COVID-19 once again led me to watch [binge] a TV series I never would have even know existed had it not been for the virus. It was more than a pleasant surprise; it was an emotional roller coaster very reminiscent of American iconic shows like Dallas & Dynasty wrapped in the culture of an almost Downton Abbey.
The title made me think of a “movie night movie” I showed many years ago called Antwone Fisher which came out in 2002 staring Denzel Washington. The true story included a poem that Fisher wrote.
Who will cry for the little boy?
By Antwone Fisher
Who will cry for the little boy?
Lost and all alone.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Abandoned without his own?
Who will cry for the little boy?
He cried himself to sleep.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He never had for keeps.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He walked the burning sand
Who will cry for the little boy?
The boy inside the man.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Who knows well hurt and pain
Who will cry for the little boy?
He died again and again.
Who will cry for the little boy?
A good boy he tried to be
Who will cry for the little boy?
Who cries inside of me.
A Place to Call Home is an Australian television drama series created by Bevan Lee. It premiered on 28 April 2013. Set in rural New South Wales in the period following the Second World War, it follows Sarah Adams (Marta Dusseldorp), who has returned to Australia after twenty years abroad to start a new life and ends up clashing with wealthy matriarch Elizabeth Bligh (Noni Hazlehurst). The main cast also includes Brett Climo (George Bligh), Craig Hall (Dr. Jack Duncan), David Berry (James Bligh), Abby Earl (Anna Poletti), Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood (Olivia Bligh), Aldo Mignone (Gino Poletti), Sara Wiseman (Carolyn Bligh), Jenni Baird (Regina Standish), Tim Draxl (Henry Fox), Dominic Allburn (Harry Polson), and Frankie J. Holden (Roy Briggs).
It has been described as a “compelling melodrama about love and loss set against the social change of the 1950s”. The show was cancelled after its second season but obtained further funding and concluded successfully after a total of six seasons in 2018 with a total of 67 episodes.
The period piece touched a wide range of social, religious, and political issues not just for Australia 1953-1960 but that are even relevant today in our “cancelled culture”. Addiction, anti-Semitism, infidelity, inter-faith relationships, bigotry, misogyny, women’s health issues, abortion, out of wedlock pregnancies, homosexuality, conversion therapy, racism, war trauma, the holocaust, alcoholism, the power of family secrets, a caste system, entitlement, suicide, and redemption just to mention a few. Just when you think the show can’t possibly touch a new subject it does.
In recovery “speak”, every character defect know to humans is on full display. Grandiosity, egocentrism, dishonesty, anger, resentments, rage, pain, obsessive compulsive thinking and behavior, loneliness, arrogance, contempt, shame, guilt, intolerance, judgmental minds, lust, and fear just to name a few runs in and out of every character in the show. It makes for good theater.
These topics combined with these defects of character impact people in 2021 here in America in an alarming fashion. We refer to them today as dis/eases of despair: By the time these “isms” manifest themselves into problematic actions said people are left living in a perpetual state of incomprehensible demoralization.
There is help. Misery is optional. Contact us at No More Secrets.
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