The Tourist

Directed by Chris Sweeney
Starring Jamie Dornan and Danielle McDonald
Series 1 (6 episodes) premiered Jan. 1, 2022 on BBC One; currently on Netflix
Series 2 (6 episodes) launches Feb. 29 on Netflix

Watch Time: 1 hr. per episode

Plot: An Irish tourist wakes up with amnesia in a small-town Australian hospital and must use the few clues he has to discover his identity before his past catches up with him.

What I Like About It 

1. It’s a gripping and fast-moving series that satisfies its genre as a dramatic thriller. And it provides something extra for fans of cinema in that the script is inspired by the intelligent zaniness of the Coen brothers (but a bit darker) and the direction is reminiscent in many ways of David Lynch (but a tad more sober). The combination is a fascinating, freaky, and often funny series that will give you enjoyment on several planes and at multiple levels.

2. The lead actors, Jamie Dornan and Danielle McDonald, are both very good and perfectly selected for their roles.

3. And speaking McDonald… Her character reminds me of Frances McDormand’s in the Coen brothers’ Fargo. In McDonald’s case, she is an overweight, underconfident, but intuitive low-level policewoman who, against the wishes of her superiors, inserts herself into the case and becomes not just a principal character but a deserving leading lady.

Critical Reception 

* “This funny, suspenseful six-part thriller doesn’t merely keep us guessing. It keeps its amnesiac hero guessing, too.” (NPR)

* “Dornan finds a quirky, unsettled way to play a man who doesn’t know who he is without resorting to the cliché of the lost soul.” (Roger Ebert.com)

* “A pulse-pounding series packed with humor and philosophical questions.” (The Guardian)

You can watch the trailer here.

Friday Night Blind 

A short (just over 13 minutes) documentary that follows the minor struggles and triumphs of a trio of visually impaired friends who meet once a week to go bowling.

Watch the whole thing here.

“This Muslim Israeli Woman Is the Hope of the Middle East” 

From Bari Weiss, writing in The Free Press…

“Lucy Aharish is one of the most prominent television broadcasters in Israel. But that’s not the thing that makes her exceptional. The thing that makes Lucy stand out is that she is the first Arab Muslim news presenter on mainstream, Hebrew-language Israeli television.

“I’ve done many interviews that have stayed with me. This might be the most moving of all.”

Watch Weiss’s interview with Aharish here.