 episodes, Apple TV)
I had a brief encounter with Sir Gary Oldman at Heathrow Airport—we shared the same underground tram to our respective gates—just days after his knighthood was bestowed upon him by Prince William, so coming home from vacation to watch season 5 of Slow Horses was a bit more of a special treat. (We didn’t speak, I just saw him a few feet from me.) This season is another great one, focusing a little bit on Roddy Ho, the Slough House IT wiz and most obnoxious man alive. When he gets a girlfriend all of the Slow Horses sit up and notice—who would date this guy?!—and everybody’s Spidey-sense goes off. It’s a fast-moving series (6 episodes per season are never enough for this show), and I think Season 6 is already in the can, probably in post-production, judging by the preview for it at the end of episode 6. Both the acting and writing (and the wonderful UK locations) are always top-notch, too. It’s going to be a long wait for season 6!
The Bad News …
I could not make it beyond one episode of The Last Frontier, the network TV action series masquerading as an Apple TV series, which stars Jason Clarke as an Alaskan marshal and Hayley Bennett as a mysterious government agent sent in to help when a prisoner transfer plane crashes, releasing a bunch of dangerous bad guys to wreak havoc on the remote area. And one of them is some kind of government super-agent, trained by Bennett’s character, and played by Dominic Cooper. Seriously, TEN episodes of this? Six would be a stretch. Just a personal observation to producers and writers: Throwing in a few “shits” and “fucks” doesn’t make this show of high-enough caliber to be on the same streamer as Slow Horses, Ted Lasso, and Severance. I’m shocked this series made it on any streaming service. It belongs on Wednesday nights at 10:00 PM on NBC, minus the curse words.
Also could not get into the PBS Masterpiece new, modern-day version of Maigret, starring the ridiculously chiseled and handsome Benjamin Wainwright. Maigret is a rumpled little pipe-smoking man in an overcoat, solving crimes in 1950s Paris, the French Columbo (albeit created before Peter Falk ever thought about putting on the raincoat). Made it through about 20 minutes of the first episode and gave up.
And then there’s this …
A House of Dynamite (Netflix movie, 2025 directed by Kathryn Bigelow)
SPOILER ALERT! Don’t read any further if you have plans to watch this … or read further if you want me to convince you NOT to watch it.
I had misgivings about watching A House of Dynamite from the beginning. In this day and age, I don’t particularly want to watch any movie that deals with a full-blown nuclear attack on the United States and how the White House deals with it, even if the president is Idris Elba. And while this film has a great cast, most of them are absolutely wasted, because this is the same story told three times from three different points of view. A missile is launched from somewhere and it is quickly confirmed that it’s heading towards the continental U.S. We see this play out in some government hidey-hole filled with giant TV monitors (this part anchored by Rebecca Ferguson, as an NSA type honcho), a similar place for the military (this part stars Tracy Letts as a high-ranking general), and with the president (Idris Elba) as he is whisked back in a helicopter to a safe place. In each case, we hear basically the same dialogue delivered by the same actors, and just how much you actually see them on screen changes. In fact, Elba isn’t actually seen as the president until the final 40 minutes or so of the movie, almost as if that was some kind of contractual obligation. Suffice it to say, this structure is incredibly annoying. Another annoying thing: the casting. Don’t get me wrong, the cast is great … besides Ferguson, Elba, and Letts, there’s also Gabriel Basso as a deputy NSA director, Jason Clarke as an Admiral (and Ferguson’s boss), Jared Harris as the Secretary of Defense, and—in definite blink and you’ll miss them mode—Willa Fitzgerald as a receptionist and Kaitlyn Deaver as the Defense Secretary’s daughter. But beyond all of this, the movie is at it’s most frustrating and annoying when it cops out and does not tell us what the President’s retaliation decision is, or if Chicago is actually destroyed (it’s implied), or who the attacking nation is. It’s really just a 45-minute movie told three times, with no payoff, no answers, NO CONCLUSION. If I could get my $7.99 monthly fee back from Netflix, I’d definitely ask for it after watching this. I was hoping for a modern-day version of Fail Safe; instead I got a movie that failed miserably.
Let’s End With Some Good News …
Ballard has finally been renewed for a second season on Amazon Prime. Why it took so long with the show’s immediate success is beyond me. Michael Connelly had mentioned on a podcast way back in the spring that Amazon had commissioned a writer’s room for a second season, and the show got a multi-million dollar tax credit from the state of California, so the delay beats me. Also announced: It’ll be based in part on The Waiting, the latest Ballard & Bosch novel, and the best in the series, in my humble opinion, even if that other Bosch—Maddie—is the bulk of the Bosch part in it. Whether or not we’ll see Madison Lintz join the cast remains to be seen. Also mentioned: Part of the season will contain a cold case originally investigated by a young Harry Bosch, which means a recasting of the character, sad to say. Cameron Monaghan will play the part (he was Jerome Valeska and his twin on Gotham, a kind of Joker stand-in, due to rights issues) and yes, there’s a spin-off series in the works, Bosch: Start of Watch, set in 1991, which will appear on yet another Amazon-owned streamer, MGM+. Sigh … let’s hope Titus Welliver at least has a role in both the prequel (maybe like Jim Parsons’ voice-overs in Young Sheldon) and a continuing role in Ballard.
@innocent-bystander.com 
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