Skip to footer

What are you watching? Readers recommend 'Rake,' 'Wallander'

Monitor TV and movie fans share what they've been watching lately.

  • By Wendy Harrell Monitor reader
  • Marc Coffey Monitor reader
  • John Neiberger Monitor reader
  • Sandra Shaw Monitor reader
  • Jeanne Marie Peters Monitor reader

WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING?  Write and tell us at whatareyouwatching@csmonitor.com.

I have been watching Rake, an Australian program that centers on a barrister. It has great dialogue and is funny. 

– Wendy Harrell, El Portal, Calif.

Larry Horricks/History
'Knightfall'

I have been watching Vikings and Knightfall, both of which air on History. I like the shows because of their historical basis, although I am aware that artistic and dramatic license is taken. As a history major, I get the overall context.

– Marc Coffey, Virginia Beach, Va.

I’ve been watching mostly Swedish crime shows. I am currently bingeing Season 1 of Wallander – the Swedish version starring Krister Henriksson, not the BBC version with Kenneth Branagh. It’s nice to see some cop shows that have depth, good acting, and good dialogue and that don’t have cookie-cutter Hollywood-style plots in which everything is spelled out for the viewer. Another fantastic example is Bron (otherwise known as “The Bridge”). The American remake starring Diane Kruger and Demián Bichir that aired on FX was really good, and the Swedish version, which stars Sofia Helin, is superb. 

I highly recommend “Bron.”

– John Neiberger, Denver

I am watching the mid-2000s remake of Battlestar Galactica, which aired on Syfy. The show has it all: good characters, good plot, and good acting (by Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, and James Callis, for example) as well as deeper meaning and relevance.

– Sandra Shaw, Austin, Texas

In the opening scenes of the film Bread and Tulips, one might be hard-pressed to realize it’s a comedy; it appears to be about a normal vacationing couple. But due to unexpected circumstances, the ordinary, taken-for-granted housewife is separated from her demanding husband, and she winds up in Vienna where she is embraced by a host of delightful misfits, all of whom will charm your socks off. 

The actors, including Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, and Giuseppe Battiston, are all well-polished comedians whose eccentric characters provide a good time all the way to the peculiar happy ending. The film has some dark humor and more than a few off-color words and incidents, but it is truly funny. Ultimately, precious affection prevails in the story.

– Jeanne Marie Peters, Grants Pass, Ore.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to What are you watching? Readers recommend 'Rake,' 'Wallander'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2018/0608/What-are-you-watching-Readers-recommend-Rake-Wallander
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe