Ken and Robin Consume Media: Obsession, a Very GUMSHOE Investigation, and Boris Karloff’s Police Procedural
May 26th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Hidden in the Fog (Film, Sweden, Lars-Eric Kjellgren, 1953) Heiress flees into the big city after shooting her husband. Noir explicitly modeled on its American counterparts with a great second act twist that also signals a shift in tone and protagonist.—RDL
Last Known Address (Film, France, José Giovanni, 1970) Unjustly sidelined police inspector (Lino Ventura) and open-hearted rookie (Marlène Jobert) doggedly search for a missing witness to a murder by a wealthy businessman. The mundanity of the quest heightens its existentialism in this philosophical police procedural. An extremely GUMSHOE movie where you can very clearly see the protagonists using their abilities to gain core clues that lead to new scenes.—RDL
Personality Crisis: One Night Only (Film, US, Martin Scorsese & David Tedeschi, 2023) Combination concert and biographical documentary intersperses archival footage and interviews with David Johansen performing his New York Dolls and solo songs in his Buster Poindexter style at New York’s Cafe Carlyle in January 2020. It’s a huge blessing to have a record of this delightful and moving performance, captured months before his cancer diagnosis.—RDL
Good
Bolero (Film, France, Anne Fontaine, 2024) Brilliant but neurotically self-negating composer Maurice Ravel (Raphaël Personnaz) struggles with a commission from ballet dancer Ida Rubinstein (Jeanne Balibar). Lush and often witty prestige drama with a script perched between two concepts—procedural origin story of Bolero, or standard biopic?—RDL
Colonel March of Scotland Yard (Television, UK, ITV, Hannah Weinstein, 1955–56) Colonel March (Boris Karloff) of Scotland Yard’s Department of Queer Complaints investigates unusual crimes and impossible reports (which turn out to also be crimes). March is a John Dickson Carr series character, and the best of the episodes are those taken from his stories; others drag a bit even at half-hour runtimes. Karloff’s twinkling delight remains the best reason to watch these, seven decades on, but Eric Pohlmann’s Inspector Gorot of the Sureté holds his own when the episodes cross the Channel.—KH
Obsession (Film, US, Curry Barker, 2026) Shy schlemiel Bear (Michael Johnston) wishes on an ironic retro novelty item for his unrequited crush Nikki (Inde Navarette) to love him more than anything, which goes even more wrong than you’re thinking right now. Flashes of this film are as original and scary as anything in new horror, and again it’s good to see a horror movie that keeps the subtext (mostly) out of the text, but audience identification is hard enough with a schlemiel without also making him a moral and narrative nullity for 100 minutes.—KH
Visible Secret (Film, Hong Kong, Ann Hui, 2001) Hapless hairdresser (Eason Chan) falls for a charming but mysterious girl (Shu Qi) whose left eye sees ghosts. Early entry in the cycle of Asian Sixth Sense riffs focuses as much on naturalistic romantic drama as eerie manifestations.—RDL
