Best Things I Watched in 2019

This year I started watching movies on Amazon Prime and a few on library streaming via Hoopla and Kanopy, in addition to the regular routine of catching up with award nominees via DVDs from the library and catching some interesting TV shows mostly on PBS.

The list below includes shows I watched and rated 3 or above. Only three on the list were released in 2019. I watched a little over 100 shows during the year. My blog lists of movies rated alphabetically and in ratings order have been updated and now include about 3700.

Capernaum	2018	3.3
42nd Street: The Musical	2019	3.3
One Mississippi (Season One)	2015	3.2
One Mississippi (Season Two)	2017	3.2
This is Us (Season Three)	2018	3.2
Durrells in Corfu, The (Season Four)	2019	3.2
College Behind Bars	2019	3.2
Justified (Season Two)	2011	3.1
Green Book	2018	3.1
My Brilliant Friend (Season One)	2018	3.1
Justified (Season One)	2010	3
Justified (Season Three)	2012	3
Justified (Season Four)	2013	3
Justified (Season Six)	2015	3
Nicky's Family	2011	3
Good Wife, The (Season One)	2009	3
Guilty, The	2018	3

Last List of the Decade

Without further fanfare, here is the last list of the decade. And by way of fanfare, check out this rousing trailer for 42Street: The Musical.

42^ndStreet: The Musical – 2019 (3.3). This delightfully exuberant production is a filming of a performance at the Drury Lane Theater in London. The sets, lighting, costumes and other aspects are great, but it is the music and accompanying dance numbers that are knockouts. The 1933 movie was the genesis and the movie was first brought to the stage in 1980 and has been revived here and there since, but this latest production is spectacular and this filming of it does it deserved justice.

College Behind Bars – 2019 (3.2). Lynn Novick, collaborator of Ken Burns, spent four years making this documentary as her first solo work, telling the story of inmates given the opportunity to obtain a college education. How refreshing to find this movie is not a polemic against prisons or a political advocacy piece. Following two groups of NY prisoners in maximum security prisons, one men and one women, the film concentrates its attention intensely on the prisoners as individuals, then gets input from the professors from Bard College who teach them and eventually works in some of the family of the offenders and finally gives some back story on the crimes for which they are incarcerated. The college provides the education for free and to the same standards and expectations it holds for students who attend on the college campus. The inmates are selectively screened and are highly motivated to learn about a vast array of subjects and in the process about themselves and the society against which they have offended. How to fund a college education quickly becomes secondary to the primary focus of the movie, which is how valuable the education is to a highly motivated student and how such an educated student can contribute to society after graduation.

The Durrells in Corfu (Season Four) – 2018 (3.2). The final season of the series finds the family facing the threat of WWII on their doorstep. The mother has a rocky time in her relationship with her local heartthrob, while two of the children head overseas for personal growth efforts. The second son tries to become dependable confidant to his mother while the youngest son splashes through into puberty. The series ends as the family realize return to England is probably inevitable. Viewers will likely miss Corfu as much as the characters do. Though a future series about the family during the war could be in the cards, the most tantalizing prospect would be for a return to Corfu after the war. There is a 90 minute follow up special titled “What the Durrells Did Next”.

Afghan Cycles– 2018 (2.8). Cycling in Afghanistan is a particularly dangerous sport for young women. In fact just living in Afghanistan in areas under Taliban rule can be extremely dangerous for young women. This documentary follows several young women members of the Afghan cycling team, showing their passion for cycling and telling us something about their personal stories. Thee are strong young women, but it is when they share their fears and show the strength to overcome them that the movie touches and inspires.

The Black Stallion – 1979 (2.8). More of a fantasy than a drama, the strength of this movie is the bond between the horse and the young rider, Kelly Reno. The scenes of the boy bareback riding the stallion at full gallop through the shallow waters of the seashore still impress, though the rest of the movie does not hold up as well over time.

For Sama– 2019 (2.8). Recorded home movie style over several years, this documentary is told as a story from a young Syrian mother to her newborn daughter who is raised in Aleppo during the years of uprising against Assad. She intimately tells the story of immediate family and friends and shows the violence of being under siege, but because it is intended for a young child, there is nothing by way of political context presented.

Poldark(Season Five) – 2018 (2.8). This second rendering of the Winston Graham novels concludes its run in a swirling mush with the final episode definitely disappointing as it takes off in eccentric directions barely tying in to what has come before. Apparently there are so many novels with so many potential story episodes that it would not be surprising to see the characters resurrected sooner or later.

Press – 2018 (2.8). This first entry in Masterpiece Contemporary from the Brits is a six part miniseries about two competing newspapers in London, one a cass tabloid and he other a more traditional practitioner of journalism facing financial pressures. The characters are an interesting mix of professionals with assorted colorful personal lives. Journalism ethics and different ways to investigate and tell stories are explored. This is a series that cries out for a longer run, perhaps several years if the quality could be maintained, but the short run feels compromised and truncated.

Bridge of Spies– 2015 (2.7). Inspired by the 1957 U-2 spy plane incident and the ensuing spy swap negotiation, Spielberg overproduces and applies the old Hollywood treatment to what could have been a much better script and movie.

Don't Quit: The Joe Roth Story – 2014 (2.6). This earnest documentary tells the story of Cal Bear quarterback Joe Roth who came to the football program from junior college and quickly won the love and admiration of his teammates and coaches with his football skills and his sterling personality. He also won lots of football games, gaining national attention. But what he kept quiet was that he had melanoma and it could not be cured, As his performances began to suffer, he gallantly hung on and attended all the all star games of his final season and died in his apartment on campus where he wanted to finish school and graduate. The movie is conventional in approach using archival footage and interviews with teammates, coaches, former opponents, a girlfriend and his surviving family members.

The King and I – 2018 (2.7). This filmed performance of the musical performed at the Lincoln Center has it's good points, but the material is dated and there is not much excitement for a contemporary audience. The method of filming seems quite conventional also.

TheMarvelous Mrs. Maisel (SeasonsTwo and Three) – 2018 and 2019 (2.7). Season Two was watched without a note posted here, so both seasons two and three are being covered now. Two got a 2.8 and three gets a 2.6, for an average of 2,7. The series does a great job of production value presentation of the look of the 1950s into 1960, but misses the mark in details that are noticeable by people who actually experienced those times as young adults. The lead character is just not very appealing as a person and her humor is hard to see as something that actually have been popular back then. The language is also much more vulgar in the series than it was in fact in those days. The older generation are more interesting than their grown children. The coarse lesbian agent pretty hard to take although they are softening her role a little. Though there is a bit of a story arc the series seems to bounce around a lot. Fortunately there were only eight episodes to season three, so there a marginal appeal to trying a season four.