Grocery shopping is an ordinary part of Sunday.

James being seduced by the Nook side of the force is not.

But he was.

So he's been setting that up this afternoon, while I dubbed off the rest of How The States Got Their Shapes. I hope this series goes on for another season (and this season's not even over yet; it still has five episodes to go). I guess the original special did very well for them to have developed a series around it. Certainly I'm enjoying it!

We had an Asian supper of chicken potstickers and beef lo mein, and then I put on the first disk of The Murdoch Mysteries from Netflix. This is a Canadian series about a police officer in Victorian Canada. It has a vaguely steampunk air about it, but is more like a Victorian CSI, with Detective William Murdoch and his team using the latest scientific methods to track down crime: "fingermarks," "tracing" telephone calls, forensic evidence from autopsies, etc. Murdoch is highly interested in science, so these new methods appeal to him. The coroner is a woman, about which nothing is said, which I found really unusual, as it wasn't a common profession for women at all. (She also plays music while she does autopsies, like the modern pathologists shown on mystery shows; who does she get to change/flip the records, I wonder, since 78s run out in three minutes? It's not like they had LPs back then, where a side would have lasted about 15 minutes. Surely she doesn't do it herself...ugh...) It's almost as if it's in an alternate universe.

However, it's still a neat show. Nicola Tesla is a character in the first episode, demonstrating not only wireless, but recording of voice, and together with Murdoch he talks about transporting images through the air, thereby inventing "tele vision," as Tesla calls it. There are other little hints of the future included, like Murdoch commandeering a motorized bicycle (thus becoming the first "motorcycle cop"). (Arthur Conan Doyle turns up in a future episode.) But it's the same old world, too; in one episode it's evident Murdoch will be turned down for a job because he's Catholic. It's not in the same league as Garrow's Law or Waking the Dead, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Labels: shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:26:00 PM

Comments:

I really liked the Murdoch series; wish it had gone on longer.

If you haven't seen the new Sherlock Holmes series set in current-day London, I highly recommend it.

# posted by  Tina : 6:13:00 AM

 

We loved SHERLOCK! I hear they are doing HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES as a basic for one of the three upcoming shows. Can't wait!

# posted by  Linda : 9:27:00 AM

 

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