What I’ve Been Watching: May 2025
Wow. It’s been over half a year since I did a What I’ve Been Watching. I’ve already forgotten some of the stuff I watched since then! But let’s tackle a few more recent favorites. And what I’m re-watching, as usual.
COUNTY LINE
From 2017 through 2022, there were three TV movies (is that still ‘a thing’) in this series. I did not recognize the main actor away. He reminded me of Dan Dierdorf, but I had to look him up on IMDB. It was good ol’ Tom (Luke Duke) Wopat!
He’s Alden Rockwell, a sheriff/former sheriff in some Georgia country town. The city is split down the middle between two counties. So, you’ve got Alden, and the sheriff of the other county, involved in the same case. In the first one, Alden’s best friend (and sheriff) is shot, so he tries to solve the crime – and there’s a bigger thing going.
There are plenty of familiar faces, which I enjoy. Patricia Richardson (Tim Allen’s wife on Home Improvement) owns the diner that is a common hangout. It’s on both sides of the county line. So Alden sits on one side of a table in a dry county. His buddy sits on the other side, where alcohol is legal. So, his buddy orders the beer and puts it on Alden’s side. It’s silly but works.
Jeff Fahey (Bodie’s grandfather on Fire Country) is a sheriff. Grant Goodeve (David on Eight is Enough) is in the second movie. Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers) appears in the third one. I like seeing the faces from the past.
There’s that ‘Aw hell’ country cop resignation and humor, but it’s not a comedy. It’s a bit of a buddy cop movie, but not really.
Wopat is clearly the show’s center, and he’s good in the part. Looking older and rather beefy, he’s stubbornly likable.
I liked all three. The last two were both done in 2022, and it looks like the series is done. But it’s a fun little watch on Prime.
THE BONDSMAN
‘Resurrected bounty hunter Hub Halloran gets an unexpected second chance at life, love and his nearly forgotten musical career – only to find that his old job now has a demonic new twist.’
That’s a pretty good summary, from IMDB. Near the beginning of the opener, which is an Amazon original series, Kevin Bacon is killed while on a bounty hunting job. But he immediately comes back to life. He’s now hunting down demons, for Satan.
It’s not a comedy, but it’s got a lot of funny. The redneck setting makes it more fun, as well. Beth Grant is hilarious as his mom. She’s cut from the same vein as Ruth Gordon, Clint Eastwood’s mom in Every Which Way But Loose, and the sequel. She’s feisty, funny, and tough, as a former partner in the business.
The story line has high stakes, both on earth and for the afterlife. And the cliffhanger ending of episode eight absolutely sets up season two. I think Kevin Bacon – looking like life rode him hard and hung him up, is excellent in the lead.
The gore factor occasionally approaches my limit, but not too often. I don’t do horror, but I really enjoyed this, and look forward to season two. Highly recommended.
BOSCH: LEGACY
Michael Connelly’s Bosch books are huge sellers. The Amazon original series Bosch (which I wrote about here) covered 68 episodes over 7 seasons, from 2014-2021. Titus Welliver previously had over 100 credits, but Harry Bosch made him a star. And he’s perfect in the role. Strong cast, intense season-long story lines, and quality production values, Bosch should be looked at as a terrific adaptation of a best-selling book series.
It was already announced that there would be a sequel series, Bosch: Legacy. With many of the same actors returning in their roles, Bosch has transitioned from being a cop, to a private investigator. He wasn’t exactly totally committed to the rules as an LA. homicide detective, but he’s got a lot more ‘flexibility’ as a PI.
I really liked the original show. I liked the first two seasons of the sequel well-enough. I wasn’t as invested in it. However, season three was its strongest, and I think the series finished strongly, as it’s time for a spin-off.
Renee Ballard, played by Maggie Q, was an LAPD detective in the final episode of Legacy. She is the star of Ballard, which is to start airing later this year. Welliver will reprise his role in one episode. I thought her character was okay, and I’ll watch it to stay in the Bosch-verse.
One thing I really liked is that final season – and final episode – delivered on ‘Everybody matters, or no one matters.’ That little maguffin was dropped in the first season of the original Bosch, and mentioned more than once after in both series. And they paid it off. I appreciated that.
Season one of Bosch was almost too dark for me, but I continued on, and I have enjoyed my Bosch adventure. I would absolutely watch the original series: Legacy would be much less impactful if you watched it first. I’d even venture to say, it really wouldn’t work that great.
Side note – Welliver narrated the first several audiobooks for Robert B. Parker’s (Spenser for Hire) Cole and Hitch Westerns. Ed Harris made and starred in a very good version of the first one, Appaloosa, which I wrote about, here. Welliver is FANTASTIC. It’s a crime that Amazon or somebody has not signed him on to play Virgil Cole in a few movies, or a streaming series based on the books. He would be terrific.
AND….
Next installment, I’m going to cover Daredevil, and Daredevil: Born Again. I talked about Daredevil a bit a few months ago, and I think it’s my favorite Marvel series. And the reboot was very good.
I finally got around to watching The Chosen – from start to current. It’s a SUPERB show that deeply draws on the four gospels. It’s an amazing show and I can’t wait for the new season this Summer. They’re up to the Last Supper.
I am current on season three of Will Trent, which is an excellent cop show, with a little bit of Monk about it (and you know I loved that era of the USA Network). I’m gonna tackle that one as well.
I am in the middle of season three (of four) of my re-watch of Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators. This is a cute buddy cop/PI show with more of a Hallmark vibe, than something like The Bay (wrote about that here). It’s kind of in the same vein as Murder They Hope, which was originally three TV movies, then became a two mini-season series. Fun, lighthearted British mystery stuff. I re-watched all of that franchise, as well.
And I am almost to the end of season eleven of my Death in Paradise complete re-watch. Season fourteen, with yet another major cast change, finished dropping in March. I’m still working on it, while watching lots of other stuff. It remains one of my favorite shows.
I talked about Shakespeare and Hathaway, and Death in Paradise, in this Britbox-centric post.
I finished the current season of Krapopolis. I like it, but it’s all kinda the same. I don’t binge that one.
Some previous entries on things to watch:
What I’ve Been Watching: May 2025 (What We Do in the Shadows, The Bay, Murder in a Small Town)
What I’m Watching – November 2023 (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, A Haunting in Venice)
What I’m Watching – April 2023 (Florida Man, Picard – season three, The Mandalorian)
The Pale Blue Eye, and The Glass Onion: Knives Out
Tony Hillerman’s Dark Winds
The Rings of Power (Series I wrote on this show – all links at this one post)
What I’m Watching – December 2022 (Frontier, Leverage: Redemption)
What I’m Watching – November 2022 (Tulsa King, Andor, Fire Country, and more)
What I’m Watching – September 2022 (Galavant, Fire Fly, She-Hulk, and more)
What I’m Watching- April 2022 (Outer Range, Halo, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, and more)
When USA Network was Kicking Major Butt (Monk, Psych, Burn Notice)
You Should be Streaming These Shows (Corba Kai, The Expanse, Bosch, and more)
What I’m BritBoxing – December 2021 (Death in Paradise, Shakespeare & Hathaway, The Blake Mysteries, and more)
To Boldly Go – Star Treking – (Various Star Trek incarnations)
What I’ve Been Watching – August 2021 (Monk, The Tomorrow War, In Plain Sight, and more)
What I’m Watching – June 2021 (Get Shorty, Con Man, Thunder in Paradise, and more)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
What I’ve Been Watching – June 2021 (Relic Hunter, Burn Notice, Space Force, and more)
Appaloosa
Psych of the Dead
The Mandalorian
What I’m Watching: 2020 – Part Two (My Name is Bruce, Sword of Sherwood Forest, Isle of Fury, and more)
What I’m Watching 2020: Part One (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Poirot, Burn Notice, and more)
Philip Marlowe: Private Eye
Leverage
Nero Wolfe – The Lost Pilot
David Suchet’s ‘Poirot’
Sherlock Holmes (over two dozen TV shows and movies)
Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.
His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).
He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’
He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.
He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.
You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.
I agree with you on The Bondsman. I wasn’t expecting much and remember Fox trying out a series several years ago with the same premise of some guy getting freed from Hell to hunt down escaped sinners and demons that, as is Fox’s m.o., was canceled after a couple of episodes. I was really surprised to enjoy The Bondsman and am looking forward to a second season. All the actors in it do a good job in their roles.
The County Line movies sound interesting. Do you remember if Bob ever talked about the Jesse Stone tv movies starring Tom Selleck as a worn out police chief in Maine?
Hi John!
No spoilers here, but I like that it didn’t go with what I call ‘the happy Hollywood horseshit ending.’ Though, I thought it was a bit harsh. Fun show.
And man, Dewey Crowe was a FANTASTIC character. Good to see that dude again.
If Bob were here, he’d tell you he did mention Jesse Stone once, in his post on that movie about Parker’s Appaloosa:
” I am a big fan of the Jesse Stone TV movies made from his series of the same name, put together and starring Tom Selleck. Magnum is great in the role of an alcoholic, former LA-cop who is now sheriff of a small east coast town. The series deserved more support than it got, as Selleck kept it going almost through sheer force of will.”
I love that Selleck got so many done, when Hallmark was only doing them on a one-at-a-time basis, and people had to create schedule space to come back and make them with him. Selleck did an amazing job with those.
But I also feel that the screenplays got worse near the end. I don’t think Selleck co-writing them was holding up very well. Much as I loved the series, I didn’t mind that it came to an end after that last one.
But I remain a big Jesse Stone fan, and have rewatched several of them more than once.
Digging into the first two has been on my ‘To Write’ list for quite a while. Maybe 2026…
Ohhh, “The Chosen.” When I realized I was considering watching the round-tables over again, I gave up and used my tax refund to get the four current seasons on disc (and a pair of socks). The boxed sets just arrived today, and it’s all I can do not to cash in vacation time for the rest of the week to rewatch. The man-of-authority storyline was the very best version I’ve ever seen done.
“Shakespeare and Hathaway!” Yes! I need to check if BritBox has uploaded any more of that since I last looked. Have you tried “Ludwig” (also BritBox)? And if you did and liked it, have you tried “High Potential” (Disney+/Hulu)? Currently desultorily going through “The Last Detective” (BritBox)– it’s really difficult to so very much like a main character, but so thoroughly despise all but one of the side characters.
yeah. I was definitely late to the party on The Chosen. I liked the humanization of Jesus, without contradicting the Gospels. I just thought the whole thing was incredibly well done.
I need to remember to watch the outtakes at the end of the credits.
A friend who I share a lot of Britbox interests with (she’s the one who turned me on to The Cleaner), was telling me about Ludwig last week. It’s on my list for when I get done with Death in Paradise (including the new season). She really likes it.
There’s a British show on PBS called ‘Professor T’ starring Ben Miller. The first DCI on Death in Paradise (and the competent spy in Johnny English, which I LOVE). I saw the first couple and I really like it. Hope it’s available on Britbox some time.
Britbox has all four seasons of Shakespeare and Hathaway. They’ve both gone on to other things, so I think it’s done.
I’m aware of The Last Detective, but it hasn’t grabbed my interest. Yet, maybe…
If you haven’t seen The Mallorca Files on Britbox, that’s a pretty cool show. I liked it. The season they came back and did after COVID wasn’t as good, but still, definitely worth a watch.
Your BritBox friend will probably throttle me for this, if she really wants to talk about Ludwig yet is holding off on spoilers, but… it may be worth holding off on Ludwig for one more year. The sixth episode/last episode of the first season left the overarching story in a very good place but also a maddening cliffhanger. The second season is in the middle of filming, but some of us are chewing our hats to stay patient.
But if you *do* decide to try Ludwig and get bitten by the bug, take the edge off with “High Potential.” There seems to be one of those cluster-programming things going on with extremely-bright-and-socially-awkward-but-not-revered going on, and Ludwig is the British entry, High Potential is the American one. (“High Potential” is based heavily on “HIP,” the French entry, but the two shows’ storylines seem to diverge around the 2nd season. “HIP” is… possibly less good. Either that or it’s exceedingly French and so not as relatable.)
“The Last Detective” is based on Leslie Thomas’ “Dangerous Davies” novels. I haven’t read any of those yet, but you likely have. In the TV show, though, the mysteries are handled very competently– they’re usually guessable around the 4/5ths mark, but never pander to or loft entirely over the viewer.
Hi, if you liked seasons 3 to 6 of “Death in Paradise”, you need to see “Beyond Paradise”.
Follows the detective Humphrey Goodman in his return to England with his fiancée and his new adventures in a little town called Shipton Abbot in England’s coast.
Its funny and has some unexpected guests.
Three seasons of 6 chapters and 2 Christmas Specials so far.
I’m in Spain and here is not available “legally”, but I think is in BritBox.
I am current on Beyond Paradise. I wasn’t crazy about season one, but it grew on me. I really liked that Humphrey went back to San Mare at the end of the one episode. That was a really neat little scene.
Return to Paradise is an Australian show that is part of the ‘Paradise’ family. I have not seen it. And it doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with ‘Death’ from what I can tell.
EXCEPT, DI Jack Mooney from ‘Death’ (I really liked him) appeared in two episodes, to give it some Paradise credibility. I hope to find it somewhere.
bob, i HIGHLY recommend watching Ludwig on britbox. i think it is fantastic, with a little bias because i already like david mitchell
It’s definitely on my list. I’m thinking about it after I finish the Shakespeare and Hathaway re-watch. Though that will just cut into my Death in Paradise progess.