DOA On TV: Little House On The Prairie 2026 (Netflix), Ride or Die (Prime)

 

Little House On The Prairie  Netflix

 

I completed the eight episode first season of the new series.  I really enjoyed it, and look forward to season two.  When I read or watch compelling historical fiction, it makes me want to read more about the time the book or film is set in.

While I haven't read the first book yet (I've a large pile of books in waiting), watching the show made me want to read all of the books.  I didn't realize the family moved around so much.  They only stay in their home near Independence for a little over a year despite all the hardships they had trying to get established.  For next season they're off to Walnut Grove Minnesota, where the original TV series was set, though according to my research they went back home to Wisconsin first.  

I was taken by the characters in the show, all fascinating people trying to make the best of a truly impossible situation.  Flawed, every one of them, but admirable as well.

I found a good list on Reddit where someone asked for books for adults like Little House on the Prairie.  It's full of great sounding titles.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BooksThatFeelLikeThis/comments/1suh100/little_house_on_the_prairie_for_adults/ 

 

Ride or Die (Prime)

 

Best friends Debbie and Judith look for antiques together, host book club, and spend as much time together as their lives allow.  Twenty years of friendship are broken when a series of events change their lives.

Debbie, married to a British MP she's grooming for Prime Minister, has long ago stopped using her law degree.  She is happy with her life, so she takes the brunt of the shocks incoming.  Her husband wants a divorce.  He owes 24 million pounds to the Albanian mob.  Her friend Judith has been an international assassin for all the years they've known each other.

Judith swings in to save her friend from the mob despite orders from her boss.  Judith and Debbie are off across Europe barely surviving the long line of those now chasing them both.  Interpol is on their trail now too, as suspects in several murders that occurred along the way.  To complicate matters, a former colleague of Judith's appears to be back from the dead bent on revenge against her.

It's adventure, comedy, and a wild ride through eight episodes. Great cast with many side characters you come to like.

 

The Adam Project (Netflix)

 

In the Adam Project, time traveling pilot Adam Reed takes an unauthorized trip to the past. He means to land in 2018, but lands in 2024 instead.

Here he finds his 12 year old self living a life he resented.  His father is dead, and his widowed mom is given nothing but a hard time by the twelve year old who is miserable and bullied.

He nonetheless scoops himself up, because adult Adam is too injured from the trip here (and he was fired upon by his boss as he made his way to a spot to open a time portal) and the ship won't let him fly it when he is so badly off physically. Healthy 12 year old Adam's DNA is identical, and the ship accepts him and off they go, pursued by his boss from the future. 

Adult Adam's wife went back to 2018 and disappeared, and is assumed dead.  He'll do anything to find her or find out what happened to her.

It turns out his boss has played with time to her advantage, amassing wealth and power.  She's used her own past self to manipulate markets and scientific advances for her own interests.

The film is light hearted and full of kid and adult pleasing action.  It's fun to see young Adam somewhat awed with the adult version of himself, who he thinks is in great shape, and has a cool ship, and a wife!

The only drawback for me was I thought adult Adam was too hard on his younger self, who was already having a hard time.

Around the World In 80 Days Episodes 7 and 8

 Episode 7

 

The companions travel across America.  In the sequence of this trip covered in the story, Fogg and company are traveling at good speed in a stagecoach, hoping to connect with a train in the next town.

The coach is stopped by a Black Sheriff Bass Reeves.  His prisoner, a southern white man seems polite at first but soon reveals himself to be a leader of a supremacist organization.  He chastises Fogg for allowing the romance between Fix and Passepartout which Fogg hasn't noticed at all.

Not far behind are the captives Civil War compatriots, who plan to kill the sheriff and set their friend free.

Reaching the town where the train will arrive soon, Fogg and his companions stand with the sheriff against the killers, almost missing their train. 

Abigail can't resist sending her father a telegram to let him know they're all alive, as they were reported lost at sea in the previous episode.

Episode 8

 

Reaching New York, somehow Fogg still has his cache of postcards calling him a coward, including one for the Grand Central station clock sent just before he left on his journey.   He stares at the clock.

Once out, he goes to the liner that will take him home, but then runs back out and to the train station.  He is waiting for a woman under the clock, explains Passepartout.  

Estella does indeed come, and the two have fine moments talking about the lives they lived without each other.  She now appears to be too practical to be whisked off to England and adventures beyond, as I hoped would happen once she was actually there.

Making his way back to the ship, Fogg is beset one last time by Kneedling, but a New York gang interrupts and wants part of the action.  Fogg and Kneedling fight the gang, not exactly together.  When Kneedling is stabbed with a knife, the gang vanishes, leaving Fogg with Kneedling who hands him a telegram saying use any means necessary to stop Fogg from getting on the ship.

In London, a final frustrating block to Fogg's progress: the warrant from Hong Kong is still seen as active in Londom and he's put in a cell till the governor of Hong Kong can be wired.

Finally released, dejected because the bet was lost as time has run out, Fogg's ancient servant tells them they gain a day as they traveled so there's time to get to the club yet.  Running through the streets, they make it right on the second the clock strikes the hour.  Bellamy tries to say there was no bet but Fogg had a check delivered to the club before he left.

Bellamy's bankruptcy is discovered and the crowd at the club chants him out the door when Fogg gives him the check.  

The episode ends with Fogg, Passepartout and Fix running down the street laughing arm in arm, on their way to find a new adventure.

For myself, I enjoyed the series over all, particularly once they stopped making Fogg the butt of every joke, an object of scorn.  That went on far too long for a show in which his character is the main one.

Once the three were on the desert island, and they were down to their basic humanity, and the friendship that had been forged was allowed to shine, the last episodes were a pleasure.

Around the World In 80 Days (PBS Masterpiece)

Episode 5 Hong Kong

 

When Fogg stops at a British bank in Hong Kong to secure more funds from his personal account, he is refused any monies as the dastardly Kneedling has gotten there ahead of him and persuaded them Fogg is  a criminal.

Passepartout, who has lived in Hong Kong in the past, finds them a modest place to stay while they try to figure out how to proceed. 

Meanwhile,  Abigail's newspaper article about Fogg's lovelorn reason for making the trip has made it to Hong Kong. The governor's wife, coming upon him in the market, invites them all to her home.  Fogg suspects nothing, as he hasn't seen the article. 

Passepartout goes to an old acquaintance for money, hoping his old friend will loan him the funds.  Instead, his friend asks Passepartout to do what he used to do well, steal a White Dragon necklace from the governor's wife.  Passepartout refuses at first, but as night falls, he emerges from under the bed as the governor and his wife are sleeping, and steals the necklace.

The next day, Fogg is charged with the theft by the angry governor, and imprisoned.  Here Fogg is impressively brave, keeping silent and seemingly undaunted by his situation, even when he's told he will be put to the lash.  Passepartout confesses to the crime and Fogg receives just one lash, as Abigail and Passepartout bring a pardon to the prison signed by the governor at his wife's insistence.

Episode 6  The Desert Island

Kneedling isn't happy with the continued progress of Fogg and company, so he pays the captain of the ship now heading to America that Fogg is on, to drop Fogg, Abigail, and Passepartout out to sea in a small boat with only a tankard of water.

Stranded on a desert island together, everything comes out. 

Abigail is regretful that she posted the article, exposing Fogg's private grief.

Passepartout confesses he poisoned Fogg to slow him down when pesuaded by Kneedling.  He confesses he stole the White Dragon to get them money to leave Hong Kong.

Fogg is angry at Abigail, but inflamed at Passepartout's treacheries.  He draws a line on the beach and says he will not speak to Passepartout, ever, and that he must not cross the line.

Passepartout camps nearby, cooking lobster which Abigail shares, but Fogg will not. Passepartout refuses to accept Fogg's exile of him, and insists they are friends, though he regrets what he has done.  He is absolutely heartrending.

Still Fogg ignores him, and he decides he will build a raft, to get he and Abigail off the island. Gathering a motley assembly of driftwood from along the beach, he hasn't a way to cut the wood or tie it together.

Retiring for the night, Fogg and Abigail are unaware Passepartout works through the night in the rain and storm, gathering vines to hold the raft together.  He even manages a sail before succumbing to the rain and cold.

The next morning, Fogg and Abigail are amazed at the craft and begin packing it with supplies. Abigail finds Passepartout lying unconscious and feverish, and brings him back to camp.  She reminds Fogg that they've both ill treated Passepartout, and he's done tremendous things for them.

The raft, which could never have been seaworthy, is taken apart to make a fire to keep Passepartout warm and break his fever.

Fogg confesses that the two of them are the first people he has cared about in a very long time.  

A ship sees their smoke and rescues them, and will get them to America in good time.

Strong performances by everyone.

 

Around The World In 80 Days Episode 4

 

On day 28 of the journey, Philleas Fogg, Passepartout, and Amanda Fix are in a small village in India seeking a guide who can help get them to their next destination.

The leader of the village says no, the entire village is attending a wedding the next day and no guide is available.  Fogg is unable to cajole or convince her in any way.

When the British Army enters the town and arrests the would be groom for desertion, everyone's plans go awry.

To my disappointment, Passepartout, disgusted with Fogg's demanding, careless ways, puts the drug he was given into Fogg's tea.  It's supposed to make him sleep for a week so he can't make his connections and thus he'll lose his bet.

Instead, Fogg becomes comically affected by the drug, running through the town singing, and having a deep philosophical conversation with a cow.  Dragged home by Fix and Passepartout, he begins to show signs of distress.  The town leader asks about what was put in his tea, and is able to create an antidote.

While dazed, Fogg mistakes Abigail for his lost love, who abandoned him at some point and went traveling the world without him.  She turns out to be the one who has been sending him postcards from all over the world with the word Coward on them.

Given this new information about Fogg, both Fix and Passepartout are now completely behind Fogg's journey, which they see is being done to prove he is not in fact a coward or a bored rich man with a bet to make good.

There's a scene where Fogg speaks for the young deserter and his bravery for doing anything necessary to stay with his love that is quite powerful.

He saves the day once more, and the young couple have their wedding as the companions head to their train connection.

Around The World In 80 Days Episodes 2 and 3

 In episode 2 (Why are there no chapter names?), Fogg and crew set the balloon down that got them out of France in a hurry, near a railroad track. Fogg is sure an Italian rail car will be by soon so they can continue their journey.

It is a long wait, but eventually a train comes, and they hail it like a taxi.  Then, Fogg and Fix get luxury accommodations as if they'd been expected.   Passepartout is in third class, traveling with families and farmers and their chickens.

Passepartout soon wins over the crowd in his section of the car, and is invited to a card game.

In first class, Fogg is bullied by a businessman who had been expounding his economic and political theories before Fogg and company showed up fantastically in their balloon. 

Niccolo Moretti demands to know where Fogg has traveled, getting a rather weak response about their trip so far.

Luckily, the whole episode isn't spent excoriating Fogg.  When a portion of the tracks over a bridge has fallen into a ravine, and Moretti's son is injured, Fogg figures out how the train can make it over the gap and gets the child to a doctor.

Episode 3

After a successful trip by ship from Italy to Egypt, our trio needs to make it through the desert in two days to keep on schedule.

Unfortunately, Fogg hires a man who mostly seems to want to steal Fogg's pocket watch.  Passepartout and Fogg leave Abigail behind, as they are told no one survives the desert journey.  Though the guide will get them to safety, he says.  Instead, he leaves them stranded with only their luggage, which has been rifled through.

Abigail, furious at having been left behind, convinces an adventuring Englishwoman and her spouse to help her follow the men, and rescue them if need be.

 

Thanks to Abigail and her new cohorts, everyone makes it through the desert, though the experience has changed all three travelers and  has shaken them to their foundations.

Arriving at Aden, Passepartout is approached by a man who means to make sure Fogg doesn't make the journey in 80 Days, thus losing the bet made to a man in deep debt who needs the 20,000 in winnings.

He appears to be taking on the task of betrayal, but I have faith Passepartout will come through.

 

John Carter (of Mars)

I went into the film not expecting too much given the varying reviews and my impression from trailers.

What a great movie. I just loved it. It had action, adventure, sense of wonder, and romance!




It follows a civil war captain named John Carter as he is recruited by the the local fort to help fight Apaches. His stellar war record makes him seem key to the local efforts.

While he was off doing heroic deeds in the Civil war, his family suffered and he has vowed not to take part in someone else's wars again. He wants to find gold and get rich and that is it.




As he is caught in a fight between soldiers and natives he rescues the man he had just fought to escape and they find safe temporary harbor in a cave. The cave is all John has been looking for and more. It is filled with gold and strange spider symbols. Out of nowhere, a man materializes and attacks John. John shoots him and grabs an amulet from the dying man who is muttering something in an unknown language.

Suddenly John is lying on his back in a very strange desert. Things only get stranger as he finds he can (after many stumbles and hard landings) jump very high and very long distances.

He comes upon a nest of hatching squalling eggs with bizarre green creatures coming forth. Unfortunately for John, the guardians of the eggs, the Tharks, arrive in all of their tall green four armed glory.




He becomes a pawn among these creatures who wish to use him to fight their enemies. John doesn't take to being recruited by these creatures any better than he liked being railroaded by the soldiers on earth.

Enter Deja Thoris, drop dead gorgeous, guns blazing from her amazing airship, swords ready when she is shot down. John can't help but go to her aid and soon they are fighting side by side.




This tale of a planet torn by strife plays out wonderfully. Grand battles, incredible feats of strength and daring leaps by our hero. The villains are almost likeable in some cases--I felt a bit sorry for Sab Than, also a pawn of sorts in the grand scheme of the calmly evil Therns.




I really liked having Edgar Rice Burroughs as Carter's nephew Ned frame the story. He was such a good kid, and well deserving of his uncle's fortune and trust.




The ending left plenty of room for a sequel, which I'd love to see asap.

See a good movie, get the good trailers! Tons of good upcoming trailers: Prometheus looks action packed, Madagascar 3!!!!!!!! You got to move it move it....and The Avengers looks just TOO GOOD.