Poirot: The Third Floor Flat

 "Birds do not run, Hastings."

Again, we have an episode that is rather clever. What initially looks like a murder with a dearth of suspects ends up having a rather clever and satisfying resolution, all being resolved in a classic summing up by Poirot, with added car chase. Suchet is excellent, yet again, with our four regulars being well-characterised by the use of plenty of gentle humour.

Yet there's also a clever bit of fun with the fourth wall as Hastings takes a hypochondriac Poirot to a whodunit play, and our esteemed Belgian gets the killer wrong, proceeding to criticise the author for blatantly failing to adhere to Father Ronald Knox's famous rules of detective fiction, something of which Agatha Christie can never be accused of doing without justification.

Again, too, the 1930s are a fascinating period. Things look and seem modern much of the time, but people living in upmarket flats will typically have a maid, while what passes for popular music is pre-rock 'n' roll and so utterly alien. I'm not sure I'll be blogging the second series any time soon, but I'm enjoying this first series more than I expected at first.

Good Omens: The Book

"Let us discuss my purchase in a private place, because I am buying... pornography!"

The quality and the humour doesn't let up for the superb second episode. The entire exchange on pornography in the bookshop between Angel and Aziraphale had Mrs Llamastrangler and myself in stitches. But this episode actually has a lot to do- it introduces the story of Agnes Nutter (the brilliant Josie Lawrence) and her Nice and Accurate Prophecies, and how she avenged her own death by blowing up the splendidly named Witchfinder Major Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer and his silly underlings. It introduces Anathema Device, a very different, very Californian character than she appears in the novel; Newton Pulsifer and his Tom Baker scarf tie; and Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell. It also introduces young Adam and his friends properly and, of course, in an amusing scene, War. I rather suspect the next three episodes will all feature a similar scene with a Horseman of the Apocalypse...

A lot of the laughs, though, still come from Crowley and Azirophale, despite their reduced screen time this time around, with Tennant and Shen again excellent. But one has to credit Gaiman's script, with so much plot to cram in, for managing also to cram in so many funny lines. I love how Crowley's car radio always seems to play the most appropriate Queen song, and how 666 is literally the phone number of the Antichrist, a nice resolution to our pair of angel/demons hunting Adam down without either of their respective Head Offices being in on what they're up to.

This is bloody brilliant. And we're really still only in the set-up phase.

Humans: Season 2, Episode 2

"Why do you hurt us?"

Two episodes in, and both the plot and the philosophical subtext become clearer. At one extreme we have Hester, the Malcolm X of the synths, who hates the oppressive humans and has no compunction about killing them. On the other we have Niska, synth, avid reader of philosophy and, as she's determined to be tried as a human would be for the murder she has committed, someone rather likely to have read The Outsider. This series seems to have moved on from literary sci-fi to French existentialism. I like it.

Niska is the most fascinating character- but she has competition. Mattie, for one, manages to work out what Niska has done with her disk, and that synths are slowly becoming sentient; just the odd one for now but... where will it end? Mattie is also quite brazenly restoring the late lamented Odi in plain sight, which shows an admirable amount of brazen cheek. I love her. Then we have the wise gentle Max, and the kind and loving Mia, who suffers heartbreak here from nothing but an act of kindness.And then we see Kate and Pete again, their relationship having grown rather lovely. Meanwhile, over in that country which seems to think that handing loads of power to Donald Trump is a good idea, Athena has decided to go to England and visit our old friend Hobb.

To an extent things are still setting up, and perhaps it's taking more time this series for things to really start to be sublime, but the philosophical heart is already there.

Humans: Season 2, Episode 1

"If I was here to kill you all, I wouldn't have rung the bell..."

It's always been interesting to speculate how the second season might go; the first season, after all, was based on a Swedish original. This season is uncharted territory and seems to be exploring very real themes. There's the very real threat to our jobs from robots, for a start- even Joe's management job isn't safe. And then there's the ever-present Singularity, which here has only just occurred and which, with Niska's uploading of the disk, is beginning to spread.

This in turn raises further questions about using synths as slaves- here we see a hellish Bolivian mine (poor Ten), and factory worker Hester, whose owners see her simply as property much as slave owners once did. These are rich themes.

We begin, though, in Berlin, as Niska starts an abortive relationship with poor Astrid while reading lots of philosophy- this being Germany, we naturally get a bit of Hegel. And the episode ends, of course, with Niska asking the Hawkins family to try her for murder like a human, an interesting twist. Oh, and Max is alive, a cause of much rejoicing, and still with Leo and Mia, who is as kind as ever.

Laura and Joe are still working through their relationship ship, and it's fascinating to see them with a synth relationship counsellor, played by an excellent Josie Lawrence. And the whole family is, of course, suffering with not being able to reveal what they know.

There's a new sub-plot in San Francisco, too; none other than Carrie-Ann Moss plays Athena, a professor who has secretly created an AI, eventually agreeing to help the very rich Khoury (Tommy from True Blood) to study the newly sentient synths.

As ever for a first episode this is all really set-up. But the world-building is brilliant as ever. I'm excited...