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Saints!

Friday
March 29th, 2024

charlie brown thanksgiving spotlight pageLinus gives a prayer in this scene from “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” The special is just one of many popular Thanksgiving episodes to take in this year. Courtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

The Thanksgiving holiday is officially here and along with all that delicious food, prepare to stuff yourselves with some good TV after the meal. 

I did a column here last year about some of my favorite Thanksgiving-themed episodes and since there were too many for me to use for just one column, I decided to do a sequel for this time around. So prepare yourselves for some good TV this Thanksgiving Day. 

 

“Thanksgiving” (That 70s Show)

This episode from the show’s first season follows the Foreman family’s Thanksgiving festivities as daughter Laurie (Lisa Robin Kelly) brings her friend Kate (Jenny Maguire) home with her for Thanksgiving and dad Red's mother, Bernice, constantly calls asking about Thanksgiving dinner, much to mom Kitty’s annoyance. I enjoy this episode every time I watch it because the comedic timing is on point and much like other holiday episodes, everyone learns a little something about what Thanksgiving means to them. It’s one I definitely recommend if you’re looking for something funny to watch after dinner. 

chris stapleton spotlight pageCourtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

As I’ve mentioned here before, music is a big deal with me and I listen to a lot of it, whether it’s on the radio to/from the office or at home or at work while writing up stories for the paper here. 

Recently, I had quite a bit of work to sort through for the paper here and loaded up YouTube on my computer. One of the suggestions came from the newest album “Starting Over,” from Chris Stapleton (one of my favorite country artists) and almost immediately, I was hooked. So I found the rest of the album and I was NOT disappointed by what I heard. 

One of the first things I’ve got to give praise to with this album is how overall solid it is throughout – typically, when I listen to an album, there are a handful of really strong songs and then the rest end up ranging from average to just overall not good. With “Starting Over,” though, every song is strong and steady and of really good quality in just about every aspect – the backing instrumentals are great, Stapleton’s raw and scratchy lead vocals set each song’s mood perfectly, and his wife Morgane’s backup vocals complement his perfectly. Among that, however, here is some variety to be found – there are times when the album takes a more rock approach, there are times when it takes a more bluesy approach, and other times, the songs take on more of an outlaw country/traditional classic country vibe, and the overall effect is just a great, solid album for people to listen to. 

All that being said, one of the main things that stood out to be about the album was the backing instrumentals. The guitar parts, acoustic and electric alike, help set the atmosphere of each song so well and those parts are driving and extremely well done – I enjoyed each and every one of the handful of guitar breaks featured on the album. Also deserving praise are the drum section – they also helped each song’s atmosphere come to life and there are many times where I would have actually liked to hear them featured more. 

da 5 bloods spotlight pageA scene from Spike Lee’s newest Netflix release “Da 5 Bloods.” Courtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Veterans Day was earlier this week and with that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to find a military/war-themed movie and see how I felt about it afterward. 

So I got on Netflix a few nights ago and one of the top suggestions that came up in my search was Spike Lee’s newest release “Da 5 Bloods,” which follows a group of four African-American Vietnam War veterans who return to Vietnam to bring home the remains of their fallen squad leader as well as the treasure they buried while serving there.

Something I’ve got to immediately praise is the ensemble casting for this movie, which includes  Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Jean Reno, and Chadwick Boseman (who portrays the group’s fallen leader, Stormin’ Norman). The chemistry and camaraderie between the lead cast members was outstanding and the rapport between everyone was so natural, I actually could believe they were all lifelong friends who had been through a lot together.