| RATING: | 60% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
[Season 5]
Interesting tv series that covers a number of political issues quite well.
This is how capitalism should work - in effectively communitarian terms: All pulling together in times of emergency with a positive approach. And all working hard to feed their families and inculcate the virtues of hard work, honesty and integrity. That real life is not always like this is the dramatic contrast in the minds of the audience that makes the series as compelling as it is despite the streak of cloying sentimentality that mars some of the episodes.
As usual when Whites mythologize their culture Blacks, Orientals and Native Americans are not meaningfully mentioned - as if they had nothing to do with the founding of the modern United States. These groups haunt the drama by their non existence and suggest that White attempts at historiography are little more than attempts to whitewash their own history - to their own aggrandizement. This aspect of the series very much appeals to a twisted version of Auld Lang Syne, where life was so much sweeter for Whites.
Human rights here are shown as democratic rather than absolute and white supremacism is individualized rather than an endemic part of White culture. This makes White supremacy silly rather than sinister in that attitudes become far more important than behavior. This is an important failing in an otherwise commendable series.
The acting is as variable as the episode quality and is as female dominated as the series itself: As it should be in a series celebrating the virtues of family and hearth 'n' home. This is also reflected in the fact that the actresses give more fully rounded performances than the actors. No doubt this is the result of the source novels being written by a woman, but it is also because the actresses chosen are of such high quality - especially the excellent Karen GRASSLE.
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