I believe Granchester is on BritBox. I have the same concerns about another series that I watch - Call the Midwife. We might have to look into a BritBox subscription to catch up on favorite series. DH has been wanting to get BritBox for quite sometime.
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Learning about high-demand religions and cults is one of my interests. This includes fundamentalist US Christians aka âfundiesâ. So of course I watched and appreciated season 1.
Season 2 hit really close to home, however! I was raised as a mainline protestant (not high-demand or fundamentalist). My spouse was raised kinda pentecostal (a little more high-demand and fundamentalist). My spouseâs childhood church is now huge and nationally known for being super kooky. While Iâve always been politically liberal and maintained my mainline membership, we were devoutly religious and dabbled a lot in more evangelical organizations in our teen and young adult years.
We participated in plenty of activities like those featured in Season 2, though not much with Teen Mania specifically. I went on several overseas missions, including one with a super conservative organization that had rigorous boot camp training.
Weâre no longer religious, and havenât felt that it was super harmful for us (with some exceptions). But the stories in the documentary were so familiar, and like a gut punch. We identified with some of it personally, and know a lot of people who could have told similar stories (and worse). I think the theology and culture of my mainline church (which my spouse joined when we married) held us back from being sucked into even more harmful aspects of the militant high-demand evangelical youth stuff that was rife during that time period. The science degrees we got also helped.
The Boltz twins were the highlight of Season 2 for me. I remember acting in skits set to their dadâs music, as well as the controversy around his coming out.
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Weâve had Britbox for several years, and neither Grantchester nor Call the Midwife is on that streaming service.
For the PBS stuff, we make a $60/year (5 per month) contribution to our local PBS station and receive their Passport streaming, which lets us watch more stuff than on the usual PBS app or station website.
On a related note, for those trying to choose between Britbox and Acorn, we had both for a short trial period a few years back (each was $1 a month for 2 months), and we decided on Britbox. We felt if offered more content. Now there are a few shows on Acorn we like to watch, but we catch up on those when our cable provider offers us free Acorn for a week, which happens 1-2 times a year. Britbox has Vera and Shetland, which alone made it worth getting.
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The concern is that by next season, PBS may no longer exist, given current political trends and government action.
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Thereâs a IHeart podcast about a Christian evangelical group that splintered to create their own group in Minnesota, told by two girls who got away (one who was chosen by the increasingly deranged leader, one who wasnât). Itâs not easy to listen to (and shouldnât) and I donât know whether itâs good because I donât follow narrative podcast and donât feel that I have enough tools to judge, but I wondered how these families could just go off grid, disappear, no health check or control on what the kids were doing/learning, etc. I donât want to hear about the abuse (itâs not a spoiler, if theyâd been happy campers they wouldnât have left) so I want to skip ahead to the process of escaping.
Btw that makes me wonder whether we should have a new thread called âBinged podcastsâ??
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I love podcasts. I thought about starting a podcast club thread, like a book club!
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I like that idea! I have a hard time finding ones I want to listen to.
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Oh, thatâs right up my alley. I love narrative podcasts. Whatâs it called?
Some shows in the fundie/cult category that Iâve watched include Shiny Happy People, Keep Sweet: pray and obey, Wild Wild Country, The Vow, The Deep End, Love Has Won: the cult of Mother God, Escaping Twin Flames, Under the Banner of Heaven, The Way Down.
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I forgot to write the title! Itâs called The Turning and as far as I can tell all three series deal with faith.
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Thank you, just followed and will definitely listen!
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PBS shows are also available on the PBS Masterpiece channel on Amazon Prime. They often have promotional prices associated with Prime Day on that and other channels. At the moment Iâm getting both Britbox and AMC for 99 cents/mo until September 8.
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Do you think passport will be gone as well? I subscribe mostly because I hate waiting for call tbd midwife.
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H and I started watching an oldieâCastle. Weâre through most of the first season and are enjoying it. The show was on for seven seasons; not sure if weâll get through all of them.
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POTENTIAL SPOILER FOR GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
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The end of the show is quite ambiguous: have they died? Escaped? Making a stop before making use of these passports but recaptured? The very end line leaves things bittersweet - we only know the date of one character, who succeeded in escaping but wouldnât ever see the others again.
In fact I would have been sad if the ambiguous ending meant theyâd died but would have been/would be incensed if theyâd wasted all these efforts and lethal risks their friends took for them, squandering these friendsâ gifts/help.
The novel is not ambiguous: all succeed. Thereâs no indication of death, capture, or final separation. All in all I found the show - which Iâd watched after Iâd read about a third of the novel - excellent and in some ways better than the novel. I also recognize the seriesâ ending is probably truer or more realistic.
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I really enjoy Dept.Q. Will try Code of Silence.
Dept. Q to Dying for Sex: 18 of the best TV shows of 2025 so far.
This yearâs White Lotus is not my cup of tea.
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The plots do get resolved, more or less. Like Bosch, this series gets better and better the more I watch it. I am still not completely convinced by the main character, but the supporting ones are vg, and the writing, directing, and storylines are solid. Was pleasantly surprised to hear a Nick Drake song played as background during one sequence. Overall, a vg watch.
Netflixâs âWednesdayâ is good.
Amazon Prime âWear what ever the F you wantâ- just not liking it. I liked âWhat not to wearâ years ago. I really donât see the chemistry between them and I think they are better sarcastic than nice. It really looks like they are imitating Queer Eye and not even in the same league.
Netflix âToo muchâ is frankly too much sex- itâs like they had no other plot line so- letâs do another sex scene.
Amazon Primeâs âThe Pradeeps of Pittsburghâ is actually very entertaining. The Karen next door is not realistic for Pittsburgh but maybe she moved there from the South.
Rewatching Netflixâs âLincoln Lawyerâ because itâs so good.
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And I think the next season is coming soon so I have to review.
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Like Wednesday, but I think the next episodes are dropping in September!
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Netflix sitcoms -
Iâm enjoying Son of a Critch. - childhood memories stories similar to Wonder Years or the Goldbergs, with a little bit of Derry Girls (Catholic school, nuns, bullies, nuns that are bullies). Set in Newfoundland, Canada in the 1980s. The father is played by the author of the childhood memoir itâs based on.
I watched the first episode of Leanne. Will continue. Iâll admit I didnât know much about her until I saw her interviewed recently and laughed a good bit.
Fisk season 3 starts on August 20th. Looking forward to it.
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