Story for the Week
With the availability of streaming services, there’s no reason to start a show in the middle of a series. Gone are the days when you had to record a show if you wanted or needed to watch it at a later time or, heaven forbid, if you had to be home to watch it live because it was the only option. (Yes, I’m that old.) Nowadays, you can watch multiple episodes of a series in one sitting. Shows that began, and sometimes ended, years ago are available anytime someone wants to start binge watching from the beginning.
Corinne and I have done that with a number of series—Friends, Survivor, VICTORiOUS, iCarly, The Big Bang Theory (Big Bang Theory Ended with a Bang). When Corinne left for Liverpool for her semester abroad, we were in season 8 of 11 of Modern Family. She made me promise to wait until she’s home to watch the rest. She calls and texts every day, so we really haven’t missed each other in the traditional sense, but she has told me that she misses watching television with me in the evenings. I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. She’ll be home in another week and a half, so we’ll be able to pick up where we left off very soon.
When Corinne and I started The Big Bang Theory from the beginning, she had already seen the last several seasons. One of her huge revelations was how different the characters were in the first season compared to later seasons. The guys were incredibly mean to each other, Howard was a tremendous lech, and it was nice for her to see their growth over time. Sometimes, though, knowing the back story of one season, colors your perception of another.
I recently started (and finished) watching Suits, which aired from 2011-2019. It was a show my late husband regularly watched, but it wasn’t something that I ever really sat down and watched with him. I started seeing a lot of clips on TikTok, so I decided to watch it. I knew the premise of the show. Harvey Specter, a high-powered New York City attorney played brilliantly by Gabriel Macht, hires Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) as an associate at his law firm. The problem? Mike has a photographic memory and has passed the bar exam multiple times by taking it fraudulently for other people, but he doesn’t have a degree of his own.
About halfway through, I started seeing the previews for Suits LA, which premiered on March 9 starring Stephen Amell as Ted Black. But I didn’t start watching the new series until three episodes in because…well, because I didn’t have to. Based on how far into the original I was, I knew I would catch up on the new episodes in one evening. I feel like the original show went off the rails a bit in the final couple of seasons, and I’m not crazy about the reboot yet, but I’m going to give it a few more episodes before I decide to give it up.
Ted Black is a former New York City prosecutor turned high-powered entertainment attorney in LA. He knows Harvey Specter, so Harvey’s name comes up in conversation. When another character says that Harvey was the only person he knows who is cockier than Ted, Ted’s response is that’s exactly why he likes Harvey. This sets the stage for Harvey’s appearance in several episodes.
I find Stephen Amell’s portrayal of a hard ass less than convincing. Gabriel Macht played Harvey better than Amell plays Ted. And I think the creators are reusing too many of the same storylines. Harvey and Ted both hear about the deaths of their dads, continue working, and yell at their secretaries to leave them alone. Both shows have an associate who gets brushed aside by a partner, only to have the partner come back and admit that the associate’s initial idea was a good one and that they should have listened. Both shows have a character who leaves the firm, taking all the associates and all but the name partners with them, in an effort to destroy the original firm.
In this case, I feel like knowing the original Suits made it hard for me to appreciate the reboot. In fact, I saw a review of Suits LA from someone who never saw the original series, and they found the premiere episode to be solid. Whether it takes off and my opinion changes remains to be seen.
I recently finished the book below, which is the fourth in a series, so I guess you could call it a reboot of a reboot of a reboot. I had a hard time with it because I felt like I was missing too much of the back story of the main characters. If I had started the series from the first book, I might have enjoyed it more.
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐
3 Stars for The Unlucky Ones by Hannah Morrissey
304 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: March 25, 2025
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Minotaur Books.
Publisher’s Description
Black Harbor is a tinderbox. Temperatures and violent crime have both risen to all-time highs, a new drug razes the city, and the scene to which Sergeant Nikolai Kole responds is anything but a rote homicide. In the back of a clubhouse lies a body wrapped in garbage bags and doused in bleach.
It isn’t just any body. Tommy Greenlee, the ex-husband of Kole’s former lover, Hazel, has been shot several times and left for dead. What’s more…the killer left what appears to be a calling card.
Elsewhere, Hazel is haunted by her memories of Black Harbor. Lured there after eight years, she returns to find out who killed Tommy and why. Now back in Kole’s orbit, their love affair can hardly pick up where it left off. They both used each other to their own ends before, which begs the question: would they do it again?
With the atmosphere growing more volatile by the second, Hazel and Kole call a truce, and as they work together to solve this murder, they will not only unearth Black Harbor’s deepest, darkest secrets―they’ll each have to face their own.
************
Main Characters:
- Hazel Rydelle – former police transcriber turned author who escaped Black Harbor and moved to New York, previously had a relationship with Nik Kole while she was married to Tommy
- Nikolai Kole – police sergeant of Black Harbor’s Violent Crime Task Force, has spent 23 years as a police officer battling the violence and drug culture that infiltrates every corner of Black Harbor
- Fletcher, Riley, and Axel – Nik’s investigative team
- Big House – owner of The Mineshaft, a members-only club where police are not allowed, central location in town for the drug trade and where Tommy Greenlee was murdered
- Robert Pitts – a member of The Mineshaft who brought in a non-member the night that Tommy Greenlee was killed
- Dirty Harriet – a confidential informant for the police, lives in a rundown apartment, very much a part of the drug culture
- Buddha – the top of the Black Harbor food chain, identity unknown
- Hades – disgraced drug lord currently serving a prison sentence
Trigger warning: suicide, murder, drug use
The Unlucky Ones is the fourth book in Hannah Morrissey’s Black Harbor series. While it can be billed as a stand-alone novel, I feel like I would have benefitted from reading the previous books in the series because there is only so much back story that can be included. In this case, it wasn’t enough.
Hazel moved to Black Harbor with then-husband Tommy Greenlee and became a police transcriber, working with Nikolai. Eight years prior to the current story, Hazel moved to New York after an affair with Nikolai and a divorce from Tommy. There, she wrote a novel that put the small town of Black Harbor on the map. When she learns about Tommy’s murder, she returns to Black Harbor to try to figure out what happened.
Nik has spent his entire career in law enforcement in Black Harbor. Despite the prevalence of the violence and drug culture, Nik feels compelled to stay in Black Harbor to try to make a difference. It’s clear that he felt deeply for Hazel and wants to keep her safe. Their former relationship is mentioned a number of times by co-workers, though, so it makes things a bit uncomfortable for him when she starts to get involved in the case.
There is a lot happening in this book, and I had a hard time following everything. Because of the references to the past, I ended up with more questions than answers. Why did Hazel and Tommy ultimately split up? Did he know about her affair with Nik? When and why did she decide to go to New York? There are references to her dropping items over the railing of the bridge, but so much context is missing. Is any of it relevant to the current day? I feel like it was intentional on the author’s part, but it just created more confusion.
A second murder (Tommy’s best friend) kicks the investigation into high gear, and they decide to leverage Hazel’s knowledge of the law enforcement systems. Nik wants to keep her close to keep her safe, so she might as well help them with the investigation. There are no real twists in this story. The investigation uncovers one lead after the next, and eventually they figure things out, and of course Nik saves the day.
In addition to the back stories that would have provided helpful context, my biggest question mark was why Hazel decided to go back to Black Harbor. She was divorced from Tommy. She had no connection left to the town. There’s no reason for her to go back.
There are sooooo many characters in this story…too many without the historical context. And Big House, Buddha, and Hades? I know gangs have street names, but I had a really hard time keeping the three of them straight. Again, I think having the history of the previous books would have been helpful.
This was ok for me. If you’re a regular reader of this author, you will probably enjoy it more than I did.
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