She doesn’t know what else to do.

This is a failure of the media/sports industrial complex. We exploit them at younger and younger ages and when they’re spit out the other side…they’ve got no education, few skills, they’ve been to the top and they’re never going to be able to get there ever again.

I feel sorry for Britney Spears. Who wanted her to be famous, her parents or herself? Can a girl that age even make that decision?

I’d tell everybody to go to school, to graduate from college, call it seasoning.

The funny thing is you’re in college, rearing to get going. Wanting to eat up the world. Believing you’re falling behind.

When ultimately this is untrue. You hit an age… Could be your late twenties, usually sometime in your thirties, where you’re doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, or maybe just coasting, and you wonder what you were so hungry for, why you wanted to get started so soon, life is long and there’s plenty of time.

But you don’t know that when you’re young.

What causes someone to excel? Is it nature or nurture? Biology or hard work? Ultimately it’s a combination of the two. You’ve got to have the physical skills, the body, but then whether you win or not depends upon dedication. And training is not enough. The greats don’t choke in competition, they get even better!

So Lindsey Kildow is growing up in Minneapolis. Training at Buck Hill, a bump by the freeway whose race program is run by the legendary Erich Sailer, who has trained Olympians previously. Lindsey has success, she’s tall and strong, she could go all the way, but you’ve got to get out of Minnesota to do this, you’ve got to go to…

Vail. Where they have world class training facilities and educational opportunities alongside.

This splits up the family. Ultimately her parents separate. But her dad is a successful lawyer and there’s enough money to make it work. You need the money in ski racing, the equipment and travel eat up your dollars.

So now all the hopes and dreams of the family are invested in young Lindsey. The pressure is overwhelming. Look at all the rubble in her wake, now she’s got to make it.

And she does, she has the skills, and…

She shines at the only moment the American public pays attention, the Olympics, where she wins gold in the downhill, the signature skiing event.

And there’s reams of copy. How she was injured. How she put cheese on her shins to assuage the pain, how she skied on men’s skis with two edges. But she delivered, she triumphed, she was the all-American girl.

She fit the construct.

She was tall, blonde and beautiful.

Now the bottom line is the greatest skier in history is racing right now, Mikaela Shiffrin. She’s better than any man, she broke Ingemar Stenmark’s legendary World Cup victory record, and isn’t done yet. And unlike either Stenmark or Vonn, Shiffrin can win in every event, both the speed and the technical.

And it turns out Shiffrin is very verbal, and insightful.

And certainly attractive.

But she’s not a pinup, or the media does not see and promote her as such.

So there’s endless press on Vonn.

Which is Lindsey’s last name since she married Thomas Vonn. A young girl gets into a controlling marriage. To have security, to escape family turmoil. Her father disapproves and doesn’t even come to the wedding. And Vonn helps her win, but ultimately Lindsey wants out and…

Vonn sabotages her equipment.

But Lindsey gets past that and wins again.

Now all these skiers have had injuries. Some more than others. Kildow/Vonn had a ton. But she always came back. The skills remain. That’s what Bode Miller told me.

We’ll get back to that.

But her knees… The cartilage is evaporating. She wants to break Stenmark’s record, but ultimately she has to give up, she’s in just too much physical pain. She says she wants to be able to ski with her kids while they’re growing up.

Meanwhile, subsequent to the breakup with Vonn, Lindsey gets involved with Tiger Woods. But he steps out on her just like he did Elin Nordegren. And although Lindsey is in the public eye, she comes from a solid background, she’s not Hollywood trash, one faux pas and Tiger’s out.

But there’s never a steady replacement.

And now Vonn is retired. Getting further surgery. And showing up in a bathing suit everywhere, she’s a staple in celebrity news, the first skier since Suzy Chaffee to achieve this status, and, in fact, superseding Chaffee by far.

But that’s not enough.

Now skiing is an interesting sport. It’s a lifetime sport, like golf, or tennis, you can do it forever. But you can’t compete at the top level forever, people have tried.

Prior to Bode, the most legendary American World Cup skier was Phil Mahre. He hit the same wall as Lindsey, his life just wasn’t meaningful enough, he decided to come back. The skills were still there, but the body was not. He just couldn’t compete with the twentysomethings, ultimately he gave up.

And then there’s the sad story of Bill Johnson, an outcast who came from nowhere to win the Olympic downhill gold in Sarajevo, like Babe Ruth even predicting it! Subsequently his home life was a disaster, his young son died in a hot tub, he tried to come back, but…

The equipment had changed.

He kept his gold medal underneath the front seat of his truck, it was all he had left.

But skiers no longer used Atomic Red Sleds, straight planks, they employed shorter shaped skis, with such radical sidecuts that they turned themselves instantly when pressured. And Bill was training and his skis separated and he fell and experienced a brain injury and lived for a little bit, but ultimately died, sad and broke.

Now back to Bode. If you follow World Cup ski racing, and you probably don’t, the big story on the men’s side of the coin this year is the return of Marcel Hirscher. One of the best male skiers ever, maybe the very best. Hirscher won eight overall World Cups and quit. He had nothing left to prove. He rode his motorcycle. And then…

He decided to get into the ski business. He created Van Deer skis. He decided to come back, but he’s only 35. And Bode tells me Hirscher can win, because the crop of guys winning now…just don’t have his skills, we will see.

But unlike Vonn, and like Stenmark and even Alberto Tomba, Hirscher does not ski the downhill. It’s just too dangerous, too risky. You can die. Literally. After all, speeds of ninety miles an hour are not uncommon. And if you follow World Cup ski racing you know…the runs are as smooth as glass, they’re sheer ice, injected with water to ensure this. This is how the racers like it, everybody gets an equal chance.

So…

The average skier, I mean even the average skier who skis double blacks, if they found themselves on a World Cup course, they would not be able to hold an edge, they’d be sliding, they’d be completely freaked out.

Racing separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls. It’s one thing to be an instructor, quite another to be a World Cup ski racer. And it’s one thing to race slalom, quite another to race downhill.

Lindsey Vonn is going to race downhill.

This is an event of strength and speed. Technical discipline is key, but being able to hold a line, stand on your ski, it requires brute strength.

Which is why almost all the downhillers are large people. This mass also helps generate speed.

Can a forty year old hold an edge like a twenty year old? Under pressure, on ice?

Well, theoretically you can work in the gym.

Which is what Vonn does, she’s a noted gym rat.

So what’s she got… Her body, her good looks, her image. Her workouts. Maybe some dates, no long term love. Maybe she froze her eggs, maybe the window to have children is not closing.

So football players… Some get MBAs and become entrepreneurs.

But there are so many sad stories. Of brain damage and death. All the money frittered away.

John Madden said one NFL football game will compromise your body forever.

And if you’re a legendary baseball player you can sign autographs.

How fulfilling is that?

Vonn wants to be fulfilled.

All those young music stars we laud… They missed out on so much. Sure, they’re rich, they’ve had experiences, but this is all they can do, perform. Their options are limited, they’re locked in. And there becomes a time when you’re just too old to start all over again. And most people don’t want to go back to zero, emotionally it’s just too tough.

So Vonn has the world’s attention.

Does the world really care?

OF COURSE NOT! The world doesn’t care about anybody. You learn this as you get older. The spot in the news Vonn filled can be instantly filled by another.

And keeping yourself in the news is a full time job. It’s hard to get off the merry-go-round.

But at some point you become two-dimensional, you’re famous for what you did, and that’s it.

And everywhere you go people see you as that triumph.

Even in the show “Rivals,” Rupert cannot get past his triumphant showjumping days. Those were the peak of his life, he’s been chasing that high ever since.

Anything is possible. Vonn could come back and do well, despite the odds being against her.

Probably she’ll show up, make a few runs, realize she hasn’t got it and hang it up.

It’s so hard to hang it up. Ask Michael Jordan. Everybody who played beyond the sell date of their abilities.

Lindsey just can’t go back to her regular life. Because she never built a regular life.

She didn’t go to college and b.s. and find out who she was. Didn’t go to different people’s houses and meet their parents and experience role models, or the opposite. She was coddled and coached, all for victory.

She didn’t have love relationships outside the spotlight. She didn’t get high with no one paying attention. She didn’t take classes in disparate subjects, ultimately widening her horizons, illustrating the possibilities.

Now some legendary ski racers have come down against this return, talking primarily about the potential for injury.

But the mainstream press, the one that made Vonn an icon? They’re eating it all up. Who Lindsey actually is is irrelevant. It’s a good story about someone people know.

There’s nothing wrong with achievement. But at what cost?

What is life about, doing one big thing and coasting on that forever?

Especially in sports, young people specialize too early.

But some people don’t find their path for years. And they’ve kept the doors open while they’re looking.

This is a dangerous subject. Because Vonn is a beautiful, skilled, successful woman, a man really can’t raise any questions about her behavior.

But in light of the election is this still so? Is every woman off limits to every man? Can we make no comment, no judgment?

People are skilled or not. Successful or not. Physically attractive or not. They’ve got personalities. And in truth, we’re more alike than we are different.

I’d be saying all of the above if it was a guy trying to return.

Oh, but then there’s that issue of children. There’s this myth that you can have it all, but you can’t no matter whether you’re a man or a woman, to be the best in one thing, you’ve got to sacrifice another. Look at all the rock stars who don’t really know their first families, because they were never home!

You can’t judge anybody anymore. Everybody’s off limits.

Or maybe they’re not.

Hulu trailer: https://t.ly/Lb0A9

We finished this off in two nights. Will you enjoy it? I’m not sure.

This is completely out of my wheelhouse. I don’t watch the English dramas on PBS, I haven’t read the book it is based upon, but I was fascinated by the fact that it was set in the Cotswolds, the weekend getaway of wealthy Londoners, the northwestern Connecticut of England.

But I had a different vision in my mind. I thought it was less tony, less upper class. But in this show, the houses are huge and far apart. Giving the impression you have to be uber-wealthy to live there. I’ve got a friend with a house there, but I’ve never been.

Now the reason I was in is because the main star is David Tennant, who is always great, playing a role a bit out of character here. Tennant is usually intense, cerebral, one step removed. He was best in “Broadchurch,” but he’s got a slew of credits.

So, Tennant, as Lord Tony Baddingham, runs and owns an independent TV network in the Cotswolds named Corinium. It’s part of ITV, but it’s regional…I’m sure if you live in the U.K. it’s clearer, but you don’t have to know the ins and outs of the English TV landscape to understand what is going on.

And oh, I forgot to mention it’s set in 1986. Which is very interesting. Because it’s not only pre-internet, but pre ubiquitous cellphones. You’re watching and thinking…why don’t they just call him or her? And then you realize they can’t. And that we used to live this way. And didn’t know any better.

So Tony hires Declan O’Hara a BBC interviewer, for Corinium, promising him not only money, but freedom, throwing off the chains of the bureaucracy.

Aidan Turner as Declan is a true believer. His job is everything.

But this means his marriage to Maud, (Victoria Smurfit), suffers.

And this is where the show gets interesting. Maud is an elegant babe. And she needs the reflection, the interest, the body of men to reinforce her identity, her good feelings. But she’s also wrestling with the fact that she’s aged, and her looks won’t take her as far. She’s vain, nearly petty, but her challenges are realistic.

Claire Rushbrook as Lady Monica Baddingham, Tennant’s wife, is perfect. She’s put on the marriage pounds, but she’s insightful, supportive, everything you’d want in a wife. But Tony is sticking it elsewhere…

You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. You think your new squeeze will deliver everything, but when you get there…

MP Rufus Jones as Paul Stratton is revealed to be having an affair with Sarah, (Emily Atack), but the end result is he leaves his wife and marries her. And she’s still trying to climb the ladder, she’s not really that interested in him, not really interested in him at all. She’s a sexpot trading on her feminine wiles, is that enough to get her where she wants to go?

And then there’s Katherine Parkinson as Lizzie Vereker. She’s got a self-centered nitwit of a husband, who anchors the afternoons on Corinium with a talk show, but he’s a narcissist who’s paying her no attention and she becomes focused on Freddie Jones, played by Danny Dyer, a tech tycoon who is married to Valerie (Lisa McGillis), whom he met in high school. Danny is rich via tech, yet he’s one of the most human characters in the show, but will Lizzie break her marriage bonds?

And everything is anchored by Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black, a gold medal showjumper from a blue chip background who beds everything in sight. He looks just like Tony Robbins, I couldn’t get the resemblance out of my head.

And Rupert is the desire of all the women And he’s got an inappropriate crush on Declan’s daughter Taggie. That’s the only thing that really doesn’t ring true, you can’t see it, she’s just so young.

Now if I were better educated in English literature, and TV shows, I could place “Rivals” in the canon. But I’m not. So…

It plays like farce. But not all the time.

There are very human questions.

The underlying rivalry is between Rupert and Tony. Both lords, but Tony only went to grammar school.

And then you throw Cameron Cook in the mix, the American TV programming whiz who is strong and independent but ends up in beds… Cook is played by Nafessa Williams, who played Robyn Crawford in the Whitney Houston biopic.

So what we’ve got here is a lot of characters. A lot of desires. Chance meetings. Plotting. Wins and losses.

It’s a community.

There’s one scene, a New Year’s Eve party, where everybody’s in their cups dancing and at first you judge these upper class twits…but then you ask yourself, is it really all just about fun?

You’ll be intrigued by the plot. Will Declan be able to interview who he wants, will he get to ask the questions he wants.

Does Tony/Tennant hold the ultimate Trump card, promising freedom but always withholding it.

And does Rupert have a heart, or is he just a cad. Hell, he admits he’s a rake.

So they’re out in the English countryside. It’s beautiful. And unlike in Southern California, it rains, so you get that interior vibe, inside in the semi-dark, reading, talking.

And people drop by unannounced, which never happens in the city.

And boys need to triumph. Have a leg up.

And at the end of the day, what’s important? Your job? Your relationship? The money? What are you willing to sacrifice, what are you willing to forgive?

Maybe they make shows like this in America. But I haven’t watched a network drama this century. But the ones I saw before that were constrained. Limits are tested in “Rivals,” characters do things people on American TV did not, at least when I watched it.

And they exist outside the boundaries of society. They’re caught up in their own little world. That’s another question that comes up, morals.

Now maybe in the old days, viewers would be hanging on every word of “Rivals.” As it is, the show has great RottenTomatoes numbers: 94/91. But almost nothing reaches all the water coolers these days, never mind that people bring their own water bottles to work, if they even bother to go into the office.

But you can watch it all at once now on Hulu.

If you miss it will you survive?

Absolutely, this is not “Squid Game,” this is not a societal event.

But despite these characters being so different from us, in many ways they’re just the same, facing the same interior battles.

And there are enough plot twists and surprises to keep you watching.

One episode will tell you whether this is up your alley or not. Two to get the complete feeling.

Don’t shoot the messenger, I don’t write about everything I watch, but there’s something at the heart of this show, or maybe it’s that there’s so much in this show…it ultimately resembles real life.

Come for the tales of managing the Yardbirds and Wham! Stay for the story of skiffle as the key driver in the ensuing British Invasion. You’ll be intrigued.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simon-napier-bell/id1316200737?i=1000676939877

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/5c4f92f2-c45b-480b-80e4-6177f1a87001/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-simon-napier-bell

 

Netflix trailer: https://t.ly/htQAG

This is a great series, which I would have said was fantastic, but the ending, although a great wrap-up, was not whiz-bang. “Murder Mindfully” is an 8 on an absolute scale. One in which “Murders in the Building” is a 3. One in which “The Bureau” is a 10 and “Spiral” and “A French Village” are 9.5’s, even though I hate giving that .5 rating, splitting hairs, it’s just that I want to state how hard it is to achieve a 10, nearly impossible.

And yes, all four of the foregoing series are foreign. So if you hate subtitles you can stop reading now.

But unlike the latter three, “Murders Mindfully” is not a straight drama, it’s a drama with both serious and light tones, a good bit of comedy, if not the laugh out loud kind (no, I won’t use the word dramedy, which is an execrable Hollywood term that renders anything it is applied to mediocre and not deserving of attention).

“Murder Mindfully is a Mafia show. You know, drug-running. And ultimately the battle is between the Serbians and the Russians.

Oh, did I state this was a German show? Yes, a German comedy. Not what you’d expect, but it delivers.

But not wholly in the first episode. I did my research, there is no critics’ rating, sans studio/streamer hype the critics don’t pay attention, but the public gave it a 91 on the Popcommeter, and whenever anything is in the 90s you have to pay attention, assuming there’s not a concomitant terrible rating on the critics’ Tomatometer. Kind of like “The Offer,” which has 96 on the Popcommeter, yet only 57 on the Tomatometer. My inbox is filled with hosannas about “The Offer,” however it’s gotten some of the worst reviews ever, writers reviled it, if for no other reason than it bore little resemblance to reality. In other words, the wisdom of the crowd is not always right. But when it comes to a foreign series… Then again, are the foreigners rating it, are they to be trusted? I don’t know, I’ll just say there’s very little info about “Murder Mindfully” out there.

But a reader hipped me to it.

This is the yin and yang of publicity/marketing today. You love that I found out about it, but any effort you put into making me find out about it failed, assuming Netflix put any effort in at all.

So, the star is Tom Schilling. Who reminded me of Peter Schilling. Who are both German, but not related. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say “Major Tom” wasn’t playing in my head during the series.

Which is only eight half hour episodes, not a huge commitment. You’ll start…

And not want to stop.

However the first episode is all set-up. The deets are laid out, but the intrigue…you’re not exactly hooked. But when you tune in to the next episode… You go on a ride that will have you smiling, marveling that you’re experiencing something so great that almost no one is aware of. You can own it, like you owned bands back in the day, before they broke big.

So Tom as Bjorn is a lawyer. In a firm where he’s the rainmaker but they won’t let him make partner. They want his money, but not him. This is the ethos of rock and roll, the lack of acceptance, even though this is not a rock and roll show.

And the client that rains down all the money is Mafioso Dragan Sergowicz. Who is caught in a pickle… Well, that’s putting it mildly.

So what you’ve got here is the classic work/home balance issue.

Bjorn Diemel is bringing home all the money, driving a BMW, living in a great house, but he’s never home. His relationship with his wife has flagged and he’s constantly missing commitments with his young daughter.

So, his wife sends him to mindfulness classes.

I feel the same way about mindfulness that Bjorn does. What a bunch of crap. He hesitates going in to the appointment, professes it to be hogwash, but the bearded teacher instructs Bjorn in the process and…

Bjorn starts to employ it.

And the amazing thing is you’re watching the series and you start to buy in too. Live in the moment. When you have no choice, smile and let the situation play out. Yet, by time it’s over I can’t say I’m so convinced.

So Dragan has to go into hiding and the police are looking for him and all eyes are on Bjorn, the lawyer. He’s the intermediary. He’s trying to hold it all together, while trying to figure a way out of the entire enterprise himself, while trying to reunite with his wife and daughter after separating at the beginning of the series.

And it turns out he has history with the woman cop.

And all the tropes are there. The crooked cop, the double-dealing, the intimidation, the brute force. How is Bjorn going to cope with all of it? VIA MINDFULNESS!

So he’s making choices he never would have made previously. He’s becoming aware of his own power. But he also finds out not every strategy is a winning one. How is he going to escape?

And the Russian mob boss rings true.

And just like in “Donnie Brasco” the life of a Mafioso looks boring, never mind your body and life being in danger.

This is not heavy watching. But it is intelligent watching. It’s not so complicated you can’t follow it, but you can’t always predict what is going to happen, and how Bjorn is going to cope. And sometimes the situations are…just downright laughable.

When I think of all the series I’ve seen in the past month I’d recommend “Murder Mindfully” first. It doesn’t ask much, but provides plenty. It doesn’t eat up your life, but will get you thinking, it will stay with you.

And it will make you forget what’s happening outside your door, on your phone.

It’s very German, yet the concept of Mafia shenanigans is universal.

You’re gonna dig this, trust me