AlFlix

Grayson Perry's Big American Road Trip (UK)

Grayson Perry is an English artist, and his Big American Road Trip is a three episode documentary filmed in 2019 where he traveled to a few locations in the US (Atlanta, the East Coast & Wisconsin) to examine the issues of race and class in the United States. The documentary was broadcast on UK's Channel 4 in September 2020.

He comes to the subjects from a different perspective than domestic examinations of the subjects. And while the people he chooses to interview may be a bit more extreme (in every direction) than "average" Americans, he does bring up some compelling questions about these issues which are tearing our country apart.

If art is about making you see the world differently and ask new questions, then this is definitely art.

Years and Years (UK)

This is a new show from Russell T. Davies (Casanova, Doctor Who, The Second Coming) that, as of this writing, has just completed its six-episode run on BBC One and is just about to be broadcast on HBO in America. 

Davies creates shows which are both deeply engaging and quirkily English. And with Years and Years he has created an ensemble drama that follows an extended family through the technological, social, and political changes coming in the next 15 years. Part Black Mirror, part The Day After, and part Eastenders, this show poignant, funny, and always very British. It reminds me quite a bit of the 1984 post-atomic war drama, Threads.

I've only watched the first of the six episodes, so far, and I'm hooked. Davies deftly creates well-formed, real characters that we can relate to, and then casts them into the world identify politics and populism. The result is a fuller picture of the motivations and attractions of our current political landscape. This can be dark stuff, but nothing as dark as the first season of Black Mirror, so far.

Summer of Rockets (UK)

I have been describing this six-part BBC Two drama as a "six and a half hour documentary about the creation of the pager," which isn't completely facetious. Set in England of 1958 when the cold war was beginning to heat up, Stephen Poliakoff's drama centers on the family of Samuel Petrukhin, a Russian jew in England who owns an electronics business that builds high quality hearing aids for high-profile clients such as Winston Churchill. 

This is a gripping story that builds tension and suspense around sometimes trivial and absurd plot twists. Sometimes it feels like a staid BBC drama and at other times it feels like a Monty Python sendup of a staid BBC Drama. But at the end of the day, it is well-written, well-directed, and well-acted. Which translates into the fastest six and a half hours of television that I can remember watching.

Cast standouts include the always wonderful Keeley Hawes (Spooks (MI-5 in the US), Ashes to Ashes),Lily Sacofsky (who I've never seen before, but I'll be watching out for), and the always entertaining Mark Bonnar (Castastrophe).

So take a chance on this one, really.