TV & Movies

📺 Missing You: I love a Harlan Coben miniseries—they’re thriller/mysteries usually set in London and the British countryside, and are filled with wild twists and turns that keep you guessing to the end. This one stars Rosalind Eleazar, of Slow Horses, as Kat Donovan, a detective grappling with grief over the loss of her boyfriend and the death of her father while investigating a missing person case. When her former boyfriend pops up on a dating app, Kat is determined to learn what really happened to him and why he appears to be connected to her current case…

📺 Selling the City: I don’t typically watch reality TV but found myself fascinated by this show which follows a team of real estate brokers in New York City who teeter around on sky-high heels wearing extremely revealing outfits while drinking at lunchtime and engaging in constant drama. It was fun to peek into the luxury homes for sale around the city, but I must say that I have bought and rented several properties in New York over my 20 years living there and have never met a broker who dressed (or acted) the way these folks do…

📺 Mary & George: When it’s too cold to go for a walk outside, I like to spend an hour or so each winter’s day strolling on our basement treadmill while watching what I think of as a “Treadmill Show,” which I define as something no one else in my family would appreciate. Mary & George fits the bill perfectly: it’s a fun and often dark romp through the British aristocracy during the reign of King James I, starring an excellent (and luminous) Julianne Moore, and the gorgeous Nicholas Galitzine (of The Idea of You). The show is based on the true story of Mary Villiers and her son, George, and is filled with sex, intrigue, and lots of beheadings.

📺 Landman: Jim and I are watching this series (which is essentially a soap opera) about the oil business in Texas, together. Billy Bob Thornton stars as the long-suffering “Landman” of the title, the general manager of a huge oil company owned by a dead serious Jon Hamm. Every episode is filled with injury, death, drama, and danger, which keeps us on the edge of our seats! Demi Moore and Ali Larter also star as the glamorous wives of Hamm and Thornton, respectively.

📺 The Agency: This is a British spy series set at the London office of the CIA with an all-star cast: Jodie Turner-Smith, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere, and Michael Fassbender. Fassbender plays a spy who’s recently returned to London after a long stint on assignment in Africa, where he has fallen into an intense affair with a married professor. I’m gripped by the drama surrounding whether Fassbender’s character—or his lover—are double agents; and if not, what they’re both hiding…

Books

📖 How to Solve Your Own Murder: This is a fun murder mystery, set in the English countryside, about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate. It’s up to her niece to stay long enough to solve the mystery and secure her aunt’s legacy…

Playlists

🎶 Roxy Music Radio: This mix of 70s and 80s pop and British New Wave feels just right as a palate cleanser if you, like me, spent all of December listening exclusively to holiday tunes.