Category Archives: Alzheimer’s disease

2011, Adopted child, Alzheimer's disease, Amusing banter, Baby Selling, Baby snatching, Blackmail, British Drama, British Mystery Series, Cocaine, Comic Moments, Conspiracy, Corrupt Care Givers, Corrupt policemen, Corrupt Politicians, Dark family secrets, DO NOT MISS, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Failed Father, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Family Secrets, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Flashbacks, Friendship, Illegitimate Child, Journalist, Marital Infidelity, Mental Institution, Nudity, PBS Masterpiece Streaming, Physical child abuse, Plot Twist, Rape, Sad small town, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Vulgar

Exile (2011)

From PBS Passport:

Tom Ronstadt’s world has fallen apart. Tom returns to his hometown and begins to unravel the mystery that drove him away years ago, unaware that he is unearthing a devastating crime that will reveal secrets he could never have imagined.

From PBS Passport you can stream the 3 episodes of this mystery drama series. Each episode lasts about an hour.

With a cast of British actors “to die for”, you cannot go wrong:

  • Tom Ronstadt (played by John Simm) is a washed-up reporter who returns to his hometown where he finds that
  • his sister Nancy (played by Olivia Colman) has devoted her life to caring for
  • her father (played by Jim Broadbent) who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Tom, ever on the prowl, hooks up with the barmaid Mandy Eldridge  (played by Claire Goose) who turns out to be the wife of
  • Mike Eldridge (played by Shaun Dooley) who was Tom’s best buddy while they were growing up.
  • Mike works for Metzler (played by Timothy West) who, we learn bit by bit, is a horrible but well disguised monster.

Only warning in sight: Expect a constant stream of vulgar banter.

Sound intriguing?  Expect shocking plot revelations.

DO NOT MISS!

2021, Abduction, Acceptable for teenagers, Alzheimer's disease, Anxiety Attacks, Bloody scenes, Corruption, Dark family secrets, French, Gaslighting, Harmful Medicine, Human experimentation, Mad scientist, Mary Higgins Clark, MHz Choice, Missing Person, Murder, Narcissistic Personality, Occasionaly violent, Plastic surgery, Suspense, Wrongful Arrest

Mary Higgens Clark Mysteries (2021)

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From MHz Choice:

Mary Higgins Clark is the Queen of Suspense, with over 3.7 million books sold worldwide. She is the all-time bestselling fiction author in France, where she received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policiè re in 1980 and was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in the Legion of Honor. Now, the acclaimed novelist is reinvented in a new series of TV movies based on her most popular mysteries, with thrilling plots, gorgeous scenery and nerve-shattering suspense.

From MHz CHoice you can stream 2 seasons. Season 1 contains 3 episodes and  season 2 contains 4 episodes. Each episode lasts 1.5 hours. French with subtitles.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this author, the following comes from Wikipedia:

Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark[1] (December 24, 1927 – January 31, 2020)[2] was an American author of suspense novels. Each of her 51 books was a bestseller in the United States and various European countries, and all of her novels remained in print as of 2015, with her debut suspense novel, Where Are the Children?, in its seventy-fifth printing.

2021 is probably not the correct date, but MHz Choice gives no date for when the series were created.

As our first quote from MHz Choice shows, her suspense novels were greatly admired in France. No wonder then, that this series comes from France with English subtitles. Look sharp because in each episode for a short screen shot someone is reading one of her plainly visible novels.

Suspense indeed!  With such engaging plots that drive to a tense conclusion, I can heartily recommend these 7 episodes.

2014, Acceptable Trash, Accidental Death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, Amazon Prime, Arson, Art Marketing, Autism, Binge worthy, Brother-Brother relations, Brother-Sister relations, Cancer theme, Cooking and food, Corny at times, Corrupt Prison Guards, Courtroom scenes, Depression, Detective, Divorce, DO NOT MISS, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Ethical struggles, Explicit sex, Explicit sexual discussion, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, False Imprisonment, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Fishing, Flashbacks, Flirting, Friendship, Gay theme, Happy Family Gatherings, Husband leaves wife, Illegitimate Child, Incompetent or unfit mother, Lawyers, Longsuffering wife, Love Story, Love Triangle, Marital Infidelity, Medical Theme, Mental Illness, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Murder Trial, Narcissist, Nudity, Occasionaly violent, Prison, Psychiatrists, Romance, Small Town, Small Town Atmosphere, Soap Opera, Suicide, Surfing, Unhappy Marriage, Unmarried mother, Weird California Cultures, Wife leaves husband, Womanizing

The Affair (2014)

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From IMDB:

A struggling novelist and a young waitress strike up an extramarital relationship that promises to forever change the course of their lives.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 10 episodes of this steamy romance and crime series. Each episode is just under 1 hour.

UPDATE:  Now from Amazon Prime you can stream 5 seasons of the soap opera that never ends. Season 2 has 12 episodes. Season 5 has 11 episodes. Seasons 1,3, and 4 have 10 episodes. Each episode is still about one hour.  That gives us a total of 53 hours of soap opera escape.

Nothing is perfect. Some portions are downright corny.  There is a strange interruption in plot when Noah seems to be having a series of psychotic episodes.  Did the writers forget to finish that part of the story?   Sometimes present events plus flashbacks from the past might seem somewhat confusing.

Toward the end I watched slowly because I did not want the story to end.  If a LOOOONG soap opera with a fair number of sometimes explicit sex scenes is your thing, DO NOT MISS!

Original review:

Noah Solloway is played by Dominic West,  the British actor with a long acting resumé. At the time of filming he was 45 years old.

Alison Bailey is played by Ruth Wilson, the British actress whose own resumé is just as long even though she was only 32 years old at the time of filming.  Her role as the sociopath “Alice Morgan” in the TV series “Luther” was chillingly unforgettable.

Alison’s marriage is failing while she and her husband morn the death of their young son.  Noah is having trouble writing his second novel and is trying desperately to be faithful to his wife even though he is immediately attracted to Alison.

Along the way there is a death that is being investigated  by Detective Jeffries.

As soap operas go, this one is not too bad.

2017, Acceptable for teenagers, Alzheimer's disease, Amazon Prime, Basically Sad, British, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Flashbacks, Missing Person, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Mystery Film, PBS Masterpiece Streaming, Police Investigation, Possibly depressing, Wonderful acting

Elizabeth Is Missing (2019)

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From PBS.org:

Returning to television for the first time in nearly three decades, two-time Academy Award®–winner Glenda Jackson stars as a woman desperately trying to solve two mysteries as she declines ever deeper into dementia, in Elizabeth Is Missing, an adaptation of Emma Healey’s acclaimed novel.

From PBS Passport currently you can stream this 1 hour 27 minute film.  Amazon Prime requires that you pay to stream.

Again from PBS.org:

Jackson astounded critics during the UK broadcast of Elizabeth Is Missing in late 2019. “Glenda Jackson shines in this heartrending whodunnit” (The Guardian); “Jackson gave one of the performances of her lifetime” (The Daily Telegraph); “Jackson is remarkable” (The Independent); “a devastatingly real performance” (The Times); “brilliant” (Radio Times).

Glenda Jackson in 2019, when the show first aired, was 83 years old.  She is remembered for her role as Alex Greville in  Sunday Bloody Sunday which was made in 1971 when she was a mere 35 years of age.

Watching   her as Maud Horsham struggle against the onset of Alzheimer’s can be profoundly upsetting.  Some of our friends could not sleep after watching the drama.  “Will this happen to me?”  is a scary question.  Just as real as her studied and accurate performance are the reactions of those who care for her:  her daughter and her grand-daughter.

If you want to see superb acting, DO NOT MISS!

 

2012, Acceptable for teenagers, Acceptable Trash, Adopted child, Alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, Amazon Prime, Comedy, Corny, Dancing, Father-daughter relations, Feel Good Not For Children, Gay theme, Happy Family Gatherings, Love Story, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Personal Betrayal, Romance, Sign language for the deaf

The Perfect Wedding (2012)

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From IMDB:

Home for the Christmas holiday, a gay man starts falling for his ex-boyfriend’s lover, not knowing that the relationship is a mere pretense.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 22 minute comedy romance film.

When society is having a tough time, entertainment at that time can be grim. For example, in France after WWII the outlook was bleak which may explain why for a time La Grand Guignol was a popular live performance that featured torture. When times improved, that entertainment closed down.

So here we are in July 2020 suffering from the COVID-19 caronavirus.  At the same time there are quite a few streaming offerings that are real downers. Don’t despair – “The Perfect Wedding”  is an unabashed piece of acceptable trash that is a corny feel-good soap opera. And I guarantee you a happy ending for all four couples:  Mom and Dad must confront Dad’s incipient Alzheimer’s disease;  Daughter wants to marry her boyfriend in a simple wedding; Daughter introduces her girl friend to Son’s workmate; reformed alcoholic Son will find his male soul mate.

James Rebhorn, who plays Dad, is instantly recognizable. From his sizable resumé we see that he was Frank Mathison in Homeland.

What’s not to love?  Especially when I LOVE TRASH!

 

2016, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Alzheimer's disease, Based on a Book, Bloody scenes, British, Brother-Brother relations, Car Chase, Child abduction and murder, Clever Plot, Complicated, Computer geeks, Corny at times, Drag Queen, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, Father-son relations, Forensics, Harlan Coben, Illegitimate Child, Kidnapping, Marital Infidelity, Missing Person, Mother-son relations, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Nothing special, Police Culture, Prison, Prostitutes, Psychopath, School Teacher, Serial Killer, Sexual Tension, Teenagers, TV Series, Violent

The Five (2016)

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From Netflix:

Twenty years after 5-year-old Jesse disappears near his home, his DNA turns up at the scene of a woman’s murder, baffling his family and the police.

From Netflix we streamed the 10 episodes of season 1 (the only season offered). Each episode is about 44 minutes.

After 10 somewhat involved episodes the story does come to a conclusion with no cliff-hangers leading into another season.  Sometimes the acting is not great, but the story is well-constructed and kept me interested up to the end.  In fact, the story is written by the well-known mystery writer Harlan Coben.

“The Five” are four friends who were adolescents when Jesse was just a little boy. One day in the woods, the four older kids tell Jesse to go home because they want to do big-kids stuff. On the way home Jesse disappears. Decades later the four still have guilt feelings and Jesse’s parents never stopped suffering.

Those of us who watch British entertainment might be interested to know that Jesse’s parents are played by Michael Maloney (whose huge resumé includes playing Dr. Crowley in the TV series “Paranoid”) and Geraldine James (whose equally huge resumé includes playing Milner in the TV series “Utopia”).

One of the four friends, the police detective Danny Kenwood, plays Luke Bankole in the TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Another of the four friends,  Slade, may be familiar to you as the character John Bacchus in the TV series “Inspector George Gently”.

Some ugliness, not a masterpiece, but I never guessed the ending and so stayed interested.

2017, Acceptable for teenagers, Acceptable Science, Acorn TV, Adopted child, Alzheimer's disease, Ambiguous Conclusion, Amusing banter, Animal story, Assisted Suicide, Australian, Bloody scenes, Brother-Brother relations, Cancer theme, Comic Moments, Could Be Sad, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Drugs, Ends in Cliff Hanger, Family Conflict, Father-son relations, Feel Good Not For Children, Flirting, Jealousy, Love Story, Made For TV, Melodrama, Mother-son relations, Nudity, School Teacher, Sensitive treatement of emotions, Sex Scenes, Small Town, Small Town Atmosphere, Somewhat trashy, Terminal Disease, Uncategorized, Witty dialog

The Heart Guy (2017)

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From Acorn TV:

Hugh Knight is a rising star in the Sydney heart surgery ranks. He is gifted, charmed, and infallible: a hedonist who – due to his sheer talent – believes he can live outside the rules. But after an incident involving drugs and alcohol, his world comes crashing down. Placed on the Impaired Registrants List for his part in the debacle by the Medical Board, he is banned from surgery and can only work as a local doctor. 

Acorn TV offers Series 1 with 10 episodes, each of approximately 45 minutes length.

Love, loss, sex, comic banter, medical practice, family, jealousy, close friendships, cancer, fatherhood: you name it, it’s all there in this fun-to-watch, very popular Australian TV series. Best of all there is nothing more violent than a fist fight or two.

This Aussie series is much less serious than another Acorn TV offering (which I highly recommend) called “A Place To Call Home” even though there are some sad parts.

WARNING: Episode 10 ends ambiguously, probably in preparation for another season.

Need something “feel good” to watch?  Then don’t miss this show!

 

2005, Abduction, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, Based on a Book, Bloody scenes, Clever Plot, Corruption, Crime, Dark, Depression, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Drug Dealers, Father-daughter relations, Forensics, Gay theme, Interest in dogs, Kidnapping, Lesbian Theme, Made For TV, Marital Infidelity, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Police Corruption, Revenge, School Teacher, Sex Scenes, Suicide, Suspense, Swedish, Swedish crime series, Teenagers, Tragedy, Violent, Well developed plot

Swedish Wallander (2005-2012)

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From Netflix:

Detective Kurt Wallander is an intense, headstrong maverick who’s prone to eating poorly, sleeping irregularly and drinking too much. Wallander relies on instinct and experience and doesn’t shy away from using illegal means to solve crimes.

Kathy and I have just finished stream-bingeing on all the Swedish Wallander episodes of which there are many. Cable TV gets worse each day and we were grateful to have something well-written, well-acted, and gripping to watch in the evening. Thank you, Netflix. “Gripping” is an important keyword (picture Kathy leaving the room during violent encounters).

To be precise about numbers of episodes:

Season 1 comprises 13 episodes.
Season 2 comprises 13 episodes.
Season 3 comprises 6 episodes.

Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander is a dedicated (even better – obsessed) detective whose personal life is one of drinking, loneliness, and coldness to his family. In other words, he is a mess. To his credit, the Swedish actor Krister Henriksson portrays such a man to perfection. However, as in often the case in such types of TV series, as much time is spent exploring his relations with others as in solving murder cases. For example, “Dicta“, which I have strongly recommended is cast in the same mold.

Quite a bit of camera footage is devoted to leisurely scanning the Swedish landscape and waterways. Wallander and his beloved dog Jussi take many walks on the beach outside his house.

During the course of the three seasons, characters come and go, never to be seen again.

Season 3 ends tragically. But I will not say more because that would be a spoiler. If you want to know what I mean, then send me email.

Once again, if you enjoy intense detective procedurals DO NOT MISS either “Dicta” or “Wallander”.

Be aware that there is also the Kenneth Branagh “Wallander” English series from Masterpiece Mystery.

Alzheimer's disease, Comedy, Could Be Sad, Crude Talk, DO NOT MISS, Dysfunctional Lives, Father-son relations, Greed, Human spirit, Possibly depressing, Quiet, Sad small town, Senior citizens, Sensitive treatement of emotions, Wonderful acting

Nebraska (2013)

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From Netflix:

When a cantankerous old boozer thinks he’s won a magazine sweepstakes prize, his son reluctantly takes a road trip with him to claim the fortune. As they drive from Montana to Nebraska, they visit friends and relatives to whom the dad owes money.

Ignore the misleading Netflix blurb. In summary, this is a wonderful film – HOWEVER …

When the movie began I did a lot of squirming, as in:

  • Who wants to watch a concentration of losers all in one desolate spot?
  • In fact who wants to visit such desolation? (Somehow the towns reminded us of Herkimer in upper state New York where Kathy grew up.)
  • Why would the sons of such a hateful father turn out to be such kind men?
  • How could that old boozer have lived with such a bitch all those years?
  • Who wants to watch incipient Alzheimer’s disease?
  • Who wants to watch greedy cretins?

Even if your initial response is a complete turn-off, please stick with the film. For one thing, the acting is so superb that it can be depressing. Will that be us in a few years? If so, let me off the planet right now!

Eventually I was cheering for “the bitch” of a mother. Dave (played to affectionate perfection by 44 year old Will Forte) was almost too good to be true. His final gestures toward his failing father are almost tear-jerkers. Bruce Dern turns in a solid performance at the tender age of 78.

Sometimes you have to get past momentary discomfort to earn a really good watching experience. DO NOT MISS!

2013, Acceptable for children, Alzheimer's disease, B-movie, Could Be Sad, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Father-son relations, Feel Good For All, Mediocre, Melodrama, Optimistic, Plot Twist, Quiet

Straight A’s (2013)

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From Netflix:

Seeking redemption, family outcast Scott returns to his hometown, only to throw everyone’s lives into disarray. It’s particularly troubling for his sister-in-law, who was once his high school sweetheart.

Give this “Straight A’s” a rating of a Straight B.

However, it is (except possibly for many uses of the F-Word) a feel-good film suitable for children. Since it was a 2013 film made immediately available for Netflix streaming, you might suspect this film is not Oscar material.

Sorry, but for me Anna Paquin will always be Sookie Stackhouse from that TV vampire-fest “True Blood”. Ryan Phillipe played Louis Roulet in “The Lincoln Lawyer“.

There is nothing really wrong with this predictable melodrama except for its mediocrity. In fact, if you are watching while doing something else constructive, this is not a bad diversion.