Palatkik

Wasteman [2025 Movie] Follows parolee whose fresh start hopes are jeopardized by a cellmate arrival. As the new cell mate takes him under his wing, a vicious attack tests their bond, forcing him to choose between protecting the new cell mate and his own parole chances. A near perfect gritty prison drama with some great performances, visceral, hard hitting crime.

Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards [2026 TV] Drama following the downfall of BBC News presenter Huw Edwards from the viewpoint of his grooming victim and the power dynamics involved. Strong performances where the producers seem to make the best of what they can of this story.

The Sympathizer [2024 TV] Near the end of the Vietnam War, a plant who was embedded in the South Vietnam army flees to the United States and takes up residence in a refugee community where he continues to secretly spy and report back to the Viet Cong. RDJ eats every scene in this black comedy based on the book of the same title, whereas the Asian performances are wooden and forgettable. An uneven limited TV series, the Asian scenes done in Thailand, offers a different take on the Vietnam war from a Vietnam perspective.

Dead Man's Wire [2025 Movie] Based on the true events from 1977, when Tony Kiritsis entered the office of Richard Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a "dead man's wire" from the trigger to Tony's own neck. Good recreation of the chaotic event with Pacino hamming it up.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man [2026 Movie] During World War II, the fictional gang leader returns to a bombed Birmingham and becomes involved in secret wartime missions based on true events where the Nazis were to flood the UK with counterfeit money. A feature film version of the TV series that began in 2014 about a gangster family in 1900s England, centering on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps. This comes across as nothing more than an extended episode, style over substance where the music and scenery outdo the flat 2D characters. Passable at best.

Industry [2020 TV] Workday drama London's finance hub with 8 parts per series. Season 1 has young bankers and traders make their way in the financial world in the aftermath of the 2008 collapse. More style than detail. Season 2 (post pandemic) improves with a good mix of sex, drugs, market making trades, character development. Season 3 fictionalizes the Liz Truss fiasco with disruptions coming at you in all directions. A slick season 4 focuses on public company scams and Epstein like entrapment. The final season 5 will likely come out in 2028.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die [2025 Movie] A "Man From the Future" arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence. Highly original albeit messy drawn out at times, satirical black comedy about today’s tech driven social media zombies. Worth seeing.

Blue Moon [2025 Movie] Tells the story of Lorenz Hart's struggles with alcoholism and mental health as he tries to save face with his associate Rogers of the Rogers and Hammerstein duo, during the opening of "Oklahoma!". Oscar bating in style, a thespian show off in a faultless lead performance of Hart, the subject matter of a fictionalized encounter in a bar of Hart with Rogers, along with a mysterious letter writing young woman. It won't appeal to everyone but that should not detract from what is a well made movie perhaps more suited to stage.

Gone [2026 TV] A local school headmaster becomes the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance when he encounters gutsy detective in a compulsive game of cat and mouse. Quality TV old school format, engrossing slow burn crime drama whodunit, based loosely on the novel To Hunt A Killer, is a must see for those into the genre.