Author Topic: PBS Programs Fall 2009 (Read 43788 times)

JoanR · « **Reply #40 on:** November 02, 2009, 04:22:04 PM »

Let's talk about current and upcoming PBS programs here.

"Lost in Austen" is out on DVD. I borrowed it from my library and have just finished watching it. Not Austen, that's for sure, but certainly enjoyable! It's amusing to see how familiar events in the book are dealt with in this story!

mrssherlock · « **Reply #41 on:** November 02, 2009, 07:50:49 PM »

Sally: "Lost" isn't being shown here, either. I emailed OPB to ask when it might be scheduled and the reply was no on the scherdule at all. So I followed Babi's advice and put it on my netflix queue.

marcie · « **Reply #42 on:** November 02, 2009, 09:00:27 PM »

Sally, yes, even though the mother has to work under pressure, couldn't she spend a little time and offer some kind words to her daughter? It looks like the mother didn't have a good role model in her own mother, who is a writer who seems to have left her alone during her childhood. She says that she felt free as a child after her mother closed herself in a room to write. Maybe she thinks that is a good experience for her daughter (or at least not a bad one).

marcie · « **Reply #43 on:** November 02, 2009, 09:02:19 PM »

JoanR, I'm glad you were able to see the DVD of "Lost in Austen." I'm only caught up to part 2.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #44 on:** November 02, 2009, 09:28:07 PM »

There was one poignant shot when her daughtr was walking away, turned, and looked at her mother over her shoulder just as Alison has looked back as she walked away down the road where she later disappeeared in the film strip her step father made.

marcie · « **Reply #45 on:** November 02, 2009, 11:38:04 PM »

Yes, I noticed that shot also, mrssherlock. I wonder if the mother will learn anything from her feelings about the case that will influence her feelings or actions toward her daughter.

salan · « **Reply #46 on:** November 03, 2009, 06:50:55 AM »

Marcie and Mrssherlock, I, too, noticed that shot. There is more than one kind of abuse, isn't there?
The program is very well done and I really want to like the mother---we'll see.
Sally

Babi · « **Reply #47 on:** November 03, 2009, 08:28:25 AM »

I started watching the first part of "Place of Execution" and decided to
turn it off. Perhaps it was just me, but I was totally bored. It seemed
such a trite, done-a-million-times theme. Young girl disappears on the
moors. Everything that followed was so predictable I couldn't enjoy it.
The comtemporary story - the '50-years-later' part - was more interesting, but not enough to make me stick with. I see most of
you liked the show, so perhaps I just wasn't in the mood.

marcie · « **Reply #48 on:** November 03, 2009, 10:51:54 AM »

Babi, I'm thinking that there is going to be a plot twist in "Place of Execution." I have an idea of what it is but will wait and see in part 2. I think the acting is well done by everyone. Who mentioned the unusual looking young policeman-in-charge on the case? When I saw him in his first scene he looked to me like a teenager.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #49 on:** November 03, 2009, 03:02:42 PM »

Marcie: Yes, that must have been deliberate. Here's this nerdy looking kid and the burly, middle-aged policeman is calling him "Sir". I knew then that there was more to this than the seemingly banal plot. It was predictable, like Babi says, and in some places I could almost recite the dialog; perhaps because it has influenced other writers? Like you I suspect more turns of the plot next week.

JoanK · « **Reply #50 on:** November 03, 2009, 03:13:43 PM »

I blushingly admit I passed up Masterpiece for a Laker game. (I love basketball). But if Lost in Austen was showing here, wild horses couldn't drag me away. I never thought of the Library! I'll look for it.

JoanK · « **Reply #51 on:** November 03, 2009, 03:15:57 PM »

Something crazy happened to produce all that blank space at the end of the last post, and I can't figure out how to get rid of it.

marcie · « **Reply #52 on:** November 03, 2009, 04:18:05 PM »

Joan, if the blank space happens again, MODIFY your post and click as far down as you can in the box and press the Backspace/Delete key on your keyboard to delete the extra blank lines.

JoanK · « **Reply #53 on:** November 03, 2009, 05:16:40 PM »

I tried that. It didn't work. But thanks.

marcie · « **Reply #54 on:** November 04, 2009, 12:09:30 PM »

I watched the "American Experience" episode about the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps. I saw it "On Demand" on my cable tv service. The program was very moving, with accounts by several men who had participated. It provided lots of historical footage and background facts. The CCC was created in only 6 months (the quickest large project to be developed in federal government history) and was run by the U.S. Army. Over the years of its existence it provided jobs, food, money and training (including literacy training for anyone who couldn't read) for millions of men. When the U.S. entered WWII, many of these men joined the armed services, already trained in working together with discipline.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #55 on:** November 04, 2009, 07:13:04 PM »

The way Israel expects its young people to donate two years to the betterment of their country has always seemed admirable to me. What could we accomplish if we required the same of all our young men and women. Would drive by shootings decline? Would drug arrests become rare? Would we be capitalizing on the excess energy of this resource and producing citizens who truly owned a piece of America, having developed skills to provide for their well-being for their entire lives? Seems like the CCC is a model for us to follow now when unempolyment is so dire,

marcie · « **Reply #56 on:** November 04, 2009, 07:16:14 PM »

mrssherlock, I agree with you. I do think we should use the CCC as a model for today. Most (even in his cabinet) were against the program, but Roosevelt pressed on. Many were worried it would lead to "socialism." I'm sure we'd get a similar reaction today.

Babi · « **Reply #57 on:** November 05, 2009, 08:14:01 AM »

Even one year of service would be an eye-opener, and possibly a life
saver, for many young people. It would be very controversial, of course. Many, if not most, young people would be anxious to get on
with their own lives and plans and would not be happy about an interruption.

marcie · « **Reply #58 on:** November 07, 2009, 11:42:31 PM »

We've got more great PBS programming over the next few days. Don't forget to watch the final episode of "Place of Execution" on Masterpiece Contemporary. Also, the American Experience program on the 1930s continues with a documentary on the building of the Hoover Dam. There are links to more information and online versions of the programs in the heading above.

pedln · « **Reply #59 on:** November 08, 2009, 12:39:31 PM »

That Place of Execution is really good. I had taped it last week and then forgot all about it until last night. Now I'm glad I don't have to wait a whole week to see the conclusion. It was rather incongruous to see the big burly cop calling the DI "sir," though I'm chastizing myself for thinking that. Why shouldn't "baby-faced nerdy-looking guys" be thought capable of doing a good job.

One wonders why George no longer wants to do the film. The VCR is set, but I may break down and just watch it when it's on.

Marcie and Jackie, I agree with you about a national service requirement for young people.

marcie · « **Reply #60 on:** November 08, 2009, 01:02:03 PM »

Pedln, I too wonder what caused George to change his mind. I guess we'll find out in tonight's episode.

pedln · « **Reply #61 on:** November 09, 2009, 12:02:58 PM »

Well, that was quite a surprising ending. I'm sure we all had our own predictions, but I didn't even come close to that. All in all, it was an enjoyable 2-part series. I do wonder why this is called Masterpiece Contemporary, rather than Masterpiece Mystery, because it certainly was a mystery.

marcie · « **Reply #62 on:** November 09, 2009, 12:37:48 PM »

Pedln, I agree with you that this contemporary drama could have been part of the Mystery series.

SPOILER ALERT FOR PLACE OF EXECUTION, MASTERPIECE CONTEMPORARY

I didn't know if the girl was still alive or not but I did have suspicions that the mother and others in the village were framing the father, although I didn't know to what extent. The involvement of the journalist with the father was a complete surprise to me.

I thought that the acting was very well done.

marcie · « **Reply #63 on:** November 09, 2009, 12:46:24 PM »

LOST IN AUSTEN SPOILER ALERT

In the third episode of Lost in Austen, Elizabeth Bennett continues to live in the contemporary world (we don't know what she is doing) and continues to have no communication with her family or with Amanda, with whom she has traded places.

Amanda realizes that she loves Darcy, even though she has been adamant that Darcy should love Elizabeth. Darcy declares his love for Amanda but tells her he can't marry her (for proprieties sake) after she has told him that she has had other "boyfriends." A funny scene is when she asks Darcy to step into the water fountain with his clothes on to reprise the scene in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth coming out of the lake in his wet shirt.

Mr. Collins tells Jane that he is completing a period of celebacy after which time he'll consume the marriage. Hopefully, there is still hope for Jane and Mr. Bingley (who has taken to drinking because he's devasted that Jane married Mr. Collins).

We learn that Wickham is not the bad character he is in the original Pride and Prejudice.

I can't wait to see how everything is resolved in the last episode next week. This is a fun and well-acted production.

Frybabe · « **Reply #64 on:** November 09, 2009, 10:56:14 PM »

Just ordered more Wallander series books from Henning Mankell. There is once called The Pyramid, short stories that trace the beginnings of Wallander. Should be interesting. I also ordered the earlier books to catch up as far as Firewall. I do hope that PBS is planning a second season series.

I got around to watching the second half of Place of Execution. Yes, the ending was a bit of a surprise, some of it anyway. Very satisfactory ending.

marcie · « **Reply #65 on:** November 10, 2009, 01:33:24 AM »

Frybabe, I read one other of the Wallander books (in addition to the ones related to the last series). I like Mankell's writing and will read some more.

The 2010 series will be based on the following books: Faceless Killers, The Fifth Woman and The Man Who Smiled. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/05_may/05/wallander.shtml

Frybabe · « **Reply #66 on:** November 10, 2009, 08:20:57 AM »

The only one I haven't ordered out of the new season is The Man Who Smiled. That one is written later than Firewall.

Oh, and I watched some of Othello last night. It wasn't on PBS, but it did include Kenneth Branagh in the cast. I was curious to see how Lawrence Fishbourne did as Othello.

JoanK · « **Reply #67 on:** November 10, 2009, 02:54:18 PM »

This wasn't on PBS, but I watched the program last night about "The Washington Sniper". It brought back a lot of memories. Those of us who were living in the area at the time will never forget it. One of the gas stations where they killed someone filling his tank was one where we regularly got gas. We wouldn't get gas unless we checked out first that there was no place where a gunman could hide. And every time we passed a white van, we shuddered. The worst was that our grandson's school was cancelled, and he was not allowed to play outside.

That, together with 911 and the anthrax incident, made for a bad few years in the Washington area.

pedln · « **Reply #68 on:** November 10, 2009, 07:34:18 PM »

JoanK, I remember that well because that was SeniorNet Books' first get-together in DC and it was right at the time of the sniper. My grandkids had school, but all the extra-curricular stuff and weekend soccer and ball games were cancelled. But the Book Festival went on as scheduled, and there was also another festival going on in downtown DC, too -- lots of food booths, I forget just what it was. But we'd pass it on our way back to the Harrington Hotel. Maybe everyone figured the sniper wouldn't dare try to do anything downtown.

I remember taking the kids bowling, and I was so nervous about them getting from the car into the bowling alley. "Run, don't stand around outside."

Wasn't there a young boy shot outside his school -- his mother dropped him off and he was shot going into the building? In Silver Springs?

JoanK · « **Reply #69 on:** November 10, 2009, 09:27:59 PM »

Yes. He survived: I don't know how disabled he was.

marcie · « **Reply #70 on:** November 13, 2009, 12:28:57 PM »

I think it's well worth your time to view the video of the American Experience 1930s episode on the building of "Hoover Dam." It's available online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/hoover.

A few of the things that struck me:

What a monumental feat, and it was completed about 2 years before the projected completion date.

Towards the end of project, when they were actually building the dam (after building tunnels to force the Colorado River to go around the dam site), they employed 5000+ workers, many who didn't have technical skills, to work 24/7 on the most ambitious man-made structure to that point.

The government hired an architect to convert the structural design into an aesthetically-pleasing monument with thousands of details, including Navajo-inspired designs on the floor. Some of the details they showed in this episode where amazing.

The men who worked on the project worked in unsafe conditions, sometimes in 130 degrees heat.

When FDR became President, he required the project to hire more Black Americans, although they were still segregated with separate living areas, separate trucks to deliver them and separate water buckets.

The workers and their whole families lived in a nearby town that was created almost overnight once the actual building of the dam took place. Prior to that, the families lived in the desert, some even without tents.

marcie · « **Reply #71 on:** November 13, 2009, 01:11:01 PM »

This Monday, American Experience will broadcast in my area, "Surviving the Dust Bowl." It's also available online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/dustbowl. I've found this series to be very well done and I expect another informative episode.

On Sunday, Masterpiece Contemporary will show part 1 of "Collision": Beyond the chaotic
landscape of corpses and crumpled cars in a major road accident, a series of invisible
dramas unfolds -- from government cover-ups to torn relationships and murder.

I'm also looking forward to the final episode of "Lost in Austen."

marcie · « **Reply #72 on:** November 13, 2009, 01:21:07 PM »

I just read my PBS newsletter and there are two programs this week for photography and film buffs.

"Documenting America" brings to life the remarkable stories behind the
legendary group of New Deal-sponsored photographers who captured the face of Depression-era America. See http://www.documentingamerica.org/Home.html

"No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos" provides an intimate portrait of the 50-year journey of two giants of modern cinematography and the deep bond of brotherhood that
transcended every imaginable boundary. See http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/no-subtitles-necessary

pedln · « **Reply #73 on:** November 14, 2009, 10:49:25 AM »

Marcie, am thinking about your post -- we had a book in the high school library showing faces of the depression. I can't think of the name of it, but it was done by Erskine Caldwell and a woman -- Margaret? That's going to have me thinking all day, unless I can find it somewhere. Anyone??

Thanks for the reminder about Collision. It doesn't sound like it will be anything like Crash, which I enjoyed very much.

CubFan · « **Reply #74 on:** November 14, 2009, 11:03:54 AM »

Pedlin -

To save you that nagging feeling - I think what you're trying to remember is

You Have Seen Their Faces (with Margaret Bourke-White, 1937)

Mary

marcie · « **Reply #75 on:** November 14, 2009, 07:30:13 PM »

Here is a link to the five photographers who will be featured on "Documenting America."

http://www.documentingamerica.org/Photographers/Photographers.html

Margaret Bourke-White is not among them but there are two other women among the group of five.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #76 on:** November 15, 2009, 12:51:24 AM »

Walker Evans was photographer for the book with text by James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men about the sharecroppers in the South, hardest hit by The Great Depression.

Babi · « **Reply #77 on:** November 15, 2009, 10:19:05 AM »

Thanks for the heads-up, MARCIE. I see that "Collision" will be shown on my PBS local tonight, too. I'll have my daughter tape it for me.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #78 on:** November 16, 2009, 12:25:24 PM »

JoanK · « **Reply #79 on:** November 16, 2009, 03:16:26 PM »

Watched part of "Collison" last night. The premise was very interesting, but somehow the idea that so many random people would have something to hide really stretches credibility.

News:

Author Topic: PBS Programs Fall 2009 (Read 43788 times)