TV & Movies

📺 Joan: A gorgeous Sophie Turner plays a feisty single mother turned criminal mastermind in 1980s London based on the true story of Joan Hannington, who grew up in a violent household determined to provide a better life for the daughter she had at 17. But Joan’s knack for high-end thievery leads her into a life of dangerous crime, which affects her ability to care for her daughter. I loved the pitch-perfect 1980s music, cultural references, and fashion and it’s impossible not to root for the plucky and glamorous Joan, even as she makes truly disastrous decisions…

📺 All Creatures Great and Small, Season 5: I’m thrilled that my favorite cozy show has returned with its 5th season. The English countryside is dreamy, and everything about this show, from the characters to their clothes and homes and the low-stakes storylines typically featuring adorable animals, warms my heart and makes me want to 1. Move to a tiny town in the English countryside; and 2. Time travel back to the days when there were no screens…

📺 Lockerbie: A Search for Truth: this is a fascinating limited series starring Colin Firth as the father of one of the victims of the 1998 Pan Am flight that exploded due to a terrorist bomb and crashed into the Scottish town of Lockerbie. As a child of the 1980s, I grew up dimly aware that the investigation into who was responsible dragged on for years, but I did not know that it took 12 years and much international wrangling for a criminal trial to be held or that mystery remains about who exactly was responsible—and why. Colin Firth is excellent as a pediatrician who becomes obsessed with finding out the truth behind the bombing no matter the cost to his family and eventually befriends one of the accused terrorists.

📺 Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever: this documentary follows Bryan Johnson, a tech multimillionaire who has controversially dedicated his life to defying the aging process. While Johnson’s regimen is shocking and extreme, what I found most interesting about this show was the second half, where he discusses his childhood and pervasive unhappiness, leaving the Mormon church and his marriage, and his struggle to develop healthy relationships, which he acknowledges are what makes life meaningful and worth living.

📺 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 & Articles

📖 The Ministry of Time: is a beautifully written literary novel set in present-day London with a fascinating time-travel element—and it’s a love story! The book poses philosophical questions about time travel, the impact of history on our lives, how our world has changed over the centuries of human civilization, and where we might be headed…

📖 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…

🗞️ 35 Simple Health Tips Experts Swear By: Lots of great hacks for small changes that will improve your health and well-being from experts on happiness, brain health, nutrition, sleep, business, and more.

🗞️ Questions for a better life: a self-improvement special: As a self-improvement geek, I inhaled this series of articles on how to do life better in almost every way, from relationships and health to parenting and money.

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.