I can't watch the news, and as far as documentaries go, I am picky - I can't bear, for example, watching a show about platypuses when I know they're endangered as it makes me too sad. And I tried giving '24 Hours in Police Custody' a go, a British based police documentary set mainly in Luton where my husband was born, but my nervous system didn't like it - I felt far too much compassion for those both committing the crime and being victim of it. So to fictional TV I turn so that I can hide inside stories for a while.

Here's three I enjoyed recently.

Vortex

Vortex is a French time travelling crime drama. Wait! Don't give up. The time travel part isn't as important as solving the crime, though it's an integral part of it. Ludo is a police detective whose girlfriend, and mother of his baby, died in an accident some 27 years before. When a woman is murdered on the same beach, Ludo discovers something - a glitch? - inside the virtual reality reconstruction of the crime scene where he is able to talk to Melanie on the beach and warn her of her impending death.

The six episodes that follow are about her trying to face her death date and at the same time avoid it, whilst pressure is on for Ludo to solve the case to prevent other murders, save Melanie and not cause butterfly effects so he doesn't lose his current wife, much beloved, and ten year old son.

I really enjoyed this one - it's not genius, but the premise is great and the story plays out really well with enough twists to keep you guessing til the end.

The Walking Dead: Dead City

Okay, I'm a zombie fan - if you didn't know it already. If I watched all seasons of the Walking Dead, and the spin off 'Fear the Walking Dead', I'm sure going to give this one a go.

You can watch it independently of The Walking Dead as there's enough montages and flashbacks to give back story, though this bugged me somewhat - how many flashbacks do we need of Negan killing Glenn? Maggie's looking stressed and traumatised the entire time, which is understandable given The Croat has kidnapped her son, who may or may not be alive.

Did you ever watch Ozark? Darlene has turned up - and if my guess is right, she'll be way scarier that the Croat.

Negan's still trying to redeem himself whilst refusing to let his past define who he is, and Maggie's still trying to figure out if she can trust him, but then, she doesn't have much choice. I find Negan a really interesting character.

Last Light

Do you remember Lost? I spent the first three episodes of Last Light trying to figure out how I knew the main character and turned it it was Jack from Lost. Blast from the past.

Look, this show isn't great, but I liked it, or at least the first three episodes where the majority of the world-ending action is (I found it fizzled somewhat for me after that). The premise was there. He works for an oil company as an engineer chemist and is called to UAE to fix a problem with the oil. Meanwhile, his climate activist daughter reports on the failings of government to face impending disaster and cannot understand why her father works for an oil company, and his wife and blind son are in France because his son needs an eye operation.

Then, planes start dropping out of the sky and cars and trucks begin to catch fire. The oil has a bacteria that is eating up all the oil, which pretty much will end the world as everyone knows it. He's unable to contact his wife, who's struggling herself to get back to the UK, and he's in charge of finding out what's going on with the oil as the world falls apart.

No plot spoilers, but the ending imagines a better world and if you've seen it, I wonder what you thought about this dream. Farewelling oil might be dramatic, but it could just make for a better future.

The Swarm

I loved The Swarm. It was well produced and believable, in so far as creatures of the sea being taken over by something that causes them to attack humans is believe. Poisonous lobster juice in the waterways? Whales landing on boats? Killer crabs? Sounds ridiculous but it was well done enough to not shout at the television that it was being stupid. Even my husband liked it and he can NEVER suspend disbelief, being a physicist/scientist. It's all neatly wound up in eight episodes and has environmental themes - much like Last Light, it worries about how much we've fucked up the planet and what the consequences of that might be. I expect we'll be seeing a lot of climate change influenced television as extreme weather events pattern the globe.

And of course...

... I loved the last episode of Succession, which could only have ended that way. Rogue Heroes was also bonkers, about the start of the SAS, and I can't wait for Season 2.

And I hate to admit this, but I also watched all four seasons of Manifest. I have no idea why I enjoyed this show - it's not particularly well polished, gets a little too close to the whole God thing for my liking, and you have to suspend belief further than I am capable of suspending it - but still, I was sucked in to the plight of passengers from Flight 828 who leave Jamaica and arrive in America five years later with 'callings' or premonitions of disaster they must solve in order to maybe postpone their 'death date' five years in the future. Yep, bonkers.

Images created by me and Midjourney.