Cranford

One of many ways in which I'm a lucky girl is that I have a husband who will watch BBC dramas with me. We spent large chunks of our freetime this week watching the Cranford miniseries, and it was marvelous. Mr Renn said it sucked him right in and he couldn't stop watching it. (Except for the moments where he dozed off, but nobody's perfect). My thoughts while watching it were that it was a perfectly compassionate mix of Austen and Dickens, and apparently the writers/producers felt the same way about Elizabeth Gaskell's novels and short stories that they based the miniseries on (only they added the Bronte's into the mix). And truly, there was a lovely blend of romance, social agenda, tragedy, and human-ness all without reducing any characters to stereotypes (although they came close with Miss Pole....)

It is one of my favorite things about the blogging world that I can get fabulous movie recommendations, and real-life useable recipes and such. I know I read about this somewhere (too bad I can't recall now or I'd go back and thank the person...such is the length of my Netflix queue), and it is only one of many gems that I'd never have discovered if someone hadn't blogged about it. My tastes are constantly being expanded and refined and I love it.