Tag: Mozart in the Jungle

The Extra Time That Wasn’t

For most of this past week, my wife was away visiting her mother in Delaware, and I was on my own. Theoretically, that meant I should have had extra time to read, watch, and listen to what I wanted. In reality, it meant I read nothing while she was away, started watching one show and then deciding that I needed to stop watching until we could watch together, and listened to very little.

The show, the title of which is badly translated according to my wife, is Money Heist, a Spanish series originally titled La Casa de Papel, which literally means “paper house.” I am only a few episodes into the Netflix show, and all I can tell you is that it is a must-watch:

After she got back, I started my reread of The Return of the King, we watched Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri, and she “forced” me to listen to this:

The video was made in 2013, but became popular on YouTube only last year, garnering 3 million views. The son Brian Owens also has made a tribute album to Johnny Cash titled Soul of Cash:

We also continued watching the fourth season of Mozart in the Jungle on Amazon Prime:

Since the show is only 10 episodes and about 25 minutes each episode, we have decided to watch only a couple at a time, especially since it’s such a beautiful show. This is one show we didn’t want to binge-watch but savor as fine wine, sipping in each sweet moment.

Which books, movies, TV shows, or music have you been grooving this past week?

My favorite Amazon shows

Bryan & Kim's FaVEvery Wednesday this month, my wife Kim and I are doing a series on our favorite Netflix and Amazon Prime TV shows. The first week I picked my favorite Netflix shows; two weeks ago, Kim, her favorite Netflix shows; last week, our favorite Netflix shows, the ones we watch together. Today and next week, we finish with our favorite Amazon Prime shows: first mine today, then hers next Wednesday. 

I’ll be honest that I haven’t watched a lot on Amazon Prime, but two shows in particular do stand out:

  1. Bosch
  2. Mozart in the Jungle

Bosch

Ever since I had heard about this one, I wanted to see it, but we didn’t have Amazon Prime. (I’m not going to lie it was one of the deciding factors in getting Prime.) The Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly is one of my favorite series ever. Connelly is directly involved with the production of the TV show and it shows, and Titus Welliver is outstanding as Bosch.

Mozart in the Jungle

Unlike Bosch, I hadn’t heard of this one, but it also is based on a book, Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music by Blair Tindall, an oboist who played with the New York Philharmonic. The story centers ostensibly around Hailey Rutledge, an oboist trying to get into the New York Symphony as the series begins, but branches out to include the conductor, Rodrigo de Souza played to perfection by Gael García Bernal, and many others in the symphony, including but not limited to Bernadette Peters as Gloria Windsor, the president of the symphony, and Malcolm McDowell as Thomas Pembridge, the conductor emeritus of the symphony. All are brilliant in their roles, including newcomer Lola Kirke as Hailey (or “High-lie” as Rodrigo calls her), but most especially García Bernal, who already has won numerous deserved awards for his portrayal of the flamboyant conductor Rodrigo.  Come to this one for the music, stay for García Bernal.

So have you seen either of these? What did you think? Tell us some of your favorite TV shows wherever you watch them, whether Amazon, Netflix, or other sources? What are some of your favorites?