An Australian Melodrama

Some people are surprised that I still have an old-fashioned Netflix account in which DVD discs are sent to my home by mail.  Since I am also able to log into Alejandro's streaming account I am able compare the two services.  Frankly, my DVD account is far superior.  Yes, there have been a few good series on the streaming account that are not available on disc, but the library of DVD discs is enormous.  If you want old, classic movies, you are pretty much out of luck if you only have a streaming account.  The majority of what is available on streaming consists of recent series, many of them produced by Netflix themselves.  I have started a number of their series (even historical dramas, my favorite genre), and I have lost interest after a couple episodes.

Furthermore, on my DVD account I have found a couple of excellent foreign television series that are not available on the streaming service.  I wrote last year about the superb series "A French Village", which follows the lives of the residents of a fictitious French town during the years of the Nazi occupation.  Right now I am watching an Australian TV series which premiered in 2013 called "A Place to Call Home".

(Image taken from the web)

It takes place in a rural town in Australia during the 1950s.  The protagonist, nurse Sarah Adams, has returned to Australia after spending twenty years in Europe.  She finds employment in the local hospital.  There she butts heads with Elizabeth Bligh, the matriarch of the town's richest and most prominent family.  Sarah is very secretive about her years in Europe, and there are skeletons in the family closet which Elizabeth is hiding.

It is, I suppose a soap opera, but a very well done soap opera.  The production values are high; it seems to authentically recreate the Australia of that era.  Although none of the actors are known to me, they are all excellent.  I am coming to the end of the first season (there are six seasons in all), and I am hooked on the intriguing story line.

If you can find this series, I highly recommend it!