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What are you watching? Readers recommend 'Treme,' 'Ordinary People'

Monitor TV and movie fans share what they've been watching lately.

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Courtesy of John Rogers/Sid Gentle Films for ITV and Masterpiece
'The Durrells in Corfu'
  • By Monitor readers

Right now, I find the most delightful show on TV to be The Durrells in Corfu, which airs on ITV in Britain and on PBS in the United States. It’s based on Gerald Durrell’s book “My Family and Other Animals.” With warmth and humor, the writers and the actors depict the adventures of an eccentric British family who have left dreary England to live on a Greek island. Brilliant!

– Stephanie Peek, San Francisco

HBO’s Treme is TV at its finest!

– Misty Lizarraga, San Diego

I’m watching a detective show called Day and Night, which aired on Youku as a web series in China and is available on Netflix in the US.

– Tara Doe, Clifton Park, N.Y.

The movie Ordinary People is like watching my own life story. I had a younger sister who was killed by a drunk driver when she was 5 years old. Few marriages survive the death of a child and the surviving child carries guilt and the inability to be who was lost. The performances in the film, which stars Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton, are chilling. My mother taught my brothers and me to adore the movies and although my movie-loving brothers have since passed away, I still go a few times a week. I love a big dark theater, watching movies as their makers intended for me to watch them: with undivided attention. I love stepping into their world, if just for a couple of hours.

– Esther de Ipolyi, Sugar Land, Texas

Some movies that I enjoy are The Cutting Edge, the first and second movies in the “Alien” film series, and the first and second movies in the “Terminator” film series. “The Cutting Edge” is a funny and charming rom-com that even a guy can love. Alien and Aliens are simply the best sci-fi/horror films ever made. Both have real jump-out-of-your-seat suspense, and Sigourney Weaver is great in what may be the very first female action hero lead role. Meanwhile, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day tell you all you ever need to know about artificial intelligence. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers one of his signature – and his finest – roles. If you love these two movies, I recommend you give Terminator Genisys, the fifth in the series, a try also. Schwarzenegger reprises his role (31 years after the original) and the now-fractured timeline in the story sets up some humorous twists. 

– Tom Kuekes, Bakersfield, Calif.

What are you watching? Write and tell us at whatareyouwatching@csmonitor.com.

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