We read the book a few years ago for the CC Bookclub and that is why I never watched the show. This was my take:
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It was 15 years ago, but I think the plot followed the book well, I believe King was involved in the series.
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We are watching it, too, instead of the evening news.
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Dh and I watched the season three opener of Shrinking and bawled our eyes out. 
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Dearest Gentle Reader,
The first 4 episodes of Season 4 of Bridgerton (Netflix) have dropped. 2nd 4 release 2/26
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If you have Britbox, Hamish MacBeth is now available. We had watched it earlier on a free streaming service. Quirky, set in Scottish highlands. Stars a young Robert Carlyle.
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The West Side Story episode of Hamish MacBeth was especially delightful. Loved that series!
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I’m torn on 11/22/63. Loved the first 6 or 7 episodes and then thought the last one was totally rushed. Not sure if that is how it is in the book as well, but it felt like a lot of (really good) build up and world building only to have a very lacking ending. It’s not that the ending was bad, it was the lead up to the ending. I think I would have liked it with another entire season rather than the way they tried to wrap it up.
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I binged the first half of Season 4 Bridgerton yesterday on Netflix and have mixed feelings. Loved the sets and costumes - I want every one of Lady Violet’s outfits, especially the boudoir set. But I had trouble buying into the lead romantic relationship, which was just one of numerous relationships. I never much liked Benedict annyway and still mostly don’t. I miss Kate 
.
It felt anticlimactic in the novel as well but it made sense. However I chose not to watch the series because of the novel’s ending - for me it created a void of hopelessness like American Pastoral did (to me!). I could try&watch now, in case it was me as a reader in a specific place in time who created that feeling, or if it was the storyline and it’s characters.
Lady Violet’s story is interesting because it’s very rare for a period romance to center an older widow.
Benedict the bisexual rake, meh. Let’s see.
(I’ve only seen episode 1 through part of the ball.)
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I haven’t read the books, so don’t know if my relative dislike/disinterest in Benedict is due to the character, his story, and/or the actor. Regardless, as you said, meh.
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I’ve read the Bridgerton books - initially years ago, then again after the first season. Not among my favorite romance authors.
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I tried one and it seemed awfully dated, banal, and boring (I didn’t deem it worth it to persevere). It’s clearly just support material for the show, in that it uses their name, the conceit of children with letters A through H each looking for a spouse for each book/season, and the general period. Everything else is Shonda Rhines and Netflix.
To be fair, the show does a great job but, without going all social drama, I wish there was a bit more at stake than who’s going to marry whom and what obstacles (existing and created among the way) will make that romantic and risky.
Man, we just watched the baby episode of the first season of The Pitt, and I burst into tears at one point.
This show is really weighing on dh and I. He’s having dreams he attributes to watching it before bed so I don’t let us start one past 9. But it’s so good that we will keep watching!
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We’re working through the first season also. Just saw the baby birth too. It’s an incredibly intense show and so, so good.
That being said: H was the pediatric version of Dr. Robby, twenty years ago. He lived through every scenario they’ve shown and still knows it all. He calls the diagnosis and treatment before they do. It’s astonishing. The baby with the hair strangulating the toe in sn earlier episode, he knew it. Robby says at one point “I’m good, I’m always good" in response to someone’s concern– I’ve always said "I’m fine, I’m always fine” will be H’s epitaph.
After 20 years of inner-city ERs and clinics, he quit medicine and became a HS teacher. I think it would have killed him otherwise.
He usually avoids doctor shows because of the PTSD. I was surprised he agreed to watch this with me, but I guess enough time has passed.
He was an amazing doctor. But he’s also an amazing teacher.
Watching The Pitt has shown me a lot of what his days were like ( though I had a pretty good idea.) I am thankful for all the folks doing that work and I am thankful that he is not.
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Wow, thanks for sharing! It’s fascinating that your husband switched from medicine to teaching. I’m glad he was able to retool like that.
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<<The TV adaptation of Michael Connelly’s “THE LINCOLN LAWYER” is officially renewed for Season 5!
The fourth season will be released a week from now, on February 5, 2026, and it’s been announced that it will be getting a fifth season as well!
Season 5 will consist of 10 episodes, and it will adapt “Resurrection Walk,” which is the seventh book in the Lincoln Lawyer book series.”>>
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All 10 episodes released simultaneously. Netflix.
Thanks for the update @MaineLonghorn
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