TROLLING & STREAMING

With a plethora of options I have become cavalier when investing time in front of my mini movie screen; if it doesn’t look good or kidnap my attention within the first ten minutes, I make a speedy exit, with no regrets. Here are a few that kept me binging well into the wee hours:

“Shtisel” (Hebrew: English Subtitles) (Netflix).

The third season reunites viewers with ultra-Orthodox friends and their travails from the compelling prior seasons. This is the grandest of the trio; characters have matured, acceptance permeates, inspires their actions; religious dictates peppered with contemporary logic; charm, wisdom and glorious acting earns this season…..FOUR STARS!!!!

“Judgment” (Les Honorables” French: English Subtitles).  (Amazon Prime).

A juicy, sensational series focusing on a murdered athlete, her grieving family and a weird culprit acquitted of the crime. Incredibly pungent is what transforms highly conscientious practitioners of the legal code into callous killers. Husband/wife judges, must contemplate a life without their slain daughter; a psychological thriller with whiplash intensity, that stuns with its every twist.  THREE & ½ STARS!!!

“The Serpent” (French, English) (Netflix)

Scintillating, sleazy conman Charles Sobhraj is depicted with impressive, charming duplicity by Tahar Rahim (“A Prophet”, “The Mauritanan”); ghastly scenes illuminate his killing, robbing and erasing young, gullible tourists in Asia in the mid-70’s. His cohort Maria-Andree Leclerc (sensual Jenna Coleman), sickeningly mesmerized by Charles; his Svengali, messianic mystique asphyxiates any decency she might have had; their “Bonnie and Clyde” evil escapades are resoundingly embellished in this addictively watchable series. THREE & ½ STARS!!!

“Mare of Easttown”    (HBOMax). 

Kate Winslet is devastatingly phenomenal as detective “Mare Sheehan”: dowdy, conflicted, suffering small mindedness in rural Pennsylvania; she has historical baggage that viewers are challenged to decipher; Winslet is a force, scion of the screen, “Mare” is proof of her exponential growth as a master of the genre. FOUR & ½ STARS!!!!

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