A few old series

In the midst of watching two major older series – The Sopranos and Game of Thrones – as we passed on them the first time through, we have been watching a few good series that are lesser known. More on those two at a future time. Here are four series to consider.

Line of Duty – is one of the better police shows we have seen, with multi-faceted plots and a season long guest star who brings gravitas. Its focus is an Anti-Corruption unit that investigates bent cops. The three recurring stars are Adrian Dunbar, Vicky McClure and Martin Compston. Keeley Hawes played a key role of a possible bent cop over two seasons and Thandie Newton does the same over one. The show can be intense leaving you ill-at-ease until the next show. The cops being investigated are quite adroit at their job, so are good at shifting the blame. Often, their mistakes are poor judgement, but sometimes they stretched the envelope to cover something up. The relationship between McClure and Compston is a key to the show.

Spooks – is also good, but its focus is on MI-5. It has a stellar line-up of future stars such as Keeley Hawes, Matthew MacFadyen, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Nicola Walker, and Rupert Penry-Jones. The show reveals the emotional toil spy work takes on its agents. MacFadyen and Hawes leave the show in the third season, but it continues on for seven more seasons. These are imperfect people trying to do their jobs and live reasonable lives. The love interests of the agents have to put up with a great deal.

Strong Medicine – is a hospital show focusing on a women’s free clinic run within the umbrella of a non-profit hospital in Philadelphia. It has the heft of Whoopi Goldberg as a co-producer who also appears on occasion. It stars Rosa Blasi as the lead doctor for the clinic, with Janine Turner and eventually Patricia Richardson as the head of the non-profit side of services. Key roles are played by Joshua Coxx as a nurse and mid-wife, Jenifer Lewis as the lead administrative person. The show covers a wide range of issues females face both in child birth or everyday life. Blasi’s relationship with Turner and Richardson are the principal reason for the show, but Coxx and Lewis often steal the scenes. Philip Casnoff and Brennan Elliott play good roles. A favorite part is the opening where a women’s support group speaks with Blasi’s character about relationship or family issues.

Killing Eve – is the bizarre series on the list. It stars Sandra Oh as Eve, an investigator who has picked up on an assassin who works for a secret cabal of the wealthy across Europe. The key story twist is the most colorful assassin, who goes by Villanelle, played by Jodie Comer, has a crush on Eve and vice versa. Fiona Shaw plays Eve’s on and off again boss. Kim Bodnia, with his huge laugh, is Villanelle’s on and off again handler. Comer, though, is the show. She is a psychopath trying to become better, but is a free spirit with a rashness that gets her in trouble. Eve is scared of her, but speaks up when needed.

The last show is unusual, so it may be an acquired taste. We like hospital shows, so we seem to have one or more in our rotation. Line of Duty gets high ratings given its scriptwriting. Tell me what you think if you have seen these.

Gray Protagonists and Anti-heroes

Watching some older TV series that lasted for a few years, we picked up on a trend that more than a few used. The lead protagonists are very gray, meaning their imperfections are quite apparent.

I just completed watching a series called “Brotherhood” starring Jason Clarke and Jason Isaacs. Clarke played Tommy Caffee, a popular state representative, while Isaacs played his gangster brother Michael.

The theme of the series is to show the brothers are not that different, with both cutting corners. Yet, while Tommy is less gray, he still is far from perfect making deals to get ahead.

Before this series, we watched “Ray Donovan,” where Ray (played by Liev Schreiber) solves problems for people with money. He would often go very gray during his machinations. Like the two brothers above, Ray is loyal to his family, but he still does some unthinkable things.

I don’t know what started the recent trend. It may be “The Sopranos“ about a mafia boss and his family and personal problems. But, it may go back to earlier shows and movies. “The Godfather” was about a mafia family as well whose classic line is “Take the gun, leave the Cannoli.”

Before then, John Wayne’s best movies are when he played gray protagonists. He even won the Oscar for playing a drunken, corner cutting marshal in “True Grit.” And, Humphrey Bogart rarely played perfect heroes. He played shady and savvy quite well. But, the advent of the anti-hero may be the primary cause for today’s trend.

Clint Eastwood is the ultimate anti-hero who fought oligarchs, landowners, bureaucrats and criminals. From his mysterious drifter roles to Josey Wales to Dirty Harry, the bad people did not stand a chance. Plus, they had to hear his platitudes before they died. “Dyin’ ain’t much of livin’ boy.” Bang, you’re dead. So, we bought into the get it done by any means anti-hero.

Yet, the recent trend is the anti-hero may be a criminal as well. We enjoyed “City on the Hill,” but Kevin Bacon’s FBI agent was as bad as the criminals. “Pulp Fiction” had very few redeeming protagonists where the two leads were hitmen.

The hard line for screenwriters to avoid is when the watchers believe the protagonist should end up in jail. To me, that is when they may have gone a bridge too far.