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