Here is the selection of series that, due to their spiritual content, have interested us the most in this order of preference:
- The Chosen (2 seasons, 8 episodes plus the Christmas special)
USA. Director: Dallas Jenkins. Writers: Dallas Jenkins, Ryan Swanson, Tyler Thompson
After the unexpected success of the first season this year we have been able to see the second with a special Christmas episode and the third is already announced. This independent production, close to North American evangelical cinema, is distributed as an app for mobile phones and tablets. Made with collaborative financing, it is an example of a very worthy staging, remarkable photography with a rhythmic montage, an appreciable BS and an outstanding international cast. Faithful to the biblical text, he assumes the perspective of different disciples from whose gaze we see a Jesus who respects the historical data and manifests dramatic strength. These episodes highlight the follow-up and its difficulties, the growing tension with the adversaries and the novelty of the Good News.
two. ‘Mare of Easttown’ (7 episodes)
USA. Directors: Brad Ingelsby (Creator), Craig Zobel.
The story of a detective whose life is shipwrecked in a small town where everyone drags their suffering through the streets. Three are the essential components of the success of it. At the head of its creator and screenwriter Brad Ingelsby, the leading actress Kate Winslet, playing Mare Sheehan, a thick police officer, alcoholic and with an anger inside. The third protagonist is coral. After the investigation of the crime of a young mother, a middle-class community living together in a small town where everyone knows each other, but everyone hides their dark side, is x-rayed. When everyone has something to apologize for, everyone has something to forgive. All guilty, all called to forgive and forgive each other. It is not about judging but about loving. That’s the secret, the resolution of the case, the patient cure, the possibility of continuing to live together. Just climb a ladder.
3. Heaven is waiting for you (1 season, 10 episodes)
South Korea. Director: Kim Sung Ho
After death, who collects the things of the deceased? Normally it is the family, but when it is not possible, it intervenes, it is the company of the trauma that gives the series its title. Father and son with Asperger’s carry out this service in a way full of respect and believe from the objects to rebuild their lives and serve as a last help. But the father dies suddenly and a skull uncle joins the company who does not understand his nephew. Both partners offer us a moving and funny story between life and death, family and friendship.
4. Creatures Great and Small (2 seasons, 6 episodes plus the Christmas special)
United Kingdom. Written by Ben Vanstone and directed by Andy Hay, Metin Hüseyin, and Brian Percival.
Based on the autobiographical novels by writer and veterinarian James Herriot, the series follows the experiences of a young Scottish veterinarian who in this second season will receive an important job offer. If he accepts her he will have to leave behind Helen, the woman he is in love with, and also Yorkshire, which he already considers his home. But he bets on the English countryside, good people and caring for animals as a profession. In this season the protagonist gets married and now his heart is divided between two homes. Simple and patient daily life, taste for the work of veterinarians and English humor, a mixture that has captivated audiences because more than things happen, beauty is contemplated.
5. Ted Lasso (2 seasons, 12 episodes)
United Kingdom. Director: Bill Lawrence (Creator), Jason Sudeikis (Creator), Brendan Hunt (Creator), Joe Kelly (Creator
Ted Lasso’s good-natured humor continues to captivate in the second installment. This American football coach who didn’t know what coaching was, but manages a team in great competition and also wins games based on tenderness and kindness with the company of weird but great characters. The central theme, very much in keeping with the times, is fragility. Everyone has a loose end in their lives from the sports champion, the upstart coach with his panic attacks, and Rebecca, the wealthy team owner who no longer believes in trusting relationships. The psychologist Sharon’s chair will set guidelines to continue floating. Change and overcoming are possible.
6. Schmigadoon! (6 episodes)
United States Direction: Cinco Paul (Creator), Ken Daurio (Creator), Barry Sonnenfeld
Musical comedy series that narrates the adventures of a couple in crisis of choice who decide to go on a backpacking route to save their relationship. Thus they arrive at a magical town where everyone lives in the 40s of musical Hollywood. After the first surprise they discover that they cannot escape from there if they do not discover “true love”. However, the adventures are lavished as the couple throws the junk and find other alternatives that they will have to assess. The fantasy of the musical in favor of the beauty of life.
7. Doom (3 episodes)
United Kingdom. Direction: Lewis Arnold
Before entering prison, Mark Cobden was a respectable citizen, father of a family and teacher. His life changes radically when he runs over and kills a man for drunk driving, for which he is sentenced to four years in prison. Wracked with guilt, Mark is suddenly thrust into an unknown and hostile world. Prison officer Eric McNelly will be in charge of protecting him and soon events will change their position. Guilt and order are disturbingly altered. The figure of a religious companion will help balance a world that is structurally oppressive. The difficulty is getting out of prison.
8.LSent Ones (2021) (1 Season, 8 episodes)
Mexico. Directors: Juan José Campanella, Hiromi Kamata, Martino Zaidelis, Camilo Antolini
Argentine-Mexican thriller genre series. Two priests sent directly by the Vatican to a small town in Mexico to verify a miracle that is attributed to a priest who has performed a series of cures in a psychiatric hospital. Both priests will maintain their differences. Pedro Salinas is also a doctor accustomed to being a rigorous investigator and a profound believer. Next to him, Father Simón Antequera is a lawyer, with experience in detecting “false miracles”, more emotional, he has also been moving away from God. Research ahead and many surprises.
9. The Underground Railroad” (10 episodes)
USA. Direction and creation: Barry Jenkins Barry Jenkins.
Adapted from the acclaimed 2017 novel “The Underground Railroad,” written by Colson Whitehead, for which she received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Abandoned by her mother, she lives subjected to the cruelty of her masters. When Cesar, a young man from Virginia, tells him about the Underground Railroad, they both decide to start a risky flight north to achieve freedom. ‘The Underground Railroad’ turns a fable of the time into reality and imagines a network of clandestine stations linked by rails, underground, that cross the country. In their flight, Cora and César will go through different states, and at each stop they will find a completely different world, while accumulating disappointments in the course of a descent into the hell of the human condition. Even so, there will also be glimpses of humanity that will give them hope.
10. ‘The assistant (10 episodes)
USA. Directed by Molly Smith Metzler (Creator)
Based on the autobiography of Stephanie Land, an abused woman who recounted her struggle to raise her daughter in a blog that would later become successful books. Alex is married to an abusive alcoholic and after going through with an unwanted pregnancy she has to run away with her little girl. In the middle of nowhere, she fights against violence, the difficulty of being alone with her daughter, the bureaucracy that she forgets, and life in a shelter for battered women. The dignity of a mother who struggles to get ahead with life in her hands.