Weekend Viewing Pleasure

If you’re looking for entertainment this weekend, there are some good options across different media platforms. The Winter Olympics are on TV, and Amazon just posted ten new pilots for you to watch and rate and help decide which one will get picked up for series. You don’t need a Prime membership, just a regular free account.

Of biggest interest to me and many readers is Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s books about LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, who’s played by Titus Welliver in the show.

Welliver is not how I pictured Harry, but the actor perfectly captured Harry’s weariness for internal politics and compassion for the victims. Strong impressions were also made by Jamie Hector as Harry’s partner, Jerry Edgar, and Annie Wersching as Julia Brasher.

Besides Wersching, another 24 alum popped up—Amy Price-Francis as Honey Chandler, the attorney out to nail Harry in a civil suit after he shoots a man while on duty. Oh, and did/can you catch Connelly’s cameo? If you’ve seen the pilot, watch it again and see if you can spot him.

It was fun for me to watch Bosch because I’ve been to all the locations featured—Angels Flight, Musso & Frank, the overlook at the reservoir with the Hollywood sign in the background, the courthouse downtown where I’ve had to do jury duty, even the street where the old doctor’s house was.

Sometimes I take for granted where I live, and just put my head down and try to get through the day. When I see all the energy and beauty and history of the city captured on film, it makes me really appreciate my surroundings. Now I just have to find out where they shot Harry’s house because the view from his deck is breathtaking. During that scene, the jazz music playing is Frank Morgan’s “Lullaby.” It’s the first cut on a free CD of Harry Bosch’s music that came with the hardcover first edition of Connelly’s Lost Light.

Other pilots up at Amazon include The After from The X-Files‘ Chris Carter, Transparent from Six Feet Under‘s Jill Solloway, and Mozart in the Jungle from About a Boy‘s Paul Weitz. Besides Bosch, I’ve seen Transparent and found it unbearable. The characters, other than Jeffrey Tambor’s patriarch, are unpleasant and self-centered. The dad even says at one point that his children are all selfish. Yup.

If you feel like venturing out to a movie theater, The Monuments Men, directed by George Clooney and adapted from the book by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter, opens today. Based on true stories, the movie offers a look at a group of real men who retrieved art masterpieces stolen by Nazis and returned them to their rightful owners. The men weren’t soldiers but regular folk who understood that destroying or robbing a culture of its art means completely eradicating those people’s influence on civilization.

The all-star cast, including Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, among others, is uniformly good, but I will say Blanchett is especially good, which is probably no surprise to anyone. And look for a special cameo at the very end. The movie has lighthearted moments and heartbreaking moments, all while teaching me about a part of history I didn’t know much about.

That’s it for now. Happy Friday everyone!