This roughly 4.5-hour long series spread over eight episodes was created by Funny or Die and currently streaming on Netflix, is a satire on the true crime genre that has become increasingly popular in recent times. This is where there has been a real crime that has either gone unsolved or where there has been a conviction and the case is considered closed. But then a private group, usually journalists or lawyers, start looking closely at the case and discover new evidence that either exonerates the person who had been thought guilty or, for an unsolved case, draws attention to a possible suspect.
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The stories of the ghastly behavior of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein are suddenly pouring out like a gusher, revealing someone who is completely beyond the pale. Yeah, yeah, these are just allegations at this point and nothing has been proved but in cases like this, there can be little doubt of his guilt. If even a fraction of the charges against him are established, that would be bad enough.
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The idea of Mr. Rogers cheerfully flipping the bird to children, and a double flip too, seems unthinkable. And yet here he is doing just that.

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The film takes place during a dinner at an extremely fancy restaurant. It is hosted by Stan (Richard Gere), a powerful member of Congress running for governor of his state, and the others present are his trophy second wife Kate (Rebecca Hall), his former history teacher brother Paul (Steve Coogan with whom he has a tense relationship and who is the voiceover narrator), and Paul’s wife Claire (Laura Linney). As the dinner progresses through the various courses, we learn from the conversation and flashbacks that the occasion for the dinner is for the four of them to determine what to do about an appalling crime that their respective sons have committed that the police have not as yet been able to trace to them, and may never will because the victim of the crime is a black homeless woman and thus of no importance.
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This BBC series is set in the Shetland Islands off the northeast coat of Scotland. It tells the story of a small police department investigating crimes on the sparsely populated islands where everyone pretty much knows everyone else. I found the series to be quite gripping, even though the murder plots did not quite satisfy me, having some serious implausibilities. The first two seasons consist of four two-hour episodes based on books by Ann Cleeves and the third season consists of a single six-hour story that was written by others using the same characters. It is in the portrayals of the gritty life of the people that the series has its strength.
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I wrote recently about how the film The Room was so bad that it has acquired cult status and there is even a film made about the making of it. Thanks to reader Jeff at Have Coffee Will Write I learned about this article by Stuart Heritage about the qualities that go into getting a zero rating on the critics site Rotten Tomatoes, a rarity that means that not a single critic liked it.

Heritage says that there are factors in addition to bad writing, acting, directing, and other cinematic skills that will help you get that rare distinction.