The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Top Chef Television Show – Personal Guilty Pleasure

chefSo, I’ve got something of a confession to make…  For a few years now Top Chef has been a TV show I watch with my family.

I admit that I’m not all that proud of watching this show. It certainly isn’t something I expected to like at first – I’d go so far as to call it something of a guilty pleasure.

We first started watching Top Chef a little bit after my daughter went away to college for the first time.  Her roommate watched the series, and they watched a season together before my daughter recommended it to the rest of us.  We were a bit skeptical at first (so-called “reality television” has something of a negative connotation in our household) but the rest of the family agreed to watch through a full season before making a decision.

Somewhat to my surprise, I ended up enjoying it.  As I have mentioned many times before, I’m not really into cooking, but watching obviously passionate people talk about the subject that they know so much about is a really interesting experience, even if you don’t know that “julienning” is just a fancy terms for cutting something into strips.  We’ve started watching a number of other cooking shows as well since then, but Top Chef still remains our favorite to watch, and then pick apart. (Let’s face it, isn’t picking them apart one of the things people like about reality television shows?)

Honestly, I didn’t really think that I’d be into shows like Top Chef, but now they’re a big part of what we watch.  It’s especially nice that I can watch them with the entire family, or at least we can all discuss them afterwards.  We all have slightly different interests in terms of television, but cooking competition shows have turned out to be one thing that we can all enjoy to varying degrees.

If you haven’t tried this particular show yet, I would recommend that you watch a season in its correct chronological order. It may just surprise you. You might actually look forward to watching it, or at least to “discussing it” with your friends and/or family.

PS >>> We watch the shows as they air on the Bravo channel, so we hear a lot of bleeps. I don’t know if they bleep out all the objectionable words when you watch the shows on DVDs.

As Time Goes By – British Television Series

I had not planned to write an entry about this delightfully clever British sitcom because it has been running on local PBS stations since… well… almost forever! (Also, it is not a mystery series.) I have a feeling everyone knows about As Time Goes By already. But I have gotten several letters from Cozy Mystery readers who have urged me to get the word out to those of you who may have never watched the show.

First of all, let me say As Time Goes By is one of my husband’s and my favorite shows. It is a character-driven sitcom with very humorous  and touching dialog. I truly cannot adequately express what a good show this is. There is only one “negative thing” I can say about the show, which isn’t really negative, simply a word of caution: If you are not familiar with the show, you really need to watch it in its correct chronological order. I tried the show years ago by simply “dropping in” on it after watching another PBS show (Keeping Up Appearances) and I did not like As Time Goes By at all. This is why I am urging you to watch the shows in the correct chronological order.

As I said, it is a character-driven show. To enjoy the show, you really need to know the characters. When I tried to watch it out of sequence, I did not like the character who turned out to be my favorite character of the show. (I hope that makes sense!) I thought he was a caricature of a total idiot. Once I got to know him (Alistair) from the beginning, as the show introduced him and kept adding to him, I couldn’t wait until he appeared on the screen.

There are five characters in the show. The two main characters are Jean (Judi Dench) and Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer). They are two “more mature” people who were once each other’s first loves – many years ago. They meet quite by chance – and get reacquainted with each other.

Jean runs a secretarial agency which specializes in temporary placements. Jean’s adult daughter Judith (Moira Brooks) and Sandy (Jenny Funnell) work for the agency, and eventually move into Jean’s and Lionel’s home. (I know this sounds contrived, but it really does make sense if you follow the story line chronologically.)

The fifth character is Alistair (Philip Bretherton). As I mentioned, he turned out to be my favorite character in the series. Alistair is a very rich playboy who endears himself to the family. They (sort of) adopt him into the fold, even though he really doesn’t have much in common with any of them. (Did I mention he is VERY rich?)

As Time Goes By progresses through the years, and follows all five of the characters as their lives go through many different changes. I strongly recommend this very British sitcom. Great acting, terrific scripts, and delightful characters.

For more Cozy viewing ideas, click on my Cozy Mystery TV & Movies page.

Murder in Suburbia Television Show

Murder in Suburbia Complete Collection If you are looking for a new television mystery to follow – that has good mysteries, a lot of humor, great acting, wonderful 3-D characters, and is just plain fun to watch; Murder in Suburbia will fit the bill.

I found this British television mystery series while tracking down the shows that Caroline Catz has been in. For those of you who watch Doc Martin (not a mystery, but a wonderful British television series) you will definitely know her acting style as exhilaratingly fun to watch. She brings a youthful, girl-next-door quality to her work.

Getting back to Murder in Suburbia. This British mystery series is set in the suburbs, and features two young detectives. Ash (Caroline Catz) and Scribbs (Lisa Faulkner) are both very competent detectives. Ash outranks Scribbs, but the only apparent rank-pulling is that Scribbs has the driving duty. They are both single, both looking for their Mr. Rights.

Ash comes from a very posh background, which includes an upper-crust British girls’ education. She is self-conscious and embarrasses very easily. The equally delightful Scribbs is street-savvy. She has a working class upbringing and is rather “saucy” –  to say the least. (She does not embarrass easily!)

The show never explains how Scribbs and Ash became partners, but however it was, it works! The two women are friends, confidants, and working partners. Of course, being a police drama, they find time to discuss their cases. But a lot of the time they talk about their private lives.

Scribbs, it turns out, dates a lot. She is not necessarily picky, and many times is sorry about her choices of men. Ash, on the other hand, is very picky, only dates “eligible” men, and secretly hankers for her boss.

This show is fun to watch, and the mysteries are actually good. They don’t take a back seat to the inter-personal relationships. I strongly recommend Murder in Suburbia – both season 1 and 2.

P.S. >>> If you’re looking for two-dimensional characters, CSI type forensics, and gruesome mysteries, this series is not for you!

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

TNT’s The Closer Is Back!

This is just a quick note to remind you all that TNT’s The Closer returned to television on Monday night. As most of you know, it is The Closer’s last season. (I wrote about The Closer before, and it continues to be one of my favorite television shows.)

The Closer has followed Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) as she “closed” more cases for the L.A.P.D. than probably any other reigning police chief. Of course, she did this by using techniques that were more commonly practiced back in the 1950s and 1960s, than are allowed these days.

“Say it ain’t so!”>>> but it is! This is the final season for The Closer, but there is some good news at the end of this rainbow: In August, there will be a new show on the horizon: Major Crimes. Heading to the Major Crimes line-up will be Mary McDonnell (Capt. Sharon Raydor). And, even better news, some of The Closer’s other cast members will be following McDonnell to the Major Crimes unit.

I have a few characters who I definitely want to continue seeing… unfortunately, they include ALL of the major players from The Closer:

Lt. Provenza (G. W. Bailey)
Lt. Andy Flynn (Tony Denison)
Detective Sgt. David Gabriel (Corey Reynolds)
Detective Julio Sanchez (Raymond Cruz)
Lt. Mike Tao (Michael Paul Chan)
Technician Buzz Watson (Phillip P. Keene)
Asst. Police Chief Will Pope (J. K. Simmons)
FBI agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney)
Commander Taylor (Robert Gossett)

In case you missed Monday night’s debut of The Closer‘s final season, the episode is called “Hostile Witness“, and it will re-air this Saturday morning (July 14, 2012) at 10:00 AM (central) and again on this coming Monday night (July 16, 2012) at 7:00 PM (central) on TNT.

I am truly sorry to see this show leave TNT’s line-up, and hope that Major Crimes will continue to have the same great writers associated with it, and of course, the same wonderful actors we have all grown to love.

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