The Kilkenny Observer Friday 26 November 2021
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more you can watch if you liked Bosch
Looking for another wayward law enforcement agent in a strong city setting? Showtime’s City On A Hill is a gritty crime show set in early 1990s Boston that’s similar in tone to Bosch, but with a more antagonistic relationship between its two main characters. Kevin Bacon plays a corrupt FBI agent who uses his power for his own gains, and Aldis Hodge plays the assistant district attorney who reluctantly teams up with him in the first season to put away some armored truck robbers. As their relationship deepens, so do the suspicions. Like Bosch, City on a Hill has throwback cop show vibes. On Sky box-sets.
How Cillian nearly missed Peaky role STEVEN Knight’s 2013 Netflix series Peaky Blinders changed the course of British crime dramas forever more. Moody and dark, the show chronicles the escapades of the Black Country gang, infamous for their notoriety and tendency to stash dangerous razor blades in their peaked caps. It follows the character of the handsome and eloquent Thomas Shelby — played by the wonderful Cillian Murphy — who is ambitious, cunning and shrewd as he tries to reach
the top. However, Murphy has revealed how he had to persuade the creator, Knight, to cast him in the role instead of the latter’s “first choice who was actually the famous English actor Jason Statham, typecast for playing the Machiavellian anti-hero in riveting action-thrillers. Statham is known for his roles in films like The Expendables, Furious 7, Snatch, The Transporter, Collateral, The Bank Job and more. In a recent interview with
The Guardian, Murphy revealed how he auditioned for the role of the iconic Thomas Shelby and how tenacious he had been in convincing the creator to give him the opportunity to play Shelby on-screen. “There was a bit of convincing needed,” Murphy recalled. “Initially, there may have been some doubts about whether I had the requisite physicality, which I understand. I’m not the most physically imposing individual.”
In 2020, Knight had openly revealed how he was bent upon casting Statham in the role. “I met them both in LA to talk about the role and opted for Jason. One of the reasons was because physically in the room Jason is Jason,” he said. Talking about Murphy, he said that although Murphy was no Tommy, the actor’s text about his desire to “transform himself” intrigued him. Knight said, “If you meet him in the street he is a totally different human being.”
Tom Hanks’ favourite own movies AS one of the most well-liked celebrities in all of Hollywood cinema, Tom Hanks is well known for his loveable personality illustrated by roles in such films as Forrest Gump, Toy Story, Cast Away and The Green Mile from author Stephen King. Having enjoyed 41 flourishing years in the industry, Hanks has provided audiences with a consistent string of compelling characters and stories. Speaking to The Bill Sim-
mons Podcast, Hanks recently revealed the three films that he has enjoyed working on the most throughout his career, with some of his choices serving up a surprise. Before he started his rundown he also clarified that these films included his favourite personal experiences and did not have any reflection on the final quality of the film itself. His first choice was the Wachowski sisters’ sprawling sci-fi Cloud Atlas, also starring the likes of Halle Berry, Hugo
Weaving, Bae Doona, Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant and Susan Sarandon. Describing Cloud Atlas as a film, “shot on a hope and a dream and nothing but a circle of love,” Hanks said: “That was the first time I’d ever shot extensively in Germany and I was surrounded by history.” The actor’s second choice was Cast Away from Robert Zemeckis, a film that saw Tom Hanks make friends with a volleyball whilst descending into madness on a desert island.
“We just had bold adventures when making that movie,” reported the actor, adding, “We were out in the middle of the ocean trying to grab shots. We were out in Fiji and my whole family was with me...Nothing but adventures every single day”. The baseball movie A League Of Their Own is the final of Tom Hanks’ choices, including the film simply because he was able to play the sport throughout the whole duration of the film’s production.
You’ll look at the dusty landscape of Wyoming in Longmire and think, “This is like Bosch?” But Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) and Harry Bosch both reign supreme over their own turf in similar ways. Also based on a series of books (these are from author Craig Johnson), Longmire follows a sheriff who does things his way because it’s the right way while also dealing with a murky past that may or may not involve some murder. Sound familiar? But most of Longmire is about cracking cases unique to the area, which includes the tension between whites and Native Americans, drug runners, and more. Six seasons are on Netflix, so this will occupy some time.
Like Harry Bosch, the titular character of this Showtime drama has some major problems both in and out of his work. Unlike Bosch, Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) isn’t a cop; he’s a fixer for Hollywood’s elite, meaning that if you have the money, he’ll make your troubles -whether they be dead prostitutes in your bed or a blackmailer threatening to out your sexuality -- disappear. The show is also set in the underbelly of Los Angeles, and it really feels like Ray Donovan and Bosch could exist in the same universe. Time to write the crossover episode. On Sky box-sets.
The British crime drama Luther is famous for bringing Idris Elba into the spotlight he deserves. Like Bosch, Luther is dark, but Luther takes it another step further by pitting John Luther against a series-long antagonist in Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson), who becomes more than a mouse in their game of cat-and-mouse. And, because it’s British, seasons will be shorter than even Bosch’s 10-episode seasons; over five seasons, Luther has racked up only 20 episodes on Sky.
If you’ve watched Bosch but have somehow missed out on watching The Wire, then please don’t talk to me until you have. The Wire is considered one of the greatest shows of all time, showing an unfiltered, raw side of police work that’s reminiscent of Bosch’s take on the boys in blue. But The Wire spends as much time on the other side of the law as it does the cops, following the intricate web of Baltimore’s criminal gangs to create a Dickensian tapestry of an entire ecosystem. Plus, Bosch’s Lance Reddick and Jamie Hector both got their break in The Wire in major roles. On Sky box-sets.
