TV Show - Sex Education

Just finished watching Season 1
Season 2, Finished watching 3/29/2020, see below!
Premiered: 1/11/2019
Season: 1
Number of Episodes:  8
Length of Episode: 45 min.
IMBd:  8.3
RT Critic's Consensus:  Bawdy, heartfelt, and surprisingly wise, Sex Education is a raucous romp through a group of teenagers whose sexual misadventures are so thoughtfully rendered, adults could learn a thing or two from them.
RT Audience Score:  95
cag: LOVED it, going to be an all-time favorite
Produced by: Netflix

Characters:
     Otis Milburn - Asa Butterfield (main character, a HS kid whose mother is a sex therapist)
     Jean Milburn, Otis' mom, is played by Gillian Anderson
     Maeve Wiley is played by Emma Mackey, the "hot" female lead, who befriends Otis
     Eric Effoing is Otis' best friend, gay and black and wonderful
     Adam Groff is the mean kid, who we can tell is attracted to Eric, very much against his will, lol
     Ola Nyman has appeared on the scene, and becomes Otis' girlfriend
     Jakob Nyman, Ola's dad, has an on and off relationship with Otis' mom, who doesn't "do" relationships, but is very much attracted to Jakob....

My comments:  This was totally and fulfillingly entertaining.  X rated in places, R in others. British.  FUNNY and heartfelt, with some really serious stuff thrown in, too.  What a MARVELOUS cast!  Some are newbies, and they're wonderful.  I was so upset when the short series one came to an and, but an happily awaiting season two which is currently in production.

Storyline from IMBd:  Feeling pressured by the rumor that everyone in his class is having sex except him, awkward teenager Otis (Asa Butterfield) struggles with masturbating. It doesn't help that his mother, sex therapist Dr. Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson), constantly meddles with his personal life. Things come to a weird turn when Adam (Connor Swindells), his school's resident bully, learns about Jean and asks Otis for help regarding his sex life with girlfriend Aimee (Aimee Lou Woods). The situation becomes even weirder when the school's resident bad girl Maeve (Emma Mackey) and Otis' gay best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) persuade Otis to open a "sex therapy clinic" in school, with Maeve and Otis splitting the profits.

Season 2, Finished watching 3/29/2020, see below!
Premiered: 1/17/2020
Season: 2
Number of Episodes:  8
Length of Episode:  45
IMBd:  8.3
RT Critic's Consensus:  Sex Education's sophomore season definitely has more going on, but by treating each new subject with care and humor, it leaves plenty of space for its characters to grow.
RT  Audience Score:  97
cag: LOVED it, going to be an all-time favorite

Produced by: Netflix

Additional and new characters for Season 2
Jackson Marchetti is Maeve's old boyfriend and swimming star, who is tired of swimming and takes up acting
Viv, a socially awkward smart girl who tutors Jackson
Isaac, a wheelchair bound trailer park neighbor of Maeve's
Aimee Gibbs, sweet, slighty dumb, and promiscuous, she's Maeve's best friend
Lily Iglehart is Ola's bestie...and becomes more....
Rahim is the sexy new student who instantly goes after Eric

TV Show - The Sinner Season 1

Just finished watching Season 1
Premiered: 8/2/17 on USA
Number of Episodes: 8 for season 1
Length of Episode:
IMBd:  8.0
RT Critic's Consensus:  Smartly unpredictable and led by powerful performances from a talented cast, the darkly compelling The Sinner sinks its hooks in fast and doesn't let go.
RT Audience Score:  93/85
cag:  Exc!

Characters:
     Det. Harry Ambrose:  Bill Pullman
     Cora Tannetti:  Jessica Biel
     Mason Tannetti:  Christopher Abbott
     J D. (Thornton?): Jacob Pitts

My comments:  Jessica Biel also produced this fascinating mystery.  Totally agree with the "Critic's Consensus."

Storyline from IMBd:  While at the beach with her husband and son, Cora Tannetti, for reasons unknown, stabs a beachgoer to death, sparking a police investigation. In comes Det. Harry Ambrose and together they piece together all the missing pieces that she's blocked in order to discover the true story.  
     This is anthology series that examines how and why ordinary people commit brutal crimes.  Each season will consist of eight episodes that follow a different story each season.

TV Show - The Expanse

Three seasons complete, the fourth in the works
Premiered:  12/14/15
Number of Episodes:
Length of Episode: 42 * 44 minutes
IMBd:  8.4/10
RT Critic's Consensus:
RT Audience Score:  96
cag: Still TBD
Originally on SyFi, when SyFi cancelled, Amazon bought it to continue

Characters:

My comments:  Three factions:  Earth and the Moon, Mars, and outer stations in the Asteroid Belt (people are called "Belters")

Storyline from Amazon:  The series is set two hundred years in the future, after mankind has colonized the solar system. A hardened detective and a rogue ship's captain come together for what starts as the case of a missing young woman and evolves into a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.

Storyline from Wikipedia: More than two hundred years in the future, in a colonized Solar System, police detective Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), born on Ceresin the asteroid belt, is assigned to find a missing young woman, Juliette "Julie" Andromeda Mao (Florence Faivre). James Holden (Steven Strait), the Executive Officer of the ice hauler Canterbury, is involved in a tragic incident that threatens to destabilize the uneasy peace between Earth, Mars and the Belt. On Earth, Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), a United Nations executive, works to prevent war between Earth and Mars by any means necessary. Soon, the three find out that the missing woman and the ice hauler's fate are part of a vast conspiracy that threatens humanity.

TV Show - Glitch

Just finished watching Seasons 1 and 2
Premiered:  7/9/2015 Netflix - Season 1 (but I think that was in Australia, in America it was 2016) Current season 2 began 9-14-17
Number of Episodes:12 (6 each season)
Length of Episode: 60 minutes
IMBd:  7.6
RT Audience Score: 90
cag: 6 (Loved, loved, loved it)

Characters:  James Hayes, chief of Police (Patrick Brammall)
                       Dr. Elishia McKellar (the doctor who helps Chief Hayes try to figure everything out)
                       Kate Willis (dead wife)
                       Sarah Hayes (current wife)
                       John Doe (Rodger Corser) a highwayman?
                       Charlie Thompson (Sean P. Keenan) WWI hero
                       Kirstie Darrow (18-year old from the 1980s)
                       Maria Massola  (pious wife, mother, and schoolteacher)
                       Paddy (Patrick) Fitzgerald (the town's first mayor)
                       Beau (the boy who witnesses the dead digging themselves out of their graves)       

My comments:  I was immediately sucked into this series, and the 12 episodes were over much too quickly!  The cast, all unknown to me since this is an Australian production, were mesmerizing, as was the story, the characters, and the setting (the fictional town of Yoorana).  I love it when you're constantly wondering what will happen next, right along with the characters. The lead - a young cop - discovers his dead wife is one of the people who have come alive.  Also "risen" are:  an 18-year-old girl who died in the 80s, a young WWI era war hero, an Italian-speaking refugee (?) from the early 20th century, the first mayor of the town, who died in 1864, a 39-year-old mother who died in 1969, and a mysterious (and might I say extremely hunky) 40 year-old who we learn about more slowly than the rest.  SO GOOD!!!  How did this happen?  Why?  How are these people connected?  Will they ever be able to leave the boundaries that appear to kill them if crossed?

Storyline from RT:  A drama series where six individuals suddenly appear in a cemetery in the middle of the night with no recollection of who they are or where they come from. Trying to identify these people, and the truth behind how they are connected, will turn the life of the police officer put in charge of the investigation upside-down.

TV Show - The Handmaid's Tale

Just finished watching Season 1
Premiered: 4/26/17
Season: 1
Number of Episodes: 10
Length of Episode
IMBd: 8.7
RT Consensus: Haunting and vivid, The Handmaid's Tale is an endlessly engrossing adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel that's anchored by a terrific central performance from Elisabeth Moss.
RT Audience Score: 93% (100% from critics!
cag: 6
Produced by:  Hulu
Based on the Margaret Atwell novel of the same title (Margaret Atwood even had a bit part in the show!)

Characters:
Offred - Elizabeth Moss
Commander Fred Waterford - Joseph Fiennes
Serena Joy Waterford - Yvonne Strahovski
Nick (the Commander's driver and Offred's secret) - Max Minghella
Moira (Offred's best friend in her previous life)- Samira Wiley
Luke (Offred's husband in her previous life) - J. T. Fagbenle
Ann Dowd - Aunt Lydia

My comments:  This is wonderfully done. Really fantastic entertainment, such a story!  Elizabeth Moss is also a producer.  She does a great job as Offred, but there are so many silent tears!  She handles her feelings really well and silently (for the most part), but those silent tears are a few too many....

Storyline from IMBd:  Adapted from the classic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized "return to traditional values." As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander's household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids--where anyone could be a spy for Gilead--all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.

TV Show - Sense 8

Just finished watching Season 1 (and what they're calling Episode 1 of Season 2, but the rest of the season - 10 more episodes - won't come out until May 8th
Premiered: June 5, 2015 (Dec. 2016 was the 2-hour "Christmas" Special, Episode 13, or Episode 1 of Season 2)
Season: 1
Number of Episodes: 13
Length of Episode:
IMBd: 8.4/10
RT Audience Score:   92% (67 Critic)
cag:  It's sensational (6)
Produced by Netflix

Characters:
     Will - Chicago cop (paired with Riley)
     Riley - Icelandic dj living in London (paired with Will)
     Wolfgang - Troubled young man in East Berlin (drawn to Kala)
     Lito - gay actor in Mexico City
     Capheus - Van Damm lover/bus owner in Nairobi
     Kala - newlywed in India (drawn to Wolfgang)
     Sun - wrongly imprisoned martial artist in Seoul
     Nomi -female transgender computer hacker in San Francisco

My comments:  It takes a bit of the first installment to figure out what's going on, but once you're in, you're totally and completely hooked.  LOVED this, and can't wait until May for more!

Storyline from IMBd:  Season 1 of this science fiction drama begins as eight strangers from different regions of the world unexpectedly become mentally and emotionally linked to each other. They learn that they are "sensates," a particular type of human that has the ability to psychically share their knowledge and skills with one another. The group soon finds themselves in danger and must work together in order to protect one another from a villainous sensate who is determined to hunt them down by using their powers against them.

TV Show - Between

Premiered: June, 2015 - a Canadian production
Season 1 - 6 episodes; Season 2 - 6 episodes
Uncertain about whether there will be a Season 3
Length of Episode: 45 minutes
IMBd: 6.0/10
RT Audience Score:  71 (Critics = 22) This was for Season 1
cag:  3 (Liked it)
Produced by:

Characters:
     Adam - smart, supposedly geeky, has had a crush on Wiley for many years
     Wiley - had an affair with Chuck's (slimy) father and fathered his child, preacher's kid, main character but not very likable at all
     Chuck - rich father owned most of the town, thinks he knows it all
     Gord - worker/farmer/genuine nice guy, looks 30 not younger than 22
     Ron and Pat- two brothers from the "bad side" of town, one's a good guy, the other's a drug dealer and pretty sketchy at the beginning of the series
     Mark - had been in the penitentiary for murdering his father, incredible light blue eyes

My comments:  Reminds me of "Under the Dome," except with only kids and young adults.  Same sort of storyline, unknown cause of the deadly virus, some try to escape, others cope by helping each other, one faction feels the need for force and tote guns and an attitude....

Storyline from IMBd:  Between is the story of a town under siege from a mysterious disease that has wiped out everybody 22 years and older. The series explores the power vacuum that results when a government has quarantined a 10-mile diameter area and left the inhabitants to fend for themselves.
   

TV Show - Travelers

All-Canadian cast(Including Erik McCormack)
premiered globally on Netflix 12/23/16
Seasons: 1 - 3
Number of Episodes: 34 (12-12-10)
Length of Episode: 45 minutes
IMBd: 8.1/10
RT Audience Score:  90
cag:  6/Loved it
coproduction between Showcase and Netflix

Characters:  Five people in the team sent from the future:
     McLaren (Erik McCormack) team leader, FBI agent in the present
     Trevor - Team engineer, HS student in the presentr
     Marcy -  Team medic, lives with "David" in the present
     Carly - Team tactician, Single mom in the present
     Phillip - Team historian with a photographic memory, heroin addicted young man in the present
Other characters to become particularly important:
     David - social worker and love interest of Marcy
     Jeff - abusive boyfriend of Carly, father of Jeffrey, and future Traveler
     Grace - Brilliant but loony programmer, one of the first, and good friend of Trevor

My comments:  This was so addicting, I loved it!  Hated it to end, very attached to the six main characters.  And although there was meant to be a season four at end of the production of season three, I was okay with the way the series ended.  I would certainly rewatch.

Storyline from IMBd:  Hundreds of years from now, surviving humans discover how to send consciousness back through time, into people of the 21st century, while attempting to save humanity from a terrible future.
     Created by Brad Wright, executive producer, and writer of all three Stargate series, and includes directors and actors from all three, including: Andy Mikita, Martin Wood, Wil Waring, Teryl Rothery, Patrick Gilmore, Jennifer Spence, Garry Chalk, Louis Ferriera and more.
     Filmed in Vancouver, BC

TV Show - Timeless

Premiered: 10/3/16
Season: 1
Number of Episodes: 10 + 4 added
Length of Episode: 45 min. hour-long tv programming)
IMBd: 7.6/10
RT Audience Score: 81 (Critics is 84)
RT Consensus:  Sometimes goofy but consistently entertaining, Timeless is a fun throwback action series with a kooky premise that's worth a watch.
cag: 3/liked it okay
Produced by: NBC

Characters: Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer) history professor
                      Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan (Mat Lanter) US Army Delta Force operative
Rufus Carlin  (Malcolm Barrett) time machine programmer
Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) former SNA assset who steals the original time machine and attempts to alter the past to change the future.

My comments:  Started out excited, but it became a "take it or leave it" kind of watching.  Average.

Storyline from IMBd:  When an experimental time machine is stolen, a history professor, a soldier and an engineer (a very unlikely trio) are tasked with capturing the culprit only to learn that he plans to rewrite American history and that each of them has a connection to his plan.
   

TV Shows

*6*  Awesome
5  Loved it
4  Liked it a lot
3  Liked it
2  It was okay
1  Nope

3% -

3 Body Problem - Season 1 (6)
After Life - Seasons 1 & 2 Netflix (4)
Atypical - Seasons 1 - 3 (6)
Between - Seasons 1 & 2 (2015-6) Netflix (3)
Bonding - Season 1 (2019) (5) Season 2 (2020) Not quite as good as Season 1 (4) Netflix
Cardinal - Seasons 1 & 2 & 3 & 4, which is the final season
Dark - Three complete seasons, in German, dubbed in English (2017-2020) Netflix (4)
The Expanse -
Five, The - Mini-Series, one season only (6) Coben, set in England

Furies - Season 1, March, 2024, French with subtitles, 8 episodes, violent, Netflix (5)
Glitch - Seasons 1 & 2 (2015 in Australia, 2016 and 2017 US) Netflix (6)
The Handmaid's Tale - Season 1 (2017) 10 episodes,  Hulu (6) Season 2 (2018)
Haunting of Hill House -
The I-Land - Season 1 (not renewed) (2019) 7 episodes (1)

Love and Anarchy - in Swedish, dubbed in English - Season 1 (2020) (6)
Normal People - Season 1(2020) retells the book in its entirety Hulu (some 2, some 5!)
The Politician - Season 1
Ray Donovan - 7 Seasons (2013 - 2020) Showtime/AmazonPrime (6)  

Reacher - 1st season Feb. 2022, Amazon Prime (6!!)                      
Safe - Season 1 (Complete) (2018) Netflix (5)
Secret City - Season 1 (2016) 5  /  Season 2 (2019) 2
Sense8 - Season 1 (2015) Netflix (6) still watching season 2/fnal season
Sex Education - Season 1, Netflix (6) Season 2, Netflix (6)
Shstisel LOVED it
Sinner, The - Season 1 (2017) USA (6) streamed on Netflix
......................Season 2 (2018) USA (5) streamed on Netflix
Strain, The - Seasons 1-4 (2014 - 2017) (5)
The Stranger - Season 1 (2020) Story told completely (4)
Sweet Magnolias - Season 1 (2020) Netflix (5)
Timeless - Season 1 (2016) ABC via Hulu (3)

Travelers - Season 1 (2016) Netflix (6)
Unbelievable -
Unorthodox - Season 1, 4 hour-long episodes (6)
Upload - Season 1 (2020) Amazon Prime (3)