These are the streaming tips of the week
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50 years after its first broadcast in Germany, the cult series “Our Little Farm” is getting a new look on Netflix, while Apple TV is continuing the British comedy series “Trying” about a chaotic family. The overview reveals which streaming highlights the coming week has in store.
The more uncertain the times, the greater the need for the familiar, for security and an intact world. Of course, film and series makers have long recognized this, and so it is hardly surprising that Netflix dared to reboot one of the most popular US family series of the 70s and 80s: “Our Little Farm” is back. The bar is set high, as the original had over 200 episodes in nine seasons. You can find out what the streamers have to offer in the next few days in the overview.
“Our Little Farm” – Netflix
The eight-part first season of the reboot of “Our Little Farm” (from Thursday, July 9th, Netflix) is based on volume three of the autobiographical novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Entitled “Little House on the Prairie,” Ingalls remembers the family’s arduous journey by covered wagon from Wisconsin to Kansas around 1870 in the hope of a better life. The historical background is the so-called “Homestead Act”, according to which everyone was allowed to claim and cultivate a piece of unpopulated land. But the land was not uninhabited, it was “Indian land”, the home of Native Americans who were subsequently dispossessed and driven away. Little Laura (Melissa Gilbert) said in the pilot of the original series in 1974 that it wasn’t fair.
In the reboot, this dark chapter of US history takes up more space. “It can’t be right that strangers just walk into my house,” says newcomer Charles indignantly at one point. The natives see it the same way, replies his neighbor Mitchell (Meegwun Fairbrother), himself half indigenous. According to Julie O’Keefe, who served as an advisor on the sensitive topic, the decision was made early on to tell both sides: the settlers’ hopes for new opportunities and the disastrous consequences of westward expansion for the indigenous people.
But the core of “Our Little Farm” is, then as now, the Ingalls’. Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine even calls the series “a love story about a family.” Unlike before, the family in the reboot initially has four members – father Charles (Luke Bracey), mother Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald) and daughters Mary (Skywalker Hughes) and Laura (Alice Halsey). In the original series, little Carrie was already born, followed later by sister Grace. However, anyone who is looking forward to seeing beloved characters from the past, such as Laura’s archenemy Nellie Oleson, will have to wait until the second season, which has already been confirmed.
“Trying” – Apple TV
Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall) seem to have finally found happiness in the fifth season of “Trying” (from Wednesday, July 8th, eight episodes a week on Apple TV): After struggling with infertility, they adopted siblings Princess (Scarlett Rayner) and Tyler (Cooper Turner). The four have now found each other as a family and the young children have become two teenagers. Trying is one of Apple TV’s longest-running series and has received mostly positive reviews for its past four seasons, particularly for the humor of the script and the chemistry between the main cast. Just now, when everything seems to be going well, Princess and Taylor’s birth mother is disrupting the family – especially Nikki…
In addition to Esther Smith and Rafe Spall, Sian Brooke as Nikki’s sister Karen and Darren Boyd as her eccentric husband Scott are returning for the fifth season of the BBC Studios-produced series from series creator and screenwriter Andy Wolton. Celia Imrie (“The Thursday Murder Club”), Gbemisola Ikumelo (“The Paper”) and Colin Morgan (“Belfast”) also join the cast.
“Suddenly Sister” – ZDFmediathek
This is not how Sandra Giesinger (Klara Lange) imagined her dream wedding: the cake topper looks like it was made by a five-year-old child, her maid of honor canceled, and then her father ends up dead and face first in the trial wedding cake. However, the biggest shock awaits the future bride and her mother Monika Giesinger (Andrea Sawatzki) at the funeral: Gerd Giesinger had a secret second family for years… “Suddenly Sister” is a turbulent, sometimes somewhat clichéd, but still entertaining comedy that will be available on zdf.de from Monday, July 13th.
Sandra’s chubby, warm-hearted half-sister Sandy (Cosima Henman) doesn’t fit into the Giesingers’ chic family image at all. Her mother Gabi (Anita Vulesica) also has little trouble clinging to her rival Monika. For that she probably wouldn’t have had to steal Gerd’s ashes from the urn before the burial. Finally, there is Gerd’s missing will with unknown contents. Meanwhile, Sandy senses the chance of a lifetime to finally get closer to her half-sister: When she hears that Sandra is looking for a maid of honor, she is there immediately and soon causes chaos…
“After the Party” – ARTE media library
“The number of sexual crimes is increasing” – headlines like these have often been read, and not just in Germany. But what does it actually do to the relatives of the suspected perpetrators who catch a loved one in the act? This is a question posed by the New Zealand series “After the Party” (from Monday, July 6th, on arte.tv). The story is told by Penny (Robyn Malcolm) and Phil (Peter Mullan, “Outlander: Blood of my Blood”), a dedicated teacher couple from Wellington. They were once happy together, but then Penny caught her husband in bed with a teenage friend of her daughter Grace (Tara Canton) after a party: Ollie (Ian Blackburn) was not only very drunk, but also naked. It was clear to Penny: the boy was raped by her husband. In the presence of the guests, she confronts her husband.
At the beginning of the six-part series, it was all five years ago. But when Phil unexpectedly returns to Wellington, Penny’s old wounds suddenly reopen. Not only that, but he’s also moving in with Grace and her little son! While Phil effortlessly regains the trust of his old neighbors and friends, Penny is eager to find out the truth about the night of the possible attack, even if it means losing her daughter… (This article was created in cooperation with teleschau.)