Movies

The Brits undeniably produce the finest cop shows. My five favorites are below, but I know there are many more candidates. If you send me your choices (with comment if you like), I will include them in a future column. 

‘Happy Valley’

The new Bridging Divides, Healing Communities Youth Film Challenge is giving young local storytellers the opportunity to make their voices heard, and compete for $3,500 in cash prizes and the chance to have their films screened at local theaters.

If I asked you to name some great war movies, you could likely rattle off a half dozen without much thinking. But TV does not dramatize war very often or very well. We do have Ken Burns’ fine documentary “The Vietnam War,” but I can think of only two miniseries worth mentioning here; each depicts a very different war.

Most TV shows slide easily into one genre or another, but occasionally something unique comes along. Here are two remarkable new shows that resist any kind of label.

The North Water

Inside No. 9 might be the best show you’ve never seen. BBC keeps it going despite its small audience, perhaps because of critical acclaim or pressure from devoted viewers who love that this show does something new and does it brilliantly. 

There are many reasons to rejoice that the beloved Millerton, N.Y., movie theater, The Moviehouse, is open again (and now has an elevator and an ice machine!).

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Britannica, and me, the best comedy series of all time is “Seinfeld.” Beyond that, I know that recommending comedy shows is a risky business. Given the trickiness of humor, you won’t like all of the following shows, but you will probably love one or two.

In the film “Pat and Mike,” Spencer Tracy famously if coarsely praised co-star Katharine Hepburn’s figure, saying, “There isn’t much meat on her but what’s there is cherce” (cherce being a colloquial pronunciation of “choice”).