I haven’t told you about What I’ve Been Watching since last year! Of course it’s only February 16, so I guess we can keep a sense of proportion.

But I’ve been watching a lot of stuff this year. As always, many are re-watches. I opened up the DVDs for The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, which is still in my Top Two over thirty years after it’s lone season (Screw Fox for canceling this, and Firefly, so quickly).

Psych (the other show in my Top Two) is still frequently on screen, and I just started jumping back into Columbo; even adding more than ‘Just one more’ to my book library.

So, let’s talk about a few things.

THE NIGHT MANAGER

I watched this when it aired back in 2016. I kept thinking that Tom Hiddleston would be a great James Bond. I still do. He’s a natural. And Hugh Laurie was simply excellent. His cold, rational villainy was spot on.

So, Hiddleston, Laurie, and Olivia Colman in a super thriller based on a John Le Carre novel. I thought this was great. Definitely recommended.

So I was surprised when they decided to pick it back up and make a ‘season two’ (though it was a one-off in the first place, so they don’t feel like seasons to me. Whatever). With Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman returning. I don’t wanna do spoilers here (though we’re talking about ten years ago), but Hugh Laurie’s character did not have an ending conducive to a sequel.

So, I re-watched the original in preparation for the reboot. It was just as good as I remembered. Fine show. And then I watched the new stuff. Each season is six episodes. I spaced season two out over a couple weeks. It took two or three sittings to get through a few episodes.

What a meh followup. The cast is strong. But I wasn’t that interested. And I think it’s because of the story. The original was directly adapted from a John Le Carre novel. Le Carre is one of the great thriller writers, like Robert Ludlum, Len Deighton, and Bill Granger (I have only seen Eric Ambler movies, but I know his books are highly regarded).

Season two’s story had no tie to Le Carre’s writings. And I just didn’t care about what was going on. I hated the ending in every way, and it made me totally uninterested in the announced third season.

Le Carre’s characters were not enough to overcome a weak plot. I recommend the original with no reservations. But I don’t think you’d be missing anything if you skipped the reboot.

SS-GB

Le Carre’s The Soldier Who Came in from the Cold, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, are considered two of the greatest spy novels ever written. I am a huge fan of Len Deighton, whose Game, Set, and Match books, starring Harry Palmer, are also among the best in the genre.

Deighton’s SS-GB is a Jack Higgins-esque ‘what if,’ police procedural. The Germans had won the Battle of Britain and occupied England as WW II continued on. Inspector Archer works for Scotland Yard. He investigates a murder while walking the line between the SS giving him instructions, and the British resistance. I have read this book several times, and it’s terrific.

There was a five-part BBC mini-series in 2017. It’s a solid cast, but no big star like Hugh Laurie, or David Tenant (he was in the solid Spies of Warsaw). I like it. It was pretty faithful to the book. It’s definitely a bleak series, and it’s filmed accordingly. Now, with England defeated, Churchill executed, and the King imprisoned, it’s not going to be an upbeat story.

As a big fan of Jack Higgins’ WW II historical fiction, I like this type of thing when it’s well done. And since it started with a good novel by a great spy author, it has a solid foundation. I think this is definitely worth a watch. I’m streaming it on Prime.

BEST MEDICINE

Current shows pick up in January, so I’m back to watching The Rookie, Animal Control, and Going Dutch. I’ve been a fan of The Rookie from day one, but I feel like Nathan Fillion is strapping on his skis. The shark is swimming around.

But I’m also watching a new show. Best Medicine is an American version of the long-running British hit, Doc Martin.

Josh Charles (Sports Night, Dead Poets Society) is a brilliant, snarky, Boston neurosurgeon who becomes the local doctor in small coastal town where he spent his summers. He does not exactly blend with the locals, while he hides the secret behind his career shift.

Abigail Spencer (who starred in the excellent Timeless, which I wrote about here), Annie Potts (Designing Women) and Josh Segarra (currently the boyfriend on Animal Control) are regulars.

Charles cares about the people’s health; he does not care about the people. He’s got some Monk in him, but he’s also churlish and pretty annoying as a person. And it works. I like Doc Martin. I like Best Medicine.

MISC

I re-watched the first three seasons of Castle, and that show holds up. I just wasn’t ready to do all eight seasons.

I am re-watching Archer, which I binged a couple years ago and really enjoyed. I should write about that. I’ll probably watch the hardboiled/noir season again. And the Tales of the Gold Monkey one.

The two-year reboot, The Looney Tunes Show, is fun. Like Archer, it’s streaming on Tubi. Daffy lives in Bugs’ house, and Yosemite Sam is their next door neighbor. Miscellaneous familiar characters are around too. There’s usually a Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote short as well. This is fun. Daffy is a TERRIBLE roommate, friend, boyfriend, and overall ‘person.’ Like, he’s horrendous. And it makes for some amusing shows. I’m enjoying an episode a night.

And I am going to re-watch Dark Winds, then move on to seasons two and three. As I wrote here, it’s a good show, but it’s bad Hillerman.

Some previous entries on things to watch:

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)

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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.