I enjoyed this Icelandic crime drama but it left me unsettled. It features a tough defence lawyer called Stella Blomkvist. Stella is persistent in trying to get the best for her clients. Her clients have their own agendas and so does Stella. The political angle is fascinating and, almost, believable. The style has cartoon like features …
True crime investigations have become the cheap options for some TV programming. Promised revelations are often disappointing. Not with this program available on ABC iView – Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire. This is a heartbreaking investigation into the deaths of four schoolboys and a father and his two little sons when the ghost train at …
For a break from the dark Nordic crime, SBS On Demand delivered with Miss S, an adaptation of Kerry Greenwood’s Miss Fisher set in the late 20s’ and early 30s’ Shanghai. What a delight. You will recognise Kerry Greenwood’s plots, each spread over two episodes. All your favourite characters are there. Miss Su and Inspector …
Striking Out, a two-season Irish legal drama (Acorn TV, and Apple TV), is the TV equivalent of comfort food: nourishing, not too demanding, and very enjoyable. No wonder it drew incredible ratings for Irish channel RTE when it first aired in 2017. For Tara Rafferty (Amy Huberman), life is good. She’s a young lawyer working …
In a new series in The Conversation, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. Here Sisters in Crime’s Ambassador, Sue Turnbull, pays homage to Vera. Vera stands on a windswept headland contemplating the disgruntled North Sea. She’s clad in her usual garb; the battered hat, the annoying scarf and the tent-like …
Why Women Kill (SBS On Demand) has had some damning reviews. For example: “can’t settle on a tone” (Roger Ebert); “clichéd characterisations” (Hollywood Reporter), and “lack of a solid voice” (vulture.com). I enjoyed Why Women Kill (WWK) very much, and wondered why my experience differed so much from the critics. I’ve come to think they …
I am a television tragic, sadly one with a penchant for crimes that take place in other cultural milieux. So far, geographically, I am a victim of Turkish and South Korean tele novellas, each reflecting the cultural overtones of those two countries. Are the crimes there very different from those that take place closer to …
Sue Turnbull, Sisters in Crime’s Ambassador, introduced the recent screening of Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears. Here, wearing her professorial hat, she writes about Phryne fandom for The Conversation. A heavily disguised Phryne (Essie Davis) is racing through the streets of Palestine, pursued by armed men. Excitement mounts. Having athletically eluded all attempts to …
On Sunday 1 March Sisters in Crime booked out a 98-seat theatre at Yarraville’s Sun Theatre for a special screening of Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, inspired by the 20 novels in the Miss Fisher murder mystery series, written by founding member, Kerry Greenwood (now OAM). The event was sold out and no wonder! Fans …
I was determined that I would never fall in love again. In 2013, Igal, the man I was in love with, ended his life. I’d lost several other people in my life within a few years. Two and a half years later, I was still reminding myself every day of the pain of losing him. …