Tidy Tidbits: Medley of Viewing Options

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SERIES ON TELEVISION

MEDICOS IN THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK

RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service (Prime Video)

Pete & Eliza (RottenTomatoes.com)

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If you like medical shows and unusual cases in remote locations, then you might enjoy this Australian series.  The main base is in Broken Hill in southeastern New South Wales.  Much of the area is desert. In a medical emergency, the most efficient way to reach patients is usually by plane.  The Royal Flying Doctor Service is a real organization still in existence today.  

This fictional series focuses on the pilots, doctors, and nurses who work in this challenging environment.  Chief among them are Dr. Wayne Yates, nurses Pete and Matty, new arrival Dr. Eliza Harrod, and pilots Mira and Graham.  Eliza has come from London (her marriage is breaking up) with her teenage son Henry.  Wayne and Mira are pretty much of a couple; Pete is single and likes attractive women; Graham is a bit crusty, but caring; Matty embarks on a drag career in his spare time; and ops manager Leonie is super effective.  Add in devastating crashes, conflicts and romance, and the result is an engaging, sometimes heart pounding series.  There are two seasons of eight episodes each and possibly a third one in the works. Recommended!

HAUTE COUTURE UNDER THE NAZIS

The New Look (Apple TV+)

Dior & Chanel (preview.ph)

This dramatic series set in 1940’s Paris focuses on the high fashion industry while France is under Nazi occupation.  Designers must decide if they will make dresses for the Nazi wives or if they will quit working and possibly not survive.  Coco Chanel closed her studio, but she played both sides in this war and both fraternized with various Nazis and worked to get her nephew Andre released from captivity.  She then became a person of interest.  

Christian Dior was just coming into his own and designed under the aegis of Lucien Lelong along with others. They did what they did to make a living.  Dior is the principal figure in this saga of danger, dresses, and determination.  Dior’s sister Catherine was a member of the Resistance and worrying about her fate consumes Dior.  At the same time, fashion is changing and a new group of designers, Dior, Balmain, and Cardin challenge Chanel’s precedence.  

Juliette Binoche is superb as the fidgety, demanding, yet caring Coco, and Ben Mendelsohn as Christian is hauntingly broody.   There will be ten episodes in all, and they are being released weekly on Wednesdays. Highly recommended! 

MOVIES:  TEACHER & STUDENT

The Holdovers (Prime Video, etc.)

Tully & Mr. Hunham (IMDb)

The role of the very strict, no nonsense history teacher, Paul Hunham, is perfectly captured by Paul Giamatti.  Left at school during the Christmas holidays as the lone chaperone for prep schoolboys not going home with their parents, Paul is challenged, harassed, and berated by the students.  One by one, even the stragglers leave, and Paul is left with just Tully, a smart troublemaker.  Tully, Paul, and Mary, the school cook who’s mourning the death of her soldier son in Vietnam, make a for an unlikely set of compatriots.  

This is a film that is both funny at points and poignant.  The Chief Penguin enjoyed it very much.  I thought it was good and did appreciate Giamatti’s performance.  

LIVE THEATER: CORSETS AND CLASS IN NYC

Intimate Apparel (Asolo)

Mr. Marks & Esther

Lynn Nottage’s play, Intimate Apparel, encompasses a full spectrum of friendship, romance, prejudice, anger, and forgiveness.  In Lower East Side Manhattan in 1905, Black seamstress Esther has made her own way and supported herself making fine underwear for ladies of all types for eighteen years.  Strong of character, she has always lived in Mrs. Van Buren’s boarding house and yet wishes for a man of her own, a husband.  But Esther is particular and won’t settle for just anyone, so when a laborer in Panama starts writing her letters, she has hopes that become high hopes.  

Although she doesn’t really approve of her friend Mayme’s business, the two help each other out.  Esther is even an available ear for Mrs. Dickson, her married white upper-class client.  What is more challenging is the relationship between Esther and Mr. Marks, the Jewish man from whom she purchases her fabrics.  How much can be said with just a silent glance or the barest touch.  

The play moves through a series of scenes, much like tableaus, with headings over top echoing the article of clothing key to that scene. The beginning seems long, but the early scenes are essential to developing the characters and providing context for the events to come.  It gathers depth and richness as it works to its climax.  And I’m still reflecting on it 24 hours later.  Highly recommended!  It runs through April 18. 

Tidy Tidbits: Theater & Movies

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WONDERFUL THEATER!

Born with Teeth (Asolo Repertory Theatre)

Will and Kit (Sarasota Herald Tribune)

Born with Teeth is a recent play (2022) by Liz Duffy Adams.  It debuted at the Alley Theatre in Houston and is now being presented around the country.  It’s a historical play with just one setting and two actors in three scenes set in a London tavern in 1592 and 1593.  The characters are the popular successful Christopher (Kit) Marlowe and the then less well-known Will Shakespeare.  Here, they are collaborating on an historical play.  

There is some evidence that the two did collaborate and Duffy Adams has taken that likely fact and woven a drama around it.  Kit baits and taunts the more cautious, overtly timid Will in the opening scene.  Later they spar and trade barbs over the political climate, discuss the dangers lurking around them in this repressive age, and they tease and flirt.   The climax in the last scene comes with a twist.

It is not necessary to know the details of the times, other than to be aware it was a contentious time with factions railing against Queen Elizabeth and several of her courtiers, Raleigh, Cecil, and Essex warring and plotting with or against each other.  Some even believed Marlowe was a spy.

I found the first fifteen minutes a bit slow; perhaps it was getting my head wrapped around the language, but then the play took off and the next hour plus flew by.  Born with Teeth runs through March 29.  It’s yet another example of the Asolo at its finest! (~JWFarrington)

RECENT MOVIES

Black Life: Real vs. Imagined: American Fiction (Amazon Prime)

Monk flanked by his siblings (npr.com)

Another nominee for Best Picture, American Fiction is fun, witty, and satisfying.  A satirical look at fiction that sells, it features a Black writing professor and author of several books.  But Monk hasn’t published anything recently.  Somewhat incensed by all the attention given to a stereotypical, racist depiction of Blacks by another Black author, he takes a pseudonym and writes his own novel of what he thinks white folks want to read about Black people.  The results upset him but gain him far more attention than he ever bargained for.  

One of the great things about this film is its depiction of a successful upper middle class Black family.  Monk, the star is a professor, his sister is a doctor, and his brother, albeit with his own personal issues, is a plastic surgeon.  There is much to like about this film, some food for thought, and an ending with a couple of surprises.  Highly recommended!

Female Friendship & Romance: The Book Club: The Next Chapter (Amazon Prime)

Dynamic foursome (pluggedin.com)

Several years ago, I not quite dragged the Chief Penguin to the cinema in Manhattan to see The Book Club.  It was fun and a nice change of pace, but not much more.  It was redeemed largely by the marvelous cast of Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton, and Mary Steenburgen.  These four talented women, now in their 70’s and 80’s (Fonda is 86!), are together again.  

This time, they’ve convinced their friend Vivian (Fonda), recently engaged, that the women only should go to Italy for her bachelorette party.  Carol and Diane have husbands or partners, and Sharon, a retired judge, is single. 

What follows is silly, partly predictable, and just plain fun.  There’s also a message in there, “carpe diem,” but not exactly expressed that way.  This is a chic flick for sure, but some special guys might enjoy it also.   Call it a delayed Valentine!

SERIES VIEWING: DON’T BOTHER

Expats (Apple TV+)

I read the novel of the same title on which Expats is based and was looking forward to the TV series.  I think I lasted about 20 minutes into the first episode.  Weird, disjointed, and nothing like the book.  I felt somewhat justified when a friend felt similarly.

Good Apprentice (Amazon Prime)

This Italian series about a young woman interested in forensic medicine is one of Walter Presents many offerings.  I watched the first episode and part of the second one.  It’s okay, but seems light, and her frequent clumsiness is overdone.  I’m not going back to it.

Note: Header photo, Pelicans at Robinson Preserve, ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Read, Watch, Get Ready!

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BOOK OF THE WEEK

While You Were Out:  An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

Author Kissinger (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Meg Kissinger, a noted journalist who spent several decades covering mental illness issues, bares her soul and that of her family in While You Were Out, a candid and raw account of her family’s travails.  Children of the 60’s, she and her seven siblings lived with alcoholic parents and a mother who was also subject to depression.  Life in their household was chaotic yet punctuated by moments of fun and levity.  Problems were never discussed and no one’s behavior or issues was ever really questioned. 

When several of Kissinger’s siblings had their own mental health problems, treatments were tried, but nothing much changed, and there was no chance to query or understand the what and the why.  Even after a self-inflicted death, no talk or therapy was undertaken.  

This can be a hard book to read at points.  To her great credit, Kissinger presents each of her siblings as a multi-dimensional individual with pluses and good traits as well as shortcomings.  It is a tribute to her own strength of character that Kissinger navigated through this thicket of surrounding illness to create the successful life and journalism career she has.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

MY LATEST VIEWING

POLITICS OF FARMING AND BIG AGRICULTURE

Circles of Power (PBS Passport)

Journalist Lansel (Liberation)

Circles of Power, a recent French series (2022), is sometimes more like a documentary than a drama series.  Claire Lansel is an investigative journalist for Quotidienne, a daily newspaper.  When a class of school children visits a grain silo in the north of France, several of them become overwhelmed and collapse.  Thus begins a focus on what caused their sickness.  Small independent farmers, a large agricultural cooperative, the minister of agriculture, union leaders, and a rabble-rousing group of young environmentalists are all players in this many-threaded story.  I wondered if it were based on real incidents, but couldn’t find an answer to that.

This is a drama of painstaking research and difficult interviews with affected individuals, many afraid to speak out. Add in mothers with sick babies and the human side plays out against the politics of likely corporate greed.  The pace is measured with lots of scenes of Claire driving through the countryside, but it kept my interest as I rooted for the “good guys” to prevail.  

NEW ADVENTURES AHEAD

(Zazzle from Pinterest.com)

Next month, the Chief Penguin and I will begin a new adventure.  We will move to a retirement community in North Carolina.  We didn’t anticipate making this kind of move this soon, but the right opportunity presented itself and we accepted.  

Now, we’re deep into downsizing: identifying which furniture pieces will work and in which rooms; going through decades of scrapbooks and memorabilia deciding what can go, what to digitize, and what to just toss; winnowing down and culling kitchen equipment (how many fry pans does one need?); reviewing cherished fine china and glassware to either pass on to family or give up; and making umpteen lists about what to take in the car, which vendors need to be notified, and so on.  Some of it is a process of reducing “clutter,” although one would never call these “precious” items clutter! 

We look forward to living in an urban area where we will be able to walk to stores, restaurants, parks, and the public library.  And a first-class bakery!  We will have family nearby, and, as long as we can, we will travel both here and abroad.  And yes, I plan to continue Jots & Jaunts (www.jauntingjean.com) with regular posts once we get settled.  I’m not signing off yet!

Note: Header photo of ibises on the hunt ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Page, Screen, & Plate

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RECENT READING: WIVES IN THE 1960’S

Absolution by Alice McDermott

Author McDermott (Macmillan.com)

Set in Saigon in 1963, Absolution focuses on the lives of several wives of Navy officers.  Tricia, just 23, has only been married a short time to lawyer Peter on loan to navy intelligence.  She is taken up by the somewhat older, more sophisticated Charlene, mother of three.  Charlene is forceful, attractive, and domineering and has gathered around her a small group of women to do her bidding.  While society views their primary functions as motherhood and being a good helpmate to their husbands, Charlene has ideas about how to do good and raise money to help the local population.  Employing the talents of a local native seamstress and acquiring a bunch of newly released Barbie dolls, Charlene involves Tricia and others in her charity schemes.  

These events are re-lived sixty years later through the eyes of now senior citizen Tricia and Rainey, Charlene’s daughter (a child at the time). They have reconnected through letters.

I think what McDermott tries to do in portraying a little known aspect of American servicemen’s wives in Vietnam is laudable, but I found this novel hard to like.  Charlene is an unsympathetic character, and Tricia is too easily led until the packed punch of the culminating event. The details of 1960’s life were familiar and convincing, but I expected something more from the renewed connection between Tricia and Rainey, some better reason for retrospectively sharing their memories of that time.  Why did Rainey become significant to Tricia?  For me, it wasn’t clear.

The novel has received significant praise; I give it a qualified recommendation.

VIEWING DELIGHTS 

NEW YORK HIGH SOCIETY

The Gilded Age Season 2 ($ Amazon Prime et al)

Gladys Russell with her parents (TVInsider.com)

Julian Fellowes is masterful!  Creator of Downton Abbey, screenwriter for Gosford Park and The Chaperone among others, his latest drama, The Gilded Age, is both fun and insightful.  Set in 1882 in New York, it follows young Marian Brooks’ entrance into high society with its battles between old money (Mrs. Astor and the van Rhijns) and new (Bertha and George Russell).  Marian is a niece of the van Rhijns, and she and her Aunts Agnes and Ada live across the street from the Russell family.  

A young woman’s goal then was to conduct herself discreetly and find a promising rich man to marry.  Marian breaks with convention by teaching watercolors at a school and is good friends with Peggy Scott, Aunt Agnes’ Black secretary.  Add in Peggy’s parents, and her work as a journalist, and one gets a view of a Black middle class on the rise.  Historic events such as the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge and steelworkers threatening action add richness. They also document the social changes afoot.  

I thought this season was even better than the first one, and I loved the fashions.  The hats are something else! There are 8 episodes, and a third season is planned.   Highly recommended! 

COURAGEOUS FIGHTER PILOTS

Masters of the Air (Apple TV+)

B-17 bomber (AVweb.com)

This is not my usual fare, but the Chief Penguin and I are watching it together on our big TV.  Produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg among others, Masters of the Air, a World War II series is getting rave reviews for its technical effects.  This account of the perilous missions carried out by the American pilots and crews of the 100th Bomb Group is harrowing, finger-biting, and compelling.  Risking daytime raids over Nazi Germany, the ten men in each plane never know whether they will get shot down, lose an engine and limp back, or need to bail out of a flaming plane into enemy territory.  Some missions were successful, and bombs were dropped on the correct target; others failed and some, but not all the men, returned to base still alive. 

Two majors known as Buck and Buckley, very different in style and temperament, are the lead characters.  With them and their men, one feels the physical and the emotional challenges they face in carrying out these missions.  

Based on a book of the same name, the series has nine episodes and is being released weekly.  Three episodes are currently available.  Recommended for WWII fans!

DINING NOTE

Duval’s on Main Street in downtown Sarasota reliably delivers fresh fish and nicely prepared meals.  We had lunch here earlier this week with graduate school friends visiting from Michigan.  Service is friendly and efficient and the food very good.  Our group enjoyed superior clam chowder, a twisted ahi tuna sandwich, salads, and a shrimp po’ boy.