It’s been a while since I last did a roundup of TV I have watched recently, partly that’s because a lot of sporting events got in the way of my series watching, and partly it’s because there haven’t been that many things that have really, truly, grabbed me. If it’s good enough for a separate post, I’ll do that, but here are those that don’t quite spark more than a paragraph.

Land of Women

It wasn’t clear to start with what kind of a show this was - sort of a crime caper, sort of fish-out-of-water comedy, sort of a moving family drama. Turns out it doesn’t need to be just one of those, as it was brilliant and encompassed all those elements. Eva Longoria was great, and all the leads had great chemistry in multiple languages which is always impressive. The story was moving, but funny when it needed to be, and there were beautiful Spanish vistas and farming and tractors to behold as well. It’s not clear whether a second series would work, but I’d be here for it!

Orphan Black: Echoes

Like so many people, I loved the original Orphan Black, and that was so much because of Tatiana Maslaney in all the many different roles she played. Maslaney didn’t make an appearance in this spin-off show, set many years later and following the daughter of our main character. It’s a shame because a few other characters did appear, but even without her, I still enjoyed the series. It got off to a bit of a slow start and had to stick with it but as the mystery started to unravel and the characters started playing off each other instead of against each other, it got a lot more interesting. Worth a look, at least.

Douglas is Cancelled

This was so good. Four short episodes ramped full of tension and humour and that creepy feeling when people are up to no good. Everyone in it is top notch and it tells a neat story that wraps up well. Good television, well made, definitely a highlight.

Geek Girl

I don’t know much about the source material for this, except that they are a beloved series of young adult books. This adaptation on Netflix was great, it reminded me of others like Never Have I Ever - just young teenage angst and falling in and out of crushes, and in this case also trying to make it as a model even though you have no natural abilities in that direction. Really good with a talented young cast.

The Boys

It’s weird how I fell into watching this - in a room with other people having a conversation about the latest episodes, someone asked if I’d seen it. I said no but it sounded awful and so I probably wouldn’t. But then I was kind of tempted to watch, and got totally sucked in. The first series is great, but I do think by the fourth I was thinking, do I really care about this anymore? It’s probably a good thing it’s wrapping up with the next series.

Nashville

Finally, I have watched the last two series’ of this country music drama. I was obsessed with this show for a couple of years, but then just left it after the plane crash. The quality went way down when it moved networks and although the songs were still good, the storylines just went so over-the-top soap. We have who’s-the-father pregnancies, and bipolar disorder diagnoses that just disappear, and car crash deaths, and having to escape a cult and ugh. Enough. I powered through to the end but in reality just want to relive the early days of this show again.

And just a shout out to a handful of season threes I have watched recently: Acapulco continues to be brilliant. I had assumed this would be the end of it but it’s been renewed for even more fun and games. Ghosts US, every time I start this I think, well sure but it’s not as good as ours, and then I end up falling even more in love with all the characters. And finally Bridgerton, which was weirdly split into two and suffered for it, I think. All the tension sort of dissipated. But it had an interesting ending that sort of frees everyone up to start over.