OK - I'll give it a go. For some reason a film has popped into my mind at the mention of this series - I have no idea why !! It is called "The Assignment" with Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley. I recall enjoying it. Have you seen it perchance? It's not on Netflix - I think I saw it on one of the ordinary channels about 8/10 years ago.

I never saw it but I read a short description and it sounds very interesting. They were after Carlos the Jackal, seeking to discredit him in the eyes of his backers and eliminate his hiding places. I will look for it. There is another film by the same name made just a few years ago. I didn't check to see if it is a remake or a different film by the same name.

update - I tried to watch The Spy but I wasn't keen on it. I cannot stand Sascha Baron Cohen so that didn't help. I got through 3 episodes and then I just lost interest. I can't remember if you said you still have Amazon Prime. I was having a look through their offerings and the first series of Harrow was on it. I still cannot find anything I would really be interested in watching. I guess it will be back to "The Sniffer" for the time being. At the moment I am watching an Italian series called "Thou shalt not kill" - it's on one the sky channels I think. The usual female inspector aged around 30 who is much cleverer than anybody else and is always RIGHT. There are some promising looking films on Netflix - although I prefer a series. I forgot about Unit 42 so I may give that a go.

First time I ever saw Sasha Baron Cohen in a serious role. That guy looks really weird when he runs. There wasn't much action to the series. I just finished it. It's a bummer when the whole time you know he will be caught and executed, so you're just waiting for it to happen. He so ingratiated himself with the Syrian President that he was appointed Deputy Defense Minister of Syria. He might have done well there for quite a while except that he sent morse code messages every evening at the same time. A security man discovered that there was television interference in the evenings and got the Soviets to send a signals tracking unit. They found him, they broke down his door while he was transmitting and caught him red handed. If he had just varied the times he transmitted instead of the same time everyday it might have helped prevent him getting caught. But we are all creatures of habit.

I saw a short series about the Mossad on Netflix. It was interesting and had some good history. Their most important asset (that we know about) was the son in law of Nasser. Nasser treated him like crap and he decided to spy for Israel. He warned them before the Egyptians were going to attack which gave them a great advantage. Somehow the news media found out about him many years later and despite protestations from the Israeli government, the news ran the story. Not too long afterward somebody threw him off a 6th story balcony from his London flat. I don't think I would want to be a spy.

The news agency that ran that story should have been prosecuted - there seems to be no conscience with regards to journalism. If spies are treated the way they are portrayed - risking their lives and then being disavowed and abandoned if they are caught - I cannot see why anyone would join the profession. He was supposed to be brilliant but what spy transmits at the same time every day? Maybe he just got lazy and complacent. Surely that is one of the first things they are warned not to do. I watched an hour of another Turkish series called Burnt Cocoon - this time it runs for 105 episodes!! I doubt if I will watch any more of it - the acting is terrible - the dialogue is weird - it is more of a soap than anything else. It's about a rich man who finds out that he is not the father of his son. This is just the start of it - and I don't think it's going to improve!! It seems very light weight when compared to Ezel.

According to the show Eli Cohen was transmitting various times of the day but they told him to transmit either morning or evening around the same time. It wasn't clear why they said that. Pretty stupid. Of course in the early 1960s there wasn't much in the way of signals tracking. Still, it was known that a transmitter could interfere with other signals transmissions. It really sounds like the Israelis dropped the ball on this. The guy had a bad feeling about returning to Syria on his last trip home. But the gov. felt that the possibility of getting a man inside the Syrian defense department was worth the risk to his life. That is really messed up. They knew the Syrians wouldn't fool around with him if he were caught. He should have been told to stop transmitting regularly and only send information which was critical, and send at different times, etc. I would have told them to breed some high speed, long range, carrier pidgeons or something. Nothing they could track.

And yeah, I think that they should have shut down that story. Everyone knew it would cost the man his life. But they claim "the people have a right to know". Right, because it helps your career to break a big story. If it would cost you your life you would bury that story Mr. reporter.

I am starting the second season of Sniffer, the man with no name. I mean on IMDB they call his character The Sniffer instead of by a given name. I think he gets shot this episode and the playboy cop has to do all the work.

Why do people have a right to know something that would cost another human being their life? It is a ridiculous stance. Oh dear - so The Sniffer is going to get a bit of air conditioning is he? ! Why doesn't that surprise me? He probably just smiled ruefully at the bullet. How will they find a way to make his playmate manage on his own - because that would sort of beg the question - who needs the sniffer then? I shall probably drift back to it again soon..

Yeah, he seems to be mending well now, and just missed getting shot again. And his ex almost had her car repossessed but wrangled three days from the guy at the bank, stopping just short of offering to sleep with him. Sniffer does alright as long as he avoids cats. If the crooks find out about that they will just start rubbing cat fur and dander all over themselves before committing a crime. I'll let you see the rest. One more thing, in the second season you start to get clues about some secret criminal organization, possibly connected high up, maybe with intelligence ties. It seems they have Manchurian Candidate type brainwashed people doing crimes for them. That's all I know for now. It isn't something solved in one episode like most cases, it is an ongoing story that you only get glimpses of so far.

I really do think the Israeli government should have shut down the media in that case. Of course there is another angle to consider. What if they discovered that he was working both sides of the street? What if he were getting information about the Israelis and selling it to interested parties? Then he would no longer be an asset, and since he was no longer connected tightly with the Egyptian government as he had been previously, it would make sense for them to allow their news people to run the story, over their objections (to prevent the story that they had him done in). Then his own people would get rid of him. That is purely speculative. I have not heard anything to suggest that was what happened.

In that convoluted world it would not surprise me at all if he was betrayed by his own people. I have strong opinions on Israel which I wont go into here - suffice to say I am not sympathetic. Maybe I have lived too long and remember too much. I was wondering when "The secret organisation" was going to turn up - it's standard fare but I am surprised that it would be portrayed as such in a country noted for its repression and control of civilians. I wonder how so called crazy rich Russian oligarchs and drug barons get away with it - without some band of big hats escorting them to the Lubyanka !! The answer is probably simple - they pay people in power to look the other way. Corruption is everywhere. I think his wife needs therapy - preferably with a baseball bat!! As in all these scenarios you have to wonder what on earth he saw in her in the first place.

second comment

I am watching Unit 42 (or whatever number it is) some in between The Sniffer, for a break. As I said it is set in Belgium but dubbed in English so you can watch the people instead of always reading the text. I've only watched a few episodes so far. It's alright, pretty interesting. I think Belgium is sort of liberal and PC, and you see some of that reflected in the show. But it's nowhere near as bad as most Hollywood shows. There are no ballsy feminists in it so far. A man is running the unit which handles more special cases instead of the run of the mill crimes. I think his wife was murdered and he kind of had a break down and took a leave of absence, and the show begins as he comes back to work. So that is the flawed hero angle for him. He isn't very computer literate and they have a young lady on the team who handles the computer stuff. Most of the team is pretty good with computers, but not the leader. They kind of tease him about his lack of tech knowledge sometimes. He has a teenage daughter he is raising alone now, and I think a younger son too. So there are some story arcs involving them sometimes.

Check it and see if it seems interesting to you at all. If not, that's fine. If you want to watch a movie while searching for a better show, just let me know.

I have most of that tree cut up, except the really thick part of the trunk. A nut vibrated loose on my chainsaw and I need to get a replacement for it before I can continue. I got rid of most of the stump by starting a small campfire on top of it about 4 or 5 days ago. I was amazed at what happened. It burned slowly down, making charcoal out of it, down about a foot below the surface and down the roots. It got all of it except a 3 foot section along one edge. I will dig down to expose the roots on the outside and cut them a little below ground, then I should be able to use a hand winch to yank them out. I have never burned out a stump before. I think the wood needs to be dead for it to burn well. A neighbor told me he tried it and couldn't get the stump to get started burning. This tree is mostly dry, dead, wood. The trunk is more 4 feet across and wider at some spots so I have to cut from both sides. This has been a lot more work than I had hoped for. Still, I could have had it all done by now were it not for the saw difficulties.

My goodness you have been working hard - I used to do a LOT of gardening - I have grown bulbs from seeds - I used to know all the Latin names of plants - I sprained my ankle once whilst weeding the rockery and I still kept on working !! I can't do it any more - the last time I tried weeding a container I ended up in hospital I strained myself so badly. Age takes everything away from you. My daughter and her husband do it now - it is low maintenance thank goodness. I will have a go at Unit 42 (wasn't that number the answer to everything in "The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy"? At present I am watching a Danish series on BBC 4 called "Darkness - those who kill" It's the usual formula - girls are abducted and disappear - police want to de-prioritize one case but dogged detective wants to keep at it - there are two girls missing but the dumb department don't want to make the cases a joint investigation - they need the advice of guess who? Yes - I am sure you have guessed - a female profiler who left they police a couple of years ago and doesn't want to come back - without her advice they will not join the cases together. Needless to say she comes back and makes a few obvious remarks - the girls look alike - they were abducted in the same manner - in the same area - the abductor is a man in his forties with mommy issues and he will have a record of sexual crimes - come on dear - I could have told them all that !! But these new insights are crucial to solving the case. They suspect it goes back to the school both girls went to - and acquire a photo of all the male teachers at the time - the female profiler (who now calls herself a psychologist) studies the picture and says hey - there are sixteen men on the photograph but only fifteen on the list of teachers. It turns out the sixteenth guy is a janitor - a janitor - posing with a bunch of teachers? He is of course who they are looking for - but they haven't found him yet. I am on episode 3 - I can't see it running for much more than two episodes. When I finish this - I WILL get onto Unit 42 !!

@strangebedfellows said:

In that convoluted world it would not surprise me at all if he was betrayed by his own people. I have strong opinions on Israel which I wont go into here - suffice to say I am not sympathetic. Maybe I have lived too long and remember too much. I was wondering when "The secret organisation" was going to turn up - it's standard fare but I am surprised that it would be portrayed as such in a country noted for its repression and control of civilians. I wonder how so called crazy rich Russian oligarchs and drug barons get away with it - without some band of big hats escorting them to the Lubyanka !! The answer is probably simple - they pay people in power to look the other way. Corruption is everywhere. I think his wife needs therapy - preferably with a baseball bat!! As in all these scenarios you have to wonder what on earth he saw in her in the first place.

I have mixed feelings on Israel. Back in the sixties when the Arab nations surrounding them were all vocal about wanting to wipe out the entire nation I supported them wholeheartedly, as did most people at that time. They were outnumbered about a million to one (exaggeration, but might as well have been that bad) by people who wanted to slaughter them all. And this after Hitler had stirred up Jew hatred in Europe so the Allies decided to move the survivors to their ancient homeland. So it wasn't even their own doing, it was the US, the UK, and France I guess who decided to redraw the map that way. It was supposed to be a safe place for them, and then they were attacked on all sides. So it was easy to want to support them then. And back in the 1980s when Arafat and others took advantage of the civil war in Lebanon to set up bases there to attack Israel, I supported them then. They were criticized as neighborhood bullies in the press, but I thought that was bullshit. The PLO and others kept shelling Israel and firing missiles into Israel targeting civilians as well as soldiers. If some group in the Bahamas started lobbing missiles into Florida we wouldn't wait several months to respond. We would blow them a thousand feet in the air tomorrow. It's true that one of the Christian militias in Lebanon committed a war crime in some refugee camps, and that got a lot of press. What wasn't reported was that the Muslims had started the genocide by attacking a Christian village and killing most of them, and also setting up roadblocks and killing anyone with a Christian name. So the genocide didn't start with that Christian militia, who had sided with Israel. But Israel got blamed for it in the press and wound up looking bad.

But since those days Israel has been guilty of some bad stuff. One biggie was their involvement in 9/11. Like everyone else, when I first heard that I discounted it as nonsense. But as I learned more, I came to believe that Israel was a key player helping the deep state orchestrate and carry out that false flag operation which killed so many, and which served as the basis for the erosion of our basic rights.

Bob Dylan had a line in a song "Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you King." And that about sums it up when it comes to billion dollar criminal networks like drug cartels. They have so much money that the banks don't feel they can turn it down. They find ways to do business with them. And when a criminal can afford to buy a couple of French Mirage jets at over 100 million bucks apiece, they have enough money to buy politicians. I think that is how the oligarchs do it.

I checked and don't see that Darkness Those Who Kill series here. Looking around I see a four episode show called Retribution set in the UK. It is a crime story. We could check that.

Do you have a series on Netflix over there called Aquarius? It is set in LA in the late 60s and revolves around some cops, one of whom, Det. Hodiak, looks up a missing girl for a friend and discovers her hanging out with a group of hippies led by Charles Manson. It is fictionalized, and the story never made it as far as the murders, though it looks as though it would have in the next season had it not been cancelled. I read that the Tate family and others didn't like a TV series dredging up that story again. I guess that pressure got it cancelled. I watched it a couple years back and liked it, as much as there was of it. I could watch it again if it is something that appeals to you.

There is a series out this year called Traitors about a search for spies in the British government after WWII. That sounds worth a look, if you can get it there.

I don't remember what you said about Narcos, but if you have not seen it, and can get it there, I would watch it again.

There is another 2 season series called The Red Road about cops and American Indians on reservations which was pretty good.

There is a movie called Mission of Honor about WWII, always a good subject.

I can't see "Traitors" or "The Red Road" over here - I can see "Retribution" though. The only Narco's I can see here is "Narco's Mexico". I can't see "Mission of Honour" either. This is a right pain - why can't they show the same series on both sides of the pond? I have watched the "Sniffer" episode where some loon is sending him pens to sniff and killing people before he can get there. Oh come on - I should star in these series - I figured out who the villain was the first time I saw him. And those SWAT guys had 3 clear seconds to take the shot and failed miserably. And was that supposed to be a beating administered to the villain by the Sniffer? How totally unconvincing - he could have done more damage with a feather duster. Just noticed on Netflix "Dead in a Week - or your money back" not sure about it - I don't mind a good black comedy. Have a look - see what you think - if you figure it is going to be rubbish - we'll bin it and have a go at "Retribution".

Yeah, watching the Sniffer punching that guy on the ground was hilarious. Good thing his girlfriend wasn't there to watch that effete, slow, half hearted, punching. And he was trying to look like he was pounding the guy, letting loose in a rage. That was what made it so ridiculous.

I have Amazon Prime back again now so let me know what you see there that you like. I just put a bunch of stuff on my list, mostly stuff I saw once and want to watch again like Justified, and The Americans, and other stuff like a show about Blackbeard, and one on the battle of the Bismarck and the Hood. I loved a movie called Sink the Bismarck which I saw once. I recall that the Brits still had some old bi-plane torpedo bombers in service and they flew so much slower than the more modern planes that they were hard for the automated anit aircraft guns on the Bismarck to target. So one of them landed a hit on the rudder of the Bismarck, jamming it in a turn position. Try as they might, there was nothing the Germans could do to fix it or find a work around. They could only steer in a circle. That made them an easy predictable target and it spelled their doom. And it was that old bi plane which sealed its fate.

Dead in a Week or your money back is available over here. It looks like it could be fun. I like that guy in the trailer who plays the aging hitman looking for work. After I watch the US Open tennis match I will watch this evening some time.