Day 17: A terrific show you may not have been watching

A good psychologist friend of mine once introduced the term, 'anticipatory grief' to me. I forget the context at the time, but there are times I feel sad for what seems like no reason and I realize it's anticipatory grief, which is getting sad in advance for something that's going to happen someday. It's usually in conjunction with something important, but sometimes it's not. For example, my wife and I are experiencing anticipatory grief over the impending end of Downton Abbey. We mention that it will be starting soon, which means that it will be ending soon, and we look at each other with pouty faces and say 'awww.'

So we checked out the Masterpiece 'Indian Summers' in hopes of finding a replacement, but we just didn't take to it. We don't know why. Then we found Masterpiece 'Home Fires.'

What a terrific show! 

It's about a small town in Britain during the early part of WWII, but what makes it remarkable is that it focuses on the women back home. The central figures are involved with the Women's Institute in the imaginary town of Great Paxon, and they build a community bomb shelter, gain permission to use extra land to grow food, and raise money for ambulances. Of course there are the usual romances, and with the war, the occasional tragedy. And they try to cover the gamut of women, from self-reliant farm wife to hoity-toity town dame, to plucky WI presidency usurper, to distraught mother of a soldier, to abused housewife, to adulterers, to lesbians. Some of the time they edge into cliche, but mainly the women are well drawn and the writing is, as you would expect, well done. 

Season 1 (it's called series 1 in the U.K.) just ended and if you can find it on one of your favorite streaming services, check it out.