...'Can you picture what will be...'

Feel compelled today, what with NPR giving the 'end of the world' robust coverage. Just saying I'm not quite there yet. And anyway, since you learn everything from the telly and big screen films, I don't see an asteroid parked on our doorstep a la 'Melancholia' by Lars von Trier, nor have I heard of a speeding meteor heading for splash down on planet earth. So, send up the bat signal, and pass the donuts, please

1. This has been a hella year for women on the telly. Leading the field is a Danish production called Borgen which means government or the castle. Starring Sidse Babett Knudsen as Brigitte Nyborg who becomes the first PM of Denmark, this is unequivocally, the gold standard, the mother lode of all which ever came before or will ever follow. There is already talk of an American adaptation. Why? Because Americans are too lazy to read subtitles. With 2 seasons in the can, do yourself a favor, and watch
one of the finest Euro productions to stream this way.

2. The Hour. I wrote about it last year, and this season it broke from the gate running and is even better. How is that possible? Romola Garai as Bel Rowley is brilliant. And her Bel to Ben Whishaw's, Freddie, is scintillating, heady, and awash with all the stuff you yearn for in dialogue. Vivid. And memorable. Gdamn the Brits are good! 

3. Homeland. The shark jumping series which loves to remind you that it's 24 creators love trolling the briny blue etc. Clare Danes in a role which left her treading chum infested waters for every implausible fracking episode, yeah, big fist bump to you. Wobbly chin, and googly eyes, Danes was the best we had on this side of the ocean in a ridiculous, sphincter tightening, moronic (yes) production which some of us could not stop watching.

4. Lena Dunham. Talent. Talent. Talent. Glimpse, you tube: Your first time.

5. Real life imitates art. Props to Park Geun-hye, the first woman, elected President of South Korea.

And so it goes....