TV and Movie Reviews - September 2020

Short takes on TV shows and movies I watched in September. If the Blue Jays get blown out of the first-round playoffs, this list will get longer next month. 

TV Shows 

• Lovecraft Country: Based on the Matt Ruff novel. Each episode (of the three we've seen) has been compelling, but I'm having trouble figuring out where they're going with the series. (HBO)
• The Boys, Season 2: So far, a promising start to the season with more characters and more gore. (Amazon Prime)
• Killerman: An undercover cop gets into a car accident and ends up with 26 million in cash, a bagful of cocaine, and a squad of dirty cops after him. This one is well made, gritty and gory, and worth watching if you like action flicks. (Amazon Prime)
• Challenger: The Final Flight: A four-part documentary series about the Challenger disaster. I'm quite familiar with the disaster (I read the Rogers Report and a couple of books about it), so this didn't bring out any new facts, but it did make it very real as they interviewed many of the key NASA and Morton Thiokol people. Well done and worth watching. (Netflix)
• Fear City: New York vs the Mafia. A three-part documentary about how the FBI and US attorneys investigated and prosecuted the Mafia in New York in the 1980s. Another well done and fascinating documentary from Netflix.

Movies

• Inspector Lynley Mysteries: We binge-watched all six seasons of this and liked it a lot. I did find some of the episodes were a bit predictable but the characterization and acting made this series one of the better British police procedurals that we've seen. (Hoopla)
• Destruction: Los Angeles: Absolutely bad disaster flick with virtually no redeeming merit. Volcano, bad as that is, is far better. (Netflix)
• VelociPastor: We knew this was going to be bad but we had no idea how bad. It passed the line into so bad it's good, or at least hilariously funny. (Amazon Prime)
• The Godfather: One of the great American films and perhaps the best adaptation ever of a novel. I've seen it now many times, and it still captivates me. I'd put it in my top 10 films of all time. (Netflix)