Month: March 2024
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3 Body Problem: Intriguing Sci-Fi thriller
3 Body Problem uses a big cast of characters to ask some big questions about the state of life on earth and how humans would face a potential alien invasion. The series has one season up now, but I’m guessing there will be more. The series is based on books by Cixin Liu. The television…
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Origin, another masterwork from Ava DuVernay
Origin, from writer and director Ava DuVernay, is another masterwork from one of America’s greatest directors. The movie is an adaptation of the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. The book itself is a scholarly work with copious footnotes and appendices. Ava DuVernay made the movie about Isabel Wilkerson’s journey in…
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Anatomy of a Fall, courtroom drama looks at a marriage
Anatomy of a Fall, a title that clearly tips its hat to Anatomy of a Murder, is a mystery wrapped inside a courtroom drama. The legal drama is about a murder trial, but the essence of the story is the dissection of a marriage. There are spoilers ahead.
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Shifting Gears: Katherine Barrell brings another first to Hallmark movies
Shifting Gears is one more example of how Katherine Barrell is helping take Hallmark movies to new levels of female empowerment. She’s played a lesbian carpenter and several other groundbreaking roles for Hallmark. Now she’s dressed in coveralls and is a top notch auto mechanic with a flair for restoring classic cars. I gotta say,…
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Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV featured a group of journalists and investigators who exposed some of the abuse faced by child actors who worked at Nickelodeon and Disney in the 1980s to early 2000s. Only a few actors were willing to appear on camera, and the exposé felt incomplete. But it…
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Dear Zoe, Sadie Sink stars in this family story
Dear Zoe describes the emotional turmoil a family goes through after the loss of a child. The unusual aspect of the story is that it’s told from the point of view of a teenager, the big sister of the child. The story explores the first year after the loss.
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Cat Person, oddball attempt at feminism
Cat Person is a fantastical elaboration on the idea that women are afraid of men while men can’t bear to be rejected by women. A college sophomore gets involved with an older man. She thinks she’s an enlightened feminist while she suspects him of every kind of toxic masculinity.
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See You in My 19th Life, romance and reincarnation in a K-drama
See You in My 19th Life, a K-drama, takes for granted that the idea of reincarnation is accepted and understood. Most people don’t remember their past reincarnations. The main character in this romantic drama remembers all of her past lives and is still dealing with issues from those lives. Ban Ji-eum (Shin Hye-sun) vowed at…
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The Tourist, season 2, family feud in Ireland
The Tourist, season 2, begins with Elliot (Jamie Dornan) and Helen (Danielle Macdonald) roaming the world madly in love. They’re free, they’re happy. Well, except that Helen is incapable of letting go of an unanswered question. She keeps hinting that they should go to Ireland and see what they can learn about Elliot.
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Apples Never Fall, complicated family drama
Apples Never Fall, with all 7 episodes uploaded, is available on Peacock. This family drama is based on a novel by Liane Moriarty. It was developed by Melanie Marnich. I enjoy reading Liane Moriarty – her novels are always full of convolutions and secrets. That translated to the small screen in this series, but fell…