TV • PAGE 25
THE BULLETIN • MARCH 25 - 31, 2021
What’s Available NOW On
“ZeroZeroZero”
This Italy/Mexico co-production is
inspired by the same-titled book by
“Gomorrah” author Roberto Saviano
and follows the international cocaine
trade through a shipment of the drug,
from the moment a powerful cartel of
Italian criminals decides to buy it until
the cargo is delivered and paid for.
Érick Consuelo, Gabriel Byrne, Andrea
Riseborough and Dane DeHaan head
the cast. (ORIGINAL)
BY GEORGE DICKIE
“Field of Dreams”
“A League of Their Own”
“42”
“Somewhere South”
“Life With Elizabeth”
North Carolina-based chef and
restaurateur Vivian Howard’s follow-up
to her Emmy- and Peabody Award-
winning 2013-17 PBS series “A
Chef ’s Life” is the first season of this
unscripted program that takes viewers
along for the ride as she embarks on a
culinary tour of the South through its
cross-cultural dishes.
Betty White, who turned 99 in
January, was in her early thirties
when she starred in this 1953-55
syndicated sitcom about the day-to-
day lives and predicaments faced by
an ordinary suburban couple (played
by White and Del Moore). Jack Narz,
later the host of game shows such as
“Concentration,” served as the on-
camera host and narrator in this black-
and-white series.
“LOL: Last One Laughing
Germany”
As the title suggests, the series that
challenges stand-up comedians to
keep a straight face while their fellow
funny men and women do their best
to break them up into laughter comes
to Germany. Anke Engelke, Barbara
Schoneberger, Carolin Kebekus, Kurt
Kromer and Max Giermann are among
the 10 competitors vying for the grand
prize. Michael Herbig is the host.
BEST BASEBALL MOVIES
“Field of Dreams” (1989) While not
the most historically accurate of baseball
films – c’mon, Shoeless Joe Jackson batted
left-handed and threw righty, not the
other way around as Ray Liotta portrayed
him – this tale of an Iowa farmer (Kevin
Costner) who built a baseball diamond in
his cornfield at the urging of a disembodied
voice never fails to bring a lump to the
throat with the closing scene of Costner’s
character playing catch with his long-
estranged (and deceased) father.
“A League of Their Own” (1992)
The little-known story of the World War
II-era All-American Girls Professional
Baseball League gets light-hearted but
respectful treatment in Penny Marshall’s
superb comedy/drama. Outstanding
performances come from all around, from
Tom Hanks as a besotted, washed-up star
player turned manager to Madonna as the
libidinous center fielder and Geena Davis
as her team’s star catcher and the film’s
central character. And the closing scenes at
Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y. – set
against the strains of Madonna’s “This Used
to Be My Playground” – give the film an
added poignancy.
“61*” (2001) Director Billy Crystal is
a lifelong New York Yankees fan and
that certainly showed in this seriocomic
historical drama about Mickey Mantle and
Roger Maris’ race to break Babe Ruth’s
home run record in 1961. In addition to the
attention to detail paid to Yankee minutiae
(Yogi Berra’s malapropisms, Phil Rizzuto’s
tendency to ramble), the film also features
the downright spooky resemblances
of Thomas Jane and Barry Pepper to
Mantle and Maris. And a few jabs at the
opportunistic New York sportswriters of the
day didn’t hurt either.
“42” (2013) Dashing Indiana Jones
as rumpled Brooklyn Dodgers General
Manager Branch Rickey? Well, the artist
known as Harrison Ford manages to
pull it off in style in this outstanding
drama about the challenges faced by
Jackie Robinson (played deftly by the late
Chadwick Boseman) in breaking baseball’s
color barrier in 1947. As the majors’ first
African-American player, Robinson had to
be strong enough not to fight back against
the slings and arrows of racism, a struggle
Boseman portrayed superbly – especially in
one wrenching scene where an opposing
manager repeatedly taunts Robinson with
an inflammatory epithet.