BritTV: Marchlands and Lightfields

Marchlands: 2 DVD Set at Amazon UK (Region 2 / PAL) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marchlands-DVD-Jodie-Whittaker/dp/B004HARLAG/

Happenings in the same house over three separate generations... the sixties, the eighties and today... are all strangely related. And it all goes back to the mysterious drowning of a young girl named Alice. This mini-series is a quintessential British ghost story told through deft transitions from decade to decade with cleverly planned wipes. The characters cross over and interact, and the ghost of Alice keeps her secret to the very last few minutes.

I really don't know why the British crime shows have made it across the Atlantic to PBS, but the ghost stories haven't. This one should be seen here. It's engaging, well directed and acted, and most of all scary. The DVD set is PAL Region 2, so you need a region free player, but you should have one anyway. There are too many great things in the world that haven't made it to the US.

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Lightfields: 2 DVD Set at Amazon UK (Region 2 / PAL) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AB22P1Y

It's rare for the followup to a successful TV series to be just as good as the original. But in this case it is. The reason for that is that they didn't just do a sequel or prequel using the same characters... they were smart enough to know that their story had already been told. Instead, they created *another* house and three more generations of families. It's the story of a teenage farmer's daughter who gets seduced and taken advantage of in a barn by an American airman during WWII. The barn bursts into flames and the girl is burned up with it. But who lit the match?

This time, the mystery is a little more pronounced than the chills, but there's still a couple of really good flaming ghost shots to make your skin crawl. The way the story plays out is gripping, and the acting of the older man returning to the house for the first time since the "accident" occurred when he was a boy is subtle and layered. Again, PAL Region 2.