Biden and Ukraine, TV shows Lie to Me and Chef's Table

Three things I have noticed. 

Putin was emboldened to invade Crimea when Obama was President.

Putin did not dare to invade Ukraine when Trump was President.

Putin is invading Ukraine when Biden is President.

Bill Maher, who does not like Trump, posed this question, "If as some on the left claim, Putin and Trump are so buddy buddy, why did Putin not invade Ukraine when Trump was President?" 

Our leadership in the USA by Obama and by Biden did not deter Putin. Food for thought. 

As a way to lighten the mood in these dangerous days, here are two TV shows I found recently and enjoy.

 

Lie to Me, starring Tim Roth as a facial expression and body language expert who founds a company that helps police and government agencies solve crimes, prevent terrorism, free innocent prisoners, etc. Tim Roth is brilliant in this show. I love the way he carefully studies people face to face up close to decide if they are lying. 2009 to 2011 and good news that there are 48 episodes. On Netflix.

 

Chef's Table, a documentary about chefs around the world. The two episodes I watched thus far are fascinating. Musa Dagdeviren is a Turkish chef in Istanbul who works to keep regional cuisines from becoming extinct. Wonderful food, a chef with bold ideas to save old type cuisines, and lots of footage of Istanbul and small towns. He was sad to hear people in Turkey insult ethnic cuisines (I won't eat at that restaurant, they serve Kurdish, Sunni, etc. foods) and that sparked his zeal to save those old recipes and showcase them in his restaurant. I attended college in Istanbul for a year my junior year abroad and love Turkish food so I watched this episode first.

Bo Songvisava is a Thai chef who is on a mission to save old style authentic Thai food recipes in her Bangkok restaurant. She is also on a mission to support organic suppliers and her restaurant is all organic, which was difficult to do because Thailand has mainly industrial farming according to her. Lots of beautiful scenes of small farms, countryside and Thai food. I am watching this series on Hulu. Each of these chefs is talented and charismatic and doing work I admire greatly. There are many episodes covering many countries and interesting chefs. The photo above is of Bo in her Bangkok restaurant.

Fun British comedies on TV

Two months ago I subscribed to Acorn TV via Amazon Prime which offers some great British and Australian TV shows and movies. Since I live in the USA this is a real treat for me, as Acorn offers many shows I like, including mysteries new to me like "Rake" and "Murdoch Mysteries" and lots of goodies like "Midsomer Murders" and "Endeavor", dramas, and some fun comedies. Plus it is only five dollars a month. I dropped cable two years ago, which was costing seventy dollars a month and didn't have many shows I like.

My favorite show thus far on Acorn is "Ladies of Letters", which is fabulous fun. Two quite mismatched English ladies meet and then keep in touch via letters. Their letters are often wildly untrue which makes for much laughter from me. The first photo is of Maureen Lipman who plays Irene, and the second is of Anne Reid who plays Vera. Anne Reid does a wonderful performance in "Last Tango in Halifax", by the way.
Some people who enjoyed the books and radio series do not like this rendition of "Ladies of Letters" but this is my first introduction to it and I find the ladies to be hilarious while being not very pleasant in the way they treat each other. Their letters to each other show them to be out of touch with reality, which causes funny situations. There are 20 episodes and some of the episodes are rather dark.
Two other funny comedies I am watching are "French Fields" (English couple moves to France and this show is a continuation of "Fresh Fields") and "Boomers" (3 English couples who are long time friends).
I watched all 20 episodes of "Ladies of Letters" and miss those gals, wish they would make more. Another good comedic find is P.G. Wodehouse's "Blandings" which I am watching.
I enjoyed the movie "The Man Who Lost His Head" about a man who works for the "British Imperial Museum" and travels to New Zealand on assignment to get the Maori people to allow the museum to keep a famous Maori chieftain's carved head. Will romance occur? A nice glimpse of very rural life of a group of Maoris. I saw this on Acorn TV.
Today on Facebook I saw an ad for Britbox_US which offers shows from the BBC and ITV, and claims to be the biggest collection; it is $7.99 a month and apparently became available in the USA earlier this year. Have you tried it?
Do you have any favorite British or Australian TV shows or movies you suggest I look for?