Karen Nyhus

Excellent acting; great coverage of the issues of working-class (white) women in post-WWII England. BUT: will there ever be an LGBTQ character? AND: it's *so* wholesome, and Christian, and pro-procreation (obviously, but even so...!), some might find it hard to take. The Christmas stuff every year... a bit "OTT," as the Brits say (over the top). No cynicism or malice anywhere, only tragedy and frustration. Is that real? Are nuns (and midwives) really that good all the time? ALSO: the race thing. There are (so far) precisely 3 stories (of many-many) involving what in the U.S. we call "women of color" (two "Black," on *maybe* Latina). One Jewish woman. Feels a bit tokenistic. I'm finishing season 3. Watch it, tho. It's a good ad for the NHS, for national health generally, and a reminder of what nations can do (with the help of educated women based in communities!) if they set out to. Finally, while I am enjoying it and will probably watch it all, I can't imagine ever rewarding any Netflix series better reviews than Battlestar Galactica, which I somehow had the good fortune to find as my first ever binge watch. Witness an entire Portlandia episode dedicated to doing just that!

DN! gets my vote for Best News in America (well, that and the Real News...). @William Wood: PBS is entirely separate from Democracy Now!, which comes out of Pacifica radio, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary on April 15th this year (2019 - founded in 1949). PBS was founded in the 1970s, long after Pacifica (and following its example), and was originally funded mainly by US government money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). CPB used to also fund Pacifica, but no longer does. PBS now gets funding from huge corporations, so they have the same problem our politicians do: can't say this or that (or admit someone like Chomsky on air) lest they offend their funders (bite the hand that feeds them). The Pacifica Radio Network, by contrast, accepts NO corporate money, only donations from individual listeners, so it retains political independence -- freedom. They interview amazing journalists, authors, academics, and activists. I have funded and listened to Pacifica radio (including Democracy Now!) since the late 1980s and I've learned more doing that than I did in college. It's like a free university of the airwaves. There are Pacific stations in NY, DC, Houston, the SF Bay Area, and LA, and they all stream on the Internet. I recommend DN! and Pacifica to everyone - check it out!