FOLLOW-UP

In my previous “Notes,” I fear I gave short shrift to a very special series as well as some extremely talented folks. Let meattempt to fix that by reiterating that the Netflix series, The Diplomat, is more than worth your time… it is all but essential viewing. It is smart, timely, dramatic, suspenseful and there is an art to this fictional drama that makes its truths close to today’s realities.

In writing about The Diplomat on Netflix let me also make clear that I am not espousing any virtues … or anything else… to the series with the same name on Amazon Prime. I have not seen it and so have no comment.

The series I do go on about… what? For the third time? Is the one starring Keri Russel and Rufus Sewell while being written and produced by Debora Cahn.

The two leads should be more than familiar to television audiences… especially Ms. Russel who came to the forefront with the series The Americans that lasted several seasons. Midway through the series, West Wing alumni Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford are added to the ensemble. Both are also well known to all who pay attention to this medium. 

What should be noted is the pedigree of the writer/producer of The Diplomat, Ms. Debora Cahn. Some of her credits includeThe West Wing, Homeland and Fosse/Verdon. Need I say more? I was in show business for almost the entire last half of the 20thcentury and would gladly commit a serious crime… as in whom do I have to kill?... in exchange for having those shows on my resume.

Cahn’s ability to represent male/female relationships with incredible verisimilitude, especially true in The Diplomat, as well as Homeland and Fosse/Verdon, is something worthy of study by any would-be writer.

There are a total of 22 episodes of The Diplomat… season three consists of but 8 of those. You should really start from the beginning with season one as the story line is continuous through all three seasons. 

(A brief digression of self-interest: in fairness to my comparatively meager career… while Ms. Cahn luxuriates in six to eight episodes over three seasons… we made 26 episodes per season of Daniel Boone and at least 22 episodes a year on Cagney & Lacey with more than sixteen per season on both The Trials of Rosie O’Neill and Christy. I just needed to say that. Thanks for the indulgence.)

Onward: I have started to watch The Empress, also on Netflix. It is a very lush production based on the life of Elisabeth of Austria and worth your time despite the mediocre dubbing job by a typically ordinary group of English-speaking actors who do this sort of thing on the cheap. 

Why the refusal to present these dramas in their original language coupled with subtitles I do not understand. Babylon Berlin was ruined for me when, after season one, the powers that be decided America had to have an English speaking version and eliminated the voices of the very good German actors in favor of the all but amateur group of American players who do this sort of work.

I have written before how the dubbing of voices in Europe is an art form, cultivated and developed for decades by the French, Italian and Germans. Some of the better paid thespians in those countries do this kind of work and their voices are associated with the American actors they voice on foreign screens. Not so here in the US. It is only recently … and mostly because of Netflix and other such distributors of foreign made films that have become so popular… that a marketplace has developed. The art form lags behind. I have written about this before… ‘nuff said.

Regardless of the dubbing, I think you might enjoy The Empress. I have seen only a few episodes… episode number one being (by far) the weakest. Stick with this show. I will and I am finding it worth my attention. It is an interesting time with what was a once powerful royal family of the Austrian Empire led by Emperor Franz Joseph the First. For the musical folk out there: Franz Liszt and Johann Strauss are nicely represented as well.

The Empress is a not often told story of a fascinating time and an interesting couple… not Debora Cahn interesting…. but still worth spending a bit of time in their royal presence.

 

Barney Rosenzweig

The King and I

 

The King and I

The Diplomat is back. Season three has been released by Netflix and I feel confident in once again recommending this outstanding on-going drama…one of the best I have seen in a long while.

The political intrigue and duplicity that is so much a part of this show comes to us in the middle of a real-life shutdown of the US government, armed troops in the streets of American cities, the prosecution of perceived enemies of the state, and the destruction of the White House at the whim of a single individual who says he is not a King, but… I dunno, what would he do so different if he were… demand reimbursement in the hundreds of millions for legal action taken against him when he was a civilian, take in even more … maybe billions worth of gifts creating a situation where an apology is due President Warren Harding and Edward L. Doheny for making such a fuss about the Teapot Dome scandal, issue pardons to the guilty in exchange for their fealty? Oops. Trump has done all that. And more.

Wondering why I have not seen more of what else is on television and the streaming channels? There is, of course… in my particular case… the depressive aspects of being a USC football fan, but as I mature, that malaise rarely goes beyond a weekend. There, too, is the inordinate amount of time to get my office back in working order from the water damage that occurred during my recent trek to the Berkshires, but… in reality… the fact is that it is simply very hard to break away from the news of the day for any work of fiction.

Gilmore Girls supplied an easy, relaxing escape from all that is currently going on, but I have now seen all 153 episodes (HULU and Netflix) and though I continually and wholeheartedly recommend this outstanding series to you all… I have been there and done that.

Difficult though it can be, let me strongly urge a lesson in citizenship, if not important television. Watch the news. Ideally a bit of Fox, a bit of MSNBC and maybe something in between like network news coverage… any network. Try to keep informed. Write a congressman, try to communicate your views to those in power, to your friends, your neighbors. These are interesting, if not spectacular, times. I know it can be exhausting, but someday, someone is going to ask you… as they do my generation… where were you when Joseph McCarthy demagogically commanded the attention of a nation? What did you think when President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy were all assassinated within a few years of each other? What was your reaction to Watergate?

It is our generation’s version of “What did you do in the war, Daddy?”

Think about that. Think about what you might say to your grandchildren, who by then may no longer live in a democracy, when they come to you with such a question.

What did you do? What have you done?

 

Barney Rosenzweig

 

FAMILY TEXT

These notes of mine have more than one outlet… and, on at least one there are “requests” from a publisher not to write anything political. I have tried to be okay with that, which is harder than it may sound to some of you.

I am a political animal. I would point to any of my television series to solidify that argument. I occasionally revisit The Trials of Rosie O’Neill on Amazon Prime and despite the more than thirty years that have passed since I produced that CBS series, I continue to take some pride in just how current the discourse in that show is on matters political.

My recently completed memoir, to be released next year by McFarland publishers, has more than a chapter dealing with the politics I introduced to viewers in the American South through the Daniel Boone television series on NBC. It should go without saying that Cagney & Lacey, my series on CBS, still ranks right up there as strong politically on any number of subjects… especially those dealing with women in the workplace.

I am older now, albeit not much wiser. I just don’t want any trouble, so when a friendly publisher asks that I refrain from writing about a certain subject, I do my best to be a good guy and comply.

I am guessing that now that our President has become the leading candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize that restriction just might have eased a bit… but I have no desire to climb on that band wagon either, even though I acknowledge the accomplishment and pray that it all goes well and lasts a long, long time.

No, it is not peace in the Middle East that brings me to my word processor. It is the text message I got late last night from my grandson. Alex Rosenzweig is one of (if not) the leading undergraduate poets at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. He is also an intern at a publishing house in NYC and he texted:

“An author whose book came from the publishing house where I currently intern just had to flee the country. He wrote a bookabout Antifa and teaches at Rutgers University. Apparently, the Turning Point USA chapter at the school doesn’t like his work and the conservative backlash to his presence on campus recently became too overwhelming. Some people at Melville House (the publisher) have received death threats or calls for resignation. I’m all good for now but wanted to update you all. Very scary times for the humanities but I am happy to work for a house that considers itself an activist press in these weird, weird times. Sending love from NY and go Dodgers.

My grandson then continued the text with a link to a Washington post, Oct. 8 article.

My granddaughter, the offspring of another of my daughters,answered with a thank you for sharing and then I wrote “please continue to inform us of the goings on… stay brave and strong and, as always, be smart.” 

Alex’s mother wrote “scary times. Your generation is gonna have a lot of work… thx God you’re all smart and awake to it.”

Another granddaughter chimed in, “thank you for sharing. Miss you very much. Proud of your brain always.”

My wife added, “Be safe, my sweetheart.” And my eldest child added, “Wow, it’s one thing to be living in interesting times, but we are in just plain ol’ bizzarro times: Thank you for sharing this, Alex. Hang in there and continue the good work.”

As a dad and granddad, I got some pleasure out of the way my family all came together over this piece of news from our youngest member and, of course, I was also pleased to note the addendum coming from Alex:

“And with all the press coverage has also come an influx of support for Melville House and the author himself. So, with all the bad there is also good.”

Amen to that.

Postscript to all of you out there. As stated, I am an old guy who isn’t at all happy with our current administration no matter what Mr. Trump does or does not pull off in the Middle East. I confess to being just even handed enough (but no more than that) to wish our President well in that regard. As for all the other stuff on his and his cabinet’s 2025 agenda, I continue to be a non-believer and very disappointed that my traditional outlet, the Democratic Party, is currently in the hands of too many weak-kneed consultants whose specialty is that they write great concession speeches.

This all began with a text about a book making some reference,or references, to something called Antifa… right? I know little to nothing about this…. “organization” (?) but do have one question: isn’t Antifa simply short for anti-fascist? 

And who, may I ask, is not that?

 

Barney Rosenzweig

THE LONG WAIT

The trip to the Berkshires and back softened the blow of my having come to the end of revisiting Gilmore Girls (Netflix and Hulu). Seven seasons…153 hour-long episodes… of the best kind of network television, and now having returned from my travels, finding myself wishing for more. These folks…Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino… really know how to create and maintain a show. (Note: present tense is deliberate, since the creators went on to make Bunheads, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and the current Etoile.)

Once more in front of my home television screen I am (once again) revisiting familiar territory. The Morning Show (Apple TV) is back in its 4^th season which, so far, is almost as good as season three (a high bar and one hard to match with so much time passing between seasons). Now that Netflix has season 7 part 1 of Outlander I am back looking at that well made show, with admittedly less interest since having to wait for what seemed like years since the end of season 6. Oh…wait… it nearly was years, having completed its initial run in 2024.

Outlander is still lush, brilliantly cast, and obviously well produced but the long hiatus has taken a toll. I am not at all sure what the folks behind this kind of distribution philosophy are thinking.

I have looked again at Slow Horses… season two. Good stuff from the UK, worth your while, and something I am comfortable recommending though I am aware it will not be everyone’s cup of tea. I cannot say the same for my return to Amazon Prime and Black Snow. If I had kept proper notes, I am sure I would not have completed the first season (which I am none too sure I had).

Task is the new HBO mystery miniseries. They could have just as easily called it Chore, for that is what I felt it was to watch. Some, I am sure, will like this; “tedious” would be my one-word review. For the PBS series Unforgotten, that one word is … wait for it… forgettable.

One of the major disappointments of this group is the Australian based series, Newsreader (AMC+). Ever since Fringe, the long-ago Network series from the extremely talented J.J. Abrams, I have been a fan of actress Anna Torv. Sorry to report that even at her best she would have had trouble carrying this mediocre, ill-advised, venture. I am even sorrier to come forward with the news that in this, Ms. Torv is far… very far… from her best.

And then there is the Netflix miniseries, House of Guinness. One of the things one learns, early on, about the famous Irish dry stout made in the United Kingdom, is that it “does not travel well.” That is, you should not expect the stuff to taste as good in the US as it does in the UK.

Perhaps that is what has happened here. The show looks good, the sets are impressive, the photography first rate. The cast is respectable enough, and the dialogue occasionally pithy. That should be more than enough, but this Dublin answer to Downton Abbey does not match up very well with that series, let alone with Succession, the American 21^st century version.

Steven Knight, who wrote Peaky Blinders, was also the scribe on House of Guinness. I disagreed with several of his choices… especially the structuring of the first episode, where he blew through an entire season’s worth of valuable/potentially dramatic background exposition in minutes. Clearly his choice to make and not mine but had we been teamed together on this project there would have been some serious debating about this opening episode before anything was committed to film. And, trust me, those fights would have been trivial compared to the one we would have had about Mr. Knight’s decision on how to end the series. Not only did he fail to match Succession in the overall, but for him to think he could pull off an ending a la The Sopranos, which even the fabulous David Chase had trouble defending, elevates hubris to a whole new level.

Watch House of Guinness but get your expectation level set first. It is not at all as tasty as it might have been in Dublin.

 

Barney Rosenzweig