Well, boys and girls, we have a special "Like It Or Lump It."
I will review not one or two but three shows off the streaming services. What a deal!
The first one is "Masters Of The Air," about flyboys during World War II—the Big One, as the dads around East Marietta would say.
It is produced by the Tom Hanks-Stephen Spielberg pairing that made "Band Of Brothers" and "The Pacific."
Let me say from the outset that "Masters Of The Air" is almost as good as "Band Of Brothers." Not quite. Sometimes, you can't hear what the characters are saying because, you know, somebody is shooting at them, and three of their four engines are on fire.
The show is fast-paced without seeming fast-paced if that makes any sense. Often when an episode ended, my wife and I would look at each other and say, "Is that it?"
This show feels like a movie, you know, the ones you would go to a theatre to see. I can't say enough good things about it.
You can find "Masters of The Air" on Apple +, and it is worth the subscription cost and the hassle of getting Apple + on your TV set. Verdict: Like it!
The following two shows are "documentaries" on Netflix, which has carved out a little niche in documentaries.
You could call "The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping" a documentary. A more accurate description would be Millennial Revenge Porn.
The filmmaker is Katherine Kubler whose mother died when she was three. Then, OMG, her dad marries the evil stepmother. They didn't get along, and I'm sure there were a lot of eyerolls in the family.
As she grew, Kubler became more hostile to her dad and new mom and began acting out in typical teenage fashion: drugs, drinking, staying out all night with boys, talking like a Soprano, you know the drill
When Kubler was in high school, she was kicked out of a private Christian school because she was drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade on campus.
Dad was a man of some means, so he had her "kidnapped" and taken to a private boarding school that was supposed to straighten out little entitled brats like Kubler
Unfortunately, the school was staffed by people who didn't know what they were doing, and in business simply to make money. It is obvious the cure was worse than the disease.
The school abused its students and conned parents out of a truckload of money.
The problem with "The Program" is that it is a way too personal documentary. There are some serious talking heads here and there, but mainly, it is Kubler and her little buddies are sitting around talking about how everything sucked at the school.
She has valid complaints. However, she spends a lot of time trying to shame and confront former school employees. The series ends with her singing "One Way Or Another"* to one of the school owners (undercover, of course) at a karaoke bar.
Verdict: Lump it (Yes, I know Rotten Tomatoes gives it a pretty high rating, your mileage may vary)
Last but not least is "Homicide: New York" by Dick Wolfe, who has produced all of the various "Law And Order" that have been on TV since the Eisenhower administration.
"Homicide: New York" is very well done. You would be amazed about all of the killings in New York. It presents five cases, each one very brutal.
The police solve all the cases, of course, but some take longer because of this little thing our justice system calls "proof."
It is funny because I have never seen an episode of Law And Order, but this documentary makes me want to watch a couple of episodes.
Verdict: Like it!
*The old Blondie song: "One way, or another, I'm gonna find yaI'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get yaOne way, or another, I'm gonna win yaI'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya"
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