During this time
of sheltering in place, with the library closed for DVD pickup,
streaming and TV watching provide the fodder, with two previous
favorite series topping the list and a couple newcomers as
runners-ups. This will probably be the program for at least the next
several months.
Call the Midwife (Season Nine) –
2019 (3.0). Creator and writer Heidi Thomas deserves major credit
for researching the time and place for each new season of this series
and creating new characters from time to time to flow in and augment
continuing characters. The dedication of these medical professionals
is always moving and inspiring and particularly relevant in this time
of corona virus.
This Is Us (Season Four) –
2019 (3.0). The central characters, especially the big three and
their mother, continue to hold our attention, even as new characters
are tried out and some are not missed when they disappear while
others have potential to maybe be more involved. In addition to the
usual effective flashbacks, we start to get more flash forwards
giving a glimpse of what the future holds, and particularly in the
season finale, introducing us to new characters that seem destined to
become central players.
Chernobyl– 2019 (2.9). This miniseries about the Soviet nuclear disaster won
the Golden Globe for best miniseries with a good script that moved
along, good acting and special effects that were quite authentic but
never over the top. The parallels between that time of Soviet lies
and scientists pushing for the truth to be told, and the way the
Trump Administration and its followers in the States is trying to lie
away the truth being told by the scientists is quite revealing.
Ramy
– 2019 (2.9). Ramy Youssef won the Golden Globe for best actor in a
comedy series for his portrayal of an Egyptian American young man in
northern NJ living with his parents and sister and running around
with three buddies including one with muscular dystrophy confined to
a wheelchair. Ramy believes in God and struggles to live up to the
standards of Islam, while easily succumbing to his hormones. The
humor is a natural part of his personality and his laid back approach
to the series issues he confronts as he tries to figure out what is a
good life for him to live.
The Loudest Voice – 2019
(2.8). Roger Ailes built the noise machine inaccurately called Fox
News and made lots of money for Rupert Murdoch. In addition to the
ruthless disregard for the truth and paranoid pseudo conservatism
masking underlying pandering to white entitlement angst, Ailes
personally mentally and sexually abused many of the women who worked
for Fox. This miniseries ably tells that story, considerably enhanced
by the Golden Globe winning performance of co-producer Russell Crowe
as Ailes.
One Child Nation
– 2018 (2.8). Born in Chine near the end of the 35 year one child
policy, a woman who has come to the US goes back to her village to
get a better understanding of how the policy worked in practice. She
interviews family members and villagers including a local man charged
with implementing the policy in the village. At first this
documentary is slow, but after a while it gets into the issue of
forced abortions and sterilizations and seizing of children to sell
to orphanages for international adoption. The oppressiveness of the
communist regime is manifest in this film.
Rainman Twins
– 2011 (2.8). What makes this documentary interesting and fun is
the identical twin sisters who are autistic savants. The movie
follows them closely as they impress with their memory skills and
interrelate with people who love them, including their younger sister
who lets them enjoy being who they are and some celebrities like
their idol Dick Clark.
The Farewell– 2019 (2.8). In this drama the matriarch of a Chinese family is
dying of lung cancer but her family keeps the news from her so that
she does not have to live her last months in unhappy fear of death.
The burden of sorrow and worry is taken on by the family which is
hard for the young granddaughter brought up in the US to understand
and accept. The characters are interesting and the Chinese cultural
differences from the west are not overplayed even though they are
significant.
Pain and Glory – 2019 (2.8).
Pedro Almodovar delivers a drama about an aging film director
(Antonio Banderas) suffering from many physical ailments as well as
writer's block. He experiences reunions and has flashbacks to his
childhood and earlier life. Interesting enough in style to hold
attention, but has nothing particularly interesting or new to say
about life.
World on Fire (Season One) –
2019 (2.8). Expected good production values and acting are present in
this Brit series following a few local English characters, some
Germans and Poles and a couple American civilians as WWII comes to
Europe. The writing has highs and lows but the central dilemma of an
appealing young man in love at the same time with two desirable
women, one English and one a Pole, maintains a hold. The widowed
mother of the young man is so cold that it seems she has at some
point to warm up, but she has not done so yet. There has to be a
second season since the first ends with what could be called a
hilltop hanger.
Jacob– 2019 (2.7). This short documentary follows a quirky, humble
highly educated man with genius abilities. Interviews with people who
know and admire him provide supplement.
Missing Link-
2019 (2.7). Years of skilled craftsmanship and artistry go into
making a stop action animated puppet movie. Such films are designed
to hold the visual interest of young children (not really hard to do
in the age of the smart phone), while at the same time keeping the
parents mildly entertained by using the voices of known actors [do
kids realy get excited to know that Hugh Jackman is voicing the hero
the the story?]and by incorporating humor which adults can relate to
and action and violence which play to the short attention span of
kids. A better than average story elevates such films, but the story
of this opus was only average.
Raise Hell: The Life and Times ofMolly Ivins – 2019 (2.7).
Political humorist and columnist Ivins was smart, well-educated and a
fearless political critic, especially of the politics of her home
State of Texas. This documentary puts a lot of her political
performances on display through archival footage and reflects on her
impact via interviews with family, friends and contemporaries. But we
are left feeling we never quite got to know the woman on a personal
level and why she allowed alcoholism to play such a large part in her
life.
Sneaky Pete (Season One)
– 2015 (2.7). Bryan Cranston co-created this series for Amazon. A
con man needs to hide from a bad dude he owes money to and so he
steals the identity of his cell mate and goes to the home of his
grandparents who have not seen him for twenty years, since he was ten
years old. Lots of characters and plot turns keep things moving and
it could be passable with sufficient suspension of belief, but it
gets too cute for itself and too hung up on impressing the audience
with con man terminology, Cranston also made sure he got a couple of
tedious monologues. For those who think a second season is worth
giving a try, encouragement is offered with a minor spoiler alert –
the Cranston character does not return.
East Lake Meadows –
2020 (2.6). From Ken Burns productions, this documentary tells the
story of a public housing project in Atlanta with archival footage
and with interviews of families who lived there and from experts in
related fields. Particularly in the first half, the movie seems
scattered. It is not clear whether we are going to be following
families or buildings or maybe getting into exploring public housing
policy. By the end, we find we did a little of each, without feeling
particularly satisfied.
The Windermere Children– 2020 (2.6). The true story of Polish Jewish children who survived
the horrors of the holocaust and were granted refugee status by the
UK and put in a four month resident program at Lake Windermere in
Scotland for counseling, language training and other preparation for
their new lives is a fascinating subject. Unfortunately this movie
drama does not do it justice. The script is the problem, trying to
cover too much ground in a disjointed and uneven treatment. The girls
are totally ignored except for one young teenager who is relegated to
a minor supporting role for her boyfriend, and one very young street
girl who is the leader of her band of urchins, but is only shown in
two or three brief scenes which tell us nothing about her. A half
dozen or so of the actual boys are shown in their old age at the end
of the film and we then realize they are the ones we followed in the
movie. There is a one hour documentary that might give better
coverage.
Baptiste
– 2019 (2.5). The best thing about this Brit crime series is
Amsterdam. Under the guise of first looking for a girl sex trafficked
by an Eastern European gang, our retired French detective is called
in by a former lover who is a police commander in Amsterdam and we
embark on too many episodes of wandering around with a swelling cast
of characters who come and go with no great rhyme or reason juntil we
have killed so many people it is time to surprise us with who is
going to be the last main character to die and who is the last to go
to jail – as if we cared.
An Elephant Sitting Still– 2018 (2.4). Despite positive reviews from movie critics, four
hours of slowly following a handful of characters as they struggle
with depressing lives in a contemporary northern Chinese industrial
town is a lot to ask of an audience for this Chinese drama. Long
tracking shots follow characters closely from behind and then focus
on their facial profile as they talk to someone who remains out of
focus. These are not happy people and there are a couple suicides
along the way. We are being shown over one day the intimate impact of
the economy on people at lower levels, though not slum dwellers or
the homeless. Hu Bo, the young writer-director received an education
in his field and this was his first feature film, after he wrote a
few novels. Sadly it was also his last, as he committed at 29.