Television reviews – Page 2

All the Light We Cannot See–Love is Blind

Written by Diana Paul on November 21, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. 1 Comment on All the Light We Cannot See–Love is Blind

All the Light We Cannot See opens with a devoted, widowed father, Daniel LeBlanc (Mark Ruffalo), teaching his young blind daughter, Marie (Aria Mia Loberti), the intricacies of artifacts in the museum where he works as a locksmith. Based upon the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anthony Doerr, this four-part Netflix mini-series (released on November 2) takes the viewer on an emotionally intense journey through Nazi-occupied France. While teaching his daughter living skills to maneuver in a war-torn country–Marie’s father, Daniel, builds a miniature...

Lupin (2021)–The Gentleman Thief

Written by Diana Paul on November 13, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on Lupin (2021)–The Gentleman Thief

Based upon a popular 1905 collection of short stories about a gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin, written by the French mystery writer, Maurice Leblanc, the three-season blockbuster Netflix Lupin series (2021) is a reimagining of the legendary thief in present-day Paris. Lupin is the equivalent of a French Sherlock Holmes with some important differences. In flashbacks the young Assane Diop (Omar Sy of “The Intouchables”, see March 27, 2013 review) endures a travesty of justice that imprisons his beloved Senegalese immigrant father. Growing up in a foster home, Assane...

Fall of the House of Usher–Poe on Steroids

Written by Diana Paul on November 7, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. 3 Comments on Fall of the House of Usher–Poe on Steroids

This Halloween-esque Netflix eight-episode mini-series (released in time for Trick or Treat on October 12) is a not-so-loyal but brilliant riff on Edgar Allan Poe’s 1840 collection of short stories, “The Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque”. Embroidered with many literary references to some of these tales, each episode in Fall of the House of Usher is named after one of Poe’s works. For example, Episode 1: “The Masque of the Red Death”. Literary allusions to even more short story titles throughout this mini-series are playful and witty. (For example,...

Fauda–Crisis after Crisis

Written by Diana Paul on October 9, 2023. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on Fauda–Crisis after Crisis

Based upon their experiences serving in the Israel Defense Force (IDF), Lior Raz (who also stars as Doron) and Avi Issacharoff have developed a Netflix international sensation, Fauda. Produced from 2015 through 2022 as a four season series, each season features a Palestinian terrorist or terrorist cell that IDF sets out to eliminate . Fauda seems to rip from today’s headlines the bloodshed between Israel and Gaza. The main character, Doron, is a rogue: even the IDF cannot control his actions in every battle mission he is ordered to...

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart– Planting Seeds of Power

Written by Diana Paul on September 10, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. 1 Comment on The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart– Planting Seeds of Power

This seven-episode mini-series, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, is based upon Holly Ringland’s novel of the same name. Little Alice Hart (Alyla Brown), a nine-year old girl, suffers a very violent set of family circumstances living in the outback of Australia. Her father is abusive , especially when Alice wants to feel somewhat safe around him. Always guarded, the mother she adores is almost an angel for the child’s living hell. When her parents die in a horrific fire, Alice finds her life changing dramatically when she is sent to live with her grandmother, June Hart (Sigourney...

Full Circle–Around and Around

Written by Diana Paul on August 28, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on Full Circle–Around and Around

The title, Full Circle, represents a belief in Guyana ritual and magic to break a family curse. Savitri Mahabir (CCH Pounder), a Guyana racketeer, has had a curse placed on her family, resulting in the murder of her beloved brother-in-law. Intent on breaking the curse, Mahabir creates a circle of vengeance–what comes around, goes around. Literally, she orders a retaliatory murder in Washington Square Park, in New York City. To break the curse Guyana traditions must be followed, requiring a circle for the crime to be drawn...