Inspired by a true story and the novel by Dan Simmons, The Terror, a new AMC television series, takes the viewer into perilous territory as a 19th century Royal Navy crew attempts to discover the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Circle. A holy grail for intrepid explorers dating back to the 1700’s, the Northwest Passage is now...
“The Alienist”– Something Wicked This Way Comes
“The Alienist”, a TNT psychological thriller set in 1896, is based on the novel by Caleb Carr. People with mental illness were once considered “alienated from society,” unfathomable to doctors and laymen alike. Those who thought they could treat them were referred to as alienists, pre-dating the Freudian psychiatric...
Seven Seconds–Black Lives Matter?
The Netflix Original series Seven Seconds (premiered February 23) is about race, corrupt police and unequal justice. In the opening scene a hit-and-run of an African-American teenager by a white Jersey City rookie cop (Beau Knapp) is covered up by three other members of the police force.
The story is harrowing and complicated, with...
“Roseanne” (2018): Neither Here Nor There
Having the highest ratings for any network sitcom in almost four years, the revival of the ABC television show “Roseanne” had 18.2 million viewers last week, and features most of the original cast.
And then this high-concept sitcom begins to evoke memories of the good old days of “Roseanne” and “All in the...
The Vietnam War–Closure or Catharsis?
The Vietnam War
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s PBS masterpiece, The Vietnam War is a mournful, heartbreaking documentary: an essential expose and an unvarnished history of war. The refocusing of history using first-person stories is the most important “Ken Burns effect” producing his best documentary to date.
Burns loves to film everyday...
My Top 19 Movies and TV Series for 2017
Here are the reviews I wrote this year with the criteria that they were available online or were at local movie theaters, although not necessarily widely distributed. Of the 45 reviews, here are my favorites. It was much more difficult than in past years, since this year was absolutely stunning as was 2016. Both television and cinema...
