Top series 2025

Saw a horrible amonut of series/tv series, some new, some renewed, some cancelled, some I quit...

Mayor of Kingstown s04 -4 -toughest yet, Lennie James, Richard Brake, Eddie Falco, Laura Benanti.

The Iris Affair -miniseries- 8 eps  big fsss. Tom Hollander good. 

The Last Frontier -should've quit  

got back to Slow Horses s2 1/2 -5 -Gary Oldman getting more and more Legend !

Down Cemetery Gates -loses steam after ep. 4

The White Lotus s03 - -best yet-Walton Goggins, Scott Glenn, Parker Posey. 

It: Welcome to Derry -quit 

Task  sez. 1 not much

Duster 1 sez. cancelled , was kinda fun

Subteran 1 sez. oy vey

Landman s. 1 ep.7-10 / sez 2 ep. 1-5 (in Top Series 2024, contd. in 2026)

The Lowdown 8 eps - Tulsa noir on the songs of J.J.Cale, Ethan Hawke as jouranlist Lee Raybon gets beaten up all the time. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs). 

Pluribus s01 -Vince Gilligan is moving way to slow...

Peacemaker s02 -even better than season One. 

The Studio  1 season-10 eps., Seth Rodgen's satire is hit and miss but the episodes are short and Bryan Carnston as Griffin Mill is a blast !

Dept. Q  sez 1, 9 eps. (renewed) -the Sweedish series of thriller books  by Jussi Adler-Olsen get new (Scott Frank for Netflix)  and way too slow treatment with Matthew Goode as Carl Morck.  

The Last of Us -season 3. All gets weak after Pedro Pascal is no more. 

Monster The Ed Gein Story (sez 3 -8 eps) -see below

Walking Dead-New York -quit 

Alien: Earth s 1  -they did some good, and then they did some real bad. Continuing to mix the Weyland Yutanis with the Blad Runners, Prometheus, Timothy Olyphant's android Kirsch is a hoot !

Paradise season 1 (renewed) -cool idea of post apocalyptic city under a dome. 

Dope Thief  sez. 1  -Ridley Scott produced and directed the first episode. Based on a true story. 

Black Rabbit -miniseries 8 eps.  See review here. 

Your friends and Neighbours sez. 1. Jon Hamm steals. 

oh, and Moldova's Gangster and fiend, Plaha, 10 episode political thriller with Iulian Postelnicu as Plaha, written and directed by Igor Cobilianski

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Revelation of the Year:

Monster The Ed Gein Story (Netflix). Ian Brennan writer, Max Wrinler director. 8 eps. miniseries.

Movies mix with the legacy of serial killers -from Psycho to Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Silence of the Lambs. Clever post-modern choices. Plus Ilsa Koch and the Nazis ! But a truly great performance form Charlie Hunnam. And Tom Hollander is Alfred Hitchcock. Even Mindhunter returns in ep. 8. Too much grand guignol as always but way way upper than the other 2 seasons (the 2nd I quit watching...)

Why is though Ed Gein made so sympathetic and a victim, "mother's boy" ? 

Top 5

Peacemaker s.2 -hbo max

Mayor of Kingstown s.4 -skyshowtime/paramount +

The Studio  -apple+

White Lotus s.3 -hbo max 

The Lowdown -fx / hulu 

Pale Flower (1964)

Pale Flower /Kawaita hana is a one-of-a-kind Noir pschedelic by Masahiro Shinoda, New Wave of Japonese cinema director. Closer to Le Samourai by Melville, or something by Antonioni, than the Japonese cinema of the era. Also keener to Kitano's earlier films. Spellbinding black and white tale of obsession, gambling and yakuza, nihillistic, downbeat existentialism. Ryô Ikebe is great as gangster Muraki, a quintesential film noir icon and Mariko Kaga as unaproachable Saeki a real pale flower indeed. The car race at night seems more appropiate in a French or Italian new vague film. Here is just hypnotic. 

Atmospeheric score by Toru Takemitsu. 

Also, this is one of Top Ten films of Michael Mann, "for the opening scenes alone". 

4 1/2 out of 5 / 9 out of 10 !!!

Father Mother Sister Brother (2025)

Father Mother Sister Brother  might be the last Jim Jarmusch hilm (*he said it). He is also 72 now, which is somehow incredible, cos he kinda looks the same.

Three vignettes (New Jersey, Dublin, Paris), out of which the 1st one is the best, Father, because it has Tom Waits in it. Nice to see Charlotte Rampling as Mother and Vicky Krieps with pink hair is cool too. It's Jarmusch's introspective reflective film after 6 years of pause and the uberdisapointing The Dead don't Die (see here in Romanian).

FMSB is not a lot of fun, some coffeee, no cigarettes, the same shots from above tho, on Mother some cakes, some tea (no alcohol) some skating, Rolexes, a nice Paris flat, a lot of Reds in the costumes (YSL;), but the whole thing is out of breath, man...sort of Mid day on Earth...

that FMSB won Best film on Venice film fest this year, beats me. This was a film that was not accepted in competition in Cannes, the festival that made JJ a star !

Jim Jarmusch made also the music, on guitar, together with singer Annika (Henderson), one of the songs is Jackson Browne's These Days, 1st sung by Nico in 1967.  

3 stars out of 5 / 6 out of 10 !

RIP Brigitte Bardot

 Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, aka B.B. , once the most famous French incons, died at age 91. She was one of the most beautiful women on screen, bringin g a certain modern quality to feminity in the 60's. 

She was married four times, most famously to Roger Vadim and Gunther Sachs. Also a singer, involved with Serge Gainsbourg (Bonnie & Clyde).

Films: Vadim's  Et Dieu... créa la femme, Louis Malle's Viva Maria, Henri Clousot's La Vérité, Godard's Le Mépris. Last film in 1973. She became a Grand Animal Activist, and that was her main activity and her legacy. 

Obit in The Guradian here.

And here's the great  Tom Zé, with his song BB (1973).