Low Stress Television
Tricki Woo from ‘All Creatures Great & Small’.
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2025 has been to watch more movies and quality television. I am very good at not seeing a movie when it comes out in the theaters due to a pretty busy life, which then leads to a large backlog of movies to catch up on, and mine is pretty epic in size. Covid aside, I probably sit in a movie theater once a year, at the most, if even that. I’m perfectly happy sitting on my couch and watching a movie with a good pair of bluetooth headphones. And I’m fine if that means waiting a while for it to be available to stream. Best to avoid popcorn and Coke and gum drenched floors to instead sit on a nice comfy couch in the comfort of your own home. This probably makes Hollywood hate my guts for not supporting local cineplexes, but they’re still earning my buck by renting or buying their films.
The world right now is a pretty terrifying place. Watching and reading the news is a pretty stressful experience, meaning sometimes I can’t deal with a thriller or drama or scary movie. In such times, I just want to sit back and be drenched in beautiful cinematography, good and simple stories and wonderful acting and it is the BBC/PBS series ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ that checks all of those boxes. For the first four seasons, serious drama has been whether or not an animal will live or die along with some great character development in the main cast. But it has never been life altering developments aside from getting married and dealing with cranky farmers. This year, season five, has mixed it up more, as you can’t make it through the Second World War without some serious issues to deal with and work through. It’s probably their best season yet.
Given that there were 12 seasons of the original All Creatures BBC series from 1978 to 1990, and that James Wight wrote 8 books set in the Yorkshire Dales, there’s plenty of material to draw from. Season six is guaranteed, but here’s to hoping for many, many more.
“A farmer once told me one of the greatest luxuries of his life was to wake early only to go back to sleep again. ”