Ozark contineus to be an exciting series through Season 3, and a note on early black cinema

The 3rd season of Ozark continues with the great storytelling, writing, and acting of the first 2 seasons, as we watch the Byrde family sink ever deeper into world of money laundering, corrupt gambling, moving heroin, and outright war between two Mexican cartels. Is it really possible that a brilliant CPA/money manger, i.e., Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) would get caught up in this world and draw his family into the vortex? No, not really; but the show is written and presented with such intelligence that we're totally caught up in the drama - with special props to the amazing cast-against-type Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde, Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore, and Janet McTeer as Helen Pierce. What sets this series apart in particular is the writing. Though there are several scenes of brutal violence in Season 3, by and large the confrontations among the characters are played out with language; throughout the series I'm always trying to anticipate what the characters will say to one another to get out of increasingly dreadful crises and they're always a step or two ahead of me. No, there's not the character depth of, say, the Sopranos, the greatest crime-family drama, but the plotting is rich and intelligent and, in season 3, the arrival of Wendy's brother Ben (Tom Pelphrey)  adds a dimension (bipolar disorder) and some disturbing plot developments. Obviously, the Byrdes will be back for a Season 4.

On another note, I also have been watching a silent-era film fro 1919, Within Our Gates, by Oscar Micheaux; he was one of the first black film directors and this film is considered the oldest surviving work by a black director. To b honest, it's not a great film - the plot is jumbled and extremely had to follow, and there are far too many long sequences in which the acting is stagey and the action is minimal - but it does have a few powerful scenes, in particular the manhunt for two black characters and their horrendous demise at the hands of a vengeful crowd - and it touches on many themes of the lives of blacks in the cities of the North (Boston? Chicago?) and in the rural South. The main character is trying to raise funds for a sorrowful yet noble school for black children in the South, in in the process she encounters a lot of bias and prejudice among the grande dames of New England. Today, this film is more of a relic or curiosity than a great or innovative work of cinema - but that said it's eye-opening for many, or at least for me, to see that there was such vibrant films and race and racism done by black artists and for the black community, all in the shadow of the frightful Birth of a Nation.