Television reviews – Unhealed Wound

Arctic Circle–Shivering with Fear

Written by Diana Paul on April 22, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

Set in the Lapland region of Finland, the Finnish-German three-season thriller, Arctic Circle, Nina Kautsalo (Iina Kuustonen), is determined to solve three multiple murder cases, one in each season. Nina is a single mom with a Down syndrome daughter, Venla, who is cared for by her devoted grandmother. Nina, in turn, is supported by an understanding director and her police colleagues. Besides the inevitable struggles to balance work and family, she also has to deal with Venla’s yearning to know her estranged father and also with Marita (Pihla Vittala of “Deadwind”), Nina’s...

Woman in the Wall–Imprisonment in the Magdalene Laundries

Written by Diana Paul on April 14, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews, Unhealed Wound.

Set up as a six-episode thriller, Woman in the Wall is based on the horrific exploitation of teenage girls and young women in “the homes for unwed mothers” in Ireland. The scandal of the Magdalene Laundries has damaged the Catholic Church for over a century and a half. This fictionalized account focuses on Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson of “The Affair”, “Luther”, “Saving Mr. Banks”, “Dark Materials” among many others) and her determination to find her now thirty-year old daughter who was taken from her at the Magdalene Laundries....

Mr. and Mrs. Smith–Trust Issues

Written by Diana Paul on March 26, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews.

The mini-series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which premiered in February of this year on Amazon Prime, is much more than a remake of the popular 2005 movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. While still anchored in a main plot of espionage hijinks, now the drama has been embedded within a rom-com infused by the chemistry between its charming leads, Donald Glover (John Smith) and Maya Erskine (Jane Smith). As two lonely, unemployed millennials, they independently agree to become secret agents for a mysterious organization requiring them to go undercover as a married...

Black Cake–Crumbs from the Past or Just Desserts?

Written by Diana Paul on December 24, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on Black Cake–Crumbs from the Past or Just Desserts?

In this haunting story of a young girl’s treacherous journey from Jamaica to England and then to California, we see the erasing of her past in order to survive. Black Cake is a Hulu eight-episode miniseries based on the titular best-selling novel by the Jamaican American author, Charmaine Wilkerson. Opening in the late 1960’s with a beautiful young Jamaican teenager, Covey Lyncook (Mia Isaac) is practicing swimming in order to compete competitively. Her mother left when she was a young child, and her father, a debt-ridden gambler, does the unforgivable: trade his debts for his...

Queen Charlotte–A Royal Prequel

Written by Diana Paul on December 11, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on Queen Charlotte–A Royal Prequel

Some may dislike misconstruing the history of great female leaders–or any history, for that matter, for the sake of entertainment. Queen Charlotte, the newly created Netflix series by Shonda Rhimes, is a rollicking reimagining of the Regency period of King George III and Queen Charlotte. It follows from the three-seasons’ blockbuster series. Bridgerton. Since watching the opening episode of Bridgerton in which the magnetic Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) presides over a competition to select the most eligible maidens for courting marriage proposals, Queen Charlotte has become...

Lessons in Chemistry–A Delicious Dose

Written by Diana Paul on December 6, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on Lessons in Chemistry–A Delicious Dose

Based upon Bonnie Garmus’s bestselling blockbuster of the same name, the AppleTV+ mini-series Lessons in Chemistry opens in 1961, at the cusp of the feminist and civil rights revolutions. Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson, Academy Award-winning actress of “Room”), a highly educated and talented chemist, has taken a job as a low-level lab tech supporting an all- male team of chemists at a renowned research institute. The major problem: none of the male chemists see her as a peer. However, one equally brilliant chemist, Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman), sees her for who she really...