Rueben's Ramblings

On March 8, the Lifetime movie The Trip to Bountiful will air at 8 PM.

Carrie Watts (Cicely Tyson) begrudgingly lives with her busy, overprotective son, Ludie (Blair Underwood) and pretentious daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae (Vanessa Williams). No longer able to drive and forbidden to travel alone, she wishes for freedom from the confines of the house and begs her son to take her on a visit to her hometown of Bountiful. When he refuses, Mrs. Watts is undeterred and makes an escape to the local bus station, where she befriends Thelma (Keke Palmer), a young woman traveling home. When Ludie and Jessie Mae discover she is gone, they call in law enforcement to help, but Mrs. Watts is one step ahead of them and convinces the local sheriff to help her on her journey home to Bountiful.

Here is a trailer for The Trip to Bountiful.

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The new 6-part Sundance Channel mini-series The Red Road will debut on February 27 at 9 PM.

This mini focuses on the fraught relationship between a Native American community and their non-Native neighbors in a fictional town in New Jersey. Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) stars as the prodigal son with a shadowy past who returns to his hometown and crosses paths with the local sheriff (Martin Henderson).

The cast also includes Tom Sizemore, Allie Gonino and Lisa Bonet.

Here is a trailer for The Red Road.

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On February 16, the 90-minute mystery Murder on the Homefront will debut on PBS at 10 PM.

Set during the London Blitz of 1940, the mystery sheds a different light on the everyday horrors of living in a city where death can visit at any moment. Vibrant, defiant and energetic, this is a world of people living life for the moment. It is also a world where criminals can use the blackout and devastation to hide their darkest activities. As the Luftwaffe drop their bombs from above, below people are literally getting away with murder.

The cast includes Patrick Kennedy (Boardwalk Empire and Downton Abbey), James Fleet (Little Dorrit) and Tamzin Merchant (Pride & Prejudice).

Here is a trailer for Murder on the Homefront.

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The UP Network movie Far From Home will debut at 7 PM on February 9.

Barry Watson (7th Heaven) will play Nicholas Bell, who angrily left his small island town after a terrible fight with the uncle who raised him and owned the local newspaper where Nick began his writing career. After cutting off all ties with his uncle and going out on his own, Bell wrote a wildly successful novel, “Broken Windows,” which led critics to declare him to be the “voice of his new generation.” After 15 years of failure to come up with a meaningful follow-up novel, Bell settles into teaching undergraduate writing at a small university.

When he learns that his uncle has died, Bell returns to his hometown for the funeral, suffering one mishap after another. The local townspeople are glad to see the famous homegrown talent return, at least partially because his uncle left him the family’s local paper and key property. Eager to divest himself of the newspaper and return to teaching, Bell finds himself wedged in the middle of a bitter fight over the future of the island, and face to face with the real reason behind what sent him so far from home for so long.

The cast includes Stefanie von Pfetten (Cracked) and Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis).

Here is a trailer for Far From Home.

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The 90-minute British drama The Making of a Lady will debut on PBS on February 9 at 10 PM.

Based on the novel by celebrated writer Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden, A Little Princess), the story is about educated but penniless Emily Fox Seaton (Lydia Wilson). During her duties as a lady’s companion for Lady Maria (Joanna Lumley), she meets her employer’s wealthy widower nephew, Lord James Walderhurst (Linus Roache).

Accepting his practical, if unromantic, marriage proposal, Emily finds solace in the company of Walderhurst’s nephew Alec Osborn (James D’Arcy) and his glamorous wife, Hester (Hasina Haque), after Lord James leaves to rejoin his regiment. But all is not what it seems as an increasingly contented Emily has no inkling her life is actually in danger. While Walderhurst risks his life overseas, Emily, alone with the Osborns, seems powerless to avoid the threat that begins to encircle her and begins to fear for her life.

Here is a trailer for The Making of a Lady.

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