The Stop Button

My Lady Jane (2024) s01e05 “I’m Gonna Change the World” D: Stefan Schwartz. S: Emily Bader, Edward Bluemel, Anna Chancellor, Rob Brydon, Kate O’Flynn, Henry Ashton, Oliver Chris. Bader finds an unexpected connection with Brydon when she discovers how intellectually stimulating the game of thrones can be to play. And downright fun. Bader and Bluemel are also getting hotter and heavier, what with mortal danger thrown into the mix. There’s a lot going on–particularly O’Flynn getting nimble in her plotting–and the show’s keeping pace.

My Lady Jane (2024) s01e06 “I Feel Free” D: Stefan Schwartz. S: Emily Bader, Edward Bluemel, Anna Chancellor, Rob Brydon, Kate O’Flynn, Henry Ashton, Oliver Chris. Bluemel has abandoned Bader to find a cure for his were-horse curse. O’Flynn is on the run and putting together an army to return for the crown. So Bader plays a round of the game of thrones and can’t always keep up. Busy, full, and building towards the series’s first consequential cliffhanger. Rather good stuff.

My Lady Jane (2024) s01e07 “Another Girl, Another Planet” D: Stefan Schwartz. S: Emily Bader, Edward Bluemel, Anna Chancellor, Rob Brydon, Kate O’Flynn, Henry Ashton, Oliver Chris. Bluemel has abandoned Bader to find a cure for his were-horse curse. O’Flynn is on the run and putting together an army to return for the crown. So Bader plays a round of the game of thrones and can’t always keep up. Busy, full, and building towards the series’s first consequential cliffhanger. Rather good stuff.

My Lady Jane (2024) s01e08 “God Save the Queen” D: Jamie Babbit. S: Emily Bader, Edward Bluemel, Anna Chancellor, Rob Brydon, Kate O’Flynn, Henry Ashton, Oliver Chris. Dynamite (better be) season finale with the show running head first into history. Except since the audience isn’t just Tudor nerds, they build all this other tension. It gets almost too much, as Bader’s attempts to save herself or at least Bluemel keep failing. And O’Flynn’s finally into her own as a villain. Killer action finale too. More please.

Only Murders in the Building (2021) s04e02 “Gates of Heaven” [2024] D: John Hoffman. S: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Michael Cyril Creighton, Amy Ryan, Jane Lynch, Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Back home and fairly certain they’ve figured out the crime, the trio splits up to investigate. Gomez and Short go check out the strange riff-raff in the apartment side of the building, while Martin imagines (or does he) visits from Lynch and Ryan. Another beautifully paced episode. The “other part” of the BUILDING proves rather engaging.

Only Murders in the Building (2021) s04e01 “Once Upon a Time in the West” [2024] D: John Hoffman. S: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Michael Cyril Creighton, Teddy Coluca, Meryl Streep, Molly Shannon. Interestingly plotted direct sequel to last season’s finale, except the dead body is gone and the trio have no idea what they’re missing. Then Hollywood comes a-knocking–more like pounding–on a rights deal for a film adaptation, and they’re LA-bound. By the end, the season’s set up. It’s a fabulously well-executed premiere.

Slow Horses (2022) s04e01 “Identity Theft” [2024] D: Adam Randall. S: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christopher Chung, Rosalind Eleazar, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan. The season kicks off with two (undoubtedly eventually connected) storylines. A terror attack in London occupies Scott Thomas and the main MI-5 contingent. But then Jonathan Pryce shoots Lowden (Pryce is suffering from dementia and thinks he’s being watched), which Oldman investigates. And barely informs the rest of the team about. But all is not what it seems.