Big Love

Big love is an HBO series about a polygamist family in Utah. The story is interesting, but ultimately not that gripping. I've watched a few episodes and will probably watch more if I don't have anything else that interests me at the moment.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

I watched 4 or 5 episodes of the HBO adaptation of these novels. I thought that the episodes were very richly filmed and clearly depicts life in the country of Botswana. Other than this, I found the episodes too slow to be fully engaging.

Game Change

This was an HBO movie about mccains decision to make her the vp running mate. I was shocked by how stupid Sarah Palin really is. I knew she was a little airheaded but didn't realize that she didn't even know why we were at war with Iraq. Her presence in national politics is deeply disturbing.

Little Dorrit (BBC screen adaptation)

It took a little while for the cast of characters to weave together in this story, but once they did, I was pretty hooked. I have a mild screen-crush on Mathew MacFayden, who played Mr. Darcy in a recent adaptation and was also in Any Human Heart. The story's plot was sparingly about love--rather--it was a commentary of social stratification and the legal system of England during the era.

I'm continually shocked at the absurdities of the ancestry to our modern legal system. In this book, Dickens clearly depicts how England dealt with debt. Rather than relinquishing collateral as we do now, the English sent their debtor's into special debt prisons, which were privately owned (!). The person that held the debt determined the sentence and the prisoners were sometimes held for decades. The families of the person that held the debt frequently lived in the prison with the debtor, but were free to go and they frequently obtained jobs which they used to pay for the debtor's upkeep.

The story also exemplifies the length that people will go to hold their status as an upperclass member of society.

Daniel Deranda

This is an a screen adaptation of George Eliot's book. At first glance it appears to be an typical love story, but the end is entirely different than I had imagined it. The movie makes me realize that I am nearly ignorant of the Jewish people. I hadn't realized until today that they not only define themselves by their religion but they also consider themselves to be an entirely separate race from other white people. The story also touches on persecution of Jews and their struggle in obtaining a homeland for themselves.

Band of Brothers and Generation Kill

Both of these are HBO miniseries about war. i tried to get into them but unfortunately combat pieces make me sleepy. Both seem well done but my brain just tunes out.

The Last Enemy

This is a Masterpiece Contemporary original series (not an adaptation), starring the same actor who plays Sherlock. It is essentially a commentary on how far we should or should not allow our government to collect data on its citizens, the implications of our current war in Afghanistan and terrorism, the evil nature of Big Pharma (similar to the story in A Constant Gardener--one of my favorite movies), corrupt government officials, etc. I thought it was an excellent series and found it on netflix.

Incendiary

This was a great movie but I cannot think of a sadder plot. Don't watch the movie unless you want to ball your eyes out.

Bleak House (Masterpiece adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel)

Yet another period commentary. Most interesting in this story is Dickens' depiction of the legal system in Britain at the time and gives insight as to what our current legalities have evolved from. For instance, I thought it was very fascinating that when a person dies, an independent "jury" is gathered to collectively declare a cause of death.

It was nice to see Gillian Anderson on screen again.

Downtown Abbey seasons 1 & 2

This is an original Masterpiece series in that it is not a literature adaptation. The story is quite interesting: it is a clear portrait of a contrast of characters that live in a rich estate during the 1800's. The story isn't just about the aristocrats but details the lives of the servants as well. It was really very interesting and a good story. Unfortunately the end of season 2 is maddeningly anti-climactic. Perhaps the third season will make up for it. Season 1 is on Netflix and season 2 is on OPB.

The Forsyte Saga (Masterpiece literature adaptation) season 1

This story is essentially an essay of domestic relationships during 17th century England where a woman essentially needs to be married in order to survive in the world. It also shows how exceedingly difficult it is to get a divorce during the era. The story was a bit slow but still interesting. Even though it isn't entirely captivating I will still watch the second series once I can find it. The first season is on Netflix.

Wuthering Heights

More Masterpiece Theater. I really enjoyed this story. It was about a family that adopted a supposed "gypsy" boy at age 13, which has severe social and familial implications during 17th century England. One of the best screen adaptations of classic literature.

Luther

TV series starring the actor that played Striker in The Wire (a great TV series). Luther is good, sort of an atypical cop show, but a bit gory and different in that it is in England.

Jane Eyre

I caught this as a movie adaptation last night (the version with William Hurt) and thought the story was really very strange. For the most part, it is a love story, but I couldn't understand why the two fell in love. The man was so creepy and they didn't seem to spend much time together so I couldn't figure out how they fell in love. I went through the synopsis of the book on wikipedia and it seems that many relevant details in the film version were not included. Perhaps a different adaptation of the book would have been better.

The Diary of Anne Frank

Since Masterpiece has a movie installment of this book, I was finally able to catch the story. I was always afraid to pick it up because the subject seems so depressingly dreadful. But I am glad I did, as it was a good story. I had always assumed that the story was about the young girl who lived by herself in the attic for a few years and then starved to death while she was hiding. I don't know where I go that impression, but the story was actually about two families and a single man living together and she later died in the internment camps. The diaries are much more complex with myriad themes: mother/daughter and father/daughter relations, teenage sexuality, human behavior when forced to live in confined living quarters, female intellectualism during a time when females aren't considered smart, etc. It was really a very good story, but the end is predictably terribly sad.

Anna Karenina

This is another Masterpiece installment that I watched rather than reading the book.

I enjoyed the movie. The theme that runs throughout the book is mainly that of the constraints of marriage at the time--many of the same issues that we as a society are dealing with today but on a much smaller scale. Anna karenina has fallen in love with a man outside of her marriage, but due to the laws at the time cannot divorce without huge social expense. If she chooses to reveal her infidelities to a court, she could lose all chance she has of ever seeing her son again and not be allowed to remarry.

Any Human Heart

Actually I did not read this book but watched the Masterpiece Classic adaptation. I really like the adaptations of these series, as the episodes unfold so much more similarly to the experience of reading books.

Any Human Heart is sequential snippets of a man's life during from the beginning of the 20th century until the mid 80's at his death. I found the first half of the series most interesting, most likely because I am in my mid thirties and can relate to the experiences of this age range.


The most interesting theme in this book is the concept that a human is a collection of evolving personalities over time.

Dreams From my Father by Barack Obama

I only listened to half of this book. I found the first part interesting, but lost interest toward the middle, probably because I am not faced with the same issues of race as he is. Still it was an intriguing read, and Barack Obama's writing is so deeply reflective and intelligent. The beginning of the book was so interesting--his reflections on his white grandparents and how they came to live in Hawaii, his white mother involved with two men from the university and entirely different cultures, etc. But as interesting as I thought it was, I just got too bored and couldn't finish the rest of the book. Maybe someday.