This HBO original mini-series, The Undoing, is a police procedural based upon the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz.
We observe the daily life of a highly successful New York therapist, Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman), a specialist in marriage counseling, as well her husband, Jonathan (Hugh Grant), a successful pediatric oncologist. Their teenage son Henry attends an elite private school which receives generous donations from Grace’s father (Donald Sutherland). At a school fundraiser Grace...
“Retribution”–Karma is a Beast
Retribution ( a 2016 BBC production originally titled “One of Us”) opens with a horrific double murder, which will tear apart the lives of two families, the Douglases and the Elliots. They are friends who live side-by-side in the isolated Scotland Highlands hamlet of Braeston. The atmospherically remote Scottish scenery is reminiscent of Nordic noir landscapes.
Events soon take an even more brutal turn when a badly injured man arrives at the Douglas family’s doorstep after his car careens off the road – a man who they...
“Richard Jewell”–A Hidden Gem
In Richard Jewell, a 2019 Clint Eastwood docudrama, Richard Jewell (played by relative unknown Paul Walter Hauser) , is first adored as a hero for thwarting the bombing of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. But “alternative facts” and frenzied media coverage turn against him. His daily life is turned upside down when he is considered the principal suspect in the bombing by FBI and local police.
Jewell is almost a caricature of the lonely white male, living with his mother (Kathy Bates, in an Academy Awards-nominated performance). Deeply proud of his...
“The Comey Rule”–Inner Conflict
In this two-part Hulu and Showtime series, FBI Director James Comey (Jeff Daniels) begins a collision course against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (Brendan Gleeson). Based on Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty”, the first part of The Comey Rule follows the investigation into Hillary’s email and its impact on the 2016 election. Part Two follows the aftermath of the election on Comey’s career and on his family, together with his investigation into Russia, code-named “Crossfire Hurricane”. This is not...
The Queen’s Gambit–A Passion for Winning
The Queen’s Gambit is a fictional story based upon the 1983 Walter Tevis novel by the same name. A Netflix original series released October 30 of this year, the drama opens with a scene of an eight-year old girl, Beth Harmon (newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy), soon to become an orphan residing at a bleak orphanage, Methuen, under a severe headmistress. It is the mid-1950s and there are few options for an orphan, especially a little girl.
Struggling with loneliness, adoption and being a social misfit, Beth finds solace through learning...
“The Social Dilemma”– Addiction or Threat?
This is a Netflix docudrama not to be missed. The Social Dilemma, a granular investigation of the rise of social media and the ongoing damage it is causing to segments of society around the globe, is chilling. Focusing on exploitation of Internet users, The Social Dilemma, produced by Jeff Orlowski, reveals how most users are oblivious about how their surfing patterns have been monetized. We are all highly valuable assets being sold for financial gain. The user ‘s data is sold to advertisers through embedded algorithms. The advertisers are the real customers of the...