TV Review: Behind Her Eyes (2021). Netflix.

Wooh-hoo! This is a great one for the Halloween season, if you like really scary psychological thrillers that turn out (spoiler alert) to have a bit of a supernatural twist to them. We binged it in a few days, because it is riveting and addictive, even though you know as the plot unfolds that there is something deeply sinister and scary going on.

Behind Her Eyes, the Netflix six-part mini-series, is based on a 2017 thriller by Sarah Pinborough (which I haven’t read). It begins with our introduction to Louise, an attractive but recently divorced black single mother in London (played convincingly by Simona Brown). Louise is just getting by, trying to take care of herself and her pre-teen son, while living in a small apartment on a modest salary, and working a clerical job.

One night, at a friend's urging, Louise goes to a bar, where she runs into a tall handsome Scotsman (Tom Bateman). They end up talking, and on the way out the door after too many drinks, they share an impulsive but passionate kiss – there’s definitely chemistry there, as well as the alcohol effects. Will they end up in bed together, as we might expect?  But then the man stops, mumbles something about “I can’t do this”, and runs off.

Of course, when she gets to work the next day, she discovers her unfortunate mistake from the night before is her new boss at the psychiatric clinic where she works. It's very embarrassing, but let’s all be grown-ups about this, shall we? And of course, he’s married. 

Soon we meet the wife (played chillingly by Eve Hewson), and start learning her backstory, which seems to involve great family wealth, and a tragic fire, but also a history of serious psychiatric problems. And we also will soon meet a strange lower class male drug addict friend of hers (Robert Aramayo), who she knew and bonded with as friends while they were both in rehab.

That’s as much plot as I can give away. As we are inexorably drawn into their webs of love and hate, friendship and deceit, and admiration and envy, the relationships become increasingly dangerous and fraught. We’re never sure who the evil one(s) are, who the victims are, and what any of the characters’ real motivations and personalities will prove to be. We only see that their relationship decisions and moral choices keep being the wrong ones, the ones that will lead inevitably to conflict and disaster.

It’s one of those “slow motion train wreck coming” shows, rich in well-drawn character flaws and a sense of impending doom, but which is also fascinating and intriguing, as you try to figure out the mysteries and behaviors of each of the characters, and where it’s all leading. And it is definitely also a good mystery story, with unexplained crimes and secrets lurking in the background.

It's an excellent piece of entertainment, very well crafted, with fine acting from all four of the leads, if your nerves can stand the psychological strain. And I can almost guarantee that you won't figure it all out until the very ending. Highly recommended.

TV Series Reviews: Dune (2000) & Children of Dune (2003). SyFy Channel (On Blu-ray DVD).

These were two 3-part SyFy Channel TV mini-series versions of Frank Herbert’s Dune stories, made in the early 2000s. They are available on Amazon in a Blu-ray DVD format, so you may have to buy them to watch these shows. I’ve had little luck finding them on any streaming sites, although they may reappear from time to time.

I saw them when the two mini-series first came out, and decided to see them again recently, since I had remembered they were good, and I had been re-reading the books. I thought after watching them again that they held up well to repeat viewing, even all these years later.

Since the first publication of Dune (as a book) in the 1960s, there have been repeated efforts by various Hollywood producers and studios to turn it into a blockbuster movie, most of which have failed to even reach the production phase. This gave rise to the widespread industry belief that the books are unfilmable.

The only full-length feature version that made it to the big screen (until last year's spectacular Dune, Part 1 production) was released to great fanfare in 1984. It was directed by David Lynch, and starred local UW drama grad Kyle McLachlan.

Unfortunately, it was a notorious bust. I still remember waiting eagerly for the release, then sitting in an overheated downtown Seattle theater and fuming when the projector broke in the middle of the show, which proved to be a lackluster and unexciting event even when they did finally manage to get it running again. What a disappointment! It couldn’t hold a candle to the joy and excitement of a Star Wars movie launch from that era.

However, Lynch’s failure didn’t mean that these stories were really unfilmable. Perhaps only Peter Jackson, with his marvelous Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, has ever taken on a movie-making mega-project based on a widely-loved book series of comparable difficulty and aced it (and it’s interesting to note that the Lord of the Rings trilogy was also for a long time thought to be “unfilmable”, after its own decades-long series of production attempts and failures).

In any event, given the huge sweep of future historical time, the plots and intrigue, strange technologies, vital characters, mysterious organizations, warring cultures and action across the first three Dune books, it was never going to be possible to tell the whole story in one two-hour show. A TV mini-series in retrospect looks like a much more reasonable way to approach a story of this complexity and length.

It’s true that these SyFy channel Dune TV mini-series versions have special effects that are not that impressive by contemporary CGI standards, but the most compelling features of Dune for fans have always been more about the characters and the plots than the visual aspects, at least until the release of the excellent new Dune movie last year, which I previously reviewed. And these SyFy Channel series did do a credible job of presenting the characters and the plots of the first three books, a cinematic feat that has not been matched yet by any other producers or directors.

So while we’re waiting for the big-screen release of Dune, Part 2 in a year or two, these two TV mini-series do convey the essential elements of the first three books (Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune) for enthusiasts who can’t wait, and they do a very respectable job of it if you can find the shows to watch. Recommended.

Movie Review: The Beatles: Get Back! (2021). Disney+.

Another month has slipped by, and here we are – it’s Rock and Roll Friday at The Memory Cache blog again! Today I’d like to begin by posing the question: what happens when you take more than a hundred hours of archival film of the most important rock and roll band ever while they were in the studio during the recording of their final album together, and hand it to one of the greatest filmmakers in our lifetime to make a documentary mini-series?

The very exciting answer to that question is that you get the three-part Beatles docuseries The Beatles: Get Back! by Peter Jackson, running about eight hours total, covering a 21-day series of recording sessions at Twickenham Studios and then Apple Studios in London with the Beatles as they made the Let It Be album in 1969. The mini-series is available on the Disney+ streaming service, and was released in late November of last year.

As Beatles fans and historians know, the film footage shot during these sessions was originally used to create the documentary film The Beatles: Let It Be, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. That film has long been regarded as a depressing and negative farewell send-off to the Beatles, focusing as it did on the tensions in the band that were driving it toward the inevitable breakup that followed shortly thereafter.

When Jackson, a lifelong Beatles fan, was approached about the possibility of revisiting the source film to make a new version of essentially the same subject as the The Beatles: Let It Be documentary, he was reportedly reluctant to take the project on, until he saw all the film, and realized there might be a more interesting and uplifting story to be told in retrospect than had been presented in the original documentary.

And indeed, that is what he has done. It’s worth noting there was also a formidable technical challenge involved, which was that much of the 50-year old source film was not in good condition, so he had to use the same kinds of advanced cinematic magic he had employed in restoring and enhancing 100-year old archival film for his 2018 World War I documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old, to make a movie that had the look and feel, and the visual and sound quality, of a contemporary production.

But the main challenge for Jackson, with the help of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and the support of Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, was always going to be to show the Beatles as they really were, together, at work and in a private setting, this incredibly talented group of four professional musicians whose astonishing history together had welded them into a close-knit family, even with all the pressures and animosities that were by then corroding their ability to stay together as a band.

I can see how this show might not be for everyone. The three episodes are each long (2-3 hours apiece), and for much of the time, not that much is happening in terms of action or plot. The four Beatles come and go, with their friends, wives and lovers, and their entourages, while the others are trying out new bits for the songs they’re writing together, or pairing up to play some of their old songs just for fun. We hear their playful banter with each other, which was real – we can see that it wasn’t something they just put on for the media in public, or created for their movies. We also hear them discussing their relationships, like an old married couple squabbling about the frustrations of a long domestic life together.

But we also get to see the miracle of their music creation process. Unlike most of the earlier Beatles albums, the songs on the Let It Be album were written in the studio, in real time. It wasn’t like most of their albums, where John, Paul and George would show up with songs already written, and ready to record. In this documentary, we watch them coming up with new lyrics, guitar bits and chords, and Ringo’s unique drum tracks, right before our eyes. And to them, these creations were all new – they hadn’t heard them as iconic sounds of the 1960s, played millions of times since around the world for over a half century, as we all have.

The documentary ends with their famous roof-top concert, where they played their last public performance together, and showcased many of the songs that would be on this final studio album they made together. It’s a triumphal moment, and another demonstration of the close bonds between the four of them, even as things were falling apart. We see the sheer joy and fun of playing for a live audience again, after more than three years of not touring, that captures for a final time the magical connection they had together as a close-knit brotherhood of legendary performing artists, which was such a powerful part of what has made them so beloved by generations of fans.

For anyone who is interested in the Beatles, this documentary is indispensable. It definitely has its bittersweet moments, and it inevitably shares some of the unavoidable facts about the state of their relationships at that time that made The Beatles: Let It Be seem like such a bummer, but it also highlights much of what the Beatles still shared with each other, particularly their joy in creating and playing their unique brand of generation-defining rock music. Highly recommended.    

TV Review: Ridley Road (2021). BBC/PBS Masterpiece.

Ridley Road is an intriguing short TV mini-series (of four episodes) from the BBC, which we watched on Masterpiece Theater on PBS. It is fictional, and based on the 2014 novel Ridley Road by Jo Bloom, which in turn was loosely based on real historical situations, groups and people in early 1960s England.

Just coming of age in a still-traumatized Britain two decades after World War II, Vivien Epstein, a modest young Jewish woman (played very ably by Agnes O'Casey), with working class roots and a part of her family living in East London, follows a new boyfriend (Tom Varey) into the anti-fascist resistance against a fast-growing neo-Nazi political group known as the National Socialist Movement (NSM), led by Colin Gordan (Rory Kinnear).

The secret organization she joins, known as the 62 Group, is composed of Jewish people who band together to protect the Jewish community from NSM-led street violence and attacks, a rising tide of mayhem and hate against Jews which they fear is both unrecognized and not of any real concern to the British police and government. The group's initial acts of resistance to this neo-Nazi threat are to try to inform the authorities of what Gordan and his neo-fascist thugs are doing, but when no help is forthcoming from the police, the group organizes its own defenses and combatants to fight the NSM in the streets.

Sensing that they need more inside information, though, Vivien and her boyfriend volunteer to go undercover to infiltrate the NSM. Vivien sets out to gain access to the NSM's highly secretive inner circle, masquerading as an enthusiastic if naive recruit, and ultimately works her way into Gordan's confidence, his home and his family.

Most spy thrillers involve agents who work for government agencies, but this unusual and absorbing drama of England and London in 1962 manages plenty of tension, danger and action in the course of its four episodes, while telling a believable story of a risky self-directed spying operation carried out by civilian amateurs. 

It's a story that also has plenty of resonance in our own time, as we watch private far right-wing armies and paramilitary groups becoming larger, stronger and more emboldened in their violent tactics and hateful objectives. Recommended.

TV Review: Conversations with Friends (2022). Hulu.

This is the second mini-series on Hulu based on a novel by Sally Rooney. I previously did a brief review of the mini-series Normal People, based on Rooney's second novel, which follows a bright young woman and her sometimes boyfriend in Ireland as they find their way through an emotional and sexual journey of discovery at the end of high school, and then through their university years together and apart.

Conversations with Friends is based on Rooney’s first novel of the same name, and follows two young women at the university in Dublin (nicely played by Alison Oliver and Sasha Lane), who share interests and affection for each other, and who were previously lovers but are now just close friends. Like most young people, they are making mistakes, trying things out, and attempting to discover who they are and what they want to do, while dealing with the usual family, school and roommate challenges that are typical of this early adult stage of life.

Into the mix comes a sophisticated somewhat older married couple, a successful writer (Jemima Kirke) and her handsome but introverted actor husband (Joe Alwyn), who befriend the pair, hosting them at parties and taking them on an exotic vacation. What could possibly go wrong? Of course, there are new attractions in the quartet, and an affair, and a lot of complex emotions to be experienced and resolved.

I’m pretty sure this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I found it an intriguing look into the challenges of being a young adult in this era. It sensitively explores issues of complicated sexual identity and attractions for young women, the appeal but also the problems with polyamory, the emotional risks inherent in ubiquitous electronic communications, and the challenges of maintaining friendships when sexual feelings and jealousies cloud the relationships.

The story is slow-moving, and all the characters seem on some level to be struggling with depression, and a perceived lack of fulfillment in their existing life situations, despite some measures of success and recognition in their personal and professional lives. But it’s all still interesting, and very easy to relate to experiences and feelings most of us had when we were young adults, or at least to stories of people we’ve known. Recommended.

TV Review: Anatomy of a Scandal (2022). Netflix.

This is a riveting political and sexual drama about a “perfect” upper class British marriage of two Oxford graduates (played by Sienna Miller and Rupert Friend) that slowly comes apart under the pressure of a cheating scandal involving the husband, a popular and rising Tory minister in the British government.

As the minister’s affair first hits the tabloids, it looks like the usual guilty politician's playbook unfolding, with sad and "honest" confessions to the wife, public apologies, and professional PR assistance in trying to ride out the rough parts and get back to business as usual. That strategy all starts to come unglued, though, when the young paramour and minister's aide brings rape charges against the minister, revolving around whether she had given consent to a post-affair sexual encounter.

Michelle Dockery stars as the prosecutor who brings the rape case against the minister, with a hidden agenda and secrets of her own. Throughout the unfolding story, new issues and mysteries keep appearing about other dark personal secrets in the lives of the minister and his wife, dating back to their shared Oxford days, and the social activities of the husband and his close friend, who is now the Prime Minister, when they were both members of a campus club of rich bad boys called “the Libertines”. 

This excellent mini-series combines several hidden crimes and mystery plots, a fine legal courtroom drama, a story of a seemingly happy marriage under the pressure of cheating and betrayals, a familiar portrayal of the extent to which political power, privilege and wealth can protect people from the consequences of their crimes and bad acts, and a thought-provoking exploration of the difficulties of identifying and proving consent to sex on the part of the woman, in the context of ongoing sexual relationships and unplanned moments of passion. Highly recommended.

TV Review: The Good Lord Bird. (2020). Showtime.

Based on the recent novel by James McBride, previously reviewed here, Ethan Hawke stars in this Showtime mini-series as the abolitionist John Brown, as seen through the eyes of a young freed slave boy in a dress (played by Hubert Point-Du Jour), who's been mistaken by Brown for a girl.

It's a compelling performance in many ways -- Hawke vividly portrays a complex, driven man, who on the one hand is buffoonish and often ridiculous in his religious fanaticism and his conviction in the odds of success for his divine mission, but who also is shown to care deeply and passionately for his family, his religion and the enslaved people he hopes to save.

As with the book, having the story told through the voice of the young boy, as he tries to make sense of John Brown's astonishing actions and his own precarious, evolving situation, adds both humor and a much-needed black slave’s perspective to the unfolding drama, and to Brown's crazed yet morally righteous viewpoint and utterances. Recommended.

TV Review: McCartney 3,2,1 (Season 1, 2021). Hulu.

I recently had the opportunity to watch a marvelously understated little documentary mini-series on Hulu called McCartney 3,2,1. The “McCartney” in the title refers to Sir Paul McCartney, one of the two surviving Beatles, Wings bandleader, genius songwriter (with and without John Lennon) and legendary solo artist throughout the past fifty years of rock music history.

The documentary itself is incredibly spare in action, setting and appearance. It was shot in black and white, mostly in a simple music studio with a mixing board and not much else, and features nothing more than two people talking for the entire six sessions of the mini-series. One of them is McCartney, as he is now, the elder statesman and extraordinary maestro of the rock and roll music world that he and his band-mates in the Beatles played such a profound role in creating.

The other person is the interviewer, Rick Rubin. Many readers may never have heard of him, but for popular music historians and enthusiasts (present company included), he is also a legendary figure, for Rubin has produced best-selling records for and by many of the top stars of rock, country and hip-hop. He is a brilliant sound engineer, with a deep appreciation for the artists, studios, recording history, sonic qualities and music trends which have shaped popular music over the past 50 years, many times with his hands at the controls of the mixing boards during the recording sessions.

Rubin is the perfect interviewer to ask McCartney fascinating and in-depth questions about how some of the greatest Beatles’ songs and albums were created. He has a warmth and sense of humor which draws McCartney out, leading to fascinating personal anecdotes, and so many surprising stories about how iconic sounds in different Beatle songs came into being.

The two of them are also aided in this exploratory process by the fact that Rubin has some of the Beatle's multi-track song recordings loaded into the mixing board, so he can actually play and separate out the sounds in particular song mixes, and then talk with McCartney about how and why things were done as they were.

There are also plenty of personal reminiscences from McCartney about the Beatles’ experiences and influences at different stages of their years together, and their relationships within the band, especially his close personal and creative connection with John Lennon.

This may not be fascinating to people who aren’t Beatles fans, and particularly not if they also don’t know or care anything about the creative process by which original music is made. But for anyone who loves the Beatles and their music, and wonders how on earth they were able to write and record so many different kinds of timeless songs in a few short years, this is all very revealing, and it's an amusing, animated conversation between two old pros that we are privileged to see and hear. Highly recommended.

TV Review: Self-Made (2020). Netflix.

This was a 4-part miniseries about Madam C. J. Walker, the first black female millionaire, a poor woman in the early twentieth century who built a huge and enduring hair product empire and personal fortune, focused on the cosmetic needs and desires of black women. 

Needless to say, it didn't all go smoothly, and she had to overcome constant prejudice and obstacles as both a woman and an African-American, but she had an indomitable will to succeed, which comes through well in this series. Starring Octavia Spencer as Madam C. J. Walker. Recommended.

TV Review: The Undoing (2020). HBO Max.

The Undoing, a major HBO mini-series released late in 2020, stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as a rich and successful power couple on the upper West side of New York, whose pre-teen son attends an elite private school.

Early in the series, another parent from the son’s school is murdered, and the series shows the impact of the unfolding murder investigation on the couple’s "perfect marriage", as it comes apart under the pressure of unfolding events and revelations.

This series came in for a lot of critical commentary by reviewers -- one writer said it was "lifestyle porn", because of the obvious wealth and privilege of the main characters -- but I thought it was perfectly appropriate to the story. Excellent and riveting entertainment, with tremendous, suspenseful acting and script. Recommended.

TV Review: Party Tricks (2014). Amazon Prime.

Party Tricks is a 2014 Australian dramedy mini-series about a liberal female Prime Minister of Victoria (played by Asher Keddie), who suddenly has an upstart challenger, a handsome, charismatic journalist with a wealthy backer and no government experience (Rodger Corser), who has decided to run against her in an upcoming election.

The bigger problem for both of them -- the two of them had shared a secret extra-marital affair in the past, which they both hope desperately to keep quiet.

This series was very well done.  In a similar vein to the popular CBS series The Good Wife (but set in Australia), it explores the hazards and difficulties of having complicated personal lives and conflicted emotions under the intense pressures of competing political interests and relentless media scrutiny.  Recommended.

TV Review: The English Game (2020). Netflix.

Set in the late 1870s and early 1880s, this very novel period piece and docudrama mini-series shows how two young men -- one a banker and Etonian son of an English lord, the other a poor Scottish factory worker -- together created the modern game of professional soccer, through their fierce competition on the pitch as star players for rival teams, and their cooperation off the pitch in pushing through important changes to how the sport was organized and played in England.

Among the innovations that grew out of their collaboration, and ultimately spread around the globe, were changes to who could field teams, which opened the sport up to players and teams from all classes, rather than just the wealthy; eligibility and participation rules changes which allowed players to be paid for their playing; and also important changes to the on-field tactics and rules of the game, particularly the evolution toward a more team- and pass-oriented tactical game, rather than having teams just rely on a few individual stars’ skills and prowess.

In the course of this intriguing story, each man also has to deal with other challenges in their respective personal and social lives.  This film is based on real events and historical figures.  It was produced by Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey fame).  Recommended.

TV Review: Bodyguard (2018). Netflix.

This 6-part mini-series from the BBC was a nice surprise when I finally decided to give it a try, after Netflix repeatedly displayed it prominently on my “you should see this” list.  Only one season was made, but a February 2022 online story suggests that the producers may be gearing up to make a new season 2.   In any event, the first season stands on its own as a complete story, solidly rooted in the geopolitical traumas and anxieties of our time. 

The main protagonist, Sgt. David Budd (played by Richard Madden) is a veteran of 10 years of war with the British military in Afghanistan and Iraq, who now works as a personal protection officer (a bodyguard) for the Scotland Yard division that protects important British government officials.

In an early scene, while riding with his two young children on a train, he recognizes a terrorist plot unfolding, and intervenes to stop a suicide bombing before it happens, thereby saving both the train’s passengers and the woman bomber, and in the process becoming an instant hero in the press.

In a very believable story of “no good deed goes unpunished”, David is quickly rewarded for his heroism with a new assignment as the personal bodyguard for Julia, the Home Secretary and top Conservative woman MP in the government (Keeley Hawes), who is campaigning to undermine and replace the current Prime Minister.

To her new Police Sergeant protector, the Home Secretary represents all the worst judgment, bad policies, jingoism and hypocrisy that led to the disastrous wars he fought in, which have left him psychologically damaged, bitter and now alienated from his wife.  Nevertheless, his devotion to duty won’t allow him to do anything but guard her ferociously with his life, and try to anticipate the evolving threats which she seems to draw like a magnet.

Without revealing the full plot and spoiling it, I would say that this excellent series reminds me more than anything of the long-running HBO show Homeland.  In both shows, we see an exceptionally competent and dedicated agent, each with a heavy load of psychological damage from their respective war experiences, trying to stay one step ahead of complex terrorism plots, while also trying to deal with layers of bureaucratic intrigue in their own organizations, and their own disturbed personal lives, loves and families.  It makes for an absorbing and complex story in both cases.

Bodyguard also includes several of the most adrenaline-pumping action scenes of a character under threat of immediate death, trying to hold things together and get everyone safely through a moment of impending mayhem, that I have seen in recent years.  In an entertainment world full of spectacular CGI car crashes, gratuitous gunfire and colorful explosions, these scenes stand out for their close-up focus on the drama of characters trying to survive under the pressure of imminent catastrophe.

This is a fine example of the contemporary political thriller, with plausible scenarios and realistic threats unfolding in the uniquely British context of the post-Forever Wars world.  Highly recommended.

TV Review: Babies (2020). Netflix.

This is a six-part documentary series on the first 12 months of babies' mental and physical development, and glimpses into ongoing research at universities around the globe into the many aspects of babies' growth.  

Its basic thesis is that much of what we used to think about babies as being "tabula rasa" or blank slates is simply not true.  Instead, they arrive with seemingly miraculous stores of built-in knowledge and skills, which they then actualize through their many strange and wonderful behaviors in the first year of life, which are demonstrated by babies in families from different places around the world.  Perfect for new parents (and grandparents)!   Recommended.

TV Review: Mare of Eastwood (2021). HBO Max.

Kate Winslet gives an excellent performance as a weary  but driven detective in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, investigating murders of young women in her own extended family and community.  

This was not a particularly happy or uplifting series to watch -- it's dark, because of the filming style and location in run-down areas of Chester, PA, and because of the themes (murders of young girls, drug abuse, brutal crimes, destroyed families and desperate lives).  

Despite all these negative aspects, Winslet absolutely nails the local dialect and emotional affect of her character, and conveys the quiet depression and inner turmoil of a good but driven detective, who finds the investigative trail for horrendous crimes leading straight back into her own small urban community of struggling family and friends.  Recommended.   

TV Review: The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (2022), Netflix, and The Flight Attendant, Seasons 1-2, HBO Max.

The TV mini-series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, starring Kristen Bell, is remarkably similar in genre and concept to HBO’s TV series The Flight Attendant starring Kaley Cuoco, which just arrived on HBO Max for a second season.  

 

In both series, the plot centers on an attractive young woman protagonist, each with her own serious emotional problems and excessive drinking habits, stumbling into a murder mystery which in The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window may or may not have even happened, and in both cases may or may not have been done by the intoxicated leading lady herself, who then has to try desperately to clear herself and solve the mystery by playing amateur detective. 

 

Both Bell and Cuoco are gifted comedic actors, and both pull off their respective roles convincingly and amusingly.  This is no mean feat in either case, since they need somehow to convey their characters’ tortured souls, their drunken irreverence and silly but self-destructive misbehavior in absurd situations, and yet also cleverly manage to figure out “who dun it” from a baffling list of likely suspects and clues that would challenge a sober person, all at the same time.   

 

The amateur detective work and smart-alecky response to mysteries, violence and dire personal straits is familiar territory for Bell, whose acting stint as the girl sleuth Veronica Mars earlier in her career contained much of the same appeal as this new show.  I saw all the Veronica Mars TV seasons and the follow-on movie a few years ago, and thought it was an outstanding and entertaining series, with a very gutsy and appealing young heroine. 

 

For Cuoco, her long acting run as Penny, the sweet but clueless party girl next door in The Big Bang Theory, who had to constantly improvise, make up stories, tell little lies and use her sexy good looks and flirtation to get herself out of embarrassing situations with the socially inept but brilliant tech nerds across the hall, was similarly good preparation for her role here, as a different sweet but clueless party girl (and flight attendant) who finds herself in far more dangerous situations than Penny ever faced.

 

For some viewers, trying to combine comedy, murder, intrigue, psychological thriller and satire into one show might be all too much.  However, I think both these series are worth seeing just for the enjoyment of watching these two remarkably talented actors working their onscreen magic to get their characters out of impossible situations.  Recommended.

TV Review: Atlantic Crossing (2021). PBS mini-series.

Kyle McLachlan stars as FDR in a fact-based story of the Danish princess (the wife of the crown prince) who escaped with her children from the Nazis, and then carried on a charged friendship with romantic overtones with the President, while trying to influence the Americans to aid the Danish war effort and resistance during World War II.    

It appears that there was some dramatic license in the series, but in general it sticks to facts that have been reported elsewhere about the unusual relationship of the Danish princess to President Roosevelt, and the influence she wielded with him for the benefit of the Danish government in exile.  Recommended.

TV Mini-Series Review: Spies of Warsaw (2013). BBC, on Amazon Prime.

As a long-time fan of Alan Furst's many outstanding novels of spies, saboteurs, dangerous liaisons and doomed lovers in pre-war and World War II Europe, I often asked myself the question, "why has none of these excellent historical novels ever been made into a movie or TV series?". 

Spies of Warsaw, which came out in 2013 on BBC, based on the 2008 Alan Furst novel of the same name, appears to be the first (and only) such effort.  It features David Tennant (the fine Scottish actor we’ve seen in several other British TV shows recently) playing the leading man role of a French military attaché and intelligence officer in Warsaw in 1937 and 1938. 

Our hero is trying to uncover the Nazis' plans and tactics for invasion, and convince his dull-witted superiors in Paris of the threat of a German tank end-run around the Maginot line and through the Ardennes. 

At the same time, he is also falling in love, and in and out of several beds, while setting up a dangerous spy operation in the heart of the German government.  A very enjoyable 4-part series, and an admirable job of translating Alan Furst to television by BBC.  Recommended.

TV Mini-Series Review: Normal People (2020). BBC and Hulu.

A 12-part series based on the 2018 bestselling novel of the same name by Sally Rooney, this story follows a pair of young Irish lovers, their on again/off again romance and friendship, and their respective personality developments as individuals from their last year of high school into their years together and apart at Trinity College in Dublin. 

It's very touching, and definitely evocative of many of the common experiences and life lessons of sexual and romantic relationships during the late teens and early twenties.  It has a lot of fairly explicit sex in it, although most of it is handled very sweetly and tastefully.  Recommended.

TV Mini-Series Review: Little Fires Everywhere (2020). Hulu.

A perfectly-timed new TV series when it was released (based on the 2017 bestseller of the same name by Celeste Ng), this series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington explores many facets of race and class conflict in American society. 

Witherspoon portrays Elena, a wealthy White suburban Mom of four teenage children, seemingly well-intentioned and kind, but also narcissistic, uptight and clueless, whose life and family become increasingly intertwined with those of Washington's character Mia. 

Mia is a mysterious free-spirited Black artist with a 15-year old daughter, who moves from place to place every few months in a beat-up old hatchback, for reasons that she doesn’t reveal but which increasingly add to the tension surrounding her, her daughter and their odd rootless lifestyle.

This situation quickly becomes a powder keg for all the racial and class tensions, as well as the family dramas and personalities, within and between the two families and the Shaker Heights community in Ohio.  A really excellent piece of TV drama for our era.  Highly recommended.