Category: Stu’s Reviews

Genre: TV Series      

Grade: A-

Notable People: Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten, A Martinez, Noah Emmerich, Created by: Graham Roland

Title:  Dark Winds

Review- Based on the “Leaphorn & Chee” novel series by Tony Hillerman and set in Monument Valley, Navajo country in 1971, “Dark Winds” follows the FBI investigation of a bank robbery in Gallup, N.M., and the Navajo Tribal inquiry into the local murder of two Native residents. Continuing the tradition of recent dark portraits of modern Native American reservation life, this story incorporates the horrors of forced sterilization, uranium based greed murders and the struggle to maintain traditional Tribal spiritual values in an unyielding white world. McClarnon, who has become a go-to actor for modern Native American police types, is subtly wonderful and the supporting cast is excellent. Scripts are well written, the landscape well portrayed and the music score is perfect. Hoping for more Joe Leaphorn.  

Genre: TV Series             

Grade: B

Notable People: Benedict Cumberbatch, Gaby Hoffman, McKinley Belcher, Ivan Morris Howe Created by: Abi Morgan

Title:  Eric

Review- in 1980s New York City, Vincent, a puppeteer in the Jim Henson mode, in an unhappy marriage and whose nine-year-old son, Edgar, goes missing. Vincent turns to a variety of substances and his barely held in check and increasingly volatile behavior alienates him from his friends, family, and coworkers^. In his inebriated and unbalanced state Vincent becomes convinced that he can reunite with Edgar with the help of his seven-foot-tall puppet, Eric. Like my review of “Under the Bridge”, this is another one that took a long time to watch, as it was pretty painful and not many likeable characters. That said, Cumberbatch is a virtuoso and always worth watching and young Howe is splendid. Beyond that, it got somewhat tedious, like “when will be it over” tedious. Made it to the finish line but lots of predictability. Quite fascinating portrayal of the city’s underground, beneath the subway, subterranean living environment.

Genre: TV Series       

Grade: B+

Notable People: Riley Keough, Lily Gladstone, Vritika Gupta, Alyana Goodfellow, Izzy G. Created by: Quinn Shephard

Title:  Under the Bridge

Review- Based on the highly acclaimed story of fourteen-year-old girl from Victoria, BC, who went to a party with friends but never came home. The show delves into the secret world of the young girls accused of the murder and reveals shocking facts about the improbable killer via the eyes of the local girl turned magazine writer who comes home to her troubling past and her teen best friend (likely lover), now a local police officer. This was hugely popular book and the mini-series is well cast and well-acted. It is a frightening portrait of teen angst in modern times-and of an incredibly biased and subjective justice system with echoes of alienation and bullying, as well as the trials of cultural adaptation. Though it as very powerful, it took us a long time to finish it as it was really hard to like almost any of the characters-teens or adults. Very, very dark portrayal of modern states of anomie (look it up). To be fair many people liked this a lot more than we did. Keogh and Gladstone are both very talented but seem to be getting pigeonholed in similar role ruts.

Genre: TV Series       

Grade: B+

Notable People: Liev Schreiber, Nicole Kidman, Dakota Fanning, Eve Hewson, Meghann Fahy, Created by: Jenna Lamia

Title:  The Perfect Couple

Review- I know that a lot of people really liked this mini- series from the popular 2018 novel by Erin Hillenbrand- but we found it was more of a guilty pleasure/eye candy-similar to our secret years of closet watching the shameless “Revenge”. Schreiber and Kidman (in an outstanding and complex role) make this eminently watchable and the supporting cast is good, the two police detectives are perfect as comic relief (masters of the eye roll), but in the end, it seemed pretty formulaic, though hard to figure out as a whodunnit. Hard to imagine Liev doing this after his brilliant turn as Ray Donovan, but he pulls it off, though he could sure use a shave. Hard not to watch, but not all that redeeming.

Genre: TV Series           

Grade: A-

Notable People: Joey King, Logan Lerman, Amit Rahav, Henry Hughes, Hadas Yaron, Robin Wiegert, Michael Aloni, Created by: Erika Lipez

Title:  We Were the Lucky Ones

Review- this one was recommended to me by my CUZ, and is a real sleeper. An eight episode, one-shot miniseries; it is an adaptation of the 2017 book of the same name by Georgia Hunter, inspired by the story of her own family, and depicts the perspective of the Kurc family of Polish Jews, beginning in the surreal shift in1938, as the Poles are being harassed by the Nazis, and goes through 1947and the end of this extraordinary decade. It is a story almost too hard to believe, of immense courage, fortitude, perseverance and love- pitted against tyranny, hatred, inhumanity and evil…and evil, it is… portrayed in stunning details. This is not an easy show to watch and I wept through most of the final chapter. Humbling and equilibrium challenging, and can make our daily troubles seem rather minimal. The cast is stunning and settings and cinematography magnificent. I was initially put off by the use of English with heavy Polish accents instead sub-titles of Polish, but I got used to it and it seemed genuine in these people. This is one powerful series.

Genre: TV Series             

Grade: A

Notable People: Ken Burns; narrated by David McCullough  

Title:  The Civil War

Review I’ve said before that Burns is the greatest documentarian in film history, and watching this epic (latest for me, old hat for him) does nothing to alter that. I sometimes think we should chuck the one-sided garbage we teach kids in school history classes and just have them watch all of Burns’ films. An absolute master if the craft, who his able to provide a rapturous experience, even for a time period, that prevents any actual any action footage. You can feel the schism that rocked this country viscerally as the story unfolds, and the characters come to life through anecdotes and historical narrative. It takes about 25 hours to watch this thing, which we do in short increments, but well, well worth the time. Brilliance.