Potpourri: Viewing & Reading

VIEWING OPTIONS

From New Zealand to Australia to Spain, I’ve been traveling the world in my recent TV viewing.  It’s marvelous to have so many new series from which to choose.

The Sounds (Acorn)

The Sounds is an adventure tale. It’s set in the fiords off New Zealand’s South Island.  Doubtful Sound or the better-known Milford Sound are favorite tourist destinations.  On a day-long or overnight cruise, one can go deep into a fiord and experience the eeriness of almost complete silence. 

If you read the comments on Facebook when considering this 8-part series, you might not watch it.  Is it plausible? Is Maggie a convincing character?  Nonetheless, the Chief Penguin and I watched it separately and found it consuming enough to keep us on the treadmill.

Tom and Maggie Cabbott are escaping life in Canada and starting a sustainable fishery in the small town of Pelorus.  Tom is the black sheep in a wealthy family and goes ahead to set things up.  When Maggie arrives, there is immediate disgruntlement from a native woman, and it seems Tom has not filled in all the requisite boxes.  The next day he disappears in his kayak and a massive search effort begins.  

What are Tom and Maggie really planning?  What are police chief Jack’s festering secrets?  What is Zoe, Jack’s daughter, up to, and why is Pania so riled up?  Past crimes, suspicion, and big money are all intermixed in this complex stew of relationships. I recommend giving The Sounds a try.

Flesh and Blood (PBS Masterpiece)

Flesh and Blood is full of tangled emotions, secrets, and surprises.  When their widowed mother, Vivien, begins seeing Mark, a retired doctor, her three adult children are concerned, puzzled, and then upset.  They think the relationship is moving too quickly, and they have questions about Mark’s past.  But Vivien’s offspring have relationship issues of their own from infidelity to lack of trust to secret affairs.  Add in nosy, but from her view, well-intentioned neighbor Mary, and it gets messy and threatens to explode.  Gripping with an unexpected ending!  Is it really the end or will there be a season 2?

Mystery Road (Amazon Prime)

This Mystery Road is a spin off from a movie of the same name, both starring Aaron Pederson.  Set in the Australian outback, the scenery is stunningly beautiful, a plus for a story that moves slowly.  Detective Jay Swan is dispatched to a small town to assist in the search for two missing young men.  Marley is an indigenous kid and rising football star while Reese is white and came from elsewhere to work on the cattle station.  Heading up the local police team is Emma James (played by Judy Davis), who co-owns the cattle station with her brother Tom.  As a Black cop, Jay is considered suspect by both the white and Black communities.  A man of extreme reserve, he and Emma work together to some extent, while he sometimes goes off pursuing leads on his own.  

This first season is 8 episodes. In the beginning, it was so slow, I debated leaving it.  I persisted and then got caught up in the relationships between the various factions in the community. These are at least as important as the crime to be solved.  The concluding episodes are tense and exciting and worth the wait.   There is a season 2 which I have not watched.  Some reviewers bemoan the fact that Judy Davis is no longer in it.  (~JWFarrington)

SIBLINGS IN LITERATURE AND LIFE 

Book Club Notes—The Dutch House

My local book club had a lively discussion about The Dutch House, Ann Patchett’s latest novel.  I had read it back in February and then skimmed it for this meeting.  I enjoyed and appreciated it even more on the second round.  

The characters are richly developed and the sibling relationship between Danny and his older sister Maeve, the strongest and most critical one for both of them.  Maeve is the light around which this story, called a fairy tale by several reviewers, revolves.  She is sister, mother, guide and even goad (think medical school) to Danny.  They survive and thrive under the attention and care of the two women who ran their father’s household.  He was often absent, their mother abandoned them, and their stepmother threw them out.  It’s a carefully crafted novel with straightforward prose.  Still highly recommended!

The Wright Siblings—Maiden Flight

Recently, I commented here on the new novel about Katharine Wright, younger sister of Wilbur and Orville, entitled The Wright Sister.  Reading that work prompted me to read the earlier novel, Maiden Flight, by Harry Haskell.  It’s about Katharine’s late life love affair and marriage to Henry Haskell.  Author Haskell is the grandson of Henry Haskell and had access to letters and documents housed in several library collections. 

His approach is to alternate the relation of events in the voices of Katharine, Orville, and Henry, with the occasional interlude by another friend.  The voices are distinct and capture their personalities.  And his telling bears out Orville’s estrangement from the sister who was often viewed as a spouse in her care and attention to him.  Haskell also reinforces the complex triangle that was Katharine, Orville and Henry, and the delicacy with which Katharine approached each man.  This makes the novel worth reading, but it suffers from an excess of detail on some matters. An example is the long drawn out struggle to have the Wright brothers’ plane displayed at the Smithsonian.  Perhaps Mr. Haskell felt he had to include every bit of information in his source material.  

Like Danny and Maeve in The Dutch House, Orville’s most important relationship was with his sister (and for many years, hers with him). When Katharine married, Orville couldn’t forgive her and never saw her again until her death.

Note: Header photo is Sarasota Bay looking toward the bridge to Lido Key by JWFarrington.