Category: TV

Tidy Tidbits: TV, Novel, & Meal

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RECENT VIEWING

FLUFF FOR FUN

Love and Gelato (Netflix)

Lina promises her dying mother that she will spend the summer before college in Rome.  In this bonbon to Italy, she falls in love with the city and the people.  Along the way, she has several romantic interests while being under the protective care of Francesca, her mother’s longtime friend.  It is a summer of firsts for Lina as she wonders about her unknown father.  The movie is based on a young adult novel of the same name.   I happened on this when I was looking for some treadmill viewing.  It’s cute and sweet, and less predictable than I expected.  

LASTING TRAUMA OF WAR

Causeway (Apple+)

James and Lynsey in Causeway (Slant Magazine)

I had just read a review of this new movie starring Jennifer Lawrence when the Chief Penguin and I were settling in to watch something else and up popped a link to Causeway.  It’s a slow measured film about returning Afghanistan vet Lynsey who suffered a brain injury from an exploding IED.  

Returning home after rehabilitation, she struggles to put a life back together.  She meets car mechanic James who lost a leg in a car accident, and the two hesitantly gravitate toward spending time together.  They are about as dissimilar as can be, one white, one Black, one straight, one gay, but both broken in some way.  The performances are moving, Brian Tyree Henry’s as much as Lawrence’s.  It’s painful viewing at points, but a meaningful film.  

UNUSUAL HEROINE

The English (Amazon Prime)

Blunt in The English (FilmBook)

Emily Blunt stars and is an executive producer of this western set in 1890 on the plains in Kansas and Oklahoma.  Based on the review I read, I was predisposed to like it, but I’m finding it hard going. 

Blunt is Lady Cornelia Locke, an English woman bent on revenge for the killing of her young son.  On her journey, she encounters and is rescued by Sgt. Eli Whipp, a now retired Pawnee scout, played by Chaske Spencer.  His goal is to file a land claim for an allotment in Nebraska.  They are an unlikely pair, but slowly they begin to accept each other, and a fragile trust is born.  It’s a lawless time out west with every man out for himself.  

The scenery is stunning, the violence gruesome and gory, and the pace is deliberate and slow.  I’ve watched almost three episodes of the six while on the treadmill, but it’s so slow, that I may return to it when I am not moving. 

NEW FICTION

FAMILY SAGA

French Braid by Anne Tyler

Tyler at 80 (Sydney Morning Herald)

Tyler’s most recent novel, French Braid, was my book group’s pick for November.  While I didn’t love this book, most of the group didn’t care for it at all.  We grappled with whether Mercy, the mother, was the focal point and if she was a typical woman of the 1950’s and 60’s, frustrated in middle age in her attempts to have a career. 

Over 60 years, the book follows the Garrett family of Mercy, her husband Robin, and their three children, Lily, Alice, and David. It begins with their first family vacation in 1959 through the children’s marriages, Robin and Mercy’s 50th wedding anniversary, and the arrival of several grandchildren.  They are a diffuse collective who are often detached and aloof from one another.  

Mercy, an aspiring artist and unfulfilled mother, effectively leaves her husband for her art, but neither she nor the other family members publicly acknowledge that fact.  David, the youngest child, seldom communicates with his parents or sisters and quietly marries a work colleague.  In later years, a grandson doesn’t socialize with relatives believing they are unaware that he is gay and has a partner.  

Tyler’s writing is always engaging even if you don’t care for the characters.  You can appreciate what she is doing and how she demonstrates that common personality traits or actual gestures persist through the generations. They connect these seemingly disparate individuals like the kinked strands of hair in a French braid.  (~JWFarrington)

DINING OUT

Scuderia Italian Cuisine, Bradenton

Located next to the Oakmont Theater on Cortez Road West, Scuderia is a new addition to Bradenton’s dining scene.  It specializes in pizzas and pasta in an open space with an industrial feel to it.

We dined here recently with friends and found the service friendly and welcoming and the food very good.  The portions are generous, and several of us had some to take home for the next day’s lunch.  Among us, we sampled the penne pasta with meatballs, clams with linguini, and several of the chicken dishes.  I thought the chicken franchaise with spinach was particularly good.  Side salads came with a wide choice of dressings.  Good for casual dining.  Next time, we should try a pizza.

Note: Header photo is a scene from the film, Love and Gelato (Netflix Life).

Tidy Tidbits: Reading & Watching

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Although it is still warm and summery in Florida, November ushers in a season for looking inward and spending time inside. With that in mind, here are thoughts on some of my recent reading and viewing.

RECENT READING

SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

If you’ve read other novels by Mainer Elizabeth Strout, you may be acquainted with Lucy Barton.  She was introduced in My Name is Lucy Barton, and readers learned about her marriage to first husband William in the most recent work, Oh, William.  I’m a big fan of Strout’s work and have read almost all her novels.

Illustration from The New Yorker

This one, I found especially poignant and meaningful.  Lucy by the Sea takes place from the beginning of the pandemic until the vaccines become available.  The first part is hard to read; it brings back so many memories of the uncertainty and then fear, many of us felt about this deadly new virus.

Lucy’s second husband David has died, and William comes to New York to take Lucy to Maine—initially she thinks for just a few weeks.  They are in a rented house by the water and the changing weather, and the roll of the seasons, play a role in the story.  Lucy is a novelist but also a fearful person, whose deprived and neglected childhood has made her feel inferior and not special.  

The novel is told primarily through Lucy’s voice.  It’s a strong voice on the page as she muses about William’s quirks and lacks, reflects on past events in her two marriages, and worries about her grown daughters, Chrissy and Becka.  Given that she and William are in lockdown away from all but a few new friends, it’s a time for contemplation and assessing one’s life.  

For me, this book was a meditation on love of all sorts: marital, maternal, friendship—and on grief.  Grief over the losses of spouse and friends and grief over the troubles and trials of her daughters’ marriages.  It’s a beautiful novel, and I highly recommend it! (~JWFarrington)

RELIGION IN AN ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE

Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer

Lauren Belfer came onto the scene in 1999 with her wonderful historical novel, City of Light.  Subsequent books include A Fierce Radiance about the invention of penicillin and After the Fire, a quest to learn about a long-hidden music manuscript.  I thoroughly enjoyed all three novels. Her latest novel, Ashton Hall, is set in the present, but in an old English country house with secrets in its attic.  

As usual, Belfer’s latest work is thoroughly researched, so much so that at times I felt the history she wanted to share slowed down the narrative.  One of the contemporary characters is a boy who suffers from autism.  His behavior is challenging and yet, he is the one who uncovers the initial secret.  Creating this character and making him a focus were obviously important to Belfer.  I read the novel through to the end, but overall was disappointed.  There was too much going on and too many disparate strands for it to be a satisfying whole.  

VIEWING

CRIME OFF SCOTLAND

Shetland Season 7 (Amazon Prime)

Jimmy (Henshall) & Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) (The Sun)

This is Douglas Henshall’s last season as detective Jimmy Perez, and it’s an excellent season.  A young man, a graphic novelist, is reported missing.  His mother is distraught and his father, an ex-policeman, has skeletons in his past.  When there seem to be possible links to eco-terrorism, the search for Connor becomes more complex, and there are more bodies.  

Perez is dedicated to his job, but the strain of it is beginning to tell.  He is both burying and fighting his feelings for Meg, a nurse.  Meanwhile, his team of Tosh, Sandy, and Billy, are as engaging and effective as ever, making for some great ensemble acting.  There are seven episodes encompassing one overarching storyline.  Highly recommended for fans of complex crime series! Season 8 with a new, yet-to-be-named lead will be filmed and released in 2023.

CROSS CULTURAL LOVE STORY

From Scratch (Netflix)

Lino & Amy (BuzzFeed)

From Scratch, a Netflix original series, is the story of what happens when a young Black artist from Texas goes to Florence and meets an aspiring chef from Sicily.  Against her parents’, particularly her father’s, wishes, Amy leaves home to take a painting course in Italy.  Lino, estranged from his farmer father, is working as a cook in a Florentine restaurant.  They both have dreams of greater success, and they resolve to make a life together.  Initially, it seems that bringing their respective families to acceptance of their relationship will be the greatest challenge.  But not so.

I thought the first few episodes were overwritten and overplayed in terms of racial and cultural stereotypes.  Amy’s father was particularly egregious.  Later episodes are tamer, and I’ve stuck with the series (eight episodes), having become fully immersed in Amy and Lino’s story.  It’s a passionate, at times heartrending, drama, based on Tempi Locke’s memoir of the same name published in 2019.  

Note: Cover photo of a November sunset ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

After Ian: Diversions

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HURRICANE IAN

It was a wild and crazy week for many residents of Florida, especially those on the southwest coast. Ian initially was predicted to hit near the Tampa area and a bit south and then went farther east and pummeled the folks in North Port, Englewood, Ft. Myers, Sanibel, and Captiva. We left our home after we were under a mandatory evacuation order and went an hour south (which turned out to be closer to the storm) to stay with a longtime friend.

We stayed with him for three nights and had some loss of power and lack of water, but were safe and dry and well protected. He’s a good cook whose stove is gas, and we were well provisioned. We were gratified when we returned home yesterday that our condo building was here and intact. Most of the storm damage here was restricted to landscape issues.

As an antidote to the Ian’s wild winds, I offer up a wonderful memoir about friendship and a TV series that doesn’t seem like it should be compelling, but the Chief Penguin and I have found it somewhat addictive.

MARVELOUS MEMOIR

Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina Totenberg

When I commuted to Penn by car years ago, I used to hear Nina Totenberg on NPR.  Her analysis of Supreme Court cases was always clear and insightful, and I became a fan.  Long before Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a household name, Totenberg interviewed her, got to know her, and they became friends.  They were both pioneering women in their professions. They shared conversation and bonded over their work’s importance to each of them.  As time went on, they socialized with their spouses and were supportive of each other in times of illness and sorrow.

Totenberg’s focus is on female friendships in her life (her colleagues Linda Wertheimer and Cokie Roberts being other prime examples) with a specific spotlight on her almost 50-year friendship with Ruth.  Ruth was a great support to Nina when her first husband endured years of illness.  Later Nina and her second husband David were protective and caring toward Ruth after her husband Marty’s death and during her last illness.  

You might think that this is a sad book, but rather, it is a wonderfully uplifting and endearing account of deep friendships that enriched Totenberg’s life, including her friendships with male judges and justices.  Along the way, I also learned more about the functioning of the Supreme Court.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

ADDICTIVE TV SERIES

Suspects  (Acorn)

This crime series set in London is about 10 years old, of lesser technical quality, and  with dialogue partially adlibbed.  Yet, the Chief Penguin and I are finding it quite addictive.  A crime has been committed, and three detectives are involved in finding out who did it.  Detective Jack Weston and his colleague, Detective Charlie Steele are usually first on the scene, sometimes accompanied by their boss, Detective Chief Inspector Bellamy.  The crimes are messy and nasty and often are attempted murder or rape.  

Each episode then consists of the team bringing in a series of suspects and interviewing them and then following up on possible arrests.  Almost no time is spent on the detectives’ lives outside work, and in the early episodes, it’s sometimes unclear if they have really resolved who will be charged with the crime.  Each episode is an hour, and so far, we have watched almost three series or about 8 episodes.

Ibises enjoying the view

Header photo shows trees bowing into the water, thanks to Ian. Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Murder & Mayhem on Page & Screen

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For a change of pace this week, I’m profiling three works, a mystery novel by the clever and creative
Anthony Horowitz, and two TV crime series in which the Chief Penguin and I have been immersed. One set in coastal Denmark and the other in the remote Shetland Islands

DEATH BY WINE BOTTLE

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Author Horowitz (newstatesman.com)

Anyone who’s ever watched  Foyle’s War or Midsomer Murders has been exposed to Anthony Horowitz’s writing.  Both are excellent series and imbued with compassion and warmth.  The Sentence is Death is Horowitz’s second featuring Detective Daniel Blackwell and himself as characters.  I haven’t read the first Blackwell mystery (The Word is Murder), but several years ago, I enjoyed Horowitz’s popular and puzzling Magpie Murders.

Prominent London divorce lawyer to the rich and well-connected, Richard Pryce is found dead having been struck with an expensive wine bottle.  Retired Detective Blackwell is called in to assist since it seems to be a complex case, and he asks his friend Tony (Horowitz) to tag along.  Tony is writing a series of novels about Blackwell and his cases, and there are many suspects here.  They range from Adrian Lockwood, Pryce’s most recent client, Akira Anno, Lockwood’s ex-wife, and two Oxford classmates who were involved in a caving incident some years before.  

The book begins slowly as the various characters are introduced and as the reader becomes familiar with how Tony and Blackwell interact with each other.  Neither is always as forthcoming with information as the other would prefer.  There are glimpses of Tony’s other life involving the filming of the latest episode of Foyle’s War which add color and reality to this fictional piece.  Tony is convinced he has figured out who the killer is, but the reader will have to wait to find out—unless he or she has also guessed.  (I did).  It’s an intriguing crime novel and a fun one!

For more about Anthony Horowitz and why he puts himself into these mystery novels, here’s an article from New Statesman.

DANISH TRIANGLE—LOVE, CRIME, & FRENDSHIP

Sommerdahl Murders (Season 3, Acorn)

Marianne, Dan, Flemming (justwatch.com)

This is the third season of a crime series set on the coast of Denmark in the small city of Elsinore, not far from Sweden.  There are eight episodes.  Detectives Dan Sommerdahl and Flemming Torp are partners and longtime friends who seamlessly work together, always intuiting and anticipating each other’s moves. Yet Dan is divorced from Marianne, a technician who is part of the crime team, and she is now involved with Flemming.  

How these relationships impact the work environment and their colleagues is one of the main focuses of this season.  Yes, it’s a crime series, and there are multi-layered murders to solve, but it’s also a study in friendship.  The Chief Penguin and I very much enjoyed the previous seasons and quickly got caught up in this one as well.  According to the press, Season 4 is in the works.  Recommended!

MURDER IN REMOTE SCOTLAND

Shetland (Season 6, Acorn)

Tosh & Jimmy (theartsdesk.com)

Shetland, featuring Douglas Henshall as Detective Jimmy Perez, is another favorite series of ours. This season was actually released in the U.S. beginning in early November 2021. For some reason, the Chief Penguin and I watched the first two of 6 episodes last winter, but had never finished the rest. This week we rectified that.

When a successful and seemingly well-liked trial lawyer, Alex Galbraith, is murdered in his own home, there seem to be no obvious suspects. Simultaneously, a woman who murdered the sister of a Shetland resident, is given compassionate release from prison due to advanced cancer. Donna’s return stirs up anger, bitterness, and even demonstrations.

As Jimmy Perez and the members of his team, Tosh and Sandy, begin digging, there are affairs, unexplained expenses, and an event from twenty years ago that may be a link to what happened to Mr. Galbraith. With its many twists and turns and the secondary plot involving Donna, it is a totally absorbing and suspenseful season. Highly recommended!

Season 7 is already being aired in Britain, and there will be a Season 8 in 2023, but with a new lead. For avid fans, it’s disappointing that Douglas Henshall is bowing out as DI Perez after this year.