ANNA PAQUIN

Set in a rural, swampy Louisiana parish, the show centers around Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her clan, Season 2 is more Sexier, the story-line is more muscular, and new and mysterious characters have joined the clan. Also they are beginning to get into back stories of some of the vampires and how they were created. Season 2 takes the story into the state of Texas. Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) finds himself in a very bad situation, but Sookie comes to the rescue. Each episode leaves you wondering what the heck is going to happen next. Season 2 takes you more and more to the Dark Side. Anna Paquin, the award winning lead actor gives another superior performance in each and every episode. Season 1 was great, Season 2 is fantastic. Well worth renting, I highly recommend it.  During the second season, the influence of Maryann Forrester and the conflict between vampires and humans is expanded. Most of the cast from the first season returns and several new main characters are introduced. The same style of interconnected story telling used in the first season is repeated, with the foremost plot focusing on Maryann Forrester being revealed as a maenad.  While Maryann begins establishing her hold on Bon Temps, Sookie is recruited by Eric to investigate the disappearance of his 2000 year old maker and the sheriff of Area 9 in Texas: Godric (Allan Hyde).While Sookie is absent from Bon Temps, Sam hires Daphne Landry (Ashley Jones) to join the Merlotte’s staff. Daphne begins a romance with Sam, is revealed to be a shapeshifter, and then later also exposed as working for Maryann. Jason also leaves Bon Temps for Dallas to join the Fellowship of the Sun, which Reverend Newlin has steered in a new militant direction despite the protestation of his wife Sarah (Anna Camp). It’s discovered that Godric is in the custody of the Fellowship,and one of Godric’s lieutenants, Isabel (Valerie Cruz), sends her human boyfriend Hugo (Christopher Gartin)to assist Sookie in infiltrating the church. Though Eric’s primary interest in Dallas is finding Godric, he also attempts to place himself between Sookie and Bill. To accomplish this, he enlists the aid of Bill’s maker Lorena (Mariana Klaveno); making a more prominent contribution to the cast after a brief introduction in the first season. In the penultimate episode of the second season, once the conflict in Texas is concluded, the vampire queen of Louisiana Sophie-Anne (Evan Rachel Wood) is introduced. Both Bill and Eric visit her in an attempt to find out how to defeat Maryann.

Anna Paquin

Anna Paquin & her Beau Vampire Bill

Kitty and Nan King

TIPPING THE VELVET is a 3 part story of Nancy Astley, an oyster girl from the English town of Whitstable. Nancy falls in love with a stage performer named Kitty Butler. TIPPING THE VELVET derives from the Victorian era euphemism for cunnilingus. Nancy is played by Rachael Stirling, the daughter of Dame Diana Rigg. 1st Act. Nan moves to London and becomes a dresser for Kitty Butler, Kitty’s act is that of dressing up in men’s clothes and performing in the dancehalls of London. Nan quickly becomes part of the act, and they become lovers hot and heavy. Kitty dumps Nan and breaks Nan’s heart into a thousand tiny little pieces. 2nd Act. Heartbroken, and Heartsick Nan moves out and after a period of mourning the loss of Kitty, she begins to dress like a boy and walk the streets where she goes “ON THE GAME” she is rescued from the streets by Diana, who keeps her as her private whore/tart. Things go badly and Nan again must move on. Act 3 Nan goes back on the stage, she falls in love with a wonderful girl named Florence. Kitty Butler finds out that Nan is back and she tries to start up with Nan once again. Will she stay with Florence or go back to Kitty Butler, the woman who broke her heart. It doesn’t get any better than this, my heart was pounding as she made her choice. This is a tearjerker and sweet love story. Kitty Butler is played by Keeley Hawes (Scoop). Diana is played by Anna Chancellor. And Florence is played by Jodhi May (The Last of The Mohicans, and Sister My Sister) I loved the movie so much. Definitely a big 5*****Stars. Rent this one pronto, and there is an official BBC website for this movie with all sorts of goodies.

4 Main Characters

JEFFREY WRIGHT

Set in 1980s New York and subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” the six-hour ANGELS IN America concerns a group of largely gay men who find themselves caught up in series of disasters that range from love to religion and from politics to philosophy–and most specifically caught between the rising tide of AIDS and a generally unsympathetic society.

In the midst of this, AIDS patient Prior Walter begins to have a series of visions, which may be fever dreams, medicine-induced hallucinations… or, most unnerving of all, real. His long dead ancestors rise to speak to him, the floor cracks open to reveal a burning book–and at the conclusion of the play’s first half a beautiful woman with majestic wings crashes through his roof. She is the Angel of America. He is, she tells him, a prophet, and she has come to bring him a message for mankind.

Intertwined with Prior’s other-earthly experiences are oddly parallel lives. Joe and Harper Pitt are a deeply dysfunctional couple doubting their faith in the Mormon Church, Joe a closeted homosexual, Harper a Valium-addicted and mildly psychotic woman given to visions as strange as those of Prior Walter’s. And as further counterpoint historical figure Roy Cohn (1927-1986), among the most sinister figures of 20th Century America, finds himself taunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg as he drifts toward his own AIDS-induced death. The characters swirl in and out of each other’s lives and dreams, playing to stereotypes and yet defying them, arguing politics and philosophy and love and death–and it is fascinating stuff.

Although the play stunned 1990s audiences, most considered it utterly unfilmable due to both length and content. But this HBO-produced, Mike Nichols-directed version not only captures the power of the original, in some ways it improves upon it. Playwright Tony Kushner has adapted his work to the screen, rearranging certain problematic scenes and bits of dialogue to better effect, and certainly no one could argue with the cast, which is absolutely stunning in a series of multiple roles.

With a mad swirl of irony, intense drama, outrageous humor, and unexpected twists and turns, ANGELS IN America is almost sure to hold your attention–particularly if you recall the Ronald Reagan years well enough to recognize the truly bitter allegory the film offers on what many consider his largely absentee second term. Truly a must have, multi-layered, bearing repeated viewings, beautifully directed, performed, and filmed.

Ernie Dingo & Cate Blanchett

Burned Bridge is a brave and confronting 13-part series about the mysterious death of an Aboriginal girl in (Brooklyn Waters) a small coastal town. Burned Bridge is a love story involving two people convinced of the innocence of the prime suspect. Cate Blanchett, & Ernie Dingo are the lovers, this was very controversial when this film was made. Ernie Dingo heads a fine cast in Burned Bridge. He plays Vincent Burunga, the Aboriginal Liaison Officer at Brooklyn Waters who lives on the razor’s edge between loyalty to his people and and his official Government job as Liaison Officer. Cate Blanchett plays Beth Ashton, while recovering from divorce she inherits her grandfather’s estate in Brooklyn Waters. She arrives as an outsider but discovers more about her grandfather’s life. She finds out that her grandfather has had several children by Aboriginal women. Beth is now a blood relative of several inhabitants of Brooklyn Waters. The growing relationship between Burunga and Ashton is put to the test, having to survive the hostility between the Aboriginal and white communities as well as the obstacles of their very different backgrounds, attitudes and cultures. Cate Blanchett gets a challenging and confronting insight into his background when she travels with him to his home in outback Western Australia where traditional law is still strong within the community. Ernie Dingo must deal with her urban white environment when they pursue the accused youths case in Sydney. The third piece of the mini-series concerns the people of the Binbilla Aboriginal community just outside of Brooklyn Waters and its battle to reconstruct their community in their own way and restore their self-esteem. This is a strong and very satisfying series, Cate Blanchett before she was Cate Blanchett. She later Starred in Elizabeth, and the rest is history, as they say. I highly recommend it. well worth renting.

Victoria Thaine and Rachel Ward

The Local District Vet Kate McDonald (Rachel Ward) hires an assistant, Jill Blake, (Victoria Thaine). Kate is the Vet in a farming district called Paringa. Kate is a vet who cannot keep an assistant, the last ten assistants were either fired or bolted. Jill Blake is her last chance at getting an assistant, the agency has told Kate that if she cannot keep Jill as an assistant for at least 6 Months they will not be sending her any more replacements. Kate (Rachel Ward) is as hard as nails. Jill, her new assistant, young, small in stature is her equal, Tough As Nails. The two women have to learn to work together without killing each other. There is plenty of work, lots of vet stuff in this 6 part series. Each episode is a different situation that the two women have to deal with. But the main issue they have to deal with is the drought, or climate change, and a reportable disease that has infected most of the sheep in the district. Even though the disease is reportable Kate chooses not to report for fear of bringing economic ruin on the entire district. Jil of course has different ideas. This is a beautifully shot, well acted, picture post card Australian TV mini series, well worth the watch. I loved it.

Rachel Ward & Victoria Thaine