The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Sir David Attenborough: Great Nature Shows

If you have yet to see any of Sir David Attenborough’s nature collections, then you have missed some of the rarest glimpses into our world’s environments. There is a very obvious reason that this Natural Sciences academic from Cambridge is world-renowned: He is one of the world’s foremost experts in his field.

Each of Attenborough’s BBC series take place in different kingdoms. Some of the series that my family has been able to enjoy are:  The Life of Birds,  The Life of Mammals,  Life in the Undergrowth,  Life in Cold Blood,  Life in the Freezer (Antarctica).

Attenborough travels the entire planet so that we don’t have to. While “there”  (wherever that might be!) he brings us truly remarkable sights. And, he is not without the youthful heart of a small boy at seeing something truly amazing. Attenborough’s sense of glee when he watches an elephant quite literally going bump in the night is infectious. His obvious enjoyment at watching an orangutan grab a cracked nut from him or his laughter at watching an albatross land is contagious. >>> Even those Grinches among us are not able to resist his enjoyment.

Did I mention the filming? The Attenborough series are simply spectacular. He has hiked through the hot, dry Sahara Dessert or the hot, humid Amazonian jungles so that we can enjoy the sights that he and his production crew have had to wait for… sights that we would most likely never have seen even if we had been in the dessert or jungle… sights that took enormous amounts of patience and time to capture on film.

I’m happy to let Attenborough and his production crews/experts do the work so that my family can enjoy these beautiful pieces of nature’s art work! The footage we see is absolutely incredible.

(As with most things in nature, some of these shows include scenes not suitable for young children.)

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Castle: New Show on Monday Nights, ABC

I just watched a new show called “Castle” and enjoyed it so much that I took a look at my Replay machine to see if they will be re-airing the pilot. The good news is that they are, on Saturday at 9:00 PM (our local Texas time).  So if you are at all interested, you can check it out!

ABC is the network that is carrying this very clever mystery show, and I sure hope there are enough people who tune it so that it remains on the air. I know that it is difficult to start up a show in the middle of the season… By then, people already know their weekly television viewing schedules.  This Monday night show is well-worth “shaking it up” and changing your Tivo/Replay/HD Box/VCR programming.

Anyway… If you have seen my TV & Movie entries, then you should know that I am a big Firefly fan. Castle stars Nathan Fillion (Firefly’s captain) as the main character of the show… a mystery book author who hangs out with “real life” big-name mystery authors over poker. Yes, for those of you who watched the show on Monday, those two men discussing killing off their main characters (Scully and Alex) in their mysteries are Stephen J. Cannell and James Patterson. (I could not get a good view of the woman at the poker table, and I hope that I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes by saying that I don’t know if she is a mystery author or not.)

Stana Katic stars as the police detective who is the basis of the main character of Castle’s new mystery series, which of course means that he has to shadow her for an undetermined amount of time. And, for all of you Falcon Crest fans, Susan Sullivan plays Castle’s mother… a wonderful character who I hope we get to see a lot more!

If you missed Monday’s pilot… you might want to check out Saturday night’s rerun so that you can start enjoying what I hope is a very long-running mystery show!

PS>>> My husband just asked me why he didn’t get to watch Castle… So, I will be taping the rerun this Saturday night!

Jesse Stone by Robert B. Parker (The Television Movie!)

Good news for all of you Robert B. Parker fans out there AND all of you mystery readers who crave mystery movies:

Jesse Stone’s new two hour television movie Thin Ice will be on this Sunday night at 9:00 EST (which for me translates into 8:00) on CBS. I wanted to be sure and tell those of you who don’t know about it, since we have had previous discussions about these special event movies. This will be the fifth in the Jesse Stone movie series: Stone Cold,  Night Passage,  Death in Paradise,  &  Sea Change are the previous four installments.

Police Chief Jesse Stone (of Paradise, Massachusetts) is in trouble for getting involved in a shoot-out in Boston. Since Jesse (played by Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I. fame) has to spend a lot of time sorting out his trouble in Boston, his absence in Paradise causes a problem there. And to make things worse, Jesse fired one of Paradise’s greatest money-makers… a policeman who gave out more than his share of tickets  >>> which boosted the town’s income quite nicely!

So, set up your Replay machines, Tivos, DVRs, VCRs, or just have your alarm clocks set for 8:00 (my time, probably not yours!) for Sunday, March 1!

Inspector Morse Shows…

The Inspector Morse (British) mystery series is based on Colin Dexter’s wonderful series of books. My husband and I are both fans of Dexter’s novels and the television shows. I believe I read some place that when  Colin Dexter was approached to make his mystery novels into a television series, he chose John Thaw to portray the very cerebral, very cultured, Oxford-educated Inspector Morse. What perfect casting! Kevin Whately is also perfectly cast as Morse’s Sergeant Lewis.

The series takes place in Oxford (Inspector Morse’s Alma Mater.) It is probably superfluous for me to say the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. This goes without saying since the location is supposed to be Oxford! If you’re into beautiful, old brick buildings with ivy growing up the walls and well-manicured court yards and of course, great mysteries, then you will probably enjoy the Inspector Morse series.

As in most British mysteries, you will be able to enjoy seeing some of Great Britain’s favorite leading men and women in guest starring roles. That is always a particular treat for me! The acting in the Inspector Morse mysteries is very convincing. And the wardrobe is what I envision it should be. Even Inspector Morse’s apartment is exactly what fans of the show would expect it to be. A lot of thought has been put into this series, which allows the viewer to sit back and enjoy the mysteries.

Inspector Morse always gets his man, but hardly ever gets the woman, and usually never follows police protocol. His sergeant is a happily married man with the usual “children worries” and always want to follow the rules. These two make quite a pair!

(I know I have said this before. I sure miss seeing these types of quality mystery shows on my PBS station!)

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