Tag: Unforgotten (TV)

Tidy Tidbits: Lost, Missing, Unforgotten

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READING—SIOUX REVOLT IN THE WEST

The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore

Author Moore (The Guardian)

This spare historical novel focuses on events leading up to the Sioux Uprising of 1862.  It is loosely based on a memoir by Sarah Wakefield who with her children was held captive for six weeks by the Sioux Indians.  In The Lost Wife, Sarah Butts, later Brinton, leaves an abusive husband in Rhode Island and travels the long distance to the Minnesota Territory to make a new life with her good friend Maddie.  Maddie has died and Sarah marries the local doctor who is physician to tribe members at the Indian agency.  

How Sarah adapts to life among the Sioux, learns their language, and works with the women, will affect her reception later by both the white women and the tribe.  Told from Sarah’s perspective, the novel is full of details of the physical landscape and both mundane and grisly aspects of her daily life, but short on emotion.  The one exception to this is Sarah’s relationship with Chaska, one of her captors.  This relationship colors how she is treated upon release by her former neighbors and her husband.  

The novel is short, but not a fast read.  It highlights a shameful incident in the settling of the American West. (~JWFarrington)

VIEWING—UNSOLVED MURDER CASES

Unforgotten, Season 5 (PBS Masterpiece)

Jessie & Sunny (PBS)

I miss Nicola Walker.  Her role as DCI Cassie Stuart in the first four seasons was central.  She has been replaced by prickly Jessie James, played by Sinead Keenan.  DI Sunny Khan is grieving Cassie’s death and has personal issues at home.  Newbie Jessie’s dismissive approach to her team is harming morale, but she has a personal crisis of her own.  

The case of a body part found in the chimney of an empty house is complex and many layered, and some of the varied cast of suspects have complicated pasts and questionable issues.  This season has six episodes, all focused on this one case.  Despite the tension between them, Sunny, Jessie, and the team eventually solve it.  I like this series but didn’t love this season as much as previous ones.

NOVEMBER REFLECTIONS 

In the Northeast especially, November brings dark nights and cold days.  Around Election Day each year, I reflect on my father’s short but impactful life.  This year was the 50th anniversary of his death, more years gone than he lived.  And yet, he remains vivid in my memories.

November is also a time to celebrate.  Thanksgiving Day provides us with an opportunity to be mindful of and thankful for all that we have.  This year, I am especially grateful for my extended family:  son, daughter-in-law, granddaughters, siblings and their spouses, nieces and their families, and especially my Chief Penguin. 

This week we unexpectedly lost a sibling, the Chief Penguin’s brother, a doting uncle.   Siblings share experiences from their past lives; when one is gone, the puzzle is missing a piece, and a space remains unfilled.  I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends filled with joy and love!

(Wildgoose)

Note: Header photo of November dawn ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Maine Time: Trolls & More

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TROLLS IN THE GARDEN

We made the first of this year’s visits to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens yesterday.  It was lovely and mostly sunny.  We were impressed with some new annuals and the expansion of beds near the entry bridge.  These gardens get better every year!

Lisianthus in purple
Pink member of the canna family

This year’s highlight is the presence of some gigantic trolls. These wooden sculptures are the work of Danish artist Thomas Dambo.   They were built on site over several months by the artist with assistance from garden staff and more than 150 volunteers.  Dambo has been working with wood since early childhood, and his trolls are found around the world.  

Soren Troll by Thomas Dambo

I was told that these five trolls will remain in place until they deteriorate and fall apart, estimated to be about five years, longer if they receive some maintenance.  They are impressive works!  We tramped around and found two of them, Soren and Birk.

RECENT READING

Baghdad 2002

When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson

I must confess to buying this paperback book partly because of its very attractive apricot-colored cover.  It’s a novel set in Iraq in 2002 when Sadam Hussein was ruling the country.  The author is a former international correspondent who spent a year living under that regime.  Her depictions of the city and the environment are picturesque and chilling.  

Wilkinson has created three female characters, one based to some extent on her own experiences.  Ally Wilson is the wife of the Australian ambassador, Huda is a village girl who has advanced in life to working at the Australian embassy, but also acting as an informant for the government.  Rania, born rich and privileged, has fallen on hard times; she and Huda were close friends as children.  How these three women come to interact with one another and how Huda and Rania’s concern for their teenage children makes them compatriots is the heart of the novel.  

I found the descriptions of daily life fascinating, but noticed a lack of tension in the narrative until about the last third of the book.  Nonetheless, it’s worth reading about Bagdad during this brutal time.  (~JWFarrington)

VIEWING—BRITISH CRIME

Unforgotten (Season 4, PBS Masterpiece)

Cassie and Sunny (radiottimes.com)

Detective Chief Inspector Cassie Stuart and Detective Sunny Kahn are partners in solving cold case crimes. Bodies turn up years later in odd places, in this season, a freezer.  This duo must identify the victim and then excavate his or her past to determine how and why the individual died.  Was it an accident or murder?  And who were the principals in this person’s life and what role did they play in the demise?  One incident and one quick decision decades ago reverberated through the lives of four people.  

From the haunting and ethereal opening song, “All we do is hide away,” to the detailed interviews with possible suspects, each season is gripping drama. This season is exceptionally so.  Nicola Walker as the lead (familiar to some viewers from her role in Last Tango in Halifax) is superb, as is Sanjeev Bhaska as Sunny. This pair like and care for each other as friends as well as colleagues. Their mutual respect is echoed in the respect shown to victims, suspects, and family members.  Complex, involved, and compelling—highly recommended!

Note: All garden photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Manhattan Viewing

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This blog post is all about seeing, and in Manhattan, there is so much to see–scenes of nature and water, famous art works, fabulous live theater, and even the occasional television program.   We had it all this week!

LIVE THEATER

Three Tall Women by Edward Albee (on Broadway)

Having the opportunity to see Glenda Jackson live on stage would have been reason enough to see this play.  I loved her performances in Sunday, Bloody Sunday, and as Elizabeth I in that early Masterpiece Theatre offering.  She then left the theater world for more than 20 years to serve in Parliament, only recently returning first to play King Lear (she always was an audacious actor) and then this role.

Jackson here is a crotchety, difficult, physically frail 91-year-old woman with a fulltime caregiver and a young lawyer.  These three women spar and verbally joust as A, the old woman, relives memories of her past.  Later we see that the three are the same woman at 26, 52, and 90+ years of age and, we hear how their experiences and their take on life shape what they become at each stage.  

It’s a powerful play about the ideals of youth, the disappointments along the way, marriage and infidelity, anger and bitterness, and the ravages of time and old age.  And it’s a superb production with a fabulous cast—Laurie Metcalf, of recent fame for her role as the mother in the film Lady Bird, and Alison Pill, a talented newcomer (to me)—join the inimitable and indomitable Glenda Jackson.  On a side note, I loved their purple and mauve dresses in the final scenes!

RETURN MUSEUM VISIT

It’s been some years since we last visited the Frick Collection and I’d forgotten how lovely an experience it is!  We began this visit by watching two videos, one on the museum’s collection of enamels (mildly interesting unless this is “your thing”), and the other, an introductory video about Henry Clay Frick, the man, and how he came to build this grand and glorious mansion.  It’s excellent and sets the stage nicely for viewing the art.

One room was built as a gallery and at 96 feet long and thirty-some feet wide, it’s an impressive space filled with oversize paintings and highly decorated furnishings.  In his collecting, Frick favored portraits and landscapes and there are several Turners and a number of Gainsboroughs, as well as works by Holbein, Van Dyke and Rembrandt.  He liked to pair paintings, individual portraits of a husband and wife either side by side or flanking another work or a fireplace. One example is the pairing by a fireplace of arch enemies Sir Thomas More and Oliver Cromwell, both painted by Holbein.

The soft green dining room  where Frick regularly hosted dinners for 26 (all men) is also pleasing, as is the room created solely for the purpose of displaying the 18thcentury Fragonard murals.

Except for in the Garden Court, no photography is allowed.  This enclosed space is serene and beautiful with marble benches and a fountain.  Perfect for when you need a break from all the marvelous art.

SMALL SCREEN

Unforgotten (Masterpiece Mystery).

This British detective series is thoughtful and not flashy.  Detective Chief Inspector Cassie Stuart and her team are tasked with determining the circumstances of death surrounding individuals whose bodies have been found unidentified and often forgotten.  Frequently, the death has occurred decades ago.  Cassie and Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar), her detective partner, must unearth family history, trace the individual’s travels and follow up in person with anyone and everyone with whom he might have been associated. If the death is suspicious, and indeed, they always are, then charges may be brought. 

Nicola Walker, the star, will be familiar to viewers of Last Tango in Halifax  while co-star Bhaskar was in Indian Summers.  Here Walker is the guv and the one with the responsibility for bringing a case to closure.  This is a series full of patient and methodical tracking and questioning as it delves into the psyches of both the deceased and his family.  I found it fascinating with the last episode extremely sensitive in its portrayal of the life-changing and lasting damage from sexual abuse.

Note:  Header photo view from Central Park and Garden Court photo ©JWFarrington.  Women photo from playbill.com and Unforgotten image from pbs.org.