First off was the appearance of the great Sunetra Sarker, better known in our family as Dr Zoe Hanna from Casualty. I wonder how many of the people watching this episode know that this is not the first appearance of Sunetra in CF: she had a brief appearance in series two as a possible one night stand with Adam. Maybe she foresaw her medical career with the statement "I'm not going to kiss those" (referring to Adam's testicles) which were black: Adam was then diagnosed with testicular cancer and if I remember correctly, underwent a partial orchidectomy (such a lovely word, such unpleasant connotations). Presumably she is going to have some form of relationship with David; initially a business relationship, but who knows where it might lead.
Even more surprising was the appearance of a young woman in the local court; just by chance Adam happened to be in the public gallery. She seemed familiar to him and eventually he realised: she was a girl that Adam and then wife Rachel (Helen Baxendale) were going to adopt as they could not conceive. As soon as the adoption went through, Rachel became pregnant (with Matt) and so they had to give up the adoption. We even saw a few images of Rachel - she was the best character in CF. One can assume that Adam will make contact with this woman in an attempt to atone for the fact that he did not adopt her ... and so her life did not improve and she ended up selling drugs, hence her court appearance.
Talking of best character, I have been impressed by the character of Pete. He was always at the butt end of everything: not the smartest, not the wittiest, not the most successful. He really has grown and showed in this episode his attention to other people. David's character has also improved over the years, whereas Adam has stayed near enough the same, if not regressed.
I write about these characters as if they were real people: a sign as to how much they have entered my life.
Another television series that promises to be more than worthwhile is 'The Undoing'. The series is based on the novel 'You should have known' by Jean Hanff Korelitz. I am reading the book at about the same pace as the series and it is interesting to note that the entire first chapter of the book, which is about Grace's book ('You should have known'), is not referenced in the series, at least not in the first episode.
Grace is a marriage counsellor/therapist and the (fictional) book is based on her experiences with women who should have seen signs of incompatibility with their future partners but ignored them because they were dazzled by other features, or the fear of being alone was too great (I can understand this from personal experience). Of course, in the book by Korelizt, Grace also should have known various things about her husband.
I purposely haven't read much more of the book as I want to see the television series unfold, but I have a good idea about what is going to happen.
The backdrop of rich, upper East Side women and social comparisons is somewhat tedious and I hope that this is going to disappear. Also, the book is set against a mild backdrop of Judaism that might cause some readers a degree of non-comprehension; this appears to be dropped in the series, not least because Grace's surname has been changed from Sachs to Fraser.
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