Now Showing on the Small Screen

Still of Marilyn Monroe from an Andy Warhol silkscreen series, seen in the PBS American Masters show, "Andy Warhol: A Documentary" by Ric Burns.
(SOOC, cropped.)

AT THE MOVIES: DDW August challenge

I used to be a passionate moviegoer.
At the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, which supported the restoration of old films and didn't show anything made after 1960, I would attend a double feature at least once a week, including 20 or 30 minutes of movie music and show tunes played on their Wurlitzer organ. It was amazing to watch fresh prints of films that I had previously seen only on an old TV, or not at all. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire solos with top hat and cane, these were my favorites.

Now I watch movies and TV series at home.
I began on my 13-inch Mac, then graduated to a 26-inch flat panel screen.
The reasons are many.

- No parking problems.
- Captions if I need them. (Yorkshire accents! East End! What are they saying?)
- I can stop wherever I like and pick up again in five minutes or two days.
- My ears don't get blasted with too-loud theater systems.
- I get DVDs from the library, and they're free.

If I read positive reviews on a new film, I put it on my Holds list. Often, though, these Hollywood hits are overhyped. My favorite viewing is a long series. I enjoy observing the characters (and the actors) developing over time.

Current favorites:
- Mad Men
- The Good Wife
- Boardwalk Empire
- Treme

Past favorites:
- Saving Grace (Holly Hunter)
- MI-5 (Spooks)
- A Touch of Frost (David Jason)
- House of Cards (Ian Richardson version)
- George Gently
- Wallander (Kenneth Branagh)
- just about any drama from the BBC or ITV