What should I watch?
Cheer
When this 6-part reality series on competitive cheerleading was recommended to me, I was highly skeptical. Consider this a complete reversal. I was moved. Watching college cheerleading teams. I think it was the personal stories. The grit. The teamwork. The endurance. The leadership and dedication showed by the head coach, Monica. It was one of the most inspiring things that I’ve seen. How is this not fiction? I do worry about the girl with the 6 concussions, though.
Formula 1 Drive to Survive
Which is dangerous. Like, I’ve already had to take a break from writing this newsletter for one episode. I prefer it to watching the actual races. I never thought I’d be interested in F1 and still find that I can rattle off the top tier of drivers a little shocking but, it’s good human drama television! What can I say!
Heroin(e)
I recommend watching Oscar-nominated Heroin(e) on Netflix about three women in West Virginia that are combating the heroin epidemic head-on. One of them, Jan Rader, the first female fire chief in West Virginia, is a client of Delivery Associates as she’s been implementing a motivation program for the first responders in Huntington.
Searching For Sugar Man
What’s the difference between achieving worldwide acclaim and fading quickly into obscurity? Who knows. Perhaps very little. Rodriguez was an artist from Detroit who produced his first album, Cold Fact, in 1970. At the time, several record labels thought he would be the next Bob Dylan.
Rodriguez’s music career never took off, and he worked in construction for 30 years. However, unbeknownst to Rodriguez or anyone in the US, the album went platinum in South Africa and became the anthem of resistance in the Apartheid era.
The story is told in Searching For Sugar Man, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2013. I like the album and LOVE the documentary, The trailer for Searching for Sugar Man is here.
Patrick Melrose
The set of novels of Patrick Melrose by Edward St. Aubyn are fantastic but total 857 pages. I doubt you'll get through them. I highly recommend the 5-episode series that follows the books available to stream on Amazon Prime. This was Benedict Cumberbatch's dream role, and he was amazing
From the Guardian:
It could have been ghastly – messed-up, Tennyson-quoting toff throws money at people and takes a lot of drugs in 80s New York, because his messed-up toff daddy wasn’t very nice to him. And how can the thoughtful wit and exploration – of the character and of addiction and privilege - of the books translate to the screen?
It is a triumph, though. Nicholls must take some credit for managing to boil down five books into five hours of television without losing flavour. I have seen three, each of which has a distinct character that has a lot to do with where and when it is set, yet they nod to each other and belong together, like movements in a symphony. The dialogue (much of which is Melrose in conversation with himself) is sharp; this is tight, intelligent adaptation.
Maybe there is a bit of that going on. But it also means he has a deep understanding of the character. He hits just the right note: hilarious, but also tragic, irritating, exasperating. It is addiction personified, sympathetic without being celebratory or glamorised. So, do look at him – it is impossible not to – and shower him with awards. He is, and it is, brilliant.