Crash

Documentaries

** Highly Recommended **

John Maloof, the fellow who bought Vivian’s boxes of photos at a storage locker sale, is the person who eventually made this film. In one scene, a Helen Leavitt photograph is shown and then a similar Vivian Maier, and then a Diane Arbus and a similar Vivian Maier, and so on. Bob would love to know to what extent Vivian was aware of such photographers. Legal status: It seems Maloof should have launched probate proceedings to establish who Maier's heirs were. Cook County currently represents Maier’s estate, since she died without a will. Interesting note: Co-director Charlie Siskel is film critic Gene Siskel’s nephew.

Shown at the Dryden, as part of their Conscience series. Betty Medsger was in attendance for a Q&A. She recently wrote a book called Burglary about this 1971 FBI office break-in in Media, PA, and is the Washington Post reporter to whom the documents were sent. A group of eight deeply-committed Vietnam War dissenters pulled this off, didn’t get caught, and kept silent about it until recently.

This DVD was a gift from Eva. How wonderful that this film was made while Grace Lee Boggs was still around (albeit in her 90s, but vital) so that she, a most inspiring and beautiful woman, could be captured on film. She died Oct 15, 2015 at age 100. I would like to read her autobiography, Living for Change.

Watched with Eva, Sheila, Bob and Ezra. Covers the events of 1991, when Anita Hill was contacted by the FBI because she had formerly worked for Clarence Thomas, and he was being considered to serve on the Supreme Court. She responded in writing, disclosing sexual harassment (sex talk/innuendos/unwelcome advances he used to control her, make her feel uncomfortable, and so on). Ironically, Thomas was head of the EEOC at the time! Her subsequent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee was covered live on radio and TV. I remember it well, but it was great to see this summary of it all. The movie also shows Clarence Thomas’ reply: He stated that there was not a word of truth to anything Anita Hill said [for more of what he said, see Movie Miscellany]. The incident became one person's word against another's. The well-known and astounding ending is that the Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Clarence Thomas as associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Fascinating. Six brothers and a sister are kept under virtual house arrest by their eccentric parents. They get into reenacting movies. (Everything they knew about the world was learned watching movies.) One of them, as a teenager, finally leaves their Lower East Side apt and eventually meets filmmaker Moselle (who found herself one hell of a story).

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954 -1965,

This documentary is a great episode to watch in conjunction with this year’s movie Selma, as it covers the same material. Henry Hampton was the creator and executive producer of this series. A member of our community association’s History & Archives Committee, Jim DeVinney, was the co-producer on this episode (and three others), working with Henry. Our committee showed Selma and then this episode, on two consecutive nights, at the library. Jim did a wonderful Q&A, with many fascinating behind-the-scenes details.

Academy Award nominee for Documentary Feature. Was aired in 2015 as part of the PBS series American Experience. In the last days of the Vietnam War, some 130,000 South Vietnamese managed to escape, including 77,000 by events described in this film. You can see a poignant 2-minute clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd3mQqabuIo

Very highly recommended.

Part of the High Falls Film Festival. Panel afterwards with Raheel Raza (one of the women in the film) and several locals who work with issues addressed in the film. So, so sad, this whole corrupted notion of "honor." They gave statistics for FGM (female genital mutilation) that occurs in UK and in the US. (It is against the law in (only) 26 US states.) I am so depressed about what a negative effect religion, in all its forms, has on society. Will we EVER get beyond this? Is there ANY way to change people's deeply-rooted beliefs?

** Also Worth Seeing **

I have no intention of reading the “new” book by Harper Lee. But, I’m certainly a fan of Mockingbird, and of the 1962 movie. This documentary indulged me with clips from the movie, anecdotes about the first time the casting director met Mary Badham (Scout), and featured folks such as Rick Bragg talking about what the book meant to them.

All the President’s Men Revisited, dir by Peter Schnall B

42 years later, Watergate still intrigues. This 86-min 2013 documentary is a good companion to the 1976 Robert Redford/Dustin Hoffman movie, both for those who lived through the Watergate scandal (June 17, 1972 break-in to Aug 8, 1974 resignation), and those who didn’t. Having said that, the film is a bit muddled, without a clear focus.

** I Might Have Skipped These **

Singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse was found dead in July of 2011 from alcohol poisoning, at age 27 in North London. I didn’t even know who she was before seeing this film, so obviously I wasn’t a fan.

Documents the contributing factors that led to Amy going off the rails. Did it hold my interest? No. {Beautifully-handled soundtrack.]

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Narrative Films

** Some of this actually happened **

Loosely based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma. Stars Benedict Cumberbatch. Loved this. (But: See Christian Caryl’s opinion about its authenticity, under reviews.)

Set in 1841–53, and based on the book (memoir) by Solomon Northup. Stars the fabulous Chiwetel Ejiofor. This really made clear how the kidnapping and selling into slavery of free black citizens occurred. It was hard to watch. I suggested fast-forwarding but Bob stayed my hand. I get upset when I am confronted with our country’s historical record. And the horrific actions of individual slave traders and slave owners. {They were all “free black citizens” in their native countries.}

Timothy Spall plays Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). The film covers the period from his age 51 until his death at age 76. A better acquaintance with his work and life would have prepared me to better appreciate this. But, on the other hand, what I learned here will help me to better appreciate future encounters with his work.

Well worth seeing.

Based on the true story of the late Maria Altmann who, together with her young lawyer, fought the government of Austria for almost a decade to reclaim Gustav Klimt’s iconic painting of her aunt which was stolen by the Nazis just prior to WWII. Helen Mirren plays the lead. Very worthwhile. {About a very expensive second-tier painting.}

Part of the Dryden’s annual Labor Film Series. Gay-rights activists make common cause with the striking Welsh miners in 1984. Two

actors I’ve seen before had good roles: Imelda Staunton (who played the title character in Vera Drake) and Dominic West, who plays Detective Jimmy McNulty on The Wire. There is much comedy and some poignancy in the fact that the miners are not sure they want to be befriended by the gays. The film ends on a very touching note: Busloads of miners arrive to march in the 1985 Gay Pride parade. LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) donated more money (£11,000 by December 1984) to the miners’ (lost) cause than any other fundraiser in the UK.

Saw this with Eva, Ezra and Laurel at Thanksgiving. Shows why we need our investigative journalists. Really good.

So, now I have seen 31-yr-old Felicity Jones in this 2013 film, as well as the one that got more press--her performance as Jane in The Theory of Everything. This film is based on the book by Claire Tomalin, who wrote biographies of both Ellen “Nelly” Ternan and Dickens. The twenty-one- year age difference between Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones is similar to the real-life twenty-seven-year difference between Dickens and Nelly Ternan. Not a must-see.

Based on the 1993 memoir by Blake Morrison. The non-resolved relationship is poignant, and the kid who plays Blake as a teenager does a great job. See Colin Firth quote. This movie did not seem like much, but I am quietly enjoying it in the aftermath.

“The story is loosely based on a historical incident on the Oregon Trail in 1845, in which frontier guide Stephen Meek led a wagon train on an ill-fated journey through the Oregon desert along the route later known as the Meek Cutoff.” (Wikipedia). There was not a plot here to keep me interested. Not recommended. (Obviously, I am not in synch with the critics. The Washington Post said that it “deconstructs, de-mythologizes and thoroughly redefines the American western” and proclaimed it the best film of 2011.) {Too contemplative for on-the-sofa video.}

One of the blacklisted men, Edward Dmytryk, was director Jay Roach’s directing teacher at USC (according to an interview I read). That certainly explains Roach’s interest in the topic! But, who wouldn’t be interested in seeing this piece of our history portrayed, with its parallels in today’s news? {It’s a film about mass hysteria.]

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** Original Screenplays and screenplays based on books **

(not, as far as I know, based on actual events)

** Highly Recommended **

Stars Julie Christie, and there’s also a nice part for Olympia Dukakis. Both actresses were friends with Sarah Polley, who wanted to make this her directing debut, if she could get them to agree to do it. She was only 28 when she took two years away from acting and adapted the screenplay (from Alice Munro's short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain) and made the film. She says she fell in love with the story and found it to be the most interesting and complex portrait of a marriage she'd ever read. It tells the story of a longtime married couple (Grant and Fiona) facing the ordeal of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer’s, again. Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin.

Dryden Theatre. I first saw this some years ago, and loved it. So, now Bob and I saw it together when it played at The Dryden. Billy Chapin (brother of Lauren Chapin of Father Knows Best fame) was excellent as the older of the two children, John Harper. (But, apparently he never did any more acting.) Based on the book by Davis Grubb, a West Virginia author. Set along the Ohio River, with Moundsville Penitentiary featuring prominently, and several references to Parkersburg. {First saw this, age eight … pretty sure.}

Originally broadcast on HBO in 2014. Based on the novel by Elizabeth Strout. Watched two episodes of this with Eva, Ezra, and Laurel at Thanksgiving. Bob and I later watched the final 2 episodes. Henry was so sweet to Olive (Frances McDormand), but she was usually nasty to him. Until he had a stroke. In the end, she admitted she regretted how she had treated him. But that realization didn’t help her to open up to her son. {A masterpiece. But impossible to watch.}

Saw this with my friends Corrinne and Julie. I loved it, and so was delighted to see that it tops Kenneth Turan's list of 2015 movies. Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay. Having read the Colm Toibin book on which it is based, I say he did a bang-up job. Love the whole young-Irish-immigrant-girl thing, even if it was set in 1952, and not 1892 (the year my grandmother emigrated, at age 19).

** Also Worth Seeing **

Set in 1870 Dorset, England, and based, of course, on the novel by Thomas Harding. Bathsheba is her own woman, and has several suitors, including the shepherd Gabriel Oak and the humorless but wealthy William Boldwood. Enjoyable, beautiful. I look forward to seeing Danish director Vinterberg’s The Hunt.

The director also co-wrote the script. Ryan Gosling (the stunt rider and bank robber) and Bradley Cooper (the cop), with a small part by Ray Liotta. The second half of the film takes place 15 years after the events in the first half. It really makes you see how someone can get caught up in a web of corruption in the police department. Thanks to Marie for this recommendation.

Dryden Theatre. Young orphaned boy lives in a cabin in the swamps of Mississippi with his uncle, played by Walter Brennan (who was 62 at the time; this was the year before The Real McCoys TV series began). The boy finds a dog and begins training her to hunt. I learned about the Basenji breed of dogs (they are bred from stock that originated in central Africa). The relationships between the old man and the boy, and the boy and the dog, are touching.

At Sundance, this took home both the Grand Jury and Audience Award prizes. High schooler Greg spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his friend Earl. His mother forces him to befriend Rachel. Filmed in Pittsburgh. Some of the fun movie parody names:

• Anatomy of a Burger

• Ate 1/2 (Of My Lunch)

• My Dinner With Andre the Giant

• Senior Citizen Cane

• The Seven Seals

• A Sockwork Orange

• Vere’d He Go?

• Yellow Submarine Sandwich

** I Might Have Skipped These **

Definitely an interesting and risky concept (filming over 12 years, as the main subject grew from 7 to 18), but the content was not that interesting. I liked seeing newcomer Ellar Coltrane (especially since, by the time he is 18, he looks like Ezra!) as well as the other actors (Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater). {“Concept” film; Hitchcock’s Rope is based on the one-shot “concept.”}

Dyden Theatre, as part of a Robin Williams retrospective, after his 2014 death. I didn’t like this.

Stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotton. Billed as “Timeless, unforgettable and haunting Academy Award winning film about a struggling artist and the strange, enchanting girl he meets in the park.” In 2015, it’s hard to see what people in 1948 liked about it.

With Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci. I had no idea what was going on. This Wall Street firm seemed to be finding itself dragged into an unethical abyss, but it was not at all clear how they got there, or whether it was unethical for the traders to do what they were being asked to do the day the problem was discovered.

Why, I ask, did A.O Scott call this the “best movie of the year”? I got nothing out of it, except that it was fun to see Adam Driver and Alex Karpovsky, whom I now know from Girls, in small roles. And, it’s always fun to see Carey Mulligan in a new role. They used folksinger Dave Van Ronk’s “repertoire, but this character is drawn from many sources” (according to the Executive Producer). {Bob bailed at about 20:00.}

A dance/theatre work, derived from the verbatim words of a man named John. Can’t say I enjoyed it. The Little Theatre shows these National Theatre productions.

Based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical short story written 20 years earlier by Akiyuki Nosaka. Set in the city of Kobe, Japan, the film tells the story of two siblings, older brother Seita and 4-year-old sister Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Second World War. This has appeared on two of Time Out Magazine’s lists: “Top 50 Animated Films” list (#12) and “50 Greatest World War II Movies” (#10). (Unfortunately, it also appeared on Empire magazine’s list of "The Top 10 Depressing Movies" (#6).)

Centers on the corner of Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles, the unofficial red light district. The filmmaker and co-screenwriter wanted to meet someone who would be their “passport” into the world of transgender sex workers. They find just the right person when they found Mya Taylor, who then introduced them to the other eventual co-star. The whole thing was shot (in, I believe, 2013) with an iPhone5 (using a “$160-$175 mobile anamorphic adapter”). Not recommended. {I wanted to see if the “camera” would disappear after 15 minutes. It did.}

I knew nothing about this other than that it had received some acclaim. I thought we should see it when it came to the Dryden. What a mistake! Must be the worst movie I have ever seen. {Alexey Brodovitch: “Ees par-hops rough skaitch of no idea?}

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Movie-related Quotes

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Their story continued, as did my desire to tell the wider world. For what is joy if it goes unrecorded, and what is love if it is not shared?

- from the end of Season 3 of Call the Midwife

He has been here and fired a gun.

– John Constable, mortified by JMW Turner’s deft touch, after Turner stole the show applying a single daub of red paint to complete his painting Helvoetsluys.

This was at the Royal Academy exhibit in 1832, where Constable was laboriously putting finishing touches to his The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, a painting on which he had been working for almost 15 years. {Constable and Turner were the two sides of 19th century English landscape painting.}

On the theme of ‘Some of this actually happened’:

Germaine Greer complained that "it's getting harder and harder to be a real person," on hearing that she would be played by Emma Booth in a film version of Richard Neville's memoir of the 60s, Hippie Hippie Shake.

Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird

Opening sentences of To Kill a Mockingbird: “I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.”

– Rick Bragg, interviewed for the documentary, says “It’s that one phrase, ”said it started long before that.” Southern writers are always sayin’ stuff to be profound, like “that’s the quintessentially Southern phrase.” But, the truth is, down here, everything started long before that. That’s just the way it is.”

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Reviews or Descriptions I Liked

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Mr. Turner and The Imitation Game

If you want to see a richly imagined British movie about a fascinating historical character, go see Mike Leigh’s new film about the painter J.M.W. Turner. But if you want to see the real Alan Turing, you’re better off reading the books.

-The New York Review of Books, 19 Dec 2014, Christian Caryl

Away From Her

The movie spares us coy early scenes where she seems healthy and then starts to slip; she starts right out putting a frying pan into the refrigerator. - Roger Ebert

The Night of the Hunter

The screenplay is credited to James Agee, one of the icons of American film writing and criticism, then in the final throes of alcoholism. Laughton's widow, Elsa Lanchester, is adamant in her autobiography: “Charles finally had very little respect for Agee.” She quotes the film’s producer, Paul Gregory: “. . . the script that was produced on the screen is no more James Agee's . . . than I'm Marlene Dietrich.”

Mitchum is uncannily right for the role [“Preacher” Harry Powell], with his long face, his gravel voice, and the silky tones of a snake-oil salesman. … Charles Laughton showed here that he had an original eye, and a taste for material that stretched the conventions of the movies. It is risky to combine horror and humor. ... For his first film, Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled by it, the public rejected it. But nobody who has seen The Night of the Hunter has forgotten it, or Mitchum's voice coiling down those basement stairs: "Chillll . . . dren?”

- Roger Ebert, Nov. 24, 1996

Pride

To call the events of 1984/85 a "Labor Dispute" is to understate what was one of the seminal events in post war British history. Parts of the movie made me laugh others made me cry but all of it reminded me of the death of stable and caring mining communities from Kent to Scotland and why Thatcher can never be forgiven. As they say in South Wales: Thatcher has no need of coal now as it's roasting where she is now !!

- a comment following the NYTimes 9/25/14 review of the film

Last Days in Vietnam

As [Stuart] Herrington points out [in the film], the endgame of America's involvement in Vietnam (“The burning question of who goes and who gets left behind") serves as a microcosm for the whole agonizing history of the war, a conflict that couldn't be won and an international commitment that couldn't be abandoned.

– J.R. Jones, Dec. 22, 2014, chicagoreader.com

{But it was abandoned, so that part proved untrue.}

Rory Kennedy’s latest doc proves that there’s still a treasure trove to be mined from the Vietnam War.

- Filmmaker Magazine

Far From the Madding Crowd

Carey Mulligan, as Bathsheba, does “feisty justice to one of literature’s great feminists.”

- Dayna Papaleo, in one of her last reviews for City, May 20, 2015

Inside Llewyn Davis

A perfectly realized period piece, so gorgeously shot it looks almost painterly but it’s so god-awful grim and … so tightly focused on such a disagreeable character that I greeted its fade-out as the equivalent of the end of a migraine headache.

- Scott Mendelson, Forbes, June 28, 2014

Grave of the Fireflies

This received acclaim from film critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his "Great Movies" list. Two live-action remakes were made, one in 2005 and one in 2008. It is commonly described as an anti-war film, but this interpretation has been challenged by the director and some critics. {No such thing as an “anti-war film.”}

Trumbo

Likely to go down extremely well with Oscar voters, if only so they can be seen to publicly say how terrible the whole thing was. … Trumbo play[s] into Hollywood’s narrative of itself as sophisticated, liberated and pure. Raise a skeptical eyebrow to that one. Still, the man’s extraordinary resilience shines through. In that, Trumbo is fitting tribute.

- Henry Barnes, The Guardian, 13 Sept, 2015

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Movie Miscellany

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John

“At first I thought I was going to create a work about men’s search for love, sex and redemption,” says [Lloyd] Newson. “But then I met John, and it very quickly coalesced into a piece about him.”

Newson founded DV8 in 1986, having originally studied social work and psychology at Melbourne University. “I realised very quickly that I wasn’t going to be a social worker, a therapist or a psychologist,” he says, yet his current work could be interpreted as an artistic synthesis of all the above. Newson’s principal mission: reconnect the power of movement with the power of speech. “I could never understand the discrepancy of dancers yakking away in the wings, then pretending to be mute the minute they stepped out on stage,” Newson says.

- The Guardian, 29 Oct 2014, Alfred Hickling

Mr. Turner

Timothy Spall won Best Actor at 2014 Cannes and was named British Actor of the Year by London Film Critics’ Circle.

It is well-documented that Hannah Darby was Turner’s maid, and that she suffered conspicuously from a skin disease, probably psoriasis. “There’s no evidence whatever that they had any form of sexual relations, but it seemed very natural to us and very organic,” Mr. Leigh said, given her devotion and Turner’s willingness to use people.

– from an article in the WSJ

{Libel suit from the grave!}

The art critic John Ruskin, who was the first owner of The Slave Ship, wrote, "If I were reduced to rest Turner's immortality upon any single work, I should choose this." It hangs today in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

{How times have changed!}

Turner died at Number 119 Cheyne Walk, London, in 1851. That street featured rather prominently in the film. Cheyne Walk has its own Wikipedia page, and the list of famous people who lived at one time or another on Cheyne Walk is incredible! Check it out here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyne_Walk

{Learning why might define “desirable neighborhood.”}

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True Detective

Nic Pizzolatto initially conceived the series as a novel, but later, as it began taking definite form, felt it was better suited for television. He is a former literature professor.

The Invisible Woman

The Dickens Fellowship and the surviving close family members of Charles Dickens maintained a facade of silence and denial about the affair from the time of Charles Dickens' death in 1870 until the death in December 1933 of his last surviving child, Sir Henry Fielding Dickens.

- from the Wikipedia entry on Ellen Ternan

When Did You Last See Your Father?

"Who would play you in the film of your life?" non-actors are sometimes asked in magazine profiles or questionnaires. I knew there'd be jokes about Mr Darcy and wet, white shirts when Colin Firth was cast to play me, but I hadn't anticipated how long friends would spend doubled up in helpless laughter when I told them. What was so funny: if he could play a bald Nick Hornby in Fever Pitch, why not me? "It's not to do with lack of resemblance," one friend explained, "it's just that every middle-class Englishman of a certain age has fantasized about being played by him."

– Blake Morrison in an interview

{William Eggleston will play me.}

Mad Men

I wanted it to be visual. Don and his three kids standing in front of the house where he grew up. I saw it like an album cover. And Kiernan [Sally] and John [Don Draper] exchange this look, like she’s asking, “Why are you showing me this?” And he’s saying, “I’ve lied to you, and I’m ashamed of that.” And she gets it … Everyone would like to have one look like that from their dad. … I wanted the close moments — like the look between Sally and Don — not to be phony, the way TV moments often are.

- Matthew Weiner

Selma

Criticism from Califano and other Johnson defenders prompted DuVernay to respond on Twitter. She … linked to a 2013 article by Louis Menand in The New Yorker as evidence that "LBJ's stall on voting in favor of War on Poverty isn't fantasy made up for a film." In another tweet she added, "Bottom line is, folks should interrogate history. Don't take my word for it or LBJ rep's word for it. Let it come alive for yourself."

- Dec 30, 2014, from Page’s Page (Clarence Page blogging for the Chicago Tribune)

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Anita

What Clarence Thomas said:

This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.

According to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filings, sexual harassment cases have more than doubled, from 6,127 in 1991 to 15,342 in 1996. Over the same period, awards to victims under federal laws nearly quadrupled, from $7.7 million to $27.8 million.

Historians will always turn to the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy to understand race relations, gender politics, and media influences in America at the brink of the twenty-first century.

– https://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/hilloutline2.htm

The question Hill's testimony placed before us was not whether Thomas was guilty of a legally actionable offense (she herself was unsure if his behavior added up to sexual harassment) but whether he belonged on the Supreme Court.

– Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture, Pollitt, Katha.

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Honor Diaries

There is an extensive Further Reading list on the film’s website:

http://www.honordiaries.com/resources/#resources-section-2

The Night of the Hunter

The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

In 1992, The Night of the Hunter was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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TV Series (Highlights of)

Downton Abbey, Season 5

At the end of Season 5, we have the dangling prospect of two new suitors (met on a shooting holiday), one for Mary, and one of Edith. In this season, Edith reclaimed her out-of-wedlock daughter, and Rose got married.

Justified

David Bianculli says this is one of the most underrated shows on television. But I am skipping Season 5 after reading some bad reviews, and plan to move right to Season 6, the final season, which aired in 2015.

House of Cards, Season 1

I do enjoy watching the Underwood’s relationship (played by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright). Not much humor here.

True Detective, Season 1 B

We watched all 8 episodes in January. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are partners Rustin Cohle and Marty Hart, Louisiana Crime Investigation Division. They’ve only been together 3 months in 1995 when they get this case that appears to have a satanic connection. The scenes cut back and forth between 2012, when Marty is being questioned about Rust, and Rust is being questioned about the case. The acting was excellent! But Season 2 will be a whole new set of actors and locale, and I doubt we will watch it.

Girls, Seasons 1 & 2

Starring Lena Dunham, who also conceived it and wrote it. I’m interested in her now. She certainly does NOT make herself glamorous! This series makes me laugh. Allison Williams, who plays Hannah’s best friend Marnie, is the daughter of Brian Williams (of NBC Nightly News fame). and Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna) is David Mamet’s daughter!

Masters of Sex, Season 1

Allison Janney has a small role as the provost’s wife. Lizzy Caplan (previously unknown to me) plays Virginia Johnson).

The Crimson Field, Season 1

Oona Chaplin (granddaughter of Charlie) is a star. This aired in 2015, and was not renewed.

Bletchley Circle, Season 1

“In 1952, four women who worked at the wartime code-breaking center, Bletchley Park, reunite to track down a serial killer.” I watched a few episodes, and might watch more. I got interested in Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays Susan. Found she was also in a mini-series, South Riding, where she is a headmistress in 1930s Yorkshire, so I also watched and enjoyed some of that.

Top of the Lake, dir by Jane Campion and Garth Davis B

This was a mini-series set in New Zealand. Written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee. Not at all enjoyable.{Too contemplative for on-the-sofa video.}