Friends told us about the Olive Kitteridge series on Amazon's Prime Video. They said it was very good and I think it is better than that. Olive is the heroine of the book by the same written Elizabeth Strout, and it won several prizes. The Amazon set is labeled a series but it consists of four episodes, each about one hour long.
We finished the last of the four last night. I am not sure I would have gotten much from them at age 40 but at twice that age, I think the shows are manuals about aging, loss and death as well as about personality, aloofness, human communication, regret and expression. It felt like every minute was another lesson, another essay about life.
Olive is played by Frances McDormand. She is the actress you may have seen in "Fargo" where she played a very memorable chief of police. McDormand is, to me, the perfect casting choice to play Olive, older, taciturn, abrupt, no-nonsense and little cheer or humor. Some people are blessed with an ability to see beauty and grace in others but some people aren't. Richard Jenkins plays Mr. Kitteridge, the town's pharmacist, and is also excellent.
The shows are available on Amazon's Prime Video.
