What I’ve Been Watching – July 2026
I haven’t shared what I’ve been watching, since February. Nothing earth shattering, but I’m sure you occasionally wonder. So…
Back in January, I canceled all my subs except for Prime (keeping BritBox within that one). RokuTV and Tubi are regulars for me now, along with Prime, and I’ve got my DVDs (VHS hasn’t come back into play yet.
I don’t watch much sports anymore, and no brand new shows – I have an antenna, but no recording capability. I’m pretty content with the new normal. I’ve always been a re-watcher, and that helps fill the gap. But I’m still adding in some other stuff. Frankly, I’m happy without all the subs.
HIGH TIDE
This was a total surprise to me when I discovered it a couple weeks ago. I was in high school when Jessie’s Girl exploded. And of course, Rick Springfield was Dr. Noah Drake. I didn’t even watch General Hospital, and I knew that.
I’m a big Murdoch Files fan. Yannick Bisson is a logic-based detective in Edwardian Era Toronto. It’s a great show for Sherlock Holmes fans. Yet I had no idea that the two starred in a PI-like action series from 1994-1997. Mick (Springfield) is the mature, martial arts trained older brother, while Joey (Bisson) is the buff party boy younger brother. He is SO not William Murdoch.
It’s a very 90s show with lots of bikini shots and typical bad guys. Springfield’s violent kicks are a regular feature. Bisson is kind of a dumb beach boy (they’re both surfers). The always fun George Segal sometimes provides them with jobs which Mick never wants to take.
This is sorta like Simon and Simon meets Magnum PI, with some Miami Vice, and a bit of Thunder in Paradise, mixed in. It’s light-weight fare, but I’m enjoying it as an easy watch. RokuTV doesn’t have all the episodes from is three seasons, but I’m not seeing any continuity problems. If you like 90s TV shows, this is for you.
PSYCH
I’ve written about this show more than once. It replaced The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. as my all-time favorite show. It’s a rare week that I don’t re-watch an episode or two. All year long. It just never gets old.
The Psychologists Are In is a podcast hosted by Maggie Lawson (Juliet) and Timothy Omundson (Lassiter). Primarily an episode-by-episode review, they mix in some other stuff. And they have guest stars from the show as well. It is the DREAM podcast for Psych fans. And it’s great to see/hear Timothy Omundson continue to rebuild/recover from his stroke.
I’ve talked about the terrific Monk spin-off novels which Lee Goldberg (then Hy Conrad) wrote. Lee’s screenwriting partner, Bill Rabkin, wrote five Psych novels, set early in the show’s life. I am re-reading the first couple (found through the library app, Libby). They’re not as good as the Monk books, but they’re still good reads. Rabkin has the guys down pretty well. BTW – Lee’s brother Tod, wrote five Burn Notice novels.
So, I am in the Psych world pretty much the whole year. There are periods where my I take a break and some other show becomes my re-watch. But you tell me I can only watch one show for the rest of my life, Psych and Columbo (Peter Falk was PERFECT in that show) are gonna be a tough pick. And Psych is shorter and easier to half-pay attention to. Though I have lots of it memorized by now.
Watch season one. Shawn is a bit of an insufferable twit, and that put me off. But they softened the edges in season two, and I never looked back.
THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR.
This was my single-favorite show for years. And it’s still right up there with Psych for that top spot. I bought the DVD set way back when, which was good. Because it wasn’t available again in that format for like 20 years. And it only came to streaming in the past couple years.
It was ahead of its time, and Fox didn’t know how to market it. It was a funny, Western adventure, sci-fi show, with a nod to the old serials of the forties and fifties. It was heavily promoted, and was slotted after another new show, The X-Files. Fox stuck with the latter, but canceled Brisco after one full season.
Bruce Campbell is charming, funny, a good cowboy, and this remains my favorite role of his. The late Julius Carey is terrific as the gruff bounty hunter, Lord Bowler. My crush on Kelly Rutherford comes from her role as Dixie Cousins – not Melrose Place.
I am re-watching the DVDs. The one cool extra is that Campbell, and show co-creator Carlton Cuse, do commentary on the pilot. But watching the episodes without tv commercials is good. This is a clever, amusing, fun show, with echoes of the past, and some nice one-shot, and recurring, guests. John Astin, John Pyper-Ferguson; and Robert Fuller, still looking as soap opera handsome as he did in Emergency!.
I’m not into horror. This is my Bruce Campbell fix (along with Sam Axe, on Burn Notice). I think there’s a lot to like about this how, and I encourage anybody to check it out. I wrote about it here.
MISC
I kinda took a break, but after Randolph Mantooth (Johnny Gage) died, I started back up with Emergency! (I’m on season four). As I mentioned in my recent Emergency! post, this show holds up quite well, fifty years later. My favorite medical show, over good ones I watched, like ER, and Chicago Hope.
I wrote about The Blake Mysteries, here. I am into season two of another re-watch, and this is still a really good, post-WWII, medical crime drama, set in Ballarat. It is a shame that Craig McLachlan was such a douche as a person that it led to the show being canceled while it was still very popular. He was excellent in the lead role, and it’s got a solid supporting cast. The Ballarat setting gives it a different vibe, and I recommend this to anyone looking for a ‘British type’ medical mystery. He’s a doctor with issues to resolve, who serves as the police ME. VERY good show.
I don’t seem to have talked about Vexed here, though I know I have on social media. It was only 9 episodes over two seasons, in 2010-2012. Toby Stephens is about as appropriate as Archie Bunker was, but he’s a blast as the lead partner in this British cop show. His female lead changed between seasons.
I’ve mentioned that Stephens was an excellent Philip Marlowe for BBC radio. I listen to that series at least once a year. No accent in that one. He’s not somebody you want your kid to look up to here, but by golly, he makes me laugh. And they eventually solve the crime. It’s on Prime/Britbox. I just watched a couple episodes while I put together a wire cube bookshelf. It’s just fun to watch.
And doesn’t take long.
Some previous entries on things to watch:
What I’ve Been Watching – July 2026 (High Tide, Psych, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.)
Spider-Noir
What I’ve Been Watching – October 2026 (Return to Paradise, Lynley, Expend4bles, and more)
What I’ve Been Watching – August 2025 (Ballard, Resident Alien, Twisted Metal, and more)
What I’ve Been Watching – May 2025 (County Line, The Bondsman, Bosch: Legacy)
What I’ve Been Watching – October 2024 (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, Firefly, 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, and 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.