What I'm watching

Four cinema à la carte things

Boon and Limehouse 1) I just watched the penultimate episode of Justified, dammit.  What I like most about this series? It's conglomerated by and with the greatest collection of rat bastard villains ever.  No matter what happens next week, I know for sure that Raylin will  kill that little prick Boon, one of the few of them still alive; I very much look forward to it. We hope that Elstin Limehouse also meets his maker, but don't think that will happen.  2) In the meanwhile Mother Superior and me have settled on BLACK LIST for dinnertime watching. I've seen this around, but thinking it was another Hollywood paean to the Hollywood 10—which treason Liberals are still trying to excuse—I long  ignored it.  It's not.  What NBC did was take  Silence of the Lambs (with James Spader playing a Hannibal Lecter ("Reddington") against Megan Boone's Clarice ("Elizabeth Keen") and mix it with  White Collar.  Spader's character is a combination of  "Neal Caffrey" and "Mozzie."  I'll give Blacklist 4 stars for entertainment value and 3 stars for general fitness. Spader is good. You could do worse. 3) We have one episode left of the previously mentioned "The Affair." Who knew that this was a 10 part series, and this is just season one?  We didn't.  Teriffic acting; Ruth Wilson is a major talent; her breakdown in episode 9 is 10 stars.  But there is a problem.  Because the script and acting are so good, we are drawn into it, and it's frankly exhausting because I cannot think of a single moment of levity so far.  Consequently, I want to take an anti-depressent after each viewing.  Oh, did I say that all we have seen is only a backdrop to a murder investigation, and that until episode 9 we don't even know who was killed?  Sheesh. 4) Finally, there's Gran Hotel.  Since it's a Spanish production, and MoSup won't watch subtitled movies (because she can't do her puzzles simultaneously), I've watched this one alone.  Gran Hotel (not to be confused with HOTEL, which I've not watched) is a period piece; a poor man's Downton Abby that lacks the production values and characters depth. For me it's "easy listening."  The plot has Spain's Matt Dillon look-alike wrangling a servant's position in the hotel to find out what happened to his missing sister - well, here. I give Gran Hotel 3 stars;  but secretly I give it 4.5 stars for keeping me interested without pissing me off about something.  Yes, I have developed a crush on Alicia Alarcon