In these days of COVID-19 and social isolation, many have turned to television to fill up the days, and particularly to movie streaming services.

I myself have so far subscribed only to Netflix. While this has made available a variety of truly rewarding films, ranging from The Two Popes to My Octopus Teacher, from The Irishman to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, I have discovered that, though offering a bewildering array of titles, Netflix offerings certainly have their limitations. Despite numerous forays into the range of Netflix offerings, and despite recommendations from friends, I have found little that was really worth watching.

One of the most widely advertised Netflix films (and one which many have told me that they found worthy of a viewing) is Hillbilly Elegy. Indeed, any film which has leading performances by Glenn Close and Amy Adams and is directed by Ron Howard would hold out much promise – a promise which in this case is sadly unfulfilled. Based on the memoir by J.D. Vance, the film purports to show how a young man is able to rise above negative circumstances and achieve great worldly success. So, the film relates how a young Yale scholar (played as a bland naïve by Gabriel Basso) dealt with a drug-addicted mother (Adams) and spurred on by a feisty grandmother (Close), eventually escapes squalor, violence, and poverty. Unfortunately, the film concentrates almost entirely on the negatives without ever exploring the social causes of such issues, and pays only passing attention to the young man’s struggles and success and what made this possible.

The result is a tedious, over-the-top wallow in misery – a misery which seems to have nothing to do with Appalachian “hill-billies” since the story is set in a suburb in Ohio and is rather an ugly study of “poor white trash” that is hardly entertaining – especially in a time when one is looking for an escape from the negative. Over-acted and over-wrought, Hillbilly Elegy is, for me, a huge disappointment.

Nothing daunted, I again consulted friends and the Netflix menu, and turned for entertainment to The Midnight Sky. Again, the choice seemed promising, since it stars George Clooney (always an entertaining performer), who also directs. 

I spent three quarters of the film with absolutely no idea as to what was going on. In fact, very little was going on as the film jumped back and forth (with no discernible explanation) between a spaceship and a man who has chosen to remain on a distant planet rather than return to earth.

When, eventually, in the closing section of the film, there was an attempt to clarify events, I still remained befuddled. Only after I had looked up on Google a plot summary did I understand what the film was trying to relate. Though it may have relevance in a world which we seem to be determined to destroy, there’s got to be a better way to convey this message. Midnight Sky is a long, drawn-out failure.

Unwilling to give up on Netflix, I followed the advice of a friend whose opinion I respect and who told me to stop watching movies and look at television which he claims is far more rewarding and better artistically.

Having been assured that one of the most popular current series is Bridgerton, I embarked on a viewing. The series plunges the viewer into the world of Britain in 1804. Since the makers have recourse to the glories of a multitude of British stately homes and can draw on the talent that has made British films and television so respected for their production values, from the beginning Bridgerton holds out promise of being yet another entertainment in the tradition of Merchant Ivory and Masterpiece productions.

There are all the beautiful costumes and glorious sets (though passing off the Royal Crescent in Bath as being in London is a bit of a stretch), so at first Bridgerton is beguiling.

One quickly discovers, however, that it is nothing more than a soap opera designed to titillate rather than challenge. Indeed, I am told is has been summed up as “Jane Austen meets Fifty Shades of Gray.”

I quickly tired of the endlessly repetitive excuses to show sex scenes while predictable plot lines are developed in decidedly dull dialogue.

So here I am – still hoping to find something worth watching on television. Until now, I have been, like many around the world, intrigued and fascinated by the political events unfolding in the United States, which, if nothing else, have provided a rather sad diversion, one which seems to be drawing to a close.

I can only be thankful that there are books. Yet I certainly do not think I should be complaining. When I think of people a hundred years ago who had to deal with the Spanish Flu and who had no radio, phones, cars, television, or adequate health care, I realize that life could be so much worse. When one thinks about it, one must certainly ask oneself, what’s a little boredom, especially when in sight there’s an end to our difficulties?