What I'm Watching Now: March 20, 2017

Peaky Blinders: I'm already on season 2 of this Netflix series. I love it. I love Cilian Murphy. Tom Hardy's character is abhorrent. I'm trying to watch it slower so that it can be in my life longer.

The Doctor Blake Mysteries: I just received season 2 of this series from the library. It is an Australian series about a sad doctor who solves crimes.

Six Feet Under: I needed to revisit another show from HBO's golden days, so I started Six Feet Under and immediately fell in, again (Get it?!). There aren't many timely references that remind you of the aughts, so, so far it stands the test of time, but I'm only in the middle of the first season.

I watched Birth of a Nation last week and will write a review sooner or later.

There's also the usual marathons on Ion: Criminal Minds and Blue Bloods, mostly. And whatever Masterpiece crumbs PBS throws out: Wuthering Heights (Tom Hardy version), Call the Midwife and Home Fires.

TV: Victoria (2016)****

Let me just start with the fact that I thought the last episode of this season was fantastic. It felt like a totally different director than the rest of the episodes, but it turns out the same director handled episodes 6, 7 and 8.

So, honestly, I'm a sucker for good love stories and the story of Victoria and Albert is pretty darn good. There was a movie, Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend and the chemistry between Blunt and Friend can't hold a candle to Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes, who are real-life lovers.

Not only did they have great on-screen chemistry, but I enjoyed their portrayals of the characters. But don't you go to the bathroom during the other characters' screen time! I also enjoyed the side stories of Mr. Francatelli and Ms. Skerret; The push and pull between the butler Mr. Penge and Baroness Lehzen and British Government as a character.

Victoria opens on the princess, confined to Kensington Palace, discovering that she is now the Queen of England. A teenage girl now has to learn how to be queen, decide who she can trust, and most importantly, marry and produce an heir to the throne. That's a lot of pressure when all you want to do is enjoy your new freedom. She is pressured to give her cousin Albert a try and it turns out he's the one. They get married and together they navigate the political and social sharks.

Awesome acting moment: In the last episode, during Victoria's confinement aka labor,Victoria (Jenna Coleman) looks to her left and right, trying to gather strength from the eyes of the people who are closest to her, and in her face you can see the fear of childbirth, but the resolve that there is nothing else to do, but to push.

I'm giving Victoria four stars ****. I can very easily watch this over and over, it is another beautiful Masterpiece production, the acting befits the amount they spent on the production and I want an opportunity to group hug with Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes. Waiting patiently for my chance.

This series aired on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre in 2017.

Movie: Manchester By the Sea (2016)****

I went to New York City and spent the majority of the time on a couch in a timeshare. I finally got up one night, a Monday, you know, when the majority of a the theaters are dark, and the only show I was able to catch was Blackbird, a single-set drama starting Michelle Williams and Jeff Bridges. At the time I disliked it, but seeing Manchester By the Sea, gave me a different point of view, and I wish I would have seen the movie before the play. After seeing the film, I look back at the play and can appreciate the intensity of the situation, the set, and most definitely the acting. I see it all in a different light, so to speak: From the harsh tungsten of the office break room to the natural, partly cloudy skies of Massachusetts.

That being said, I enjoyed more than Michelle Williams' acting in Manchester By the Seas. It was a movie with an authentic feel that was well acted and with dialogue that one might confuse with being unscripted.

In it, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), a sad case who banished himself to Boston after his own tragedy, learns of his brother's sudden death and returns to his hometown. Not long after. Lee discovers that his brother had willed him to be the legal guardian of his nephew and property, a responsibility he doesn't feel strong enough to take on.

Manchester by the Sea hardly has any music in it. Most of the scenes survived on silence, dialogue and the play between the actors.

Best scene: When Patrick, the nephew, Patrick, finally breaks down and Lee does his best to help him.

This won the 2017 Chocket Award for Best Talkie and I'm giving it Four Stars**** because it is really good and I do want to watch it more than once, but I'm not sure if this is one I'll want to watch over and over again. We'll see how I feel in a year.

TV: Mercy Street Season 2****

Mercy Street is a homegrown PBS series: A period drama set in occupied Alexandria, Virginia, in an Union hospital during the Civil War. In season 2, Mansion House Hospital, once a Confederate hotel, continues to be the venue of much medical work, mischief, sadness, and untimely affection. The Green family, Virginians and former owners of the hotel, who are now the reluctant hosts of Union Army officers, find themselves further engaged in espionage and sabotage. Dr. Foster and Nurse Phinney might finally admit their affection for each other, but then, she gets Typhoid. Smallpox, believed to be a “Negro” disease, is becoming and epidemic. Charlotte Jenkins, an anti-slavery activist and former slave, shows up in Alexandria and leads the effort to treat the infected contraband and teach any Black person within reach how to read.

It doesn't happen very often, but the second season was an improvement on the first. The second time around, the acting was more believable, the storylines dug way deeper, and the look and feel of the production continued to be beautifully designed and shot. It's only March, but this would give any other movie/TV show a run for its money in the “Best Look” category of the Chocket Awards.