TV shows.... what are you watching these days?

[Hope4Healing]

I’ve been watching All Creatures Great & Small (newer one - only 3 seasons) and Miss Scarlett & the Duke on PBS.

[Catie]

Sounds interesting, Hope4Healing. I haven't seen either of those.

[timey]

Currently I am watching Grey's Anatomy - semi-binge watching. I allow myself a few episodes a day unless I have decided I need a rest from responsibility and then I shut myself in my room and watch several episodes.

I also like Call the MIdwife (call me strange). I would love to watch The Resident, but I missed the beginning and can't find a free streaming service that has it.

I have read The Handmaid's Tale. Don't know if I could watch it. I think it might be triggering.

[humbledbygrace]

We've been watching Australian Idol. They are making their way to the final 12 contestants.
Also, looking forward to the return of The Good Doctor, which was stopped mid-season because apparently cricket, tennis, and other summer delights are more important.

Tonight we are watching the news about the anniversary of the bombing of Darwin (Australia), 81 years ago today.

[Overcome]

I love call the midwife.

[Catie]

A few years ago I enjoyed call the midwife very very much, and I read the book

[Starship]

I want to watch the Handmaid’s Tale, Timey, but am waiting for it to be available on one of my streaming services where I don’t have to rent or pay a fee.

Right now I am looking forward to my favorite cooking competition show to start season 3 - Alex V. America. (I think the first episode is on tonight - yay!)

I’m also enjoying The Pioneer Woman with Ree Drummond. Her recipes that I’ve tried so far are really quite good and, most of all, something that I can actually DO in the kitchen.

And I’ve been watching 1,000 lb Best Friends and Crikey, It’s the Irwins!

[Falena Porter]

I love call the midwife.

The series recently began a re-run from the very first episode here. I decided to watch it as I'd only seen fragments of some episodes before.

I was so much enjoying the show, looking at something set in the decade in which I was born and the developing characters.

Unfortunately, I've had to give it away. The acting is so good that I cannot cope with the birth scenes. You'd think now my children are all grown up it wouldn't be an issue, but the show is so evocative, I've had to put it aside. I can't bear to go through childbirth once a week!

I'm always saying how thrifty I am, but I wanted to see every episode of The Great British Sewing Bee so took out a subscription.

On the same streaming service, I have also discovered Somebody, Somewhere. I am enjoying a story about people whose lives are not glitzy and I'm also enjoying seeing life set in Kansas. It looks so different from where I live. I find myself looking at the landscape, the housing, the way people speak. I feel to have been transported somewhere else.

[Falena Porter]

Recently, I watched a movie which starred Tom Hanks called A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood.

I had never before heard of Fred Rogers but I infer from the movie and things I've since read that he was something of an institution in the States.

Did any of you watch him on television when growing up? Was he helpful to you?

I also read that in real life, Fred Rogers is actually a sixth cousin to Tom Hanks. I guess they're both pretty remarkable men.

The only reservation I had was the way in which the character of Fred, at least in the way he was portrayed in the movie, seemed to blur the lines of a therapeutic relationship and a professional one or that of a friend. There were a couple of scenes when I felt he said things which did more to obfuscate rather than bring about clarity, as if he were deliberately putting the other person a little off-balance.

I mean, that was the point of the movie, how his relationship unexpectedly brought massive change to the journalist sent to interview him so I guess I ought not to pick holes in it.

However, I wasn't entirely comfortable with that, nor the way in which the family seemed to mend and heal so dramatically and so fast. I mean, I can accept that love conquers all, but I cannot accept that personal insight and even willingness to forgive and start over could re-constitute a fractured family at such a rapid speed.

It's like when I watch movies or read books which are ignorant of the needs of children and have happy-ever-after endings which could not possibly have seemed so for the children but they are not the focus of the narrative and any emotional damage is swept under the proverbial carpet.

Having said all that, though, I did enjoy the movie. It was good to watch something about an exceptional man who apparently brought such warmth and understanding to a whole generation of children.

Given his stature in the States, I wonder how it is that I had never heard of him before.

[Overcome]

I watched Mr rogers neighborhood but don’t remember more than the intro music and red sweater! Lol

[Falena Porter]

Well, Cookie, it sounds like he didn’t make a huge impression on you LOL. From the movie, I’d almost have assumed he’d shaped the emotional development of an entire generation of American children. LOL

[Falena Porter]

I have been watching a series on television called Better Things. It is about an actress who is raising three children as a single parent. I find the style of the show to be very refreshing, her challenges are presented in ways which are relatable.

I understand that the show is a semi-autobiographical account of the lead actress’s life.

[Starship]

Falena I just saw your post about Mr. Rogers. I watched Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood religiously as a child. I LOVED it. He WAS my father growing up. Every day he would look me in the eyes and tell me I am special just the way I am. He would sit with me and make time for me and I was transported into his neighborhood every day.

He had a profound impact on me and my psyche. For a fractured little girl who was enduring terror every night and insane denial during the day, I believe the truths Mr. Rogers so kindly spoke to me actually helped me survive with an intact and functional ego (albeit dissociative).

Cant say enough good things about his show.

[Overcome]

Aww star that’s so nice! I do love that movie and fondly remember the show

[Falena Porter]

Cant say enough good things about his show.

I rather wish there had been a Mr Rogers in my own life. He does seem to have been quite an extraordinary man.