{"id":1684,"date":"2011-11-28T10:25:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T15:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2011-11-28T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T15:25:30","slug":"worthwhile-tv-and-dvd-viewing-from-the-gritty-documentary-serving-life-to-charlie-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/worthwhile-tv-and-dvd-viewing-from-the-gritty-documentary-serving-life-to-charlie-brown.html","title":{"rendered":"Worthwhile TV and DVD viewing &#8211; from the gritty documentary &#8220;Serving Life&#8221; to &#8220;Charlie Brown&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are today&#8217;s post-Thanksgiving dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture &#8212; including current and upcoming DVD releases.<\/p>\n<p>1. <strong><em>Serving Life<\/em> documentary serves up heart-rending yet inspirational chronicle of a prison hospice.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Serving Life - Trailer | OWN Documentary Club | Oprah Winfrey Network\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DzPzmeieXPE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Narrated by Forest Whitaker and originally airing on Oprah Winfrey&#8217;s OWN cable channel, this Odyssey Networks production is as compassionate as it is gritty among the most-powerful documentaries I have ever seen. It&#8217;s also poignant reminder of the power of forgiveness and the humanity that exists inside everyone. It&#8217;s scheduled for DVD release on January 17, 2011.\u00a0 <strong>Recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2. <strong>Amish-themed<\/strong> <em><strong>The Shunning<\/strong><\/em> <strong>offers solid storytelling.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Shunning - Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2XLcFqS075g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Originally airing on The Hallmark Channel and also an Odyssey production, the first of Beverly Lewis&#8217; <em>Lancaster County<\/em> trilogy tells the story of Katie Lapp (Danielle Panabaker), a young Amish woman about to be married to a local bishop when a letter connected to a secret surrounding the circumstances of her birth changes her life forever.\u00a0 The movie is remarkable in its compassionate portrayal of the Amish while forthrightly dealing with just how harsh strict adherence to religious law can be. In the end, it&#8217;s about the value of forgiveness and being true to who you are.\u00a0 It&#8217;s available now on DVD.\u00a0 <strong>Recommended.<br \/>\n<\/strong>BTW, <em>The Confession<\/em>, the second installment of the trilogy, is currently in development and will air on Hallmark sometime in 2012. <strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>3. <strong>Mitch Albom&#8217;s<em> Have a Little Faith<\/em> suggests some hope for network TV.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Hallmark Hall of Fame: &quot;Mitch Albom&#039;s HAVE A LITTLE FAITH&quot; Movie Promo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cexuSVuTxA4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>The Hallmark Hall of Fame<\/em> presentation aired last night on ABC.\u00a0 Though I only caught a portion of it, I hope it gets strong ratings so the broadcast networks will be encouraged to do more programming like it. I could even envision and <strong>recommend<\/strong> a TV series based on the the Laurence Fishburne&#8217;s Rev. Henry Covington character. After all, way back in the seventies <em>The Waltons<\/em> was spun out of a similar Christmas special called <em>The Homecoming<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Tms8iUu4OXk<\/p>\n<p>3. <strong><em>Snowmen<\/em> DVD rolls out for Christmas.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yUq8VS6aa9U<\/p>\n<p>Truly a movie for the whole family that should help fill any kid&#8217;s Christmas stocking. <strong>Recommended.<\/strong> Read my review <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/10\/movie-review-inspirational-snowmen-will-melt-the-coldest-hearts-success-leads-movie-tv-execs-to-book-faith-themed-projects.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>4. <strong><em>Family Movie Night<\/em> on DVD. <\/strong>Also <strong>recommended<\/strong>,\u00a0 the three most recent Walmart-P&amp;G Family Movie Night films, <em>Field of Vision, Who is Simon Miller? <\/em>and<em> Game Time: Tackling the Past<\/em> will go on sale exclusively at Walmart on Tuesday, November 29, 2011. They&#8217;re $13.00 each.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <em>Game of Your Life<\/em> the newest of the series, is set to debut on NBC this Friday (Dec. 2).\u00a0 I&#8217;ll be reviewing it on Thursday. Till then, here&#8217;s a peek.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rb1ymtJmDBE<\/p>\n<p><em>5.<\/em><strong><em> Charlie Brown<\/em> beats Lady Gaga in Thanksgiving ratings.<\/strong> As reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/insidetv.ew.com\/2011\/11\/25\/thanksgiving-ratings\/\">Entertainment Weekly<\/a>, ABC&#8217;s repeat presentation of <em>A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving<\/em> beat the same network&#8217;s premiere of <em>A Very Gaga Thanksgiving<\/em> &#8212; 5.8 million viewers to 5.4 million viewers.<\/p>\n<p>6. <strong>One more Thanksgiving thought. <\/strong>I received this from the public relations agency The Maximus Group. I think it&#8217;s worth sharing and remembering all year round.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">O God, when I have food,<br \/>\nhelp me to remember the hungry;<br \/>\nWhen I have work,<br \/>\nhelp me to remember the jobless;<br \/>\nWhen I have a home,<br \/>\nhelp me to remember those<br \/>\nwho have no home at all;<br \/>\nWhen I am without pain,<br \/>\nhelp me to remember those who suffer,<br \/>\nAnd remembering,<br \/>\nhelp me to destroy my complacency;<br \/>\nbestir my compassion,<br \/>\nand be concerned enough to help;<br \/>\nBy word and deed,<br \/>\nthose who cry out<br \/>\nfor what we take for granted.<br \/>\nAmen.<\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are today&#8217;s post-Thanksgiving dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture &#8212; including current and upcoming DVD releases. 1. Serving Life documentary serves up heart-rending yet inspirational chronicle of a prison hospice.\u00a0 Narrated by Forest Whitaker and originally airing on Oprah Winfrey&#8217;s OWN cable channel, this Odyssey Networks production is as compassionate as&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1085,14,21,24,31,1],"tags":[35,1994,1995,1985,1993,1476,1990,104,1986,1988,1987,1329,1984,1983,1236,1224,1989,1996,1223,1162,1991,1992],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-forgiveness","category-gratitude","category-judaism","category-movies","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-a-charlie-brown-thanksgiving","tag-a-very-gaga-thanksgiving","tag-beverly-lewis-lancaster-county-trilogy","tag-charlie-brown-beats-lady-gaga-in-thanksgiving-ratings","tag-entertainment-weekly","tag-family-movie-night-on-dvd","tag-field-of-vision","tag-katie-lapp-danielle-panabaker","tag-laurence-fishburnes-rev-henry-covington-character","tag-mitch-alboms-have-a-little-faith","tag-odyssey-networks","tag-oprah-winfreys-own-cable-channel","tag-serving-life-documentary-forest-whitaker","tag-the-confession","tag-the-hallmark-channel","tag-the-homecoming","tag-the-maximus-group","tag-the-shunning","tag-the-waltons","tag-walmart-pg-family-movie-night-films","tag-who-is-simon-miller-and-game-time-tackling-the-past"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Worthwhile TV and DVD viewing - from the gritty documentary &quot;Serving Life&quot; to &quot;Charlie Brown&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/worthwhile-tv-and-dvd-viewing-from-the-gritty-documentary-serving-life-to-charlie-brown.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Worthwhile TV and DVD viewing - from the gritty documentary &quot;Serving Life&quot; to &quot;Charlie Brown&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here are today&#8217;s post-Thanksgiving dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture &#8212; including current and upcoming DVD releases. 1. Serving Life documentary serves up heart-rending yet inspirational chronicle of a prison hospice.\u00a0 Narrated by Forest Whitaker and originally airing on Oprah Winfrey&#8217;s OWN cable channel, this Odyssey Networks production is as compassionate as&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/worthwhile-tv-and-dvd-viewing-from-the-gritty-documentary-serving-life-to-charlie-brown.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-28T15:25:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}