Goddess (2013)

Goddess: Directed by Mark Lamprell. With Laura Michelle Kelly, Ronan Keating, Magda Szubanski, Levi Morrison. Elspeth Dickens dreams of finding her “voice” despite being stuck in an isolated farmhouse with her twin toddlers. A web-cam becomes her pathway to fame and fortune, but at a price.

“**UPDATE AFTER SEASON 6: If I could mark 11 stars, that would be it. The episodes about the Thalidomide children were hard but very well focused and treated. I am intrigued at how they film the scenes with just born babies in the very hands of the actors, with wide shots, not just close-ups. Call the Midwife is a most humanistic show indeed, focused on believable, realistic positive values. In a time when humanism seems to be disgraced and devalued everywhere, it is most welcome in my screen.***u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis show is extraordinary.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt portrays so vividly the changes of an era in Great Britain, when the latter half of the 20th century blasted into peopleu0026#39;s daily lives at poor East End London, with all its hopes, marvels, progress, and shifts from a traditional to a modern lifestyle.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe performances are brilliant; the characters are as lovable as well-written; the atmosphere is perfectly recreated, and though quite serious health and social issues are crudely shown along the episodes, the tone is always permeated with hope, love and joy of living.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe do not come from a Christian upbringing, and I am not a Catholic, but I strongly sympathize with the humanistic and sensible approach of Nonnatus Houseu0026#39;s team of nuns and midwives, where tolerance, acceptance and care for life ranks higher than dogma or empty beliefs.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is very hard to write a really deep, philosophical and poetic show while maintaining a light-hearted spirit and lots of humour, and Call the Midwife really makes it in a masterly way.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have to say it gets better and better as the seasons pass, always intertwining the main charactersu0026#39; personal stories and individual cases with relevant and updated issues of public health and bioethics.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBy the way, the admirable British public health system, which made wonders in the 50s and 60s and promoted equal access to safety, well-being and human development, also becomes a magnificent political statement in our own age, all the more appreciated in a retrospective look.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is nothing to complain about of this show, which exerts an honest, compelling, deeply satisfying magnetism on viewers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor those of us who love motherhood, babies and pregnancies, there is the unique plus of rejoicing at the sight of so many just born babies at the moment of delivery, in a remarkably natural and non-sensationalist feat of cinematography. You can feel the unmistakable miracle of life in each episode, with its sufferings and joys, which is so unusual among a current TV grid full of violence, special effects, overt sex, glorified evil and frenzied action.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKudos to BBC! Yes, they have made it again, once more!”