Good Behavior

Not since Breaking Bad has a series caught my attention from the beginning. It's amazing how scary and tense and funny it has been in 3 episodes. The story is unpredictable and original and the lead character gets sympathy from the outset.

Michelle Dockery plays and ex con kleptomaniac on parole who gets caught up in an Argentinian assassin's schemes. It's a totally different role to Lady Mary on Downton Abbey. She displays a wide range of acting skills and emotions with different disguises. At first I didn't think her porcelain white skin and slim figure could be convincing in North Carolina but she is just so good it doesn't matter.

This is the best new drama of 2016 period.

This show is a roller-coaster ride going back and forth from the real world to the world we choose to hide in at times. Letty is out of prison, but falls in with "bad company", purely by chance. She is trying to make it in the world, but she still struggles with drugs, alcohol, thievery, and an emotionally abusive mother - for starters. She is incredibly likable - smart, tough, and incredibly brave- but can be vulnerable at times. She is deeply troubled with a compassionate heart - it is her heart that gets her into very large messes. All of the characters are incredibly convincing. This show has some humorous moments, but make no mistake - it is a rather intense drama. She wants very much to be "normal", but the people in the dark underworld she finds herself in treat her better than those in the real world. If you don't believe in second chances, this show isn't for you.

I don't get TNT with my basic cable and found this show on HULU. I was happy I clicked on the title and started watching! This show keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am routing for Letty and Javier to have their happy ending. This show can be hard to watch at times because of the choices the lead characters make but you keep on watching because you care about them. I sure hope they have a Season 3 so we can see a conclusion to this story.

I'm not sure that another TV series or film about low life psychopaths is really needed. In just the first episode we've seen killing, shooting, stabbing, vomiting, robbery, prostitution, and drug taking. We've got a husband who wants to kill his clueless wife, a mother who lost all visitation rights to her child, a mother who hates her daughter, and a well-meaning but incompetent parole officer. Through it all the self-help tapes of the main character ask her to be all she can be.

Putting aside the dreary and depressing portrait being created here, there are a lot of things to recommend it. The main asset is Michelle Dockery who played Lady Mary Crawley in "Downtown Abbey". She is simply marvelous, playing a host of emotions like she was playing a fiddle. She gets good support from Terry Kinney as her parole officer, Juan Diego Botto as a hit-man, and Lusia Strus as her unforgiving mother.

The photography is excellent as is the direction. The story line is aggressive, bringing us in and out of all kinds of different environments, but it is effective.

This series reminds me a lot of "Rogue" the 2013 TV series about an undercover female detective starring Thandie Newton. It also has character elements of "Saving Grace" (2007-2010) starring Holly Hunter. If you're attracted to these types of series, this one will appeal to you.

We have an enormous amount of choice, especially the last 5 or so years, we have goodies, baddies, bikers, zombies, serial killers, drug manufacturers/sellers, Kings, Queens, Vikings....Oh my the list goes on...So writers finding a part of the spectrum not exhausted is getting tougher...(in the voice of Jeremy Clarkson) Until now!

It is hard to describe this show, it is gritty, it is a bit wooahhh when you least expect, it turns from slow moving to racy in an instant, and turns normal scenarios to shocking as quick, I suppose it is similar to Weeds as a TV show, but it has it. The acting, aside from the odd moment, is extremely good, the story line is understandable, but sometimes slightly misleading/confusing till a turn reveals all, it has drugs, alcohol, the demons of and sex, a little too much sex at times, but then, I can live with that! Most importantly, it has a new twist on the story telling, with the viewer left with an urge for the next episode. That's not easy these days, we have our faves, breaking into that mould is quite tough...But Good Behaviour might just do it!

Well worth a watch, albeit be prepared for it being not what you expect, in a good way!