MINISERIES PREMIERE: Part 1 of 2. Frances McDormand stars in this two-part, four-hour adaptation of the Elizabeth Strout collection of interconnected short stories, playing a caustic woman whom we come to know well, and even care about deeply, over the course of this drama’s 25-year span. Richard Jenkins plays her husband, Bill Murray shows up late in a key role, and this miniseries (whose executive producers include Tom Hanks and McDormand herself), by honing its focus on one family and one community, manages to say a lot about such wider topics as love, life, death, and the meaning of all three. For my full review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website. And to read one here at TVWW, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes.

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