Season 45 - Poldark Series 1 (2015)
From hearing the first strains of music as the picture faded in I fell in love with Poldark. The sweeping Cornish coastline coupled with the theme music created an ache in my heart that made me nostalgic for a place I have never been. While I enjoyed the complete series, especially the encroaching Regency fashions, and hope that it will one day return to continue the story when they are older, the first series remains my favorite. This show wallows in star-crossed lovers, from Elizabeth and Ross to Verity and Captain Blamey to Dwight and Keren these are just the tip of the iceberg before Demelza's broody brothers were introduced. But to me what makes the show work is coupling the heart with the humor. The overly melodramatic Ross needs someone as pragmatic and blunt as Aunt Agatha to balance his histrionics. Also George and his fantasies are always blunted by his Uncle, the magnificent Pip Torrens. Though the humor of the series can be summarized in one person, Jud. When Phil Davis left the show they lost a comic genius and one of the checks and balances that kept this show sailing smoothly. There's a reason why the show was good but never quite as good after that first season. George had more depth, the plots seemed more personal, and there was Ross and Demelza falling in love. The way Demelza healed Ross's heart after Elizabeth shredded it to bits (and yes I'm fully ignoring what happened later.) Oh my, be still my heart. The scullery maid got the guy! Yes, she did force his hand a little but he grew to love her and she became his rock. The forth episode of series one might just be ranked among my favorite television episodes of all time. In the episode Demelza and Ross go to Trenwith for Christmas. This could be disastrous. On so many levels. But Demelza shines and not only do the other guests see what Ross saw all along, but Ross also sees Demelza anew and realizes how lucky he is. This was the pinnacle of the Poldark passion and romance for me. The dress, the singing, the pregnancy, the love, oh, I feel a great need to go rewatch the whole first season again and perhaps this episode more than once.
The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris
Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire
Master of the Revels by Nichole Gallad
Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh
The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard
Homicide at Rough Point by Peter Lance
The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
I have always loved epic stories set in India. Indian Summers tapped into that on many levels. Set during the waning days of the British Raj, there's a sense that the party was winding down and these characters were grasping for whatever they could get, leading them to, more often than not, make disastrous choices. The show has very little in the way of plot other than lots of romantic obstacles, but the stellar cast makes up for any plot defects. Come one people, Julia Walters! Not to mention Patrick Malahide, Nikesh Patel, Art Malik, Blake Ritson, and Craig Parkinson. I could just watch them wander the lanes between their precious club and their homes for hours on end. The insufferable heat they were trying to escape by summering in Simla, in the foothills of the Himalayas, is palpable onscreen and made me feel like I was there. I know there are a lot of people who took issue with the show, primarily due to the fact that instead of actually filming in India they filmed in Penang, Malaysia, and, well, you can tell, but it still succeeded in creating that atmosphere of suffocating and insufferable British superiority where they refuse to dress for the climate because that wouldn't be British. I can even see them sitting around set declaring themselves to be in India when they were not. I do wish the show had been given a chance to play out over the intended five seasons, because they started moving more into the political upheavals that were on the horizon in India with Gandhi and contrasting his power with that of the Raj with the introduction of Art Malik as the Maharajah of Amritpur in season two. A change was in the wind and the cracks really started to show in season two and then it just ended! And what about the romance between Alice and Aafrin! The series ends with a potential happy ending for the mixed race couple, but would that have actually lasted if the show went on for three more seasons? Or did they shoehorn this in to give the audience some kind of happy ending even though anyone who has any sense of history would know how hard the life they chose would be in 1935. Also would the show have tackled World War II? But I have to settle with what we got, a slice of life, not perfect, but very atmospheric.
If there's one thing that is certain in this life it's that we viewers love a good glimpse into royal life. And seeing as until recently Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch it makes sense that she's the one most often brought to the screen, especially in cameos in any film set during the Victorian era. In fact many of my favorite actresses, and a handful of actors, have portrayed Victoria in their time, Annette Crosbie, Miriam Margolyes, Anna Massey, Victoria Hamilton, Prunella Scales, Pauline Collins, Pam Ferris, Gayle Rankin, Imelda Staunton, Kathy Bates, and Gemma Jones are a few of my favorites, though a tip of the hat to certain members of Monty Python's Flying Circus is also due. You might notice I omitted Emily Blunt and The Young Victoria. I know it feels sacrilegious to say I don't like something written by Julian Fellowes, but the movie just felt like a subpar version of the Victoria and Albert miniseries staring Victoria Hamilton and the lesser Firth. Needles to say this meant I was very excited when I heard about the new Victoria series staring Jenna Coleman. She's a talented actress and they just destroyed her character on Doctor Who and I felt that this would be her redemption. Also the show just happened to be created by an author whose work I really like, Daisy Goodwin! Seriously, do yourself a favor and check out 
The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis
An Extravagant Death by Charles Finch
Modern English by Rachel Spangler
She Wore a Yellow Dress by John R. Cammidge
If, like many people, you discovered the marvel that is Anya Taylor-Joy during quarantine through either The Queen's Gambit or Emma. and are looking for something equally marvelous that she stars in, unlike say Thoroughbreds, may I bring The Miniatruist to your attention? An adaptation of the Jessie Burton book, this is a rare adaptation that is, in my mind, better than the book. And it's not just the delight in the dueling Emmas, Romala Garai portrayed Miss Woodhouse in the 2009 miniseries which still happens to be my favorite adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, though the Emmas was vastly entertaining to me. Everything about this miniseries that was distilled down from the book makes it a perfect story that doesn't overstay it's welcome, yes, I am looking at the book with a bit of side-eye. One of the reasons this is so wonderful is that sometimes an image does work better than words to convey a time period, and each and every single shot of this miniseries is lush with color and looks like it could be a painting by Vermeer! The clothes, the house, the cabinet, the miniatures, everything is just so perfect. Also, the way the camera frames the actors with long shots while they are in doorways almost makes them look like dolls themselves. Shivers for the parallels of the cabinet and the miniaturist making puppets of the household! If I have one complaint, and of course I always have one complaint, it's that Nella's confrontation of the miniaturist felt rushed and ill-defined. I'd almost prefer no explanation to the explanation we got. How she does what she does in a quickly whispered confession to being an observant person with a possible sixth sense. Seriously, more or nothing! Also, this really tamed the miniaturist in my opinion, in the book she is distinctly malevolent, especially towards Nella's sister-in-law Marin. But one complaint for the miniseries versus my unending list that I complied while reading the book once again proves that adaptation leads to flouishing. Darwin was right! Though I'm sure he didn't think it would be applied to a form of entertainment... 
When I was in grade school and high school Les Misérables was everywhere. In grade school the t-shirt for the musical was a badge of honor that your parents had taken you to a big city to see the show. In other words, that you had money. Just like winter coats with ski lift tags. In high school it was the cool music and theatre kids who wore them as a coat of arms. I, being the misanthrope that I have always been, took it as a mark of how cool I was that I had never seen the musical and had no desire to. Cats ALL THE WAY! I continue to revel in the fact that I have never seen Les Misérables and have no plans to ever see it. I know some of you are shocked and even some of you who I consider my close friends are planning on disavowing me, but you're not going to guilt me into seeing it. EVER! Therefore hearing that Masterpiece was doing a no singing, no dancing adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel made me very happy. I could finally see an adaptation without hearing "One Day More!" Even better, Andrew Davies was adapting it. I know a lot of you have issues with him, to that I say you're hypocrites. Davies can have a moistened Colin Firth but any other sex is off bounds? How do you think say the Bennet's had children in the first place!?! Sigh. Some people would rather live in cloud cuckoo land than the real world I guess and "modern" adaptations have, for the most part, succeeded by grounding them in reality. I also liked Davies attitude going in that he was going to adapt the book to show the lesser known storylines, the plot points that weren't worthy of the musical. Plus casting Dominic West as Jean Valjean and David Oyelowo as Javert was genius. I will watch anything with Dominic West, I ever finished out the shit show that was The Affair because he was in it and am really looking forward to the new adaptation of The Pursuit of Love. As for Les Misérables itself... it showed a very bleak and at times incomprehensible world. There is a lot of death and so much of it is unnecessary... but then, that's life. None of us get out of it alive. Though most of us don't just randomly die in a garden with no ovious cause of death. Could we get a crossover with Masterpiece Mystery and bring in Poirot? 
The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
The Girl from Shadow Springs by Ellie Cypher
The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor
Loner by Georgina Young
