Bridgerton Season 1 Shondaland Media brings Bridgerton to Netflix and it is worth the watch. I finished the book, The Duke and I, that season one based on for the second time. The first time was many many years ago and I did not remember most of it. I cannot wait to start reading all the books in the series. Season two has been renewed and will follow Anthony’s story to wedded bliss. Bridgerton is a bonafide Netflix hit and there are many reasons why.  The pageantry is a display to behold. The costumes, set design, beautiful and diverse cast are all eye candy for the audience to behold. The array of bright colors provided a welcomed contrast against the sometimes heavy topics that the characters had to deal with so much so that the audience was taken in and out of light-hearted banter to steamy sex to major women issues seamlessly. The acting was above reproach, music selection modernly appropriate, and pacing well put together.  Spoilers ahead Simon Basset aka Duke of ...

I finally read- no, I finally listened to Shonda Rhimes book Year of Yes. I am aware that I am three years late but I have a life that I am trying to keep from falling apart and apparently so did she. As a writer, I look at Shonda with doe-eyes, drooling at her greatness and how perfect her life must be. Why wouldn’t I? She is everything. Her shows are everything. I have not missed one season of Grey’s Anatomy and I watched all of Scandal, and I happen to know How to Get Away with Murder is still keeping people talking. Oh and Private Practice was my show for a while. She is living a writers dream and I was drooling. You can never be sure what you are looking at when you are peering at someone’s life from the outside. You see what they want you to see. Shonda’s book epitomizes that. I am sure I was not the only one that thought she was on top of the world. In reality, she was holding life together with food and work and distractions like the rest of us. She is warm and invitin...

Shonda Rhimes is responsible for four television programs, 70 hours of televsion, 350 million dollars. She is a titan. Her brain is global. Rhimes tells us this in her Ted Talk to demonstrate how much work she actually does. In reality, it demonstrates how much stress she is under. The difference is that she loves it. She poetically tells the audience how much she loves working and how it gives her life- until it doesn't.  This is where the year of yes comes in. Her pull away from the love of all that she does is really her breaking down under the stress. It may have been a run-away stress train, stress unchecked. Whatever it was, she got to the point when she was burnt out. Burn out can happen to any of us, no matter who we are, what we are doing, how much we love it. Rhimes' Ted Talk is about her getting her mojo back (thank goodness her audience did not notice that it was gone). Shonda Rhimes delivery at first seems stoic, even a little stand offish but as she goes o...