It is Sunday night again. Where do the weeks go? Though tonight I have to work on my thesis, I thought I would spend just a few minutes blogging about Sunday nights, which is usually the time I set aside to look at class blogs, perhaps write something on mine, and watch Masterpiece Theater, which I generally find irresistible because of my Anglophilia (which parallels my Russophilia).
Masterpiece Theater (on Channel 13) has included so many wonderful programs over the years. It has just broadcast 4 weeks of Downton Abbey, which you can still watch on the website http://video.pbs.org/video/1724131531/. This latest addition to the Masterpiece family lives up to every expectation I have for good historical drama and romance: the perfect setting, fabulous acting, splendid costumes, and a captivating story about characters that one can love or hate, as the case may be.
I prefer Masterpiece Classic and Masterpiece Mystery (Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and others) to Masterpiece Contemporary, but even that can be good. Classic often includes dramatizations of the novels of Jane Austen, the Brontes, and Thomas Hardy, just to name a few. But not all the productions are about English literature. There was an interesting version of the Russian novel Doctor Zhivago a few years ago. Last semester I showed Anna Karenina to my Russian Lit class, and they also became fans.
Television presents so many choices these days, including an incredible amount of nonsense, but you never have to worry about wasting your time on a bad program if you watch Masterpiece Theater. The programs are fabulous, and you may even benefit from the online materials about teaching various literary works. Give it a try if you haven't already! Happy viewing!
1 comment:
Jackie - I agree with you about Masterpiece Theater. My husband and I watch many of the programs as well. I love when he reminisces about growing up in Ireland with only one television station. It would come on at 6pm and go off the air at 11pm. Masterpiece Theatre was one of the only things on t.v. in those days. Imagine that!
Post a Comment