It happens rarely but I got to watch two consecutive series the past week that both kick ass in their own right.
First I got to watch The Artful Dodger. It is a nice blend of all the styles I like, medical, victorian sleuth and prodigy.
Like if the Good Doctor had a baby with The Alienist without the rubbish drama.
Mainly the story follows one of Oliver Twist's old chums and paints Oliver in not the fairest of light, but it is ok because The Dodger is a far better character, and not a little goodie two shoes. As it will be referenced in the show itself.
Being an old pickpocket The Dodger has reinvented himself as a doctor in Australia. This is during the formative years, so everything is still very much small town pretending to be posh. Not unlike today apart from the small town bit.
I don't think there is much more to know other than Dodger is a prodigy surgeon but obviously given his low standing he hardly gets the time of day until the main man's daughter sees him as her way into the surgery. Given that women obviously cannot be doctors, evidenced by their driving skills at the time.
So as we can expect some lovey-ness ensues but the true drama comes when an old acquaintance arrives at the colony. Fortunately, this also spurs all the antics and general miscreant behaviour.
All in all, the show has a good pace and does not waste too much time trying to make drama from zero plot like most, ie House of Cards or Game of Thrones.
The show has a good mix of "Oh that is cool." and "Shit dude!"
The next I watched whilst scrolling in dismay because The Dodger has finished is Obliterated.
Obliterated looks B-rate on the cover, but acts completely A-rated. Again it is a mishmash of the best that could have been more, in this case if you took Die Hard and The Hangover then you would have Obliterated.
It is basically just a covert mission gone awry. The whole thing plays off over one day-evening cycle, but instead off guns blazing and intense action non-stop the show keeps you engaged with the teams' misfortune as they try to save the mission.
My favourite that mainly sleeps half the series but when you see him is a Lunatic Bomb Technician who lost his marbles a longtime ago, likely due to mixing the wrong drugs in an attempt to find them.
Other than that you have all the stereotypes, the nerd, boss lady, action man, the muscle and the bad ass lesbian.
All in all they make for a pretty whack crew who gets things done , kinda, in the end, with luck, but a lot of detours along the way.
I have not watched the last episode yet so actually I don't know if they get anything done so likely Las Vegas does blow sky high and really I am with the baddies on that front. Although I disagree that it would matter if someone nuked Vegas.
Anyway, Obliterated is a good mindless action to offset likely the bit more invested requirements of The Artful Dodger.
Both though, are worth a watch.
Cover design from screenshots of Watchseries.im
