Doctor Foster (BritBox) Bingeworthy
 

If you are looking for a couple of evenings of winding down this week between holidays, maybe try Doctor Foster on BritBox.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” is the basic plot. And, Wowzer! — That doc takes her revenge seriously.

Doctor Foster is a complicated woman who seems to keep her goals in mind, short and longterm both, even at her own costs. She can be one of those “means to an end” types. She sure violates HIPAA (or whatever they call it in England) if she thinks she needs to. She covers every angle as she unleashes her wrath — in twists and turns, with a wicked hook at the end of each episode. The momentum builds until you find yourself saying, “Wanna keep watching?” — as you decide to binge away the evening.

As we got to the last episode, I realized and said, “Aaaaaaugh!! This is Medea! Is she going to go full-on to that end — like in the Greek tragedy?”

In case you do not remember Medea, she is the woman who madly loved her husband Jason — the Golden Fleece guy with the Argonauts. Jason could not have gotten the Golden Fleece past that dragon without Medea using her magic to make it so……

And THEN that big “hero” Jason betrayed Medea with another woman.

(Personally, I did not think Doctor Foster’s philandering husband was worth all the trouble. But she sure did.)

Boomer

Thanks for the recommendation. We’ve watched several shows on BritBox, always looking for another one.

Thanks for the recommendation!

Try "Archie". The story of Cary Grant. I thought the lead was Cary Grant when I first heard him speak. Also BritBox on Prime.

“Archie” was the reason I resubscribed to BritBox recently. Have not watched it yet but will soon.

I just looked up Dyan Cannon who wrote “Dear Cary” — her memoir. She and their daughter produced “Archie” — I guess they know his story better than anyone.

Dyan Cannon will turn 87 in a few days. “Boynton Beach Club” was a movie she did years ago, set in a retirement community. I have not watched it in ages, but I still remember the scene where that woman, in a big hurry, backs out of her driveway without looking first — and changes everything for a lot of people by being stupid. (I never depend on someone backing out of driveways or parking spots when I am walking by. Too many are in a big, clueless hurry. Not always retired people either.)

I might have to track down “Boynton Beach Club” someday soon. It was a nice little movie about relationships at retirement age. That driveway scene started the storyline.

Well…….enough digressing from me this morning. :)

Boomer

How does one connect to Britbox please?

I get mine through Prime. I know you can do it through BritBox, but I had trouble with the password etc., and once I paid through Prime, no more problems. I think it costs me about $7 or $8 a month, worth it.

It is on Prime, Roku and Tubi, among others.

Hey, thanks, Ecuadog.

Ironically, I just now Googled the title and got a hit on the Ocala paper, dated May 11, 2006. The article said “Boynton Beach Club” opened in limited release in spots across the country, including The Villages on April 28, 2006. It sold out — by word of mouth.

Boomer

Doc Martin on several other streaming services is also very good

That receptionist
 

We've just started in on this Doc. Struggling with
suspending disbelief that he'd remain in that town if it meant he'd have to retain that receptionist. Am told that she'll "grow" on me. . .

We have stayed with it from the first episode and many times Doc Martin (Martin Clunes) has annoyed me, but the whole show is excellent entertainment. If you like Martin Clunes he has made many other shows, one of which is A is for Acid and you need a strong stomach for that one. He has also done some incredible travel documentaries of various places around the world.

I also like Shetland, but the actors all have strong Scottish accents and I miss a lot of the dialog. I love Vera, but again it is set in Liverpool (Beatles country) and I have a hard time understanding the accent.

Unforgotten .... British murdeer series
 

If you are a fan of British murder mysteries look for "Unforgotten",which is a series built on solving old murders as in Cold Cases. There are two parts with a slight change to the actors involved. It has been voted the #1 British murder series. Well worth watching.

Closed captioning
 

That *reminds* me! Whilst watching that first episode we dug through the flinker options and managed to get "closed captioning" back going, again, as we'd otherwise have little hope of following the dialogue. Innit? *But*, as we've returned for subsequent episodes, we've accessed them via my attempt at "recording" the series on DVR. Once I click on those "recorded" offerings, I can then click on "episodes" and scroll down through the "seasons" and ultimately open the appropriate first season episode - via something called "XUMO", I think. Not only will that entity not allow "fast forward" or "rewind", but it refuses to recognize that we've gone to the trouble of setting this "smart" TV to "Closed Captioning *ON*"! Grrr.

We've come to rely on being able to click on "resume" when returning to a show on which I've fallen prematurely asleep and the wifey has had to hit "pause". This "XUMO" thing offers no such option and doesn't even seem to *care*!

Doc is precisely the type of abnormal character with whom I can identify, and I'm as big a sucker for the various British accents and slang as anybody, and would *love* to learn the secret of digging up more such series - but would prefer to *never* interact with XUMO, again. TIA for any tutorial assistance. Maybe I just need to try the "search" feature each time as we did with Monk. BTW, hadn't realized how pitiful those Monk episodes got towards the end. . .

Doc Martin is one of my favorites. He is a complex character. Socially inept true genius — like so many of those types. Deeply caring and kind while seeming callous and cold.

Vera is another of my favorites. I like it especially because the brilliant, respected Vera is of an age we Americans seldom get to see in a series’ lead role like that on television here — where shallow and stupid often seem to be the target audience. And in real life the actress Brenda Blethyn is 77. We just finished the 2023 episode that has a setting of Christmastime. Was that the last one for this season? I hope there are more episodes coming soon.

Back to Dr. Foster, she is not a character that I liked, at all. Simon is the standard creepy cliche, nothing to like about him either. They both have seriously fatal flaws. Seriously. But the first season hooked me when we got a couple of episodes in. Soooooo damned crazy.

Boomer

I'm Confused, I looked up Dr Foster on IMDB and it describes it as "An embittered Doctor travels to South West England and his simple day trip becomes an emotional roller coaster ride that will shape him and his world view for the rest of his life." ????

Boomer, back to VERA. Last episode I found was #3 in Series 13 Group of old friends meet on an island.

Now to Vera: Have you seen her in Kate and Koji. Very funny, very politically incorrect - they seem to have made one episode and then disappeared. Pity, it was a good show if you are not easily offended.

I am pretty sure a title cannot be copyrighted, so maybe that is why IMDB confused it. Google will find it for you with just the title Dr. Foster, but out of curiosity I added IMDB to the search line………..

When I did that, it showed up as Dr. Foster: A Woman Scorned. I don't know if it ever had that expanded title. I had seen it before only as Dr. Foster. That title is based on a nursery rhyme, so my guess is it has been used quite a few times. Maybe IMDB either knew more about the title or changed it to avoid confusion. (I think they would have needed permission to do that, but who knows.)

That thing about titles not being copyrighted can cause confusion. A woman in my book club read the wrong book one time. In the discussion, nobody knew what she was talking about, until we figured out the titles were the same. (Actually, the book she read sounded a lot better than the one the rest of us had. Now, we always make sure to include the author’s name when picking the next book.)

Boomer

Another British channel is Acorn and they have some great shows like ‘Line of Duty’ and ‘Happy Valley’.

Another channel is Netflix and they have ‘The Great British Baking Show’ and ‘The Crown’ which I’ve watched numerous times. Interesting factoid is you can watch ‘The Great Canadian, American, New Zealand, and Australian Baking Show’ but only on YouTube and the quality isn’t very good and you can’t watch them in order.

That last episode of Season One will knock your socks off. It is awesome, thoroughly enjoyable & satisfying!

Actually Vera is set on other side of country from Liverpool.
Northumberland/Newcastle area.
The local accent is very hard to understand, and the Vera series is as near English as it gets.
Northumberland is a very scenic area, but the local accent is hard for many to understand.
We use sub-titles for most shows now, as 'Kings English' has long disappeared from public broadcasting.
Another series worth watching is Luther if you can get it.
Idris Elba stars. It's brilliant.
There is a Christmas Special of Vera. My wife and I are watching it tonight.
Haven't seen Midsommer Murders mentioned. Worth a watch.
Why anyone would want to live in or near that village, I fail to understand, half the population get murdered weekly!

PS. A documentary series from BBC, Blue Planet is spectacular, and well worth a viewing.
You do not have to agree, or disagree with the underlying 'Climate Change' message, the photography and shear scale of it, is a wonder to behold.
The presenter, David Attenborough, is 97 years old.
Almost a object of amazement on his own.

RP
 

What a fun rabbit hole this British accent stuff sent me down. It appears that both RP and Mid-Atlantic accents were "contrived" at boarding schools on either side of the Atlantic. *And*, had no idea about Gen Z stuff such as this. Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British accents? | Life and style | The Guardian

Probably the worst British accent by an American was Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
Horrendous! :22yikes:

Bill, thanks for correcting Vera for me. I have not heard about a Christmas Special, but will hunt for it. Midsommer Murders was a favorite of ours, but we had a problem getting to like the new guy, although we saw him in a show with Diana Riggs when he was the chauffeur and we really enjoyed him. What was that called?

I will do a search for Blue Planet and the Vera Christmas Special. Thanks.

Appalachia
 

Have watched all those episodes multiple times. My mountain accent is probably what shall keep me from getting his job should he ever croak.

Thank you for recommending Kate and Koji. “Vera” is excellent in that role, too.

I wish it were not canceled. I read that it did not have good ratings. Maybe the audience was driven away because of that obnoxious laugh track. I have never understood the reason for laugh tracks, at all, and this one was beyond the usual awful because it was startlingly LOUD……..

But we liked the show so much that we decided to continue in spite of the stupid laugh track. Seriously. It was so annoying that we had a conversation about whether we wanted to give up watching because of it.

The laugh track seemed to calm down, a little, a few episodes in. . .Either that or we became immune to it because the show is funny and well worth watching.

Kate’s phone calls from Spencer are classic. Her insults for everyone are so good, and her obsession with the bench is a clever piece of writing.

Anyway, thanks. Like you, I am sorry to see Kate and Koji canceled. “Vera” was perfect as Kate. She is quite an actress.

Boomer

The Mrs Bradley Mysteries.
He had a hard job following John Nettles.
If you fancy a good laugh, Yes Prime Minister takes some beating. Very British!

Consensus
 

Certainly seems to be the consensus. Accent On Accents: The Curse of Dick Van Dyke | Home Brew Audio

Can't explain why it creeps me out so to hear "Dr. House" speak in his native accent. :-)

The Secret Life of the Zoo
 

Sure wish they'd start these back up. The Secret Life of the Zoo - Wikipedia The keepers' accents were a huge part of the draw for me.

My wife liked that series. I never got into it.
Passable accent though!

Two Bills, about those villages in your country, I know what you mean. There are so many of them where somebody gets murdered every week. Grantchester is the same way, like Father Brown. (I have been known to wonder if those priests were actually murderers.)

Jessica Fletcher’s Cabot Cove, Maine, certainly had its share of murders, but could not hold a candle to all those British villages with bodies turning up on a regular basis.

I absolutely love the British mysteries. We do not have to see horrible scenes of violence — and the murderers in the British mysteries almost always know their victims. None of that random murder stuff.

Boomer

Good series. Probably 'Scouse' as Liverpool nearby.
The City of Chester is an amazing place to visit.
Very old, with some of the best preserved Tudor buildings in UK.
The Romans had a large settlement there as well.
The High Street is very good, with some brilliant buskers.

This YouTube link shows a lot of the area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUO6kYLb6As

We are a very polite race, and kill, maim, and murder with such grace and good manners.
'Twas how we conquered the world.
With a "Please" and "Thank You," and "mind the blood!!" :icon_wink:

Absolutely! Manners can make such a lovely difference. Seriously.

I just finished reading Erik Larson’s Thunderstruck. It is the novelization of the true story of Marconi and how his invention made it possible to catch the infamous Dr. Crippen while he thought he was escaping across the Atlantic with his lover. I don’t blame him for having a lover, but……..

Dr. Crippen was portrayed as a quiet man, polite, invisible in the shadow of his obnoxious wife who used him for money.

He might have been a quiet guy, but that one sure was murder most angry. Chopping her up and burying (some of her) under the basement floor did not seem like the most dignified thing to do though.

I had never heard about Dr. Crippen, but now I know. He had his gruesome tendencies, but he sure knew his victim.

Boomer

I have often been tempted to subscribe to BritBox just to watch the Cracker series. Robbie Coltrane was a favorite of mine.

Can watch on Amazon.

I hate to admit, but I could not get through the first Mrs. Bradley which I did find on Prime last evening. Oh my goodness, how dated. Loved the clothing, like her and the relationship between her and the chauffeur, but I could not get through it. Pity, I used to love it.

All the oldies seem so dated now. I watch some of the funnies from way back.
Still funnier than most of today's PC comedy.
Never get away with a lot of the stuff now, so many thin skins!

Ohhhhh, nooooo!

I just saw a headline that said Vera is being replaced after only 3 episodes in Season 13. (We can’t get Season 13 yet on BritBox. I guess it stays with British TV for a while before we get to see it.) All we can find new now is something called Vera Post Mortem that has only 4 episodes.

Anyway, I did not open the articles which seem to be only from England, so I don’t yet know the rest of the story…..

What is happening to Vera?

Boomer