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Kirsten Mills, courtesy Discovery Networks

BREATHLESS BRIDE: DYING TO LIVE

Friendly Rating: Elementary and older

Safety Rating: A little grossness here and there, but otherwise okay

Quality Rating: Okay, I guess

Special airs on TLC tonight at 10 p.m.

The problem is all too real – there are simply not enough donor organs available for the people who need them, and I do not want to diminish the importance of that issue.

But, but, but….  Had I seen this British doc chronicling Kirsten Mills’ struggle to live as she waited for a pair of lungs to become available a few years ago, I might have found it more moving. Alas, there have been way too many struggles for survival on TV since then, and there’s a part of me that can’t help looking at this with a dash of cynicism.

It’s actually a rather charming little love story. Kirsten has cystic fibrosis – a lung disease – and while she has been able to lead a relatively normal life thus far, weeks before her wedding, her health suddenly declines and she’s placed on the transplant list. But that’s not going to stop her from walking down the aisle with her beloved, who is equally determined to spend what time the two have together.

Everything is touch and go and all dramatic and Kirsten almost doesn’t make it. We are constantly reminded that a good many people waiting for lungs simply don’t live long enough to get them – which may be part of what adds to my cynicism, since there is no suggestion that people sign their donor cards or talk to their families about that possibility. I suppose it’s harsh enough that for Kirsten to live, somebody else has to die.

Your mileage may vary, of course, and you might find this very moving.

From the Amish, courtesy PBS

THE AMISH

Friendly Rating: Elementary age and older

Safety Rating: Perfectly safe

Quality Rating: Good, although a bit slow for younger viewers

Episode of American Experience airs on PBS tonight, check your local listings for times.

I remember reading a novel about an Amish girl back when I was in elementary school and being fascinated by the religious sect ever since. This film speculates that our collective fascination with the group has to do with the way many of their values emulate our core American values – and that may be true.

But for me, the fascination has more to do with the way they seem to genuinely walk the walk of their faith. I’m sure there’s some hypocrisy amongst the Amish – and there is a hint of it in the film. But by and large, you don’t see it. These are people who largely embody Christian values, including peace, humility and forgiveness – especially forgiveness – even when it’s not easy to.

Yes, they can be extremely hard on those of their own who stray from the fold. It’s certainly not an easy life for someone who questions things. And there is one scene where an Amish women describes what happened when she went to her minister seeking help because her husband was abusing her and the minister asks her what she’d done to deserve the abuse. Yeouch! The interesting thing, though, is that apparently both she and her husband were punished by the group and she was accepted back when she confessed her “sin,” and he wasn’t because he wouldn’t confess.

It was also an extremely difficult film to make when you consider that the Amish won’t let themselves be filmed as individuals. You can take pictures of them from a distance, but up close. Talk about messing with your visuals. What the filmmakers did get are voice recordings – and they are beautiful.

The big disadvantage to the film is that it does move a little on the slow side, which might be hard for your kids to take. Nonetheless, it is interesting.

Dena Kaplan, Xenia Goodwin, Alicia Banit, courtesy Nickelodeon

DANCE ACADEMY

Friendly Rating: All ages, but mostly girls

Safety Rating: Mild mischief and lots of underwear

Quality Rating: Fairly good

Series premieres on TeenNick tonight at 9:30 p.m.

Assuming you can find TeenNick on your television, this little Australian import about a young girl, Tara (Xenia Goodman) from a small town coming to the big city to study ballet and dance at a prestigious boarding school is quite charming. I don’t know if it’s the basic innocence of the project that is so refreshing (as opposed to the forced niceness of so many other shows for pre-teens), or just that it is Australian and thus, a little bit different.

The usual characters are all there – the mean girl who’s the best in class, the gawky boy, the cool boy, the hot upper classman, the rebellious mischief maker.  The other difference is that these kids are in school because they love to dance and there’s a very real goal here. Also, the adults can come off as mean and uncaring, but ultimately, they are excellent teachers and not an idiot among them. Tara’s father may be a bit rough around the edges, but he’s supportive of his daughter, even though it means she’s going to school many, many kilometers away.

The dancing looks pretty good, too, but does not seem to be the focus of the show – which in this case is a good thing because the characters are awfully fun to watch.

Courtesy The Weather Channel

LIFEGUARD!

Friendly Rating: All ages

Safety Rating: Scenes of involving deadly peril might be frightening for younger viewers

Quality Rating: Short and to the point – which is good

Series premieres tonight on The Weather Channel at 9 p.m.

So The Weather Channel is trying to get folks to watch when there isn’t some massive storm brewing. But while it is true that weather does have a profound effect on the work done by lifeguards in Southern California, it’s stretching it a bit to hang an entire series on that premise.

Fortunately, they don’t. Focusing on the daily work lives of the lifeguards patrolling the 400-odd miles of the southern half of California, the documentary plays fly on the wall, and the cameras have captured some pretty dramatic footage, including a young man who was digging a tunnel under the sand, only to have it all collapse on him.

There will be scenes of deadly peril – that’s what lifeguards do – and that could be frightening for some younger viewers. But, for example, while we did get a close up of a broken ankle, it was bandaged and not very bloody.

The blessing of this show is that it’s a half hour – which makes the viewing a lot more interesting. It’s also vaguely amusing and reassuring that a lot of the people needing rescue need it because they were being stupid, basically. The guy with the broken ankle got that way because he was jumping off a cliff where jumping is clearly prohibited because it’s a bad place to jump. The man digging under the sand should have considered that sand is not very stable and does not stay where you put it. The lesson? Life is a lot safer (in the good way) when you don’t act stupid.

Blue whale, courtesy PBS

NATURE: OCEAN GIANTS

Friendly Rating: All ages will like it

Safety Rating: Might be too explicit for younger and/or immature viewers

Quality Rating: Excellent

Three episode series within the series premieres tonight with “Giant Lives” on PBS, check your local listings for times.

As I was getting ready to review this doc, I was grumbling to myself that it seemed like the only family-safe viewing these days is nature docs. Uh, forget that for nature docs now.

This episode starts out acknowledging that we think of whales as these gentle creatures, but that their story is also one of sex and violence. The violence happens among humpbacks trying to beat each other up for the privilege of mating with a female. Okay. The scenes aren’t too violent, (although there is a later predation scene where a bunch of killer whales isolate a baby whale from its mother and kill it that might upset younger viewers).

Then there are the white whales that are promiscuous, the female mates with everybody. That wasn’t such a big deal. But then there were the shots of the extended male anatomy of a whale…. (I’d use the correct term, but I don’t want your office firewall blocking the post.)

Okay, that’s it. I’m sorry but I just can’t get those freaking images out of my mind. The inner 15-year-old boy has resurrected a full history of vile and filthy humor, not helped by the narration’s constant references to how the whales’ size helps them survive. I will grant that some of my embarrassment may have come from the fact that I did stream this episode at my local library. But I am not that squeamish about sex and animals coupling, even on TV, is not that a big a deal.

But if, as a mature adult, I can’t help these unintended giggles, etc., imagine your kids’ reaction. You may want to leave it alone and let it go over your younger kids’ heads – as long as they already know how sex happens and how animals mate. It is simply a natural process and part of life, no need to get freaked out. However, if your kids are in that range starting from 11-years-old, just starting to make dirty jokes to test the waters to maybe 15 or 16, when they’re first awakening to that part of their natures, it could get sticky.

It’s only one scene, and there really isn’t much sex or mating after that. Just some cool underwater photography and great information on whales. Alas, that one scene kind of ruined the rest of the film for me. But then it caught me off-guard. You’ve been warned and it might not bother you. Your call.