Sunday Shows – One Stinky, One Sweet, Sunday, Jan. 25

It’s not so much that Nature’s latest doc stinks, but its subject sure does.  And on the opposite end of the spectrum is a chick flick that’s utterly sweet and genuine.  Depending on what your local PBS station is doing, they air one right after another.

First up, Is That Skunk?, the Nature doc supposedly airing at 8 p.m., but check your local listings for when your PBS station is airing it. We all know the not so delightful aroma of skunks in bloom, but the critters, themselves are pretty interesting.  More to the point, the doc, itself, is freaking hysterical, with a host of stinky puns (fully intended).  There aren’t that many, but there are more shots of a skunk’s backside than I really wanted to see.  Your average 11-year-old will love it.

My one quibble is the doc seems to skip over the issue of over-population and whether skunks are over-whelming other native species.  I’m not sure if it’s just not that big a problem or what.  Usually Nature docs are pretty good on things like that, even when you’re talking about killing cute animals – and skunks are pretty darned cute.  But otherwise, there’s some great footage here, including a skunk facing off with a mountain lion.

The other issue for parents is that we should encourage our kids to check out the wildlife in our own backyards.  Seriously, there are some cool critters worth observing.  For example, we have possum, raccoons, squirrels and rats in our yard, not to mention snakes, lizards, a host of different birds and insects.  Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson talked a couple weeks ago about encouraging our kids to develop a scientific curiosity.  Yeah, it’s a mess at times (fortunately the Nature doc gives a good recipe for de-stinking skunk spray).  But this is how we learn and how we develop a passion for learning in our kids.  Our kids need that.

We also need a little romance in our lives and the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie,Loving Leah, airing on CBS at 9 p.m., gives us just that.  Unfortunately, the Hallmark Hall of Fame pressroom is down, or I’d have all the cast names and the author of the play the movie is based on for you.

In any case, the story is based on an ancient Jewish law from the book of Leviticus.  When a man dies without children, his brother is expected to marry his wife to raise up children for him.  It’s not practiced anymore, but in Orthodox circles, as presented in the movie, there is a little ceremony to release the wife.  The catch is that it involves the man denying the existence of his brother.  Which is exactly the catch that gets Jake, a non-observant Jew whose adored older brother, Ben, became an Orthodox rabbi.  Ben has died, leaving his young wife, Leah.  It was an arranged marriage that Leah accepted, but found somewhat passion-less.

Leah, for herself, is perfectly happy to be released from the Levirate marriage because she wants to go to college and find her own life.  However, Jake, who had been estranged from his brother and is feeling guilty about it, can’t just let go.  So he proposes a marriage in name only to Leah.  She’ll live in his house as a room-mate and the two will happily go on with their lives.

You know where this is going and it goes there rather delightfully with a minimum of contrivances to make the path difficult for True Love.  It is also completely family safe.  There is some implied sexual activity, but at this point Jake and Leah are technically married and the fade out happens long before anything else does.  Nor do they wake up in bed together.  In fact, the two times they are shown in bed together, they’re fully clothed.  As for how well it depicts Orthodox Jewish life, I can’t say.  But they seem to get a lot of it right.  For example, Leah doesn’t use the phone on Shabbas and wears a wig to hide her hair.

And that’s it.  Back again for two new premieres on Monday.

Anne Louise Bannon

Your Family Viewer