Blanca (series)

This Italian series (one season - 10 episodes) features Blanca, a 20-something blind woman staring an internship at the Genoa police department. She has to deal with all the dismissiveness and stereotyping you would expect, but she makes herself useful on cases, to the point that her detective supervisor begins to trust her. In parallel, Blanca is drawn into an investigation of her own history and who killed her older sister (an event that caused Blanca's blindness). Is there such a thing as a Rom-Thrill? This is it. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Astrid (serial)

Season 5

In this season, the running theme is centered around a series of Astrid's epileptic seizures. They seem to be triggered by something and so she begins to investigate her own history / memory.  Tetsu loses his funding (and therefore visa), a childhood aquaintance comes back into her life, and Raphaelle is pregnant. All traumatic events that could contribute. This season thread is woven through the individual cases of each episode and we are even treated to young Astrid in flashback. Great storylines and I love the 8-10 episode seasons that is the new norm for seasons. Not so long that I lose interest -- good addictive encouragement, keep them wanting more :)

5 stars (out of 5)

Undercover Grandpa

A Spy Kids genre movie where James Caan plays senile grandpa who is always telling crazy stories about how he invented dark chocolate or single-handedly stopped the Russians from taking Berlin after WWII. When his grandkid's wannabe girlfriend (crush?) is kidnapped by an escaped South American warlord (see how silly this is already), Caan re-activiates his old unit of now geriatric special forces. The 4 of them, plus the two teenagers, take on and take out a cadre of mercenaries with more guns than the entire force of Mr. Smith in the Matrix. 

3 stars (out of 5)