jcampbell-06364

Before the widespread use of the internet, there was something called 1-900 or 1-800 connections on the telephone for "services". In the 1990's, in the multitude of late-night infomercials was the Psychic Readers Network, a group of people hired to read Tarot cards in a system that charged in the neighborhood of $5/minute. The biggest name of this group of people was Miss Cleo. I really don't know if you are not aware of who this person was that you would be interested in this documentary, but it is interesting anyway for a handful of reasons. People from Seattle were perplexed to see this woman who claimed to be a Jamaican voodoo priestess since she seemed so familiar to them. Her life in Seattle is a good basis as to how to take this person as you see this story unfold. The irony of this is that she was used by the PRN to make millions for them while some poor souls poured their hearts out to her and others in a desperate need to find answers to their problems. The Florida people who owned PRN used her identity (?) to make their money while paying her and others very little. The ending of this movie really confused me as she bravely fought her own confusions and angst to find a happy resolution to the rest of her life. The problem was for me. . .what self image was being addressed? I found the whole thing to be ironically confusing, yet I could not stop watching this.

I became a big Keri Russell fan after watching her work in ABC's The Americans; so, when I heard she had a series coming on Netflix, I could not wait until the end of the school year so that I could start watching this. I was not disappointed. I also read an article before watching this about some actual diplomats who were asked to comment about the show, and they said there were some similarities in what they did, but not a whole lot. I don't care. This is one of the smartest series I have ever seen. She plays Kate Wyler, the American (or is she Russian, hmmmm--j/k) ambassador to the UK, after being yanked from a previous position that she preferred and more fitted for. She is married to Hal (Rufus Sewell), an impressively knowledgeable veteran in foreign affairs, who likes to work behind the scenes in trying to fix tense situations. The problem is Kate is not always appreciative of his efforts to the point where she feels the marriage cannot survive his shenanigans, despite his complete devotion to the marriage. Their physical attraction to each other does not help in deciding the fate of their relationship. The main crux of this season is that a British ship gets blown up, causing the PM to come to the conclusion that the Russians were behind it. Kate is not so sure and goes to work with her aides to find out what she can. The cast is fantastic. The writing is crisp. The ensemble work is near perfect. The situations are fun. The people playing reactionary (I wonder how they came up with this approach) Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) and the ancient yet wily tactician (I wonder how they came up with this approach) American President William Rayburn (Michael McKean) are also pretty much perfect. I look forward to the next season, but I fear that it won't live up the standards set by this first season.

Jimmy (Jason Segel), a psychologist lost his wife, leaving him with a teenage daughter, but he is so distraught that he is nonresponsive to her needs. His boss, Paul (Harrison Ford), has issues of his own from a health point of view by staring into the face of old age, while his cohort Gaby (SNL's Jessica Williams) is a sharp, effervescent shrink with no holds barred and tends to take up the slack that Jimmy had been incapable of with his daughter. This is not exactly the greatest scenario for a knee-slapping comedy. It is a comedy, only because the writing allows the cynicism of the characters to flourish. The show does have a good sense of humanity, however. Growth is eventual in this heartwarming show, and it can be pretty comforting in its observations. The cast is really good together and gets better as the characters and situations start to define themselves. The only issue I had with this series is that they tried to stick with a 30-minute time limit with each episode, which made a lot of the resolutions to be rushed and nonviable; so, I thought that some extra writing should have been allowed for the aroma of the wine--er, I mean plot--to have a fuller body.