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Like most Ethels, I stream movies on TV more than I go to the cinema. Every fall, however, a few films rouse me out of my pajamas and into a theater seat, popcorn and Kleenex in hand.
I am that person who went to see the Les Misérables movie on its release date — Christmas Day 2012 — and sobbed so dramatically that the song “Do You Hear the People Sing?” should have included the lyric, “Do you hear that crazy lady sniffling and snorting in the third row?”
Here are some new movies and TV shows that are guaranteed to choke me up, and probably you, too:
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, opening Sept. 12
This is the end of the line for the Julian Fellowes-scripted franchise, which means we’ve already cried our way through six TV seasons and two movies filled with heartbreak, intrigue and fabulous gowns. The movie opens in 1930. We know this from the trailer, which features a lingering shot of a portrait of Violet, the dowager countess, played by Maggie Smith, who died in the second Downton Abbey movie released in 2022.
Holy grandmother of snappy retorts! All it took was one look at that portrait, and I started crying.
But not all is sad at Crawley Castle. Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) is divorced in this installment — shocking for 1930 but good for Mary and moviegoers. Let’s hope 1930 brings Lady Mary many torrid affairs with charming rich gents in tuxedos.
Nuremberg, opening Nov. 7
This is no typical Nazi movie. It is a true psychological thriller, based on the 2013 nonfiction book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, by Jack El-Hai. Rami Malek plays Douglas Kelley, the American psychiatrist assigned to interview Hitler’s henchmen to determine if they were sane enough to stand trial at Nuremberg. Russell Crowe plays Hermann Goring, one of the few Nazi monsters who didn’t commit suicide after Germany’s defeat in World War II. Found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, Goring swallowed a cyanide tablet before he could be executed.
In a tragic twist of history, Kelley himself swallowed a cyanide pill he had brought back from Nuremberg as a souvenir and died by suicide in front of his wife, father and son on Jan. 1, 1958.
Wicked: For Good, opening Nov. 21
Switching gears to fictional evil, we have the second part of the Wicked movie franchise starring Ariana Grande as the good witch who’s now the queen of Oz and Cynthia Erivo as the “wicked” witch who is banished (and not really wicked). I can’t wait to see them perform the musical’s beautiful song about friendship, “For Good.”
Merrily We Roll Along, opening Dec. 5
If you want a good cry about friendship and the very real and poignant ways that friendship changes over time, see this movie, derived from the Tony-winning Broadway show starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez.
The story is told in reverse: In the first act, the three friends are middle-aged and jaded, and in the third act, they are idealistic college students.
My friends and I were basket cases when the lights came up. We literally hugged each other and rocked back and forth, crying over the blessing of our long friendship. One of Stephen Sondheim’s most beautiful and bittersweet songs, “Not a Day Goes By,” is in this musical. But if you want a real gut punch, listen to the cast singing “Good Thing Going” on YouTube.
Plus, the film version is “unlike anything I’ve ever seen before,” producer Sonia Friedman said in a podcast with WhatsOnStage, “It's not a (stage) capture, I'll tell you that much. It's like a film in its own right. Maria (Friedman, the director) has created a sort of new genre … it’s unbelievable.”
How about fall TV shows that promise to be captivating? Here’s what I’m most looking forward to…
The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Season four debuts Sept. 17 on Apple TV
We don’t know what’s going to happen to our TV news heroines this season — but we do know Aniston will rock that powerful, bad-ass-boss look. The trailer for the new season of this show about network intrigue states: “It sounds like the drama at the network is juicier than the drama on the network.”
Yes, and I can’t wait to see how Alex Levy (Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon) land on their high-heeled feet.
Elsbeth, starring Carrie Preston. Season three begins Oct. 12 on CBS
Elsbeth Tascioni, played by Preston, wins my award for TV’s most charming and colorfully nutty character. Elsbeth carries several tote bags while she solves crimes. That’s enough to earn my devotion.
Premiering on Oct. 12, one hour before Elsbeth, is the second season of Matlock, starring Kathy Bates. Bates, 77, is the oldest actress ever nominated for an Emmy. Bates bests the previous network grand dame, Mrs. Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote, Angela Lansbury, who was 70 when she was nominated. Lansbury was nominated for each of the show’s 12 seasons but never won.
If you long for a simpler time when TV was black and white and exceedingly polite, watch this …
What’s My Line? Original episodes from 1950, now streaming on Prime
I was mindlessly clicking around the streaming services, and bam — there was Dorothy Kilgallen, a name and face I’m almost too young to recognize. Almost. The once well-known Broadway columnist was a panelist on What’s My Line? along with Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf and other long-ago names of renown.
I stopped to watch an episode of the old game show, and I found it so mesmerizing, I kept going. Why mesmerizing? Because the TV production values were so primitive that it’s hilarious today.
But here’s what’s really interesting. Kilgallen’s last episode of What’s My Line? was aired with a live studio audience on Nov. 7, 1965. The next morning, she was found dead in bed. The official cause of death was an accidental overdose of barbiturates and alcohol. But Kilgallen was an ace reporter who was digging into President Kennedy’s assassination, and conspiracy theories abound about how much of an “accident” Kilgallen’s death was. That’s a whole other thriller in itself.
And ... my most anticipated TV reunion of the fall: Allison Janney, playing President Grace Penn, and Bradley Whitford, playing her husband, on The Diplomat. The third season of the political thriller, which stars Keri Russell as ambassador Kate Wyler, is coming this fall to Netflix.
Which of the above are YOU most excited to see? Let us know in the comments below.
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