Some media from March 2019

It’s the first day after the clocks went forward (which sounds like they collectively decided to do so of their own free will, and maybe they did?) and it’s gone 7pm and it’s still light and I predict I will now be able to stay awake forever. Here are some things I’ve watched etc in March.

I went out to see Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, a jazz trumpeter, at Ronnie Scott’s. I’d heard his music a bit before and quite liked it, and I enjoyed the gig. He had a lot of chat between tunes that I think you’d have to be less cynical and/or more American to find profound and meaningful, as opposed to eye-rollingly woo-woo, but he seemed happy so, you know, good for him. Good trumpeting and drumming and pianoing.

We watched the second season of Trapped and enjoyed it, as we did with the first season, although we couldn’t remember a single thing that happened in that. Some of the people looked vaguely familiar and seemed quite haunted about what had happened — a fire? something about a helicopter? — but it wasn’t really important. It was a bit hard to keep track of who everyone was and how they were related, and it was sometimes a bit unbelievable, but generally good if you’ve been suffering scandi-noir-type-drama withdrawal symptoms. Matt also liked it this month too.

In a similar vein we watched the fifth and final season of Shetland which was also scandi-noir-like but in English. We never saw the first three seasons so there’s a lot of occasionally-alluded-to backstory we’ve missed but, again, it doesn’t really matter. It’s mostly quite calm and I do like Douglas Henshall’s ability to barely show any emotion and yet still somehow show emotion.

I am enjoying This Time With Alan Partridge although the best bits are always tiny moments, rather than the longer set pieces, and I wonder if I’d be equally happy with only 60 seconds of highlights each week, much of which would be Jenny Gresham’s pained-but-professional looks to camera.

We are liking the second season of Derry Girls, which is still fast and snappy.

I’m saving Fleabag for when I have a lack of funny half-hours to watch.

I went to see Benjamin, Simon Amstell’s movie, featuring a man playing a very Simon Amstell-like film-maker, in the same way Woody Allen films feature men playing Woody Allen-like characters. I liked it a lot, although it flagged a bit during the second half. If you’re not a fan of Simon Amstell’s self-deprecating humour, this won’t convince you, but if you are, you’ll probably like it. Yes that’s an incisive review.

I think that’s all the watching and listening for March. It’s still just about light out! I’m not going to sleep until October, join me!