{"id":8702,"date":"2020-12-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8702"},"modified":"2021-02-16T08:19:35","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T13:19:35","slug":"rekindling-a-love-affair-with-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8702","title":{"rendered":"Rekindling a Love Affair with Television"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Somebody<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to quarantines and streaming services, I\u2019ve been watched more television these last few months than I have in years. Here are series our family found especially entertaining, ICYMT:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somebody Feed Phil<\/em><\/a> \u2013 In each episode, comedy writer Phil Rosenthal (pictured) visits a city somewhere in the world and, accompanied by local restaurateurs and food critics, drops in on local markets and farms, seven or eight restaurants of multiple types and price points, and a few of the unique sights. Phil loves everything he tries (almost), and he tries everything. The humor is broad\u2014OK, it\u2019s corny. A foodie website dissed the show because Phil isn\u2019t a \u201creal\u201d food expert, which shows the reviewer totally missed the point. What he\u2019s demonstrating is that anyone can have a wonderful time when they have an open mind\u2014and mouth. He has fun, and we do too! Plus, I\u2019ll bet he knows a lot more about food than he lets on.(Netflix)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Americans<\/em><\/a> \u2013 about Soviet citizens embedded in American life and carrying out spy things. Based on a real-life Russian program (that was apparently remarkably unsuccessful), the series was every bit as good as all my spy\/thriller writing friends have said. It was brilliant to set the series during the 1980s, as the Soviet Union was imploding. But I did wonder why Philip and Elizabeth never seemed to worry much about fingerprints. (Amazon Prime)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call My Agent<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Three seasons of this French comedy series are available, with subtitles, about a quartet of Parisian talent agents. Although they all work for the same firm, they are competitors, and their colleagues better not forget it! The strange deals they get involved in always misfire in some awkward, barely salvageable way. Adding to the fun is having real French movie stars play their clients. There they are, without their makeup or their game face on. Playing themselves, sort of. (Netflix)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crown<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Now showing: The Diana Years. We especially like Josh O\u2019Connor as Prince Charles. O\u2019Connor played author Lawrence Durrell in PBS\u2019s The Durrells in Corfu<\/em>, which was a charming series. If flint-hearted Margaret Thatcher (superbly played by Gillian Anderson) mentions her father one more time . . . (Netflix)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to quarantines and streaming services, I\u2019ve been watched more television these last few months than I have in years. Here are series our family found especially entertaining, ICYMT: Somebody Feed Phil \u2013 In each episode, comedy writer Phil Rosenthal … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Rekindling a Love Affair with Television - Now that Covid's cleared my calendar, I'm busy making new television friends. ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[272,366,193,266,67,104],"tags":[1785,1784],"class_list":["post-8702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-drama","category-espionage","category-history","category-television","category-the-morgue","tag-call-my-agent","tag-the-americans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2gm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8703,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702\/revisions\/8703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}