Skip to footer

What are you watching? Readers recommend 'This Is Us,' 'Lost'

Monitor TV and movie fans share what they've been watching lately.

  • By Paul Gutelius Monitor reader
  • Betsy Green Monitor reader
  • Amy Williams Opheim Monitor reader
  • Catherine Crossman Monitor reader
  • Dave Miller Monitor reader

I watched the Falcon Heavy launch, where they landed two of the boosters almost simultaneously! Breathtaking. 

– Paul Gutelius, Grafton, Wis.

I watched A Harpist’s Legacy – Ann Hobson Pilot and the Sound of Change on PBS. In 1980, Ann Hobson Pilot became the first African-American woman to be a principal player with a major orchestra. She was a harpist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 40 years. Now retired from the BSO, she is the harpist for the Ritz Chamber Players, an African-American group of chamber musicians. How grateful I am that I saw Hobson Pilot’s story. What a journey, what a legacy! What a joy to listen to and to watch!

– Betsy Green, Chicago

I’ve been watching The Crown. I love it because it’s a period in history that I’m not very familiar with and it’s so interesting to see the ins and outs of the royal family at that time. Plus, the actress who plays Princess Margaret, Vanessa Kirby, looks just like my mom did in her 20s.

Even though it makes me cry every single week, I can’t stay away from This Is Us. It’s drama well done, not overdone. I care about every one of the characters, and the acting is superb. 

And it’s so much fun to relive Lost with my 11-year-old daughter. It’s been so long that I actually don’t remember a lot of it. It’s the perfect combination of drama, sci fi, and humor, and who doesn’t love Hugo (Jorge Garcia)?

– Amy Williams Opheim, Long Beach, Calif.

My daughter recommended the episode of Phil Rosenthal’s Somebody Feed Phil about Tel Aviv just before a recent trip to Israel. I loved it so much that I watched all the other episodes available on Netflix. He’s funny, quirky, sweet, and slightly awkward, and even if you aren’t interested in restaurant food, it’s entertaining. A highlight of every show is his affectionate Skype conversation with his parents.

– Catherine Crossman, Steilacoom, Wash.

My wife and I watched Stranger Things because our kids (both in their 20s) recommended it and were excited for Season 2. It has a compelling story and looks more like a film than a TV series. 

We have watched every season of The Amazing Race, and it is sort of a date night for us. We like seeing all the interesting places they go, and we appreciate how the producers find unusual activities that are unique to that place. And some of the participants have watched every season but never bothered to learn to paddle a canoe or drive a manual transmission car!

– Dave Miller, Camas, Wash.

WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING? Write and tell us at whatareyouwatching@csmonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to What are you watching? Readers recommend 'This Is Us,' 'Lost'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2018/0511/What-are-you-watching-Readers-recommend-This-Is-Us-Lost
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe