Time to Binge Watch

As the last award nominee DVDs trickle in and PBS is on summer break, it is time to try some Amazon Prime binge watching. Up first, Justified via FX. Then after so much violence, time to look for something more upbeat for the next list.

Justified (Season Two) – 2011 (3.1). This entertaining crime series manages to improve in the second year as we become more familiar with the continuing characters, wave goodbye to some old ones and meet new folks. The romance between the Deputy US Marshall and his ex-wife heats up and the turf battle between two old time local crime families becomes central to the story arc. People are shot to death so often that it seems nobody bothers much with investigating the circumstances. The Eastern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce must not be happy with this series because it seems to indicate all the residents of that area are either crooks or law enforcement or sometimes both. The second season ended with a couple central characters meeting their maker, but I expect some new ones will come along in season three.

Justified (Season Three) – 2012 (3.0). The pregnant ex-wife is not around this season, replaced in bed by a female bartender. With one local crime family almost totally annihilated, the other, led by nemesis Boyd Crowder is challenged by an outside mob wanting to fill the void and gain complete dominance. The criminal father of the Marshall aligns with Crowder. Characters come and go, but the bad ones usually end up on the receiving end of a bullet, often at the hands of other bad ones. Sadly a beloved State Trooper goes down and the two contending gangs go on, but it is surprisingly enjoyable to laugh when smart ass crooks meet their end. Bring on the fourth year.

Justified (Season Four) – 2013 (3.0). The female bartender turned out to be a con artist. The baby arrival is getting closer. Crooked old Dad gets even nastier and deserves what he gets. Bad guys come and go quickly, but a few stay round like Boyd who has now hooked up with Ava, the widow of his brother and the two are aligned in crime. The Black community up one holler are centrally involved even as they guard their privacy and some real hillbillies and the local stuffed shirts all play roles. The Detroit mob continues to try to take over in Harlan County and is quite interested in finding a hiding witness who could finger the kingpin. As enjoyable as last year, but reportedly season five takes a dip before a strong finish in six.

Justified (Season Six) – 2015 (3.0). Now Sam Elliott shows up so we know the end is near as Ava and Boyd are destined to prove to be star crossed lovers even as they plot to steal 10 mil from old Sam. The other desperadoes including crooked cops meet their maker and the series finale ends on a wistful note with a four year later afterward. Here is a farewell song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjvD3Y6IiVw .

Justified (Season Five) – 2014 (2.9)). Detroit almost destroys itself, Harlan tries getting into Mexican heroin, Ava fights to survive in prison, Florida cousins come to Harlan to take over the crime business bringing a troubled teenage boy and his hot sister who is really his Mom, and the boy has a social worker who is briefly a love interest for the Deputy. Near the end of the season Mary Steenburgen turns up as an old gangster widow, a sign the series needs to wind it down.

Pick of the Litter– 2018 (2.9). In this affecting documentary, five predictably cute puppies bred by Guide Dogs for the Blind to be trained as possible helper dogs are followed through the various stages of their upbringing by foster parents and ultimately by professional trainers as they encounter various assessments to see if they can continue the process or need to be “career changed”. We also meet a couple of prospective blind recipients waiting for a dog. This is a thoroughly likable movie.

Ben Is Back – 2018 (2.8). Julia Roberts does a good job of portraying the mother of a teen age son struggling to recover from addiction to drugs, as she smothers him with love while trying to be realistic about what is actually happening in his life. The boy has unexpectedly shown up on Christmas Eve, supposedly with permission to leave his treatment facility. We do not see any of the backstory even by flashbacks, as the whole movie takes place on one night. But we still get exposed to the dynamics between mother and son and between the other characters such as his sister, stepfather, younger half siblings, other addicts, a counselor and families of addicts. This film was not written to be preachy or to give a full biography, and some have criticized it for half way through turning from a dram to more of a thriller, but it chose what it wanted to do and did a pretty good job of it.

The Captain – 2018 (2.8). Based on a true story, this German drama tells of a young German soldier in the last couple weeks of WWII who is running on his own, perhaps as one of the many deserters, and comes into the uniform of a Captain. He soon acquires other probable deserters who say they were separated from their units and want to be attached to him. The young man then embarks on an impostor scheme claiming to be a personal emissary sent by Hitler to assess the situation behind the lines. As other officers try to follow protocol, the impostor is able to dupe them into letting him escalate the violent way in which he treats prisoners. Probing the mentality on the losing side as a war is ending is always a fascinating subject, but this particular story is so unique it misses some of the bigger points it might have been trying to score.

Mary Queen of Scots – 2018 (2.7). Slow starting and a bit confusing regarding the quickly introduced male characters, this movie eventually settles in to tell the story of the contest between Mary, niece of Henry VIII and a young Catholic widow of the heir to the French Throne, and Elizabeth I of England, her first cousin once removed. The film portrays two strong women who were constantly ill advised and undermined by their male advisers and implies that if allowed they might have achieved an agreement to bring their domains together peacefully. The movie takes a few historical liberties, such as casting black actors to play roles that were in fact white persons and a penultimate scene where the two Queens meet face to face for which there is no confirmation in the historical record.