PBS TV Review: ****^Death Comes to Pemberly

 This is a tv miniseries presented on PBS Masterpiece.  There are three episodes.  It is very well done and captures the characters of the previouse PBS miniseries Pride and Prejudice but with all different actors.  Many times I was reminded of the original characters, their mannerisms and personalities, which was very gratifying as this presentation as a continuation of the characters.  The Darcys have a son, and the household is preparing for a ball.  However the preparations are halted after Lydia shows up the the estate in hysterics.  Her husband, and Denny went into the woods, and then two shots were hear, which spooked the horses and they were guided to Pemberly.  

A search party is formed and the discover that Denny has been murdered; and it looks like Wickham is the culprit.  Although Denny and Wickham are best friends.  Lydia was not invited to the ball, due to past issues with Wickham and Darcy's sister; but she came anyway thinking Darcy would not turn her away.

It is clear that Denny and Wickham were having an argument.  And Wickham first said he was responsible for Denny's death; but he insists he did not kill him.  He saw someone else in the woods and shot Denny's pistol in the general direction.  Wickham is arrested and held over for trial.

Other story incudes the courtship of Georgianna by Colonel Fitzwilliam, and the barrister Henry Alveston.  When the drams is at its worse, Eliza's sister Jane shows up to restore calm to Eliza.  She has a way of seeing good.  This story is well told.  It is based on a book by P.D. James.  It was published in 2011 when James was 91.  James is a mistery writer and there is the flavor of mystery and sleuthing in this book.

This story is very well told.  I like coming back to these characters.  The movie maintains their characters very well.

Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Darcy, Matthew Rhys as Fitzwilliam Darcy, Matthew Goode as George Wickham, Jenna Coleman as Lydia Wickham, Tom Ward as Colonel Fitzwilliam, Eleanor Tomlinson as Georgiana Darcy, Alexandra Moen as Jane Bingley and James Norton as Henry Alveston.

TV Review: Doctor Who: Season 8

This was a very fun ride this past weekend.  We have the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Cabaldi) played as a sour old man, and Clara (Jenna Coleman) as a beautiful young woman who is torn between her boyfriend (Samuel Anderson) and the Doctor.  They of course have many adventures.  They start in Victorian England, where many people self combust as well as a time traveling dinosaur.  Turns out a robot race is harvesting human body parts to fix their space ship, when end up on the moon with a decision of whether to kill the egg (the moon is an egg) or let the new creature be hatched.  The decision could have eternal consequences for human kind.  The Doctor takes a Q like stance in this one, testing the humans.  This really gets Clara angry.
A recurring character through out the series is Missy, who is collecting dead bodies.  This leads to a climatic finale involving Cyber-men.  The love between Clara and her boyfriend is tested many times, as Clara runs off with the Doctor.  However the final test is even more dramatic.

T.V. Review: Doctor Who: Season Seven

I had on of those weekends.  I discovered Doctor Who season seven available on Netflix, and had to watch the whole thing right now--sixteen episodes. 
This is great stuff as the Doctor (Matt Smith) battles against the Daleks, and many other old and new enemies.  We are introduced to Oswin Oswald (Jenna Coleman) in "Asylum of the Daleks" who later becomes Doctor Who's side kick in another form.  Rory (Arthur Darville) and Amy (Karen Gillan) are also with the Doctor as they try to turn of the force field so the Daleks can destroy the planet which holds all the deranged Daleks who they fear are gong to escape.  It is with the help of Oswald that the are able to do this, but she dies in the effort.  (She had previously been turned into a Dalek, but had an imaginary life as a continued woman making a souffle.
The Doctor then saves Dinosaurs the the next episode, and fails to slave a man who committed war crimes, but does save his victim, a man told warrior through cybernetics.  This has a western theme, and our half man half robot becomes the sheriff. 
"The Power of Three" is a very interesting episode.  This episode takes place over a year.  Strange black boxes show up, and people put them everywhere.  In the end however, the all activate together; and emit an electrical pulse which kills people by stopping their hearts.  The Doctor discovers the Shakri are behind this.  They have condemned humans to extinction.  He is able to manipulate the boxes so the zap everybody back to life. 
"The Angels Take Manhattan" is the end of the road for the Ponds.  Rory gets zapped back in time, and Amy decides to join him.
We have a precreation of Clara in "The Snowmen."  In this episode we are introduced to the major nemesis for the season, the "Great Intelligence"; in this case snow with intelligence, which is wanting to take over the earth by adding snow and human DNA.  The Doctor is able to intervene,  but Clara dies in the efforts.  However the Doctor realizes this Clara, and the Oswald who previously passed away are the same person. 
The next episode the Doctor find a present day Clara.  She is a nanny, but is attacked by the Wifi.  The Doctor is able to thwart their effort, and get Clara's soul back.  The "Great Intelligence" was using peoples' souls to become stronger. 
Clara decides to join the Doctor, and the go to someplace exciting, "The Rings of Akhaten" where we see a girl, singing her way to be sacrificed by a great monster.  Singing seems to be an important part of this season.  The music is beautiful, but leads to the young girl, princess, being taken by the entity to be sacrificed to the old god, a parasite feeding off people's memories.  Clara and the Doctor team up to defeat the monster, with the help of still more singing.  
The Doctor prevents the Cold War from becoming hot be convincing a long forgotten "Ice warrior" from Mars that a researcher found in the Arctic ice, not to fire nuclear missiles.  He is rescued by the last remains of his own people. 
In "Hide" the Doctor is able to rescue a woman caught between two universes, and also help the monster who is just searching for love. 
The TARDIS is captured for salvage on "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS."  The TARDIS was damaged, and in fact exploded when captured--but this hasn't manifested as the TARDIS froze the explosion.  However then comes the attempt to find Clara who is lost in the TARDIS, confront monsters of yourself, and go back and get a do over.
In the "Crimson Terror" The Doctor needs rescuing, as he has become a rejected victim of the red plague.  Some characters Salurian, her wife, and Strax a Sontaran, help with the rescue,  They have been helping fight the "Great Intelligence."  Our evil witch, under the influence of a parasite plans to release the red plague; however the Doctor and his team intervene.
"Nightmare in Silver" the Doctor and Clara face the Cybermen.  However it is Porridge, the lowest of all it seems, who saves the day.
The season concludes with three episodes, "The Name of the Doctor," "The Day of the Doctor" and "The Time of the Doctor".  In the first we discover why Clara keeps showing up at different spots in the life of the Doctor.  In the "Day of the Doctor" we get to see three different doctors including David Tennant, and many others, although perhaps just in poster form. as he goes back reviews the decision he made to destroy his own people and the Daleks.  The result is not the same.  And finally, someone across the different Universes is asking for the Doctors name, which is a key word, and if given will lead to great war.  The Doctor lives through his live, hundreds of years, defending the people of a town called Christmas.  The Doctor eventually dies, but in that death comes new birth, which rebirth sets many things right.
Doctor Who always entertains.