"What to look for on: TV, Online, Radio, & Cinema"

Don't Say Good Luck

2026

Drama / Musical

Sophie Birenbaum is ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical — until she's suddenly facing more drama at home than on the stage.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/bvWqHSFkO5s?si=nRXdP7LN16V2hZzG

On Netflix

BTW, I saw Disclosure Day last night.   That's 2.5h I won't get back. 

It's a Spielberg film but oddly has a lot of British (and Irish) people in it some of whom use faux US accents.  I thought maybe it was filmed in the UK or Ireland but it was filmed in New York and other USA places.  Bit odd.  Not sure what that casting was about.

Spoiler (sort of):

There's a twist at the end regarding ET but it made me think, this is just Spielberg out of ideas and recycling the entire thing.  In fact, the story is very similar to Close Encounters with all sorts of parallels with that story.   It could really be called Close Encounters Part II or even ET Part II. 

Only way to know for sure if you'd like it is to watch.  That's the same MO for all movies.

Don't Say Good Luck
2026
Drama / Musical

Sophie Birenbaum is ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical — until she's suddenly facing more drama at home than on the stage.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/bvWqHSFkO5s?si=nRXdP7LN16V2hZzG

On Netflix - @SimCityAT

Sounds like a total turn off. Teenage musical movie.  Oh dear.

Half-Man (HBO series, 6 episodes):

Looks like a difficult watch.  Downloadable of course.  Richard Gadd and Jamie Bell are the leads.  Bell is obviously a solid actor.   I had thought Gadd could be a one hit wonder post-Bay Reindeer but it looks like he's doing strong gritty work.

Don't Say Good Luck
2026
Drama / Musical

Sophie Birenbaum is ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical — until she's suddenly facing more drama at home than on the stage.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/bvWqHSFkO5s?si=nRXdP7LN16V2hZzG

On Netflix - @SimCityAT
Sounds like a total turn off. Teenage musical movie. Oh dear. - @fluffy2560

Sunny Sandler, last name sound familiar?

BTW, I saw Disclosure Day last night. That's 2.5h I won't get back.
It's a Spielberg film but oddly has a lot of British (and Irish) people in it some of whom use faux US accents. I thought maybe it was filmed in the UK or Ireland but it was filmed in New York and other USA places. Bit odd. Not sure what that casting was about.

Spoiler (sort of):

There's a twist at the end regarding ET but it made me think, this is just Spielberg out of ideas and recycling the entire thing. In fact, the story is very similar to Close Encounters with all sorts of parallels with that story. It could really be called Close Encounters Part II or even ET Part II.

Only way to know for sure if you'd like it is to watch. That's the same MO for all movies. - @fluffy2560

I fell asleep to it 😂

Don't Say Good Luck
2026
Drama / Musical

Sophie Birenbaum is ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical — until she's suddenly facing more drama at home than on the stage.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/bvWqHSFkO5s?si=nRXdP7LN16V2hZzG

On Netflix - @SimCityAT
Sounds like a total turn off. Teenage musical movie. Oh dear.  - @fluffy2560
Sunny Sandler, last name sound familiar?
- @SimCityAT

Oh gawd, even more reason to make sure my bargepole is lengthwise challenged. 

Never liked her Dad much either.  Never understood why he was ever famous.

BTW, I saw Disclosure Day last night. That's 2.5h I won't get back. .... I fell asleep to it 😂 - @SimCityAT

I missed several parts but I still knew what was going on.  It must have been superfluous to the story.

I wonder if people like Spielberg would give refunds.  If they had to, then they'd think twice about trying to foist that load of old malarkey on the public.   How thick do they think we are?

On second thoughts don't answer that.

The Creator - on Netflix.

Weird movie as it seems like it's revisiting the Viet Nam war but with sci-fi American Imperialists fighting robot AI freedom fighters in the rice paddies of Asia. Special effects are good.  A lot of money was pumped into this.  I am not sure who paid for it but either Japanese and/or Chinese money was involved.  The acting is good though and the casting works well.   It says on the credits filming took place in Cambodia, Indonesia and Nepal.

Mutiny

2026

Action / Crime / Thriller

After witnessing his billionaire boss' murder and being framed for the crime, Cole Reed boards a cargo ship on a one-man crusade to avenge his boss' death only to discover an international conspiracy.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/2Iqvbe98Gb4?si=6sHCh5MIyNBUJA8V

New movie from Ridley Scott (at the cinema for now):

The Dog Stars

Set after a devastating flu pandemic that has almost eradicated humanity, the film centers on Hig, a former civilian pilot, and Bangley, a hardened former Marine as they confront outside threats and hold onto the possibility of a better life beyond where they currently live.

Netflix:   The Whisper Man

The film revolves around a widowed crime writer who, after his 8 year-old son is abducted, looks to his estranged father, a retired police detective, for help. He then discovers a connection between his son's abduction and the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as The Whisper Man.

Extinction - on Netflix.

It was OK - relatively low budget zombie flick.

Not sure about some of the acting and the use of green screen to generate the freezing wastelands of what could be NYC. Special effects (zombies) quite good.  I did feel I wanted to know more about the evolving zombies. Maybe they should revisit this as a TV show.

Blast from the past:

I've just been watching an episode of The Champions from the 1960s.

Remarkable what passed for TV back then.  Well worth a revisit.  Typical of that period. Groovy theme tune.

William Gaunt is the only Champion still alive and still working at 90 (as of 2025).

1960s - those were the days

On Netflix - The Last House

Jason Delgado, an unemployed engineer, is fishing when he sees an unusual-looking inbound storm. Just as it starts to rain, Jason returns to his suburban Seattle home where he lives with his wife Ann, their two children Graham and Ruth, and the family dog Cassidy. When they try to leave, they discover that none of their doors or windows can open, their Internet and phones no longer work, and their neighbors are similarly trapped, while others are stranded outside. Jason tries to break through the windows, walls and floor, but the water has created a barrier that prevents exit on all sides.

It's got a terrible rating on movie sites but it's not that bad.  I liked the male lead - Wagner Moura.  He did a great job as Escobar previously (TV show Narcos).   

One thing which really stood out - it was supposedly Seattle but looked remarkably like the UK.  And sure enough, checking the production details,  it was mainly filmed at Shepperton Studios which is West of London.  I could tell immediately the houses were more typical of British houses.  Special effects are quite good.  The story is a bit disjointed but meh, it's not expected to be Shakespeare.

Tell Me I Love You (2019)

Desperate for money, three best friends devise an outrageous plan to get married and inherit money from a trust fund.

Whole film on YouTube for free

https://youtu.be/TzKlZObtwm4?is=2Q6RzNioFgHc4iue

Although low rating on IMDb, it is very funny.

The Runner

2026

Action / Drama / Thriller

Maia Marten, a brilliant London lawyer, has her life shattered by a single call on her morning run: her son has been taken. To get him back, she must keep running, obey every ruthless command, and trust no one-each second a test of how far a mother will go to save her child.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/zz4rsZLcauY?si=VkuajIpGhwV0-Org

On Prime

Netflix is increasing its prices again.

But NOT in HUngary as the prices increased n March.

Mobland - returns for Season 2 on Sept 18 (2026).

Downloadable (of course) soon thereafter.   

Probably one of the most significant "crime" series since the Sopranos.

Went through 2 vietnam movies last night.

A Rumor of War and Hamburger Hill.

Sickening.

Anna Pigeon

2026 ‧ 1 season

Anna Pigeon flees city life for the solitude of America's stunning national parks following a devastating loss; while Anna tries to outrun her demons, her focus turns to solving crimes that have taken place within national park grounds.

Network; USA Network

American Horror Story (AHS) Season 13 returns on 24 September 2026 as 13 episodes.   The number 13 is significant.

The first and second week will both feature three episodes a week, followed by two episodes weekly, up until the season finale on October 29. It will also be available on Hulu in the United States and stream internationally on Disney+.

It will be obviously and pretty much immediately on a file sharing service near you.

This show usually features the same main actors playing different parts in different seasons. It's an interesting quirk but also really shows the actors' range.   Lots of famous guests pop up.  IMHO, it's a good show.

It's hard to write a summary of what it's about but it's worth noting all the seasons are interlinked in some way.  Mixture of witchcraft, devil worshipping, time travel and alternate universes.

The excellent Slow Horses returns for Season 6 on 16 September 2026.

There are 6 episodes in this season.  1 episode a week.

At a download near you immediately after the air date on Apple TV (rapidly becoming a tour de force in TV and movie production).

Afternoon movie was Companion on Netflix.

A young woman finds out she's a robot amongst love, murder, larceny, mayhem and double crosses

It was surprisingly OK and the cast was pretty good.  Some if it was in German which was amusing.

Emmys winners

https://news.sky.com/share/13585881

Ten Pound Poms

In 1956, a group of British citizens respond to an Australian migration scheme that promises a better life and good employment prospects for just £10. For Annie, Terry, and their two children, a move to Australia offers a way for Terry to escape the scars of his service during the Second World War. In contrast, Kate arrives in Australia as a young nurse and claims to have migrated on her own due to her fiancé not wanting to make the move, but the real truth behind her journey is something else entirely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Pound_Poms

Ten Pound Poms

In 1956, a group of British citizens respond to an Australian migration scheme that promises a better life and good employment prospects for just £10. For Annie, Terry, and their two children, a move to Australia offers a way for Terry to escape the scars of his service during the Second World War. In contrast, Kate arrives in Australia as a young nurse and claims to have migrated on her own due to her fiancé not wanting to make the move, but the real truth behind her journey is something else entirely.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Pound_Poms - @SimCityAT

Well that's wrong. 

£10 was not applicable to ex-servicemen/women.   It was free for them. 

I know because my parents were Ten Pound Poms post-war.   They were there until 1960.

Emmys winners
https://news.sky.com/share/13585881 - @SimCityAT

I'm really surprised Matthew Rhys got an award for Widow's Bay.   It was OK with some standouts from the actors namely Kate O'Flynn (playing Patricia).   But, after all that,  The Pitt was absolute leagues ahead as best show. No accounting for it not winning across the board.  There are some seriously good performances in The Pitt. Legends.

Good to see Rhea Seehorn won for Pluribus. One of the best sci-fi shows I've seen in recent years.  It's yet another Apple show.  Looks like Apple is wearing the crown for sci-fi now with quite a stable of good shows.

Ten Pound Poms
In 1956, a group of British citizens respond to an Australian migration scheme that promises a better life and good employment prospects for just £10. For Annie, Terry, and their two children, a move to Australia offers a way for Terry to escape the scars of his service during the Second World War. In contrast, Kate arrives in Australia as a young nurse and claims to have migrated on her own due to her fiancé not wanting to make the move, but the real truth behind her journey is something else entirely.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Pound_Poms - @SimCityAT
Well that's wrong.

£10 was not applicable to ex-servicemen/women. It was free for them.

I know because my parents were Ten Pound Poms post-war. They were there until 1960. - @fluffy2560

Was fiction, but there was some truth to it. Shame there were only 2 seasons of 6 episodes each.

Tale of two Cities

2026 - (4 part miniseries)

In 1782 London, Lucie Manette's life changes when she learns her presumed-dead father may be alive in Paris; she enlists erratic lawyer Sydney Carton to free the imprisoned messenger, French émigré Charles Darnay, sparking a complex love triangle.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/pf4sOGLOV9Y?is=WN82Xacc6NLfwN4Z

[With going by how well made Robin Hood was, by the same studio, this is proving to be going the same way. So I'll watch the first 2 episodes and see.]

In the UK, the series will be broadcast by BBC One in 2026. In the US, it premiered on MGM+ on September 6, 2026.

Filming was originally expected to begin in Budapest, Hungary in September 2025, but it was later postponed to 8 October 2025.

Tale of two Cities
2026 - (4 part miniseries)
In 1782 London, Lucie Manette's life changes when she learns her presumed-dead father may be alive in Paris; she enlists erratic lawyer Sydney Carton to free the imprisoned messenger, French émigré Charles Darnay, sparking a complex love triangle.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/pf4sOGLOV9Y?is=WN82Xacc6NLfwN4Z

[With going by how well made Robin Hood was, by the same studio, this is proving to be going the same way. So I'll watch the first 2 episodes and see.]

In the UK, the series will be broadcast by BBC One in 2026. In the US, it premiered on MGM+ on September 6, 2026.
Filming was originally expected to begin in Budapest, Hungary in September 2025, but it was later postponed to 8 October 2025. - @SimCityAT

Nice one - I already got eps 1 and 2 downloaded.  Looks like one episode a week. I am finding there are not enough shows at the moment.

Wikipages on the show here and Budapest Reporter has info (good for knowing productions going on here - there are lots of them usually happening, some within a stones throw of my house).

Hitler and the Rise of the Nazis

On Netflix.  Lots of colourised clips, recreated events and commentary on how the Nazis came into being. Judging by the cast's names, it was made in Hungary.

I am finding it interesting how the perfect storm of political events like nationalism etc led to WW1 and then set the scene for the Weimar Republic and thence the National Socialists (Nazis etc). Some of it is in German which is helpful to hear. There are some significant parallels with what we see going on now across the world.

Berlinger (the Director) has said he intended for the series to be a message to younger viewers and a warning that "normal people can do horrific things"

Armaguedon (Armageddon) - a French language movie on Netflix with chucks of English and German and dialogue and Dutch writing on walls etc.

I chose this movie because it was only 1.5h long and a thriller and it had Alain Delon in it.

After years of poverty, Carrier, a repairman, inherits a large sum of money upon his brother's death in an accident. Now rich, he decides it is time to make his mark. Becoming more and more mentally unstable, he begins to threaten police and the government signing his tracts.  He styles himself as Armageddon and hangs around in Belgian gay bars knocking off sex workers by electrocuting them.  It's an odd film.

One strange thing is the main evil doer inherits 250K French Francs and acts like a Musk gadzillionaire.  It's hardly any money these days - touch under 173K EUR.  Wouldn't even buy him a decent top end sports car.  Yet he intends to destroy the world by hiring his mentally retarded friend to be his accomplice in some obscure grand plan  where he wants to kill off important figures - he dons fake beards and glasses etc to be photographed with his potential victims.  Eventually his dim friend grows a conscience.

Some good views of what France, London and Belgium was like in 1977.

Delon is a psychiatrist who profiles the looney/evil killer.   Always liked Delon.

Today's afternoon movie:

Alain Delon is Le Samourai (The Samurai) in this slow burn noir assassination movie from 1967.  1h 45m of a seedy France of trench coats, guns and glamour of the 1960s. This is considered to be Delon's and the movie maker Melville's finest work which has had huge influence in US cinema for decades. Also stars his wife, Nathalie. Downloadable on an Internet near you - with subtitles and dual French/German soundtracks. 

This movie is also known in German as Der Eiskalte Engel (the Ice Cold Angel - of death presumably) and also The Godson in the USA.  I watched with original French sound and English subtitles.

I was amused to read the cast included a character "Une jeune fille au Chewing-Gum".   Franglais if I ever saw it.

The plot:

Impassive hitman Jef Costello lives in a spartan single-room Paris apartment and keeps a small bird in a cage as a pet. His methodical modus operandi involves creating airtight alibis, including ones provided by his lover, Jane. After carrying out a contract killing on Martey, a nightclub owner, Jef is clearly seen leaving the scene by the club's piano player, Valérie, and glimpsed by several other witnesses. The police bring Jef and other suspects in for an identity parade but the witnesses, including Valérie, fail to positively identify him....

The Beast in Me - Emmy winners Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys and others star in this psychological thriller.

I'm 2 episodes (of 8) in and it's pretty good.   On Netflix.

The Blame (TV Series 2026)

The Blame: With Michelle Keegan, Ian Hart, Douglas Booth, Josh Bolt. Two detectives fall in love while investigating a murder, until one becomes a suspect

On ITVX and other downloads

Only 6 parts, but verybwell made, very gripping. Well worth a watch. I started last night, and finished this morning it was that good.

Coming soon: The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth

This is a sequel Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, following Cliff (Brad Pitt) in later times. It's from a script written by Quentin Taratino.

If anyone has not seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it's a great dramedy movie with DeCaprio and Pitt. It's got all sorts in that movie - even the Manson Family feature. 

Will be on Netflix from 23 December 2026, One for your diary.

Beirut - 2018 Thriller with John Hamm - on Netflix. Hamm looks rather different in this movie even if it's only 8 years old.  In later scenes he looks more normal as an alcoholic washed up diplomat. Also stars Dean Norris (with hair!). Better stick on rug (wig) than Trump has.

Very interesting view of Beirut in the early 1980s and the Lebanese civil war and Lebanese society at that time.  Filmed in Morocco.

In 1972, Mason Skiles is a U.S. diplomat in Lebanon living in Beirut with his Lebanese wife, Nadia. They have recently begun caring for Karim, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who claims he is without a family. While hosting a party, Skiles is confronted by his friend, CIA Officer Cal Riley, who wishes to question Karim as Karim's brother, Rafid Abu Rajal, has been linked to the 1972 Munich massacre. The party is suddenly attacked by Rafid and his group, who abducts Karim; in the ensuing gunfight, Nadia is killed.

.

Coming to Netflix on 1st October 2026 (6 eps miniseries):

East of Eden

In the beginning of East of Eden, before introducing any characters, Steinbeck establishes the setting with a description of the Salinas Valley in Central California. The story is primarily set there, between the beginning of the twentieth century and the end of World War I. The first fourteen chapters, set in Connecticut and Massachusetts, go as far back as the American Civil War and serve as backstory for Adam Trask, his brother Charles, their father Cyrus, and Cathy Ames.

It's a Cain and Abel replay - has a good cast but could be more melodrama cum soap than substance.