"Queen Cleopatra" (2023)

Calling this a "documentary" is a reach.  "Inspired by" might be better.  Here's the thing.  "The Crown" is fiction.  We accept this because no one knows what is said behind closed doors.  We don't know the state of mind of the various players, we only know, for sure, the events.  And so it is with Cleopatra.  The true answer is "we don't know".  "The Crown" takes place over much of the 20th Century.  Cleopatra's story took place more than 2,000 years ago.  Thanks to the nearly pathological need for the Romans to record everything, we know a lot.  But the dramatizations here?  Complete fiction.  When the historians start saying things like, "One might imagine ..." or "It does seem like ...", you know you are in trouble.  When one of the experts says something about how a figure in the tale was feeling, I cringed.  The actors are strong, the narrative engaging, but the insistence that this is history, and not made-up history, is distracting.  As is the makeup, dialog and costuming.  Okay, documentary budget.  But there didn't seem to be a lot of effort.  No, there was no "glitter makeup".  No, we didn't say "okay" and "yeah" back then and the hip-hop underscoring inserted a couple times pulled me right out of the narrative.  No, Mark Antony most likely did not have a beard and a Bieber-esque hairstyle.  And the costuming.  Oh, the costuming.  The guards look like they are wearing vests made of bathroom mats and the pleather you buy at the craft store.  Cleo spends half the series wearing an ensemble which looks like something from a boho music festival (and never mind the fact that 21 years pass or that she supposedly ages from 18 to 39 ???)  It was also way the heck weird when the footage of the crowds from Caesar's walkabout in Rome is identical to the scenes we see as Cleopatra takes a drive through the countryside of Egypt.  I know, I know, this was done on the fly, but if you are going to tell a story, tell a story.  And be up front about what you are doing.  And, as to the color controversy, it's kind of moot for me.  Back then, there was no "Black" or "White".  Do I believe that Cleopatra was a fair-skinned woman with European features?  No.  And I never have (sorry Elizabeth Taylor).  It just doesn't make sense.  I've always envisioned her skin as being copper or caramel colored, with dark, thick black hair.  That makes sense.  The reason it matters?  Because of the world we live in now.  Back then, well, it was back then.  I return to my original statement.  "We don't know".  Period.  In any case, I did learn a lot of things which surprised me.  I just wish that, as a production, it had been better.

"Elsbeth"

Columbo is finally back.  It took decades.  People have been trying, and trying, and copying the Columbo model for years.  With little success.  The trick wasn't to copy the idea.  Even if it was original.  The idea that we know the killer, the motive, the method in the first 20 minutes was unique.  Making this a "how are they going to get caught?" rather than a "Whodunit?" was brilliant.  But the key to it all was Peter Falk.  And he couldn't be replicated.  With Carrie Preston, however, we finally have an honorable character to pass the baton to.  Ms. Preston infuses her character, Elsbeth, with the perfect balance.  She seems innocent and simple yet has that determined annoying quality which drives killers insane.  The writing supports this and the New York setting gives it verve.  The supporting cast may take a while to gel, but overall, I say home run.

"Priscilla"

Finally got to see this wanna-be award nominee and the take is ... "meh".  Frankly, there have been a few Elvis projects out there and the bar is high.  Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" certainly had far more energy than this production.  That film didn't do much for Priscilla's tale, though, and this movie is really about her and barely about our erstwhile musician.  And that's the problem.  To understand the relationship we need to see the heat, the passion, the two people caught in an impossible situation.  All we see is a very (very very) innocent Priscilla.  She's bored.  She's lonely.  She's bored again.  She's jealous.  She's helpless.  It's very hard to connect when she is such a ... passive ... leading lady.  She raises her voice from a whisper once ... near the end ... and it seems to come from nowhere.  The same goes with the actual ending.  We see her leave Graceland but nothing in the film leads us there as to how she finds her self-efficacy.  There is supposedly an affair (on her part) but that is glossed over.  The whole thing feels sanitized.  Maybe the book had more context but this seems more like flipping through a photo album.  "Young Priscilla".  "Sad Priscilla".  "Priscilla has a baby" -- but again, other than some shots of her with the kid, there is no structure as to what that relationship was (clearly, problematic).  I appreciate that Priscilla Presley wanted to get her story out there, but this is too heavily edited to buy into.  Like a one-sided therapy session when one party doesn't show for couples' counselling.  Oh well.  There will surely be another film or two exploring the topic.  Whether it's Elvis or Marilyn, Americans love tragedy.

"Star Trek: Short Treks"

These short films are kind of brilliant.  Very different from each other, they are like haiku.  Each episode is a little 7 to 15 minute gem.  They are like well-structured bites of drama, humor and creativity.  Animated and live action, based on characters we know or ones we don't, stand-alones or connected to other storylines, they are simply terrific.  Watched, and deeply enjoyed, all of them.  Some knowledge of other Trek events would be helpful.

"Star Trek: Lower Decks"

The frenetic pace of this PG-17 rated animated series is a bit much for me.  Not to mention the "South Park" level of profanity.  I'm not seeing a lot of character development and quickly got tired of the whiny underlings.  That being said, I tried to hang in there.  There is a crossover with "Strange New Worlds" and enough snark about Trek traditions to be a little funny.  The animation allows for different kinds of species on the ship.  It has promise.  But I haven't figured out for what yet.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds"

If you are a superfan of TOS (otherwise known as Star Trek, "The Original Series"), you are going to love this.  It may be called "Strange New Worlds" but it hits very familiar notes.  There is a brash captain with a certain bemused sense of humor.  There are also some familiar faces, so to speak.  A very young Spock, Nurse Chapel and Uhura.  There is a lot of "put the ship in danger" and species we know ... Andorians, Klingons, Vulcans and the like.  And Gorn.  Lots of Gorn.  There are serious episodes, funny episodes, and a little "alternative universe" stuff.  The interesting twist is how this series comes down from the tech in Discovery to the Enterprise which started it all.  The producers work it in well in ways which make perfect sense.  That's kind of true for the whole series.  Care is taken to maintain yet build on existing threads.  There are more females on the bridge and there is significantly more back-story for those characters.  The mini-skirts with black nylons are replaced by tunic-like garments with black leggings.  It appears the women on this version of the show get to make some choices in dress.  I have yet to see a single outfit which had to be glued on.  The series is streaming, so the violence is more visceral and yes, there is sex.  But the framework is very (very) recognizable.  Took me a while to buy in, though.  Needed to connect with the characters and move past all the space battles.  I got there.  And went back and re-watched the first two seasons, feeling that I had a foundation to get what was going on.  I would strongly recommend that people watch the first two seasons of Discovery before launching in (pun intended).  Season two of Discovery is the kick-off for this show and much of the beginning of the series is grounded in events from that show.  It's worthwhile.  And a bit nostalgic.  The actors get kudos for picking up the daunting task of taking on icons, and doing it with aplomb.  Looking forward to season three.