📺 Shows on John PHI⑊PIN

📺 Hijack ★★

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:30:37 +1200

Originally Published: August 7th, 2024
Updated: April 3rd, 2026

In 2024 I originally wrote:

What’s not to love about Idris? Ok well not always, but this surprisingly worked.

Well - at least until the final episode.

Just finished the second series - and the fact it took us so many months to work through it speaks volumes. And when I say work … I mean work.

Series 1 ★★★ – that is old star rating - but still holds …

Do you remember the old (60 years old!) movie with Spencer Tracy - It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World? I liked the movie - but the images that find their way to the top of my memory is generally large groups of cast members randomly gathered together on a golf green, in a cab, looking in a hole … I mean for that movie - which was a great ensemble cast - total sense, not too mention that I bet that each star was guaranteed a certain amount of screen time … and this is one way to get round that.

Anyway, back to the plot. Watch the final episode of Hijack and tell me those scenes don’t come to your mind.

And yes - all the usual happy ever after, plane saved with seconds to spare, it was all about the money - etc etc

Series 2 ★★

And that rating is getting applied to the whole show. VERY disappointing - they took that final episode from Series 1 - and doubled down on it!

I was tempted to 1 star it - but that wouldn’t be fair to series 1.

ShowName on 🔗 Reelgood

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★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

’All’ My TV Show Reviews

About that ‘spoiler alert’ - really - did you expect a different ending?

🎥 Nobody 2, 2025 ★★

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 21:24:03 +1200

Not as good as Nobody - but then Nobody caught me out - where as Nobody 2 was - well ... Nobody 2. Colin Hanks looks so much like his Dad. Sharon Stone looked nothing like Sharon Stone - and yet was. The whole film was way better than any of Chevy's vacation movies - and the set up for the final action scene was lifted straight out of The A Team - and just as much fun.

📺 Godless ★★★

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:01:44 +1200

Can’t recall why I started to watch it .. but glad I did .. very good .. and it was a while back (well last year) - despite it being from 2017 - and yet for all of that it took @mitchwagner to remind me - when he referenced it - I couldn’t even recall the name - don’t make the same mistake.

🔗 Godless on Reelgood

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★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

📺 His & Hers ★★

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 13:48:48 +1200

Slow start … boring in the middle … but a couple o’ twists at the end.

🔗 His & Hers on Reelgood

➕

★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

📺 The Wives ★★

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:46:11 +1200

Remember ‘The Sisters’? Yeah - no where near as good. I watched a little bit because of being set in Malta - and being a fan of Madame LeBlanc - I thought … I was wrong.

🔗 The Wives on Reelgood

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★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

🔗 The Chelsea Detective on Reelgood

📺 The Chelsea Detective ★★★

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 09:08:30 +1200

Originally Published: Jun 6th, 2025
Updated: Jan 30th, 2026

One of those gentle English detective shows that holds it all together pretty constantly. And scenes from all around Chelsea, London .. suitably scenic advertising from time to time. Good stories. Nice characters. Nothing bad.

Series 1 ★★★

Nothing extra to say.

Series 2 ★★★

Still nothing extra to say.

Series 3 ***

After the first episode I knew it wasn’t going to be a binge watch. It wasn’t. But my star rating didn’t change.

➕

★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

📺 Run Away ★★★

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 08:51:32 +1200

Not all Harlan is good Harlan … this is good Harlan.

🔗 Run Away on Reelgood

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★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

🔗 The Last Frontier on Reelgood

📺 The Last Frontier ★★★

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:47:36 +1200

First couple of episodes and - meh. Even so much as parked it for a looong while - until the other day …

… and thought to try Episode 3 and it got me. I thought it was only 6 episodes - so binged the next 3 and - I after the rollercoaster - a truly disappointing end. Or so I thought.

The ‘next episode’ invite came up - and the next night - followed through - assuming just another episode - have you noticed how odd numbers are appearing in episodes?

Long story short - TEN episodes - and the roller coaster of episodes 4 to 6 were nothing compare to 7 to 10.

It blurs - but I seem to recall that 8 and 9 were both more than satisfactory endings - but then ….

End of ten = END.

Except of course series 2 is definitely set up.

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★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:03:56 +1200

Here’s a clever thing that I noticed last night about 🍎📺 .. you watch and something critical was said - and you missed it. You wind back 10 - 20 seconds - it plays again .. with temporary subtitles - that then fade away - brilliant.

📺 The Morning Show ★★★

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:21:09 +1200

Originally Published: Dec 17th, 2023
Updated: Jan 19th, 2026

It took me a while to finally get round to watching .. but when I did … well .. I was in. I liked how they wove in current events … would love to know exactly how soon after those events were happening that it appeared on the stream.

Update

Overall thought it very good. Did my life change after watching it? No.

Here have been some zingers I saw on series 3 … forget about them … just watch it. It’s television for goodness sake.

Series 1 ★★★

It took me a long time to start for whatever reason - but finished very quickly.

Series 2 ★★★

Nothing extra to say.

Series 3 ★★★

Nothing extra to say.

Series 4 ★★★

The quality continues. It’s never been a show I binged - and was late to Series 1 - but it doesn’t ever disappoint - provided we remember it is a TV Show❗️

➕

★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 17:08:00 +1200

📺 Said it before - say it again …

Billy Crudup.

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 15:52:38 +1200

📺 I watched: 🔗Dark Winds really great stuff. Only 3 seasons - no matter what the database is telling you - but quite wonderful.

🔗My Review On Reelgood

📺 Dept. Q ★★★★

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 22:43:24 +1200

Really, Really, Really Good. Totally out of left field. AND Nice job of building the cast and the backstories in parallel. Highly recommend.

Dept. Q on Reelgood

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★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

📺 Dope Thief ★★★

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 22:12:46 +1200

Definitely solid - a little slow at times - but work with it - it’s a good one

Dope Thief on 🔗 Reelgood

➕

★★★★★ So Good - A personal favourite

★★★★☆ Excellent - well worth a watch

★★★☆☆ Enjoyed - recommend

★★☆☆☆ Not Bad - BUT - only a 'kinda' recommendation - with (many?) caveats

★☆☆☆☆ Not for me

📺 The Big Door Prize ★★★

Sat, 31 May 2025 17:19:58 +1200

I dunno - wouldn’t go out of my way. Been watching off and on for the last few weeks just to let the brain drain.

Series 1 ★★

I started it way back in the day and it fell off the watch list and ver missed it. Recently rediscovered - and sure.

Series 2 ★★★

Definitely better - definitely liked the characters more - but again - not too much to write home about.

The Big Door Prize on 🔗 Reelgood

📺 Your Friends and Neighbours ★★★½

Sat, 31 May 2025 17:12:40 +1200

Yeah. Good. Never saw Mad Men - but I like how he can be ‘smooth, suave and sophisticated’ one minute and so ‘quickly’ switch to down and out. It started slow - for me - and towards the end was waiting for the next episode.

Good life ~~lessons~~ thoughts to boot.

Your Friends and Neighbours on 🔗 Reelgood

📺 The Studio ★★★

Thu, 29 May 2025 07:20:57 +1200

I try hard to like Seth Rogen but for some reason, for me, there has never been a slam dunk. This was no exception. Definitely not a dud, but definitely more than a few misses.

Series 1 ✅

There were definitely highlights - but the fact I watched it episode by episode as it came out and I was never thinking ‘when is the next drop’(?) .. was telling. Missing a week completely and watching a double show - even more so. Not a loser - but I guess Seth is just not my cup of tea. The Good News? I did get to the end. Unlike ‘Platonic’ - which I just rediscovered and found the first three episodes marked watched and I couldn’t tell you a thing about them.

The Studio on 🔗 Reelgood

📺 Travelers ★★★

Tue, 20 May 2025 18:03:00 +1200

Been following this show for a while, finally nailing the last episode of Series 3 over the weekend. Good enough to keep me coming back .. not good enough to have me binge watch, but a solid show with hat tips to the usual tie Traveller conundrums. I did very much like the very last part of the final episode. Nicely done.

There is a term in the industry for what I call ‘fillers’ .. Rob Long recently spoke of the technical name .. but basically an episode primarily made up of b roll .. so costs kept down.

You kinda know when that goes down … but there was one episode that took it to the next level … season 2 .. episode 7 .. called 17 minutes … presumably a scene that from beginning to end took 17 mnuyes .. but we watched it for 44 minutes .. because Time.

Series 1 ✅

Series 2 ✅

Series 3 ✅

Travelers on 🔗 Reelgood

🔗 No review when I watched the first series in 2022 - but still managed to reference it. And definitely was positive.

📺 Black Mirror ★★★★

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 12:30:28 +1200

7 series since 2011 - and only just getting round to reviewing as I just finished Series 7. In recent series, I felt that whilst some were still good, IMHO a number of episodes lacked real punch. Series 7? Finally - back to the brilliance that is Charlie Brooker.

From the same year if I recall … Gliding through the fucking matrix.

I am putting this up here and need to come back and remind myself of 1 to 4 - but if you want some real guidance in the meantime, just today Noahpinion published this … 🔗 In which I review almost every episode of Black Mirror

Finally Charlie back on FULL FORM

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4

Series 5

★★

Series 6

★★1/2

Series 7

★★★★

Black Mirror on 🔗 Reelgood

‘All’ My TV Shows

📺 Severance ★★★★

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 22:15:15 +1200

Series 1

Series 2

And … well .. ummm . Everybody was so ‘OMG’ .. and best show Eva and … not a negative review - and definitely a great show - but no. Not the greatest. There - I said it.

Severance on 🔗 Reelgood

‘All’ My TV Shows

📺 Adolesence ★★★★

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:23:02 +1200

One that seems to have it a global nerve. It seems like EVERYONE is watching it - so of course I had to. Very Good. Two points to make.

✅ 4 episodes - because no more needed.

✅ The flow. Each of the 4 episodes was done in a single take. Extraordinary. The camera follows a person and tracks the story flow as the cast moves around and engages with each other and the camera moves you to the next part of the story as the character on screen engages with that person. If you are movie buff - think Birdman and 1917 with one difference - this seems to have been a real single shot, not a post shoot stitch.

Definitely watch it. and any young people you know.

Adolescence on 🔗 Reelgood