"Fleishman is in Trouble"

Not sure why it took so long for me to get around to watching this series.  I guess I kind of thought it was some dry humor thing set in New York City.  It's not.  Based on a novel, it's a limited series about a man getting a divorce.  It's also about a woman who's not sure she wants a divorce.  It's about raising children, facing middle life, being Jewish, finding happiness, making peace with the life you have chosen, figuring out what love is ... and so much more.  Actors are great (although Jesse Eisenberg's frenetic patter is beginning to feel a little old).  The story is compelling and identifiable and not too dark.  It's just very real.  There are some knowing smiles along the way.  It was a worthwhile weekend binge.

"Madame Web"

(Spoilers) I often like to watch films otherwise trashed by critics.  Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't.  In the case of "Madam Web" the critics are not wrong.  This film fails on pretty much every level.  Casting, concept, direction, script, you name it.  There is Dakota Johnson in the lead role as Cassandra Webb (could you hit us over the head more??)  Her character, with a typical difficult backstory, is emotionally supressed.  Which translates to emotionally flat.  Her whispery voice makes her seem like a drifting waif, not a superhero.  Her flashforwards are "Inception" level confusing and gave me a bit of a headache.  And she drowns.  A lot.  Then there is Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O'Connor who play the rambunctious teens Ms. Webb is supposed to save.  Let's start with the fact that these women are more parodies of teens than actual teens.  They each try to overcome the stereotypes they are given (good girl, bad girl, nerd) but have little success.  There is Jose Maria Yazpik, a Mexican national, who plays a Peruvian with real heart.  But looks nothing like a Peruvian native.  Which is typical for Hollywood, which clearly thinks all Hispanics are alike.  The greatest offense here, however, is Tahar Rahim, a villian who is just ... "huh"?  He starts out evil, he ends evil, and his entire motivation is to stop a future event which is continually built up throughout the film ... but NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENS.  It's just kind of a hot mess.  As an origin story, there is, of course, a lot of exposition.  The typical path of the character having a normal life, then getting the "gift", rejecting the gift, accepting the gift, then beating the crap out of the bad guy.  Squeeze in three more characters and keeping the film under two hours makes it feel choppy.  Events seem disconnected, characters can't develop.  Again, you have to love Hollywood, which clearly feels that a single female character can't carry a film on her own ("The Marvels").  It was also the first Marvel film in a long while without a cute cut-in during the credits.  Which sends the ultimate message:  The studio knew this was a bomb and didn't even bother to try.

"The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade" by Ann Fessler

Yes, I still read books.  But it takes a lot longer than digesting the constant flow of streaming media.  In any case, this book, which isn't new, was a revelation.  It made me think, a lot, about the hew and cry from the right that "all unwanted children can be adopted".  What these narratives show is that the issue is far, far more complicated than one might imagine.  There is the sense by the adopted child that their birth mother didn't want them, that somehow they, as children, were unworthy.  There is guilt and anger and shame from the mothers.  There are few women here who said, unequivocally, that this was the right thing to do.  But most felt pressured, lied to, manipulated.  They felt a profound loss of control.  Many turned to drugs or alchohol and dangerous pursuits.  They felt a sense of being inherently "bad" and that dictated their moods, their mental health, their choices, their lives.  This event, which they were told was momentary, colored their world, and their personalities, for decades to come.  With some facts but mostly stories, it is hard to read these very personal tales and not feel moved.  The role of women in society (then and now) underlays much of the fabric of this book and makes one sit back and wonder about the role of motherhood -- how it is portrayed, how it is in actuality.  A powerful read, this one appeared in my "Little Free Library" and I could not be more appreciative.  Not easy, but perhaps necessary.  Check it out.  

Say Goodbye ...

Much like last year, there is some blood on the floor with the summer cancellations.  Well, tears anyway.  There were the ones we knew about:  “Young Sheldon” (Waaaaahhhh!), “Bob Hearts Abishola”, “Station 19”, “Quantum Leap”, “Transplant”, “Umbrella Academy”, “A Discovery of Witches”,  “Star Trek:  Discovery” and “Sweet Tooth” (more Waaaaahhh!).  There were surprises, like “So Help Me Todd”, “Julia”,  “Not Dead Yet” and “Reginald the Vampire” (CLIFF-HANGAR!), not-surprises like “Extended Family”, “Lazarus Project” (ANOTHER CLIFF-HANGAR!) and “Spencer Sisters” and shows I had already quit on, like “La Brea”.

I wouldn’t be so sad but every year the newbie list gets thinner and the quality more iffy.  For the past five years or so I’ve said goodbye to a lot more shows than I am adding.  So far, all we have for the fall is:

CBS – “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage”, “Matlock”, “NCIS:  Origins”, “Poppa’s House” and “Watson”. 

ABC – “High Potential”, “Doctor Odyssey”

FOX – “Rescue:  HI-Surf”, “Murder in a Small Town”, “Universal Basic Guys”

NBC – “Brilliant Minds”, “Happy’s Place”, “St. Denis Medical”

I’m betting that this time next year fewer than three of these are keepers.  And my DVR will be even lighter than it is now.

Farewell "Manifest"

As with other things, I took a while to get around to the final episodes of this series.  It was always good.  It was never great.  But the premise was kind of fun and the characters really grew on me.  I mourned the passing of a number of them.  The show always bordered on the whole Christian thing (which it leaned into more in the end), but never went full-on preachy.  The lessons here were more about community and forgiveness and choosing good.  With a twist of L. Ron Hubbard weirdness.  I enjoyed it, particularly as the series progressed.  The weaknesses ... drawing things out too much to keep the premise going, adding in romance after romance after romance, creating circular storylines where you kind of yelled "move it ALONG" ... pretty much went away in the last ten episodes.  But the issue was ... the show went the other way.  Plotpoints were rushed or skipped altogether.  It made the flow a little bumpy.  Characters appeared and disappeared and I got a confused because information was left out.  It was like reading CliffsNotes.  I guess what I don't understand is why they didn't just lengthen the episodes to cover the needed scenes.  That's what you do in streaming.  And yet the episodes were all tailored to broadcast specs, running 42 or 43 minutes.  In any case, this is a bit picky.  The wrap-up was good.  There was a real effort to honor the characters, the storyline and to complete the mission.  In the final episode I feared a "Lost" moment -- a few times.  But they swerved.  And it was all happy-shiny time for the most part (despite one really bad attempt to use special effects to age a character down).  Loves made and lost.  99% of the characters were squared away (two weren't, but that was kind of an oversight, I think).  The resolutions were satisfying and made sense.  Final take -- it's worth the binge.

"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace"

Typically, I don't watch this kind of stuff.  I don't watch real-life crime shows, docu-dramas, etc.  I find them exploitative and watching them feels dirty.  Like tragedy porn.  But when children are involved, I'm sometimes drawn to these kinds of programs.  I guess a part of me wants to know if the kids came out of it okay.  If they got their lives back together.  I'm usually disappointed.  Rarely, if ever, is there a happy ending when abuse is involved.  And so it goes.  This two season series reveals a lot of ugly.  So much so that I kept putting it aside.  I would watch an episode or two, then stop.  It was just too sad.  There are lies upon lies.  Manipulations and fabricated tales.  When all is said and done, however, I came to a few "truths" I will hold onto.  (Perhaps the draw of these things is to play judge and jury?  To feel empowered to judge others?)  Is Natalia Grace a sociopath?  No.  Was she an adult masquerading as a child?  Absolutely no.  She was a child.  And from birth she was saddled with health issues, abused and passed along.  To more abuse.  She was ten, and had suffered a LOT, by the time she finally found herself in a situation where she was treated with decency.  Where she was finally hugged and valued.  Where she was treated as a child and truly cared for.  Does she have issues?  Oh my, yes.  She is angry.  Defensive.  Perhaps abusive in some ways.  It was all she ever knew.  But here's another bottom line for me.  She was surrounded by adults.  Were some abusive?  Absolutely.  But others, like her stepfather, say they couldn't stop the abuse.  Couldn't help.  And that, my friends, is just bull****.  There were adults and a child.  Blaming the child for her behavior as a result of her abuse, refusing, as the adults, to step in, is criminal.  Period. 

"Renfield"

Listed as a comedy, I expected something along the lines of "Reginald the Vampire" or even "What We Do in the Shadows" (both are truly fabulous, by the way).  What I got, instead, was a gorefest which made "Deadpool" look like kiddy fare.  Great actors (honestly, I would watch Awkwafina read a dictionary, not to mention the delightfully bereft Nicolas Hoult with his puppy dog expressions) can't save a film which is just ... graphic.  I mean, there's some dialog.  But nothing clever.  Nothing to grab and hold your attention.  Twenty minutes in, I was checking email and shopping online as the bodies piled up.  Oh well.