[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Things I've recently been watching on TV:

Criminal – there are four of these (UK, Spain, France, Germany) and they are all very good. Each one involves a team of detectives interrogating a suspect they have arrested. The episodes are stand-alone but there is a loose narrative thread about the team which makes them interesting as a series as well as individual episodes. I enjoyed all of the series and went straight from the UK onto the Spanish, then France, and then finished with Germany. If you have Netflix, it's something I highly recommend.

The Capture – this was a fascinating show which begins with a soldier, freed on appeal and then arrested for the kidnap of his barrister, then moving onto the incriminating evidence purportedly showing the kidnap. It's a TV show which is best watched in a short a period of time as possible and will make any viewer keep an eye out for CCTV cameras, wonder what is being done with the footage of them in public spaces, and treat shows like Crimewatch which make heavy use of CCTV footage with a degree of scepticism in future. By the end, you will probably not look at your smartphone the same way again!

Peaky Blinders – I'd only previously seen the first season and I'm not sure why I didn't watch any more or why I felt like watching it again, but I did, beginning with the first episode and going straight through to the end of the fifth season. It's a show I really like and think is smartly written, very well acted and directed, and makes a bold use of music, with contemporary songs by artists including Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and Radiohead playing on a show with a period setting, starting in 1919 and has just finished at the beginning of the 1930s.

Bob's Burgers – always good to watch when winding down before going to sleep, so rewatching the second and third seasons was a joy. It won't be long before I move on to the fourth season again.

South Park – I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but this show has evolved so much beyond its original incarnation it is almost unrecognisable from when it first hit the screens in the 1990s and is less a comedy show then a satirical documentary series. So far, it's looked at the way that companies compromise themselves to gain access to the Chinese market, taken aim at anti-vaxxers, taken a humorous look at the growth of plant-based 'meat' and the way the US government has dealt with immigrants.

Swamp Thing – I really like the movie, but I'm not altogether convinced about the slightly ponderous nature of this small screen spin-off. It's an interesting story and I like the environmental message which seems to be there in the subtext. The cast, including Virginia Madsen, Will Patton and Jennifer Beals is solid, if unspectacular, but the visual effects are top-notch and I'm really looking forward to seeing out the last two episodes play out.