Before we get onto our usual entertainment news here are a couple of mini reviews.

First of all the new Myaima Biaslik sitcom “Call Me Kat” didn’t get any better in subsequent episodes so you can cross that one off your list. The new Ted Danson sitcom “Mr. Mayor” has nothing going for it either. We will rate it “Skip It”.

This past week I binged the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit”, the fictional account of a young chess prodigy growing up in the 60s. It’s been a big hit miniseries that many people have binged during the pandemic. I can tell you that it is everything good that you may have already heard about it. One of the best acted, written, directed miniseries I’ve seen in a long time. Don’t be turned off by the chess theme. You don’t really need to know anything about the game to appreciate the story of this orphan who struggles with her genius, fears of mental illness like her mother’s, drug and alcohol addiction, and a passion to be the best in a male dominated world. The show actually brought me to tears at one point which is pretty hard to do these days. I tend to be somewhat cynical about drama. One of the amazing things I liked about it is that there is not a lot of explanation of what is going on during the chess matches. You just figure it out by looking at the actors faces. If you’ve not seen it yet, it is HIGHLY recommended.

The other recommendation this week is a documentary/filmed stage performance called “In & Of Itself”. Storyteller and conceptual magician Derek DelGaudio performed this show for over 500 performances off-Broadway in New York. It’s sort of a one man show reflection on the nature of self and identity mixed with some amazing sleight-of-hand magic tricks. I’ve heard great things about the show when it played live and was happy to see they finally put it on film. Directed by Frank Oz this film combines footage from several performances. In one sequence he picks a volunteer from the audience to read a sort of love letter written to a father, mother, son, daughter, or friend by some stranger and asked them to read it silently as if it were written to them. Watching the emotions play across their face and seeing many of them moved to tears is a very powerful experience. Because they intercut several performances of the show we get to see their reaction of more than one person to this experience. This is a deeply personal and moving reflection by the performer about his own life growing up with a lesbian mother and his own struggles with understanding himself apart from others expectations of who he is. I have to say that hearing of the rave reviews of the live performance I was a tiny bit disappointed but I can imagine how seeing this live in a small theater with perhaps 100 or so other people would be a much more intimate experience than watching at home on Hulu. It remains however a thought-provoking and worthwhile experience that I suggest you check out.

We’ve also seen the first three episodes of the new Disney+ Marvel series “WandaVision”. The Marvel superheroes Wanda and Vision are living as a married couple in some sort of alternate reality that Wanda has created for them. She is the living embodiment of the “reality stone” in the MCU and can remake reality around herself in any way she wants. Each episode is modeled after classic TV sitcoms from different eras. The first episode draws heavily on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “I Love Lucy”. Episode 2 resembles “Bewitched”. These first two shot in black-and-white and the first episode was actually shot before a live studio audience. Episode three as hints of “The Brady Bunch” and “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and is in color. It’s keeping diehard Marvel fans looking for clues as to what’s really going on. Probably not a show for everyone except diehard Marvel fans unless you want to relive the bygone era of classic sitcoms.