Month: January 2021
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So My Grandma’s a Lesbian (Salir del ropero)
So My Grandma’s a Lesbian (Salir del ropero) sounded perfect. Two older women in the lead roles. Written and directed by a woman. A story about how love is love. Easy to find on Netflix.
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Daughter from Another Mother – family melodrama from Mexico
Daughter from Another Mother (Madre Solo hay Dos) stars Paulina Goto as Mariana, a young single mom. Ludwika Paleta stars as Ana, a married mom who just had her third child. Their babies get mixed up at birth. Season 1 of this Mexican series is on Netflix.
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Beforeigners is Nordic sci-fi that brings up the past
Beforeigners, season 1, is HBO Max’s first original series from Norway. This sci-fi mystery is set in modern day Norway, but it’s full of people from the past who pop up in the harbor and don’t know how they got there.
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Flack, season 1, makes the worst people look good
Flack, season 1, takes a group of amoral PR people and sets them to work fixing the images of celebrities who have secrets to hide. This British series is billed as a comedy, but it’s more of a sad commentary on the state of the world. After airing in the UK and on Pop TV…
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Réunions brings French comedy to an island paradise
Réunions is a sunny family comedy about trying to make a go of a failing hotel after the death of the father who ran it. The comedy is broad, almost slapstick sometimes, the scenery is beautiful and so are the people. The French language is a treat. The series is streaming on Acorn TV.
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Kajillionaire, or maybe grifter is better
Kajillionaire stars Evan Rachel Wood as the lonely, socially inept daughter in an offbeat and unusual family of grifters. Miranda July wrote and directed this comedy. It’s available for rent on Prime Video and VOD.
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Radium Girls tells a story of radical courage
Radium Girls is based on a true story about young women who worked painting radium based paint on watches and clocks in the 1920s. Directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler, the film details a fight to get safe working conditions and help for the women who were sickened by the radium. The film…
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Sir, a story of tragic and archaic class systems
Sir is an Indian film about a house maid and the rich man she works for. Set in modern day Mumbai, it shows how ancient prejudices and caste barriers still control lives and love. Netflix has the film.
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For All Mankind, season 1, presents an alt version of the space race
For All Mankind brings science fiction to an alternate version of history and the space race. In this series on Apple TV+, the Soviets won the race to the moon. The fallout from that caused much of the action in the space agency, NASA, in the years following.
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Short Bits about Dickinson, WandaVision and Batwoman
New and returning TV series that are released once a week are scarce these days. These three merit some comments: Dickinson, WandaVision, and Batwoman.