Nerdy Squirrel Reviews by Pasckie Pascua

“Time” (BritBox on Amazon Prime) Series 2, British anthology drama series, follows the lives of inmates and staff in His Majesty's Prison Service .         Series 1 focuses on a newly imprisoned schoolteacher, who is consumed by guilt for his crime. And a prison officer doing his best to protect those in his charge, as well as his own demons.          Sean Bean is Mark Cobden, the prisoner; Stephen Graham is Eric McNally, the prison officer. Both deliver a sterling performance that is forceful in their restraint, touching in their vulnerability. They deservedly won BAFTA awards in 2022 for their acting.        However, it is Series 2 that the drama elevates into a powerful theater of heart-tugging pain. I almost cried, quite honestly.        The storyline: Orla, a single mother serving her first sentence, Abi, who is incarcerated for life, and Kelsey, a pregnant heroin addict and repeat offender, begin their respective sentences at a women's prison.         Jodie Whittaker

“Butcher's Crossing” (2022, Hulu) Western film, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by John Edward William s, and stars Nicolas Cage .        The story seems compelling enough. In 1874, the naive and idealistic son of a pastor dropped out of Harvard and traveled to Butcher's Crossing, a tiny frontier town in Kansas built on the buffalo hide trade. Sold on the romanticism of going on a buffalo hunt, he falls in with an intense and stoic but experienced buffalo hunter (named Miller, played by Mr Cage) who spins him a tale of a remote Colorado pass where one of the few remaining massive herds can be found. Though warned about Miller and the folly of this enterprise, the young man puts up all of his money to fund the expedition.        The story didn't go beyond the expected per cinematic, visual treatment. I wanted more navigation into the buffalo hunt but it didn't go there. I assume the book did. (Nice bison in the snow photography though.)        Just another Ni

“Dream Scenario” (2023, Amazon Prime) dark comedy fantasy film written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli , and starring Nicolas Cage. I didn't know who Mr Borgli was until this fine movie reminded me of Mr Cage in 2002's “Adaptation.”        This movie received positive reviews and was nominated for awards including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Nicolas Cage .        Plot take off: Sophie, a teenage girl, has a dream in which a man is raking leaves by a swimming pool. As Sophie starts floating up to the sky, she cries for help from this man whom she calls Dad. Her father, Paul Matthews (Nic) is a professor of evolutionary biology at a local university. The story threads into the same “dream scenario” plot point.         Nic carries on with his usual brand of oblique comedy: Stutters, cluelessness, wrinkled forehead, sudden blurts, wry smile. Which makes his dark comedies really darkly funny. 🎥👍📽 “Arizona” (

“The Holdovers” (2023, Amazon Prime) comedy-drama set in the winter of 1970 and carrying over into early 1971, the film stars Paul Giamatti as a strict classics teacher at a New England boarding school who is forced to chaperone a handful of students with nowhere to go on Christmas break.         I wouldn't say this movie isn't good. And with the usually exemplary Paul Giamatti as lead actor, expect a fine show.        But after so many movies that revolve around the same plotpoint, equally well-told and acted, “The Holdovers” almost made me sleep. No excitement, predictable sequences, ordinary nearly cliché dialogues.         But again, I repeat, this is not a bad movie. 🎥💻📽 “American Assassin” (2017, Netflix), based on Vince Flynn 's 2010 novel of the same name, the story is centered on a young CIA black ops recruit, who helps a Cold War veteran try to stop the detonation of a rogue nuclear weapon.         I already consumed my usual 3-hour late evening TV time,

“A Murder at the End of the World” (Hulu) psychological thriller drama miniseries , follows an amateur detective who attempts to solve a murder at an isolated Arctic retreat in Iceland. A grand whodunit mystery thriller in the backdrop of the A.I. craze.         Add Emma Corrin, Golden Globes Best Actress in 2022 (as Princess Diana in the TV series “The Crown”) as the nerdy sleuth Darby. And Clive Owen as billionaire Andy Ronson, who easily pokes us as a composite evil of 15 tech moguls nowadays.        Then there's Joan and Alice Braga in “adornment” roles (sadly) + co-creator Brit Marling, who as usual acts, writes and directs as well. But this show is all Emma Corrin.        However, despite Emma's focused intensity and a grand, snowy set, the 7-episode exercise wasn't able to go past ho-hum predictability and cliché dialogues. Per murder mystery thrillers in snowy locales, try Finland's “Deadwind,” all three seasons. 📺🎥📺 GAVE UP: “Bodies” (Netflix) British crim

“The Veil” (Hulu) drama thriller , about a potentially deadly game of truth and lies as two women travel from Istanbul to Paris and London, with one of them possessing a secret that the other needs to expose. That's what the series premise says. I wasn't expecting an interesting ride. It turned out to be a fine, compelling enough weekend entertainment.        However, I must say, I got burned by Elisabeth Moss’s prolonged close-up pouts in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Five seasons of Offred's confused, angry, sad, forlornly, flirty etcetera face all over the living room's 85” flatscreen.        But I love Ms Moss. I haven't stopped loving her since “Mad Men.” So I needed some kind of redemption. And I miss her, too.        Pacing is fast, action wasn't spectacular but neatly staged, dialogues aren't so cliché as in the usual government agent versus terror soldier repartee. Elisabeth had to have a Brit accent as an M16 agent but I didn't notice but what's t

“The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin” (Apple TV+) British historical comedy television series starring Noel Fielding as the title character. A fictional take on the life of Dick Turpin , leader of the Essex Gang, who commits numerous petty crimes with the hope of becoming England's greatest highwayman while being pursued by the thief-taker Jonathan Wilde and the secretive criminal organization, The Syndicate.        From time to time I encounter comedies that are old-school silly but no (or very few) sexual innuendos, no political humor, nothing of the “correct” self-righteousness yet still highly-offensive jokes.         Dick Turpin and his gang is that. Funny the way funny was. How's that? Well, this series made me laugh. Season 2, please! 📺🎥📺 “This Fool” (Hulu) Season 2, comedic look at cholo culture and lifestyle. Synopsis: Julio Lopez is 30 and still living with his mother and grandmother in his childhood bedroom. He works at “Hugs Not Thugs,” a gang

“A Gentleman in Moscow” (Paramount+) British limited series based on the 2016 novel by Amor Towles . Synopsis: After recently returning to Russia from Paris , aristocrat Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov spends decades banished to an attic hotel room following the October Revolution , after being sentenced to house arrest by a Bolshevik tribunal.        Definitely, a top 10 or top 5 best TV series for 2024 for me. And a show could usher back big-screen family viewing in the living room. No foul language, no unnecessary violence, and yes! No silly dim lighting. What a refreshing experience!         Ewan McGregor in the title role delivers an inspired performance. Special mention to Johnny Harris . His Osip Glebnikov is restrained cool that is awkwardly lodged between zealous allegiance and familial vulnerability. 📺🎥📺 “Under the Bridge” (Hulu) true crime drama , based upon the book of the same name by Rebecca Godfrey . The 8- episode series follows the true to life murder of a teen