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I usually don't watch too many WWII films, which is how I made it till 2025 without seeing 36 Hours. This took me a bit by surprise and I thoroughly enjoyed it, making it a strong recommendation from me. Fans of thrillers, classic film, war movies, James Garner, Rod Taylor and even Eva Marie Saint should all watch this film.

It's a clever idea and story that is very well executed. Based on a Roald Dahl story entitled "Beware of The Dog" it tells of a clever plot by Germany to kidnap and drug an American Intelligence officer and make them believe it is the future and the war is over in order to obtain the coveted secret plan for D-Day. The plan is spearheaded by an American raised German doctor named Major Walter Gerber (Rod Taylor) and the American Intelligence officer that they kidnap is Major Jefferson Pike (James Garner). The plan relies heavily on them selling to Pike when he awakes that it is the future (1950) and he is inside an Allied Army Hospital in Germany near the Switzerland boarder. The selling of this elaborate gas lighting requires attention down to the last detail and the help of a Jewish English speaking nurse named Anna Hedler (Eva Marie Saint). And they thought of everything from Newspapers to the radio to soldiers playing baseball in the yard.

This was such a clever story and very well executed. I applaud James Garner and Rod Taylor in particular who really made this movie gripping and unforgettable.

I came to Department Q because of Matthew Goode and fell in like with it's predominantly Scottish cast. The source material is the first of a Danish detective series by Jussi Adler-Olsen called "The Keeper of Lost Causes".

Dept. Q begins with Detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) going back to work after a shooting that resulted in the death of one officer, his partner's paralysis and him being shot in the neck. Morck seems to have both survivors guilt and anger around the shooting. Understandably, Morck has been assigned to mandatory therapy and is pretty resistant to following the protocol which is a great source of comedy throughout the series as the regular therapist has had an accident and been temporarily replaced by the young and attractive Rachel Irving (Kelly Macdonald). Morck goes back to work just in time to be assigned by his boss Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie) to a newly created specially funded unit to work on high profile cold cases from all across Scotland. Moira, was smart enough not to turn her superiors down when approached to create this new unit for cold cases, but instead of spending the allocated money on the new unit she spends lavishly on her main department which is working on current cases...new computers, flat screens, etc. Morck is given the basement's basement...a room called "shower quarters". It contains no windows, urinals, a dirty sink, abysmal carpeting, a single desk, a red skylight in the shape of a large circle that people walk over and poor lighting. The cold cases that were curated by Moira herself are all delivered to the basement in a large collection of boxes where Morck is to pick his first case by the end of the week. Smart, but frustrated (especially with the team assigned to investigate his own shooting), Morck demands help and a car from his boss. What he gets, to my delight, is an administrative assistant from IT named Akram Selim (Alexej Manvelov) and an ugly older red Ford from the impound lot.

Akram is one of the best parts of this series. He is a completely dead pan Syrian refugee who wears a suit and tie everyday, is very eager to become a police officer in Scotland, is the father of two girls, is always polite and seems to have some skills that would suggest he did a highly specialized job back in Syria that involved detective work as well as protection, self-defense or interrogation. There are times when he pushes witnesses or suspects with more questions or observations and other times when he reigns Morck in from asking additional questions and removes him from the scene. He grows to earn the trust and respect of Morck, not that he would verbalize that to Akram himself.

Carl Morck is incredibly smart and he manages to feed nuggets to the team working his own shooting all while working his cold case. The cold case that Morck lets Akram pick after reading all the files is that of a missing prosecutor. Morck adds an additional member to his team...a curly red head named DC Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne), who is desperate to get off of desk duty where she has been languishing after an unfortunate accident in the line of duty where she struck an elderly couple with her car. Morck is also keeping his partner in the loop, with all three of them particularly Rose consulting James Hardy (Jamie Sives) regularly while he is powering through his physical therapy.

The case is fascinating and I loved the use of a hyperbaric chamber, which had me reaching back in time to my own experiences inside a hyperbaric chamber. I enjoyed the family scenario at home with a step son Jasper (Aaron McVeigh) and roommate Martin (Sanjeev Kohli).

The dialogue was great, the mystery wonderful, and the acting top shelf. I really enjoyed the characters and the interaction between them. I can't wait to see what's next from this team. I highly recommend this series. Mystery fans and fans of great writing and acting are going to love this series.

This Warner Bros.-Netflix series was recommended to me by a Mah Jong friend and I am so glad she did.

First, I loved the main character, the troubled Kyle Turner played by Eric Bana, who cut a commanding figure in the park both on foot and on horseback. He was stoic, tenacious and troubled.

Second, it was probably the most unique dead body discovery I have ever seen.

Third, the setting of Yosemite National Park was spectacular! The forest, the waterfalls, El Capitan all made for an amazing backdrop for this murder mystery.

Fourth, the mystery itself was really very twisty.

Fifth, The interaction with his son was a clever plot device.

Sixth, I really enjoyed the banter between Kyle and Jay, the native park ranger and fisherman, who dropped both humor and wisdom regularly.

I can't tell you too much about the plot other than to say a federal investigator investigates the potential murder of a young girl discovered by rock climbers inside Yosemite National Park. Kyle is joined by Naya Vasquez, who has newly relocated to the park from the L. A. police force with her young four year old son Gael.

I enjoyed seeing Wilson Bethel (Hart of Dixie) who played Shane Maguire who was former military and currently responsible for the health of the wildlife inside the park.

If you like twisty murder mysteries in fabulous settings, I highly recommend season one of Untamed and am looking forward to seeing what they come up with for season two.