Oprah’s returning to her TV roots
Greenleaf 1 Series, 13 episodes
The concept of having an entire series set around a church might be so off-putting to viewers that you can understand Netflix going to town with the fact that Oprah Winfrey (who produced the series for her Oprah Winfrey Network in the US) is in it a little bit. But in fact Oprah’s cameo is one of the least compelling aspects of this saga of faith, sex and spirituality. It’s a story of people trying to live up to the high standards of the good book — and failing. Merle Dandridge stars as Grace Greenleaf, the prodigal daughter who returns to the family’s Memphis mansion 20 years after fleeing. She arrives with her teenage daughter Sophia (Desiree Ross) to attend the funeral of her sister Faith, who died under mysterious circumstances. The reception is less than warm, especially among her siblings Jacob (Lamman Rucker) and Charity (Deborah Joy Winans), who resent Grace’s disappearing act and fear her return could jeopardise their standing in the church leadership. The issue of child abuse and how a church deals with it is explored here and, though the strength of the series lies more in the performances than the writing, cliche is mostly avoided. In her moment on screen Oprah shines as brightly as you would expect — she began her chat career by holding forth as a child ‘preacher’ in mass, after all.
Groundhog Day (1993) Available from Wednesday
Firstly, what in the name of God happened to Andie MacDowell? Any re-watching of Groundhog Day must first beg that question. It seemed like only yesterday she was everywhere, selling us makeup, starring in blockbusters. Perhaps, the thought crosses the mind, she still is trapped inside this movie, dolefully listening to Bill Murray’s gloriously laconic quips and watching his life unfold like Sisyphus’ mountain — he plays a weatherman who sees the famous groundhog and gets condemned to live the same day again and again forever. Anyway, the endless repetition aside, it wouldn’t be the worst place for Andie to end up. Not much was expected of Groundhog Day when it came out, but it turned out to be unexpectedly warm and profound, probably one of the best comedies of all time and certainly one of the best of the 1990s. Murray goes from depressed resignation to suicidal despair and back and again, but it’s somehow very funny. Definitely worth a re-watch.
Catfish (2010) Available now
If drama on the dystopian nightmare that social media has wrought us is your thing, then Black Mirror — Netflix’s brilliant series on that subject — is a must-see. But when you’re done with that this should be your next port of call. It deals with three New York artists (Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman, and Schulman’s brother Nev) who learn that the family of fans they’ve been talking to online may not be who they say they are. Nev in particular is flattered by the attention from one pretty woman, until his colleagues do a little research and discover that a lot of the information they’ve been getting from her and the rest of their email friends is awfully hard to confirm. So the three of them decide to launch an investigation, initially just for fun, though it becomes less fun as they get closer to the truth. There was a ton of suspicion that this was all set up — some of the camera sequences look deeply professional — but the filmmakers defended themselves in an extraordinary viva voce before audiences at Sundance when the film premiered there.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 2 seasons
Rebecca Bunch (played brilliantly by Rachel Bloom) is miserable. She’s about to make partner at her New York law firm, but her mother is insane, she can’t sleep, and she gobbles pills in the hope of something resembling normalcy. A margarine ad seems to follow her around, taunting her. “When was the last time you were truly happy?” the tagline asks. That would be back when was Rebecca was a brace-wearing camper, in love with her childhood sweetheart. He dumped her because she was weird, but after running into him on the street in New York 10 years later, she’s filled with excitement. She expresses this through song and dance — this is a musical — and some insanely elaborate choreography. It’s fast and funny (it has the same screenwriter as The Devil Wears Prada) and probably one of the unheralded highlights on Netflix.