I'm not Gen Z but I love a bit of Wednesday Addams

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

What's so refreshing about this Addams Family reboot is it's entirely content in the darkness, reflecting the honesty of thought which appreciates that not all young people's television world is fixated with Emily in Paris-like characters who feel compelled to speak in fixed smiles. And it's more than a little refreshing to see a formidable female character who can put insipidness in its place.
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But of course, the Addams Family, and Wednesday in particular, aren't evil at all. They simply view life through the raven black lens of acute abnegation. And this show, like Charles Addams' original work, works because it's really all about love and family values.
Burrowing owl parent returning with food for growing chick BBC (Image: Matt Poole) Which leads us into Parenthood, (BBC 1, Sunday). Now, I switched on initially thinking this to be a re-run of Ron Howard's classic film, fully expecting to see Steve Martin dressed in a junior cowboy outfit, speaking in a Rawhide accent while trying to work out why big people ever even think about creating little people. Instead, what was on offer were real-life parent and child stories, all of which sought to consider, as Howard did, the incredible bond.
The legendary voice that is Sir David Attenborough took us to Botswana, where we watched hippo mums teach their young. This section didn't quite parallel the part in Howard's movie in which Rick Moranis read Kafka to his four-year-old in the hope of major brain growth, instead the education was a little more practical, with the big hippos teaching the kids how not to get eaten by lions. Don't leave the herd, was the message.
Then we watched with fascination as the Arizona burrowing owl chicks grow up, glare at their parents contemptuously – although that could just be the default owl countenance – and leave the nest. They're all little Larry Buckmans, we learned, who was Tom Hulce's character in Parenthood, who loved the idea of being a good dad but hadn't the skills to become one. If you remember, Larry fathered a child with a Vegas showgirl who once featured in Elvis on Ice and left Larry with the child after she shot someone. Yet, although the owl chicks showed remarkable disdain, their parents still battled to keep them nested and safe as long as possible.
But it was the powerful, all-consuming love of the silverback gorillas for their young which matched that of Steve Martin's character Gil, a man who was prepared to go to the greatest lengths to make his children happy.
And while both Parenthoods underscored the argument that bringing up children can be a nightmare, an often-thankless task, the likes of the majestic Iberian lynx revealed that an unconditional love for children, the bonding, the protection, the concern is paramount. As Attenborough softly declared: 'All parents face an uncertain future, but in order to survive we have to help each other.' The message was perfect. If we don't, we're fair game for the lions.' And at times, we may have to wear a cowboy outfit.
But has Lucy Letby been fairly judged? We know she did it, don't we? The woman is the very definition of evil, whose pic sits neatly alongside such as Harold Shipman, Peter Sutcliffe and Peter Tobin in the Serial Killers gallery. We all read the newspaper accounts and followed the TV docs detailing how she killed seven babies. The evidence was inarguable, we understood she worked in wards where neonatal births were three times the national average. And she more or less admitted her guilt in notes she left to herself. 'Guilty.'
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But is she? Several newspaper and media outlets have been questioning the verdict, but Beyond Reasonable Doubt? (ITV, Sunday) threw a host of alternative arguments right smack in the face of the viewer. The spike in baby deaths could have come about at the time when the hospital was suddenly required to take in much sicker babies than it had before. It had also been argued that tiny babies can't dislodge their breathing tubes. However, new expert witnesses appeared in the doc to say this can, and does, happen frequently.
Letby's barrister Mark McDonald (Image: ITV) Meanwhile, a witness for the prosecution, paediatric doctor Ravi Jayaram also stated that he saw Letby standing by doing nothing and raising no alarm as one baby's oxygen levels dropped dangerously. But he later admitted she had in fact raised the alarm. As for her (incriminating) Post It notes, these were explained as the scribblings of a mind wracked with insecurities.
Did Lucy Letby in fact care about the babies in her charge in way of the expected Parenthood model? Will new evidence be garnered by Letby's new lawyer? This was compelling television, but will the legal system feel compelled to look much harder at Lucy Letby's conviction?