Not all coming of age stories are created equal. In recent years, a lot of this material has often fallen into the category of either the shallow and silly, or the overly smutty (yeah, I’m looking at you, Netflix…). Even the artistically good and morally okay-ish films in this vein from recent years, like the… Continue reading Her Name Was Jo: A Hope-Filled Coming of Age Indie from a Catholic Filmmaker
Most of us probably agree that there are at least a few religious movies out there that are well-done from an artistic-quality standpoint (The Passion of the Christ comes to mind). And then a lot of us also feel that there’s a lot of religious content out there that is of very low quality. Some people… Continue reading The Chosen Sets a New Bar for Religious TV
The huge lack of quality entertainment the whole family can watch together became really apparent to me once my oldest kid was around two. I quickly realized that, if I wasn’t watching something animated, there is very little out there that I could watch with him in the room that wouldn’t be teaching him a… Continue reading Netflix Series Lost in Space is an Exceptionally Well-Done Family Show
NBC’s new ensemble drama “The Village” premiered at the end of March. And leading up to the premier, I saw the commercial for it countless times. I thought it looked like it might be a good uplifting, relationship-y drama, and I was eager to give it a try. So my husband and I started watching… Continue reading NBC’s The Village: I’m Hooked Despite Myself
I know I’m not alone in my typical dislike of most movies that are considered “Christian” or “faith-based” films. As much as I respect the good intentions that are probably behind most of those preach-to-the-choir type stories, I usually can’t stomach the cheesiness and poor quality. When one of the producers of the indie film Evergreen… Continue reading Indie Film Evergreen is Something New in Catholic Filmmaking
My husband and I have grown pretty leery of watching series that are rated Mature. We used to be more unconcerned, figuring we could pretty much just fast-forward stuff we didn’t want to see. But then we had like a whole bunch of things in a row shock us with graphic sex scenes that began… Continue reading Amazon Series Homecoming is an Engrossing Mystery (and it’s Fairly Clean!)
The description for the new ABC drama “A Million Little Things” is extremely vague. I kid you not, Hulu merely says something like, “A group of friends bond.” Sounds like kind of a snooze-fest to me. I might not have even watched the pilot except that, when I looked it up online for more… Continue reading My Take on ABC’s A Million Little Things… Meh
I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I can’t stand most “Faith-Based” or “Christian” movies. After years of feeling a little guilty that I found them almost unbearably cheesy and even kind of pretending that I thought they were okay, I finally heard my real feelings vocalized by some professional filmmakers who were… Continue reading The Case for Christ is Shockingly Not Bad
I have to say, I’m rather excited by the media buzz surrounding the Netflix original series “Stranger Things,” with the premier of its second season this past Friday. One of the big reasons I’m excited is because it means something is happening that has been getting more and more rare since the advent of streaming… Continue reading Why I’m Watching Stranger Things
Initially, I was drawn to the Netflix original series “Atypical” more because it was a show that appeared to be about teenagers and family life than because of its actual premise. It’s about an autistic teen who decides he wants to start dating. So, knowing relatively little about autism myself, I expected I would learn… Continue reading Netflix Original “Atypical” — Hilarious, But Flawed
