Interesting TV

 I'm going to use this space today to recommend two TV series, both available on streaming services in the US.

The first is Staged, a BBC comedy starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen, playing versions of themselves. The first season takes place during the pandemic lockdown, as Tennant and Sheen attempt to put together a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author. The second season follows as their director, Simon Evans, tries to mount a live production on stage of Staged itself. I've only seen the first few episodes of season one, but it's very funny and largely improvised.  The series is available on Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV, and Youtube.

The second series is Leverage: Redemption, a continuation/reboot of the series that ran on TNT several seasons ago. All of the regular characters are back--Sophie, Hardison, Parker, Eliot--except for leader Nate Ford, who has died since the end of the previous series. (Timothy Hutton, who played Nate, was not invited back after allegations of sexual harassment, apparently.) New characters are Harry Wilson (Noah Wylie), a corrupt attorney trying to earn redemption (hence the title) and Breanna Casey (Aleyse Shannon), Hardison's foster sister, who is almost as good with computers as he is--and more updated with modern social media, etc. The first eight episodes are currently available for streaming on IMdbTV, with another eight planned to be dropped in the fall. If you were a fan of the original, I think you'll be pleased, as the writing is still as sharp and witty as it always was.