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.