Another pandemic year ended with the following list and uncertainty about what 2022 will bring. Maybe start Netflix again? And use library system streaming more; Doc Martin Season 9 was streamed through the library Hoopla.
Call the Midwife (Season Ten) –
2021 (3.0). Ten years of a series with the quality holding up is
quite an accomplishment and credit is first due to Heidi Thomas the
series creator and writer throughout. Progressing chronologically
through the years is a good idea, allowing the issues to be faced as
they actually occurred and enabling viewers to become even more
familiar with remaining characters while some old ones go and new
ones come. Here is to at least ten more years.
Dead to Me (Season One) –
2019 (3.0). Engaging writing, good acting and overall effective
production values elevate this Netflix original dark comedy above the
average. Husband killed by a hit and rub driver while jogging late at
night has elements of coping with grief, anger at the police and
general discouragement. Enter the second lead in the person of a
somewhat kooky other woman and the chemistry leads to believable
bonding. Both have problems in their personal and professional lives
and they are able to discuss their inner feelings – to a point.
There is a different spin to this series and it is deftly handled.
Second season ordered from the library. Third and final season
delayed due to Covid and MS diagnosis for Christina Applegate, who
along with Linda Cardellini received award nominations for their
performances.
Dead to Me (Season Two) –
2021 (3.0). Surprising but believable plot twists continue in the
second year as the series continues to hold attention and the
characters generate empathy, even as they are sometimes realistically
annoying. Once production is able to resume, the third season is
expected to be as satisfying.
American
Experience: The Codebreaker –
2021 (2.9). After decades of secrecy were lifted, the true story of
Elizabeth Smith Friedman became known, and a fascinating story it is.
This American woman backed into the field of cryptoanalysis and
mastered it, protecting the country against WWI subs, Prohibition era
gangsters and Nazis in WWII, and then helped in the founding of the
CIA.
Annie Live!
- 2021 (2.9). The Depression era classic orphan and billionaire story
made into a musical gets an exuberant live TV production in this NBC
special. All the dancers, adult and children are exciting, including
many tumbling moves, and the singing is solid, Casting many black
performers, while a bit unusual feeling at first, soon became
irrelevant. This is not a racial story; it is a people story. Taraji
P. Henson is delightfully over the top as Miss Hannigan and Celina
Smith quickly wins hearts as Annie. Filming was pleasingly more
cinematic than theatrical. Well done.
Doc Martin (Season 9)
– 2019 (2.9). The crotchety but brilliant and grudgingly lovable
Doc is in trouble with the licensing authorities and is being
monitored as he continues to handle the tricky cases that always come
his way. The locals are so familiar and their relationships always
developing even as new, and sometimes old, characters come through,
that viewers cannot help but feel at home watching this show. And
even as his career is in jeopardy, the Doc may be expanding his
family.
Call the Midwife Christmas Special
2019 – 2019 (2.8). Filling a void and exploring a place for
possible expansion to the New Hebrides takes a group from Nonnatus
House to the islands at Christmastime. They encounter mixed reception
from the locals and get involved quickly with some highly pregnant
women. We do not learn much of anything new about the main
characters, except possibly learning a little more about the
circumstances of the birth of the older woman Phyllis.
Call the Midwife Christmas Special2021 – 2021 (2.8). This Christmas Special is spent in the
London neighborhood where the midwives are based. During the holidays
they have to cover some extra patients from nearby which results in
several cases with complications. Meanwhile the Caribbean nurse
Lucille and her betrothed Cyril get married on Boxing Day, with some
complications that get worked out. Once again, we do not learn much
of anything new about the main characters, except to learn that
adopted daughter May had been born to a drug addict and needed extra
care in her early months.
Home from School: the Children of
Carlisle – 2021 (2.7). Many
Indian children died and are buried at the Carlisle Indian boarding
school in Pennsylvania. This documentary follows Arapahoe tribal
members from Wyoming as they work successfully to obtain permission
to have three young tribal members relocated from the Carlisle
Cemetery to cemeteries on their Wyoming reservation. They were the
first tribe to obtain permission, and now other tribes have followed
the same path. The movie covers some history of Carlisle and some
effort by Carlisle researchers to help the tribe on its mission to
verify and remove their members bodies, but mostly it covers the
tribal members involved as they explain the Indian meaning of this
process to them.
