Category: TV

Tidy Tidbits: Online Escape

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VIEWING

My recent screen viewing has run the gamut from social justice to World War II to Hasidic Jews.  None of them light pieces, but all a diversion from reading about COVID-19.

Dark Waters (Amazon Prime)

This film, starring Mark Ruffalo as an earnest, determined corporate lawyer who takes on the DuPont Company, has echoes of Jonathan Harr’s book, A Civil Action, about a water contamination case in Massachusetts.  That book was excellent, and I imagine the film version was good as well.  Although it is well intentioned and a tale where good wins out over corporate greed, Dark Waters is sometimes plodding, and everyone assumes what the outcome will be.  I’d give it a B overall.

World on Fire (Masterpiece, PBS Passport)

Following several families, this series initially focuses on the home front in Britain, Poland, and Berlin in 1939-1940 as the Nazis invade Poland, then Belgium and France.  The younger generation enlists in the Resistance or joins the armed forces.  In Poland, Kasia becomes a killer; Harry, well born and British, in love with two women, is an Army officer; while Lois performs for the troops and brother Tom is a sailor.  Helen Hunt as radio reporter Nancy Campbell in Berlin provides yet another perspective as does German business owner Herr Rossler whose daughter is an epileptic. From different social classes, they are all linked by a desire to survive the terrors of war.  This series is graphic and not for the faint of heart.   

Unorthodox (Netflix)

Deborah Feldman (wikipedia.com)

This short series (just four episodes) traces Esther Shapiro’s escape from life in the restricted Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn to coming alive in Berlin.  Married at just 17, she leaves her husband behind and when she arrives in Germany, she has never been to a concert, never used a computer, and never eaten ham.  Based on Deborah Feldman’s memoir:  Unorthodox:  The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Routes, the series is a moving and sensitive account of one woman’s personal courage.  Highly recommended! 

NOVEL PLEASURE

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

(nytimes.com)

This is the latest novel by King, author of Euphoria, which I loved.  I liked Writers & Lovers, but didn’t love it in the same way as the earlier work.  Perhaps because of the generational divide between me and Casey, a 31-year old aspiring novelist, who definitely doesn’t have her act together.  Her life is falling apart with mountains of credit card debt, a so-so job as a waitress in a Harvard Square restaurant, and overwhelming grief over the recent death of her mother.  Casey is operating in a world dominated by men, be it the successful writers whose success she envies, her landlord who questions what she might have to say in a novel, and the male chefs and waiters who are sometimes harassing.  She is needy and unsettled until two men, one a much older widower with children and the other a laidback academic who is a contemporary, offer solace and the possibility of love.  King’s writing is sprightly, and the depictions of Cambridge environs familiar to me. I enjoyed the book more about halfway through when Casey acquires a sense of purpose. And I love the art on the book jacket !  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is of Helen Hunt in World on Fire (nytimes.com)

Tidy Tidbits: Latest Diversions

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WISHING AND HOPING….

Like the song, I imagine many of us are wishing and hoping that Covid-19 goes away soon.  But we’re probably in for a longer haul and so, it’s more books, more screen time, more curbside takeout, perhaps more cooking and baking, and definitely more walking for exercise.

ON SCREEN

Happy Valley (Netflix)

Set in a small Yorkshire village, this is anything but a happy crime drama.  In fact, the town is gritty and grotty and the crimes gruesome.  That said, I did watch it all and the Chief Penguin is now totally absorbed!  Thanks to Bruce and Pat for the recommendation.  

Former detective and now police sergeant, Catherine Cawood, lives with her sister Clare, a recovering addict, and her young grandson Ryan.  Divorced and still mourning the suicide of her daughter, Catherine becomes obsessed with the whereabouts of convicted rapist Tommy Lee Royce when he’s released from prison.  In a subplot that comes to the fore and involves a caravan park, a young woman is kidnapped, whereabouts unknown.  

James Norton (independent.co.uk)

For those of us who were serious Sydney fans (as in Grantchester), it’s  shocking to see James Norton as a reprehensible bad guy.  Series 1 is six episodes and there is a second series, but it isn’t on Netflix yet.

The Night Manager (Amazon Prime)

This John LeCarre novel makes for suspenseful viewing!  Night hotel porter, Jonathan Pine, is recruited to get on the inside circle of international businessman, Richard Roper, who is involved in suspect arms deals.  The settings are numerous and some gorgeous, while the cast is superb.  Tom Hiddlestone as Pine, a man of many identities, is perfect and great to look at, while Hugh Laurie as Roper is effortlessly the main man, and Olivia Colman as Angela Burr of MI6 is like a terrier in her pursuit of Roper.  Great escapism!

RECENT READING

The Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson

Olafsson was born in Iceland and has an unusual background for a novelist.  A corporate executive for much of his career, he worked first for SONY and then later on for Time Warner in New York.  Nominally an investigation of an incident of child abuse at a school twenty years ago, it is also a story about a nun whose life has been shaped by her own closeted sexual desires and by the power of the Catholic clergy.  Based in France and enjoying tending her rose garden, Sister Johnna is called upon to return to Iceland and to meet with the young man who was the child victim.  But there was another death at that time.  

(nytimes.com)

The novel brings together Sister Johanna’s reflections on her studies in Paris and her friendship with Halla, her reckoning with the role she played at the school, and her recognition of her own and others’ shortcomings.  Ranging back and forth in time and in Sister Johnna’s memory, the novel can be hard to follow and is sometimes so oblique as to be puzzling.  I liked it better the farther into I got, but I never felt I couldn’t put it down, even though the ending had a twist. (~JWFarrington)

CURBSIDE CUISINE

A few words about local restaurants and curbside pick-up.  The Chief Penguin and I have made it a goal to order takeout from smaller restaurants at least once, if not twice, a week.  Thus far, we have enjoyed dinners from Alice’s Ristorante Italiano (a mom and pop operation), Bonefish Grill, and Swordfish Grill in Cortez.  In all cases, the meals have been well packaged for transit, and, generally delivered right to the car and put in the backseat.  Mostly, you can both order and pay over the phone or online.  For Alice’s, you pay when you do the pickup.  We have found the portions generous and usually enough for the next day’s lunch.  

We also did a second curbside pick-up of an online order from Artisan Cheese in Sarasota.  Besides cheese, they have been offering soups, mac and cheese and wine by the bottle.  Sadly, they can no longer continue and so, after this week, they will close for the time being. Thank you, Cheese Louise! May it be a short closure.

Note: Header image of Hope is from 123rf.com

Tidy Tidbits: Food for Mind & Body

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RECENT READING

Gripping Nonfiction

American Fire:  Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

The Eastern Shore of Virginia is a forgotten land of lost hopes and limited opportunity.  The small towns in Accomack County are off the beaten path and poverty and struggle are the norm for many.  What brings people together and is the center for socializing is the firehouse.  Dedicated volunteers leap to answer the call and in the long months from late 2013 into 2014, the calls to fires were numerous and almost always to abandoned buildings.  Over about five months, more than 86 fires were started in and around Accomack and required volunteer firefighters from all the departments in the region.  

After an initial article about the fires, Washington Post feature writer Monica Hesse went to Accomack to research and write about why and how the fires occurred and who was responsible.  It’s a fact that arsonists are often volunteer firefighters, but this perpetrator, Charlie Smith, went undiscovered for a long time.  And what was surprising was that he had an accomplice, a female.  The resulting book is a captivating and vivid suspense story.  You know who dun it early on but exploring how all the experts got there is fascinating.  (~JWFarrington) 

ON THE SMALL SCREEN

Inspector Vivaldi Mysteries (Amazon Prime)

(from MHzChoice)

Just when I was wondering what to watch next, my friend Patricia came to the rescue with a great recommendation.  This Italian series from 2005 is marvelous.  It’s set in Trieste and Frederico Vivaldi is a police detective whose son Stefano is also a policeman.  When a young woman is found dead after a lively beach party, Vivaldi has his son re-assigned to the team working to solve the mystery.  Vivaldi is estranged from his wife, Laura, and is unaware that his son is gay.  How he learns about his son becomes tangled up with the murder case.  Although the production quality is grainy by today’s standards, the characters are engaging and complex and, so far, the series is as much about their relationships as it is about the police work.    

BREAKFAST OUT

Mocha Joe’s Cafe

If you’re looking for a casual place for breakfast in Bradenton, Mocha Joe’s could be your answer.  A small café on Cortez Road West, Mocha Joe’s is popular, for sure with the breakfast crowd, and maybe later also.  We met friends there and were pleased with the wide selection of eggs, pancakes, and omelets.  Several of us ordered lightly, but one person sampled eggs and toast with sides and was most pleased.  It’s tucked in a shopping mall, but definitely worth a try for either meal as the lunch menu of burgers and sandwiches also looks tempting.

Note: Header image of fire in eastern Virginia by Jay Diem, AP.

Tidy Tidbits: Page & Screen

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RECENT READING

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Crawdad (dailyherald.com)

From the online comments I’ve read over the past six months, people either loved or hated this novel.  I put off reading it until now, mostly because my local book group was going to discuss it and I wanted it to be fresh in my mind.  I’m in the positive camp.  I loved this novel!  That is not to say that I found it completely convincing, but I did find it compelling.

Kya is just seven when her older siblings leave home and then her father does not return after being gone for several weeks.  Her mother left them some time before so Kya goes to live in a shack in the nearby marsh.  Hiding out from the school authorities, she survives isolated and alone until she reaches adolescence.  In Tate, a teenager a few years older than she, she has her first friend and advocate who even teaches her to read.  Tate goes off to college, abandons her for awhile, and another local young man, Chase Andrews, is attracted to her beauty and her strange wildness.  When Andrews is found dead and foul play is suspected, the police’s first thought is of Kya, referred to by the townspeople as Marsh Girl.  The intertwined strands of Kya’s childhood and coming-of-age and the murder investigation play out against each other, in chapters shifting back and forth in time.  

A zoologist who spent many years studying wildlife in Africa, Owens would seem to be an unlikely novelist.  Yet, she writes in a lyrical manner and her descriptions of the marsh and the nature around it are almost poetic.  Despite the dire events, there is much joy in this novel, and even an ending that seems, if not contrived, perhaps too neat.  What might almost term this story a fairy tale.  But a very absorbing and captivating one!

Our book group had a very lively discussion with almost everyone having enjoyed the book. There were doubters as to whether Kya could really have survived alone and also if it was credible that she became such a successful author of nature guides. And several found the courtroom scenes hurried and almost as if one were reading a different novel entirely. For many of us, the twist at the end was a big surprise, but I think it’s fair to say that folks would recommend this novel to others. (~JWFarrington)

BIG SCREEN

Harriet

Harriet Tubman was one extraordinary woman. A slave who walked a hundred miles from Maryland to Pennsylvania to gain her freedom, leaving her husband, siblings and parents behind, she became one of the greatest conductors on the Underground Railroad. This film recounts her journey to freedom, her trip home to bring her husband north, and the countless trips she made to lead slaves from Maryland eventually to the Canadian border. It is a story of grit, determination, leadership, and the willingness to bear undue hardship.

The Chief Penguin and I visited her home in Auburn, N. Y. and its associated museum several years ago. Auburn is the town I grew up in and you didn’t live here without knowing about Tubman or about William Henry Seward, secretary of state and another Auburn resident, who sold her the land for her house. If you should get to the Finger Lakes region, in what is really upstate N.Y., the house and museum are worth a visit. In the meantime, see the film and learn more about this remarkable woman. She deserves to be honored on our twenty dollar bill!

SMALL SCREEN

The Crown (Netflix)

Olivia Colman & Tobias Menzies (time.com)

The Crown is back with Season 3, and it’s excellent! We have just watched the first three episodes and are totally engaged. Olivia Colman as Elizabeth is superb and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip is excellent. The tone of this season so far seems more somber than Season 2, and the producers have made use of more archival footage of events. In episode 2, Helena Bonham Carter plays an exuberant, sometimes out-of-control Princess Margaret. I felt this episode conveyed very well her frustration at being number two, while also documenting the real, but often buried, affection between the two sisters.

Poldark (PBS)

Demelza and Ross (express.com)

The final season of Poldark and the final episode have aired and we will have to survive our Sunday nights without the brooding handsomeness of Aidan Turner (Poldark), the dogged patience and determination of Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), and their nemesis, George Warleggan, crazed yet perhaps in the end more human than we expected. It was a memorable last season with plenty of action along with tying up loose ends for Dwight and Caroline and Drake and Morwenna. I will miss these characters! The reassuring thing is that I can always go back and re-watch the series on PBS Passport.

Note: Text ©JWFarrington. Header photo of Harriet Tubman courtesy of history.com