Amazon Prime Video: We offer up some faves while awaiting delivery of that package
With theatres shut, we at Original-Cin are doing what you’re probably doing, watching movies at home. We’ll be reviewing films that would have opened in theatres, but are now streaming, plus other worthy watches on cable and streaming services.
There’s a kind of synchronicity these days to Amazon Prime, which – under one umbrella - offers free shipping of goods to the virally housebound, as well as one of the more interesting video streaming services around.
Original-Cin writers here select some Amazon streaming suggestions – three series and one film - that are closest to our hearts. You may have already seen them. If not, there’s literally no time like the present.
This is the adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel - taking place in an alternate reality in 1962 where the Axis powers won WWII, and the U.S. is divided into German and Japanese territories. It debuted its fourth and final season late last year.
As you can expect from Dick (whose works inspired Blade Runner and Minority Report), there is a sci-fi aspect at work – a mysterious series of films from a different reality, showing Reich iconography being torn from buildings by victorious Allied soldiers. The films eventually catch the infirm Hitler’s eye and inspire a search into their provenance, one that propels the series narrative through all four seasons.
Obergruppenführer Smith (Rufus Sewell) in The Man in the High Castle
But they had me at the first. One of the most profound things to me about America under fictional Nazi rule was the “new normal” of it all. As a culture, Americans like to invent courageous narratives like Red Dawn, where they fight to the last against invaders (having never, in their history, been invaded).
Instead, it appears in High Castle’s world that the average American greets Nazi occupation as simply “the new guys running things.” It’s business as usual for most, and you go along to get along.
Yes, there is a vestigial Resistance, fueled by the mysterious newsreels. But the general state of things is represented by Obergruppenführer Smith (Rufus Sewell), a rare American to achieve that rank, a distinction marked by his inability to speak German. He’s a symbol of the abject embrace by a defeated population of the victor’s culture. Much of what happens in the series is seen through his eyes and wavering conviction.
This is a rich series, with a plethora of connected characters, which might have become better known if it were on a more widely viewed service. It deserves a look. – Jim Slotek
The Boys
The opposing argument to the concept of superheroes. It’s a disturbing tale of a publicly lauded, corporately backed group of superheroes who are corrupted absolutely by their absolute power. Antony Starr is absolutely chilling as Homelander, the most powerful, and sociopathic, of the bunch.
One season has aired. We’re eagerly awaiting the second. (JS)
Transparent
Jill Soloway, a TV writer and Six Feet Under showrunner, was inspired to create this Los Angeles-set drama-comedy series by her psychiatrist father’s decision, in his senior years, to sexually transition to become a woman. Jeffrey Tambor stars as Mort/Maura Pfefferman, patriarch/matriarch of an extended, eccentric upper-midddle-class Jewish family of three siblings, nursed on secrets.
The show, which promoted its director’s female gaze and progressive “trans-actional” hiring policies, was shut down in 2017 after star Tambor was fired for onset sexual harassment allegations. You decide whether that affects your appreciation of the series.
I Love Dick, Soloway’s next venture, adapted Chris Kraus’s 1997 cult feminist novel and academic satire, about a klutzy, career-stalled experimental filmmaker (a wonderfully raw Kathryn Hahn), who’s the wife of an itinerant Holocaust scholar (Griffin Dunne).
She’s obliged to spend a year in Marfa, Texas, where she forms an intense and open crush on macho “post-idea” artist and rancher (Kevin Bacon). Sardonic, didactic and squirm-inducing, I Love Dick is even riskier than Transparent, which may be why it was cancelled after one eight-episode season. – Liam Lacey
This femme-centric noir, which had its debut in late March, is the promising debut of writer-directors Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy. This is pretty much crime story comfort food, focusing on intrigue rather than gore.
Set in a Maine harbour town, with a soundtrack consisting of lustily-sung sea chanties, the film follows the adult Connolly sisters (Morgan Saylor and Sophie Lowe) over a few days following their mother’s funeral,. The incident-stuffed plot involves skeevy locals, a murder and cover-up, a bag of cash and a quaint local B&B, which doubles as a brothel.
Mostly, it’s just fun to watch the older actresses cast as the town’s secret power players -- June Squibb, Annette O'Toole, and, as the fearsome local crime boss, The Americans and Justified’s Margo Martindale. (L.L.)
Simply marvelous and one of my personal favourites on any channel or service. Mrs Maisel is a wonderful visit to the ‘50s, alongside an unforgettable cast of characters.
The show centers around Midge (played by the extraordinary Rachel Brosnahan). She’s a young Jewish housewife and mother who has everything she has ever wanted -- the perfect husband, two kids and a fabulous apartment on New York's Upper West Side.
Her seemingly perfect life takes a surprising turn when she discovers a hidden talent she didn't previously know she had -- stand-up comedy. This revelation changes her life forever as she begins a journey that takes her from her comfortable life on the Upper West Side through the cafes and nightclubs of Greenwich Village and through the city's comedy industry on a path that could ultimately lead her to a spot on the Tonight show couch.
Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) and Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Although Midge is not officially based on a real person, it’s hard not to think that she smirrors another rising comedienne in the ‘50s, Joan Rivers. Rivers was a college-educated rich girl in her twenties. When Midge enters show business, her shtick, like Rivers’, is to dress for a date in a black dress and pearls, then deliver comedy based on women’s lives.
The series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) has won a lion’s share of awards including several Emmys, Golden Globes and Critic’s Choice awards.
Brosnohan is outstanding as Midge. With her gift of gab and wit, Brosnahan is a natural at both comedy and drama and deserves every accolade.
The stellar cast includes Alex Borstein as Midge’s cantankerous manager Susie Myerson, Tony Shalhoub as her father Abe, and Kevin Pollak as her father-in-law, Moishe.
Kudo’s to Canada’s own Luke Kirby who portrays Lenny Bruce, an eventual confidant and friend to Midge.
The attention to detail on the show is perfect. The sets and costumes are spot on and take you back to a simpler time when going to the Catskills was the highlight summer activity for so many well to do North American Jews.
Now in its glorious third season, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a fast and enjoyable binge that does not disappoint. Season 4 can't come soon enough for me! L'Chaim! – Bonnie Laufer