Series · Netflix · 2017

Numberblocks

A lesson that tells the truth about quantity. No cynicism, no extra world to live in.

Numberblocks is a school lesson that does not apologize for being a lesson. The characters are the numbers, the joke is the math, and the math is correct. It will not form a conscience. It will form a sense that the world adds up. That is a good use of ten minutes and a bad use of an hour.

The eight

Industry
6/10
Making a number come out right is a kind of craft.
Household
4/10
No house. A company of numbers.
Piety
3/10
Order is respected, which is cousin to reverence.
Courage
3/10
The risk is a wrong sum, and they repair it.
Republic
5/10
They only work when they agree to combine.
Temperance
8/10
Short, bright, and finished.
Truth
9/10
Two and two are four. The show does not lie about that.
Stewardship
7/10
A child may leave able to count something real.

Live historicallyCount something in the kitchen out loud after the episode, and then turn it off.

Series · Netflix · 2018

Alexa & Katie

Friendship as a duty, not a mood. One of the better shows on the children's row.

Alexa is sick and does not want the year to be about being sick. Katie helps her hide it, which is not a perfect plan, and the show is honest enough to let the hiding cost them. The mothers are not fools. The friendship is the plot, and for once the plot is a duty: show up, keep the secret only as long as it protects rather than isolates, tell the truth when the truth is due.

Good beside a parent for an older child. Ask afterward what Katie owed Alexa, and what she owed the adults. Both answers matter.

The eight

Industry
5/10
School is still school. They are trying to stay in it while one of them is ill.
Household
7/10
Mothers are present and competent. A friend stays. That is a household of a kind.
Piety
4/10
Illness is handled with care. The show is not pious, and it is not mocking.
Courage
7/10
Katie carries a secret that costs her, for someone who needs the year to be normal.
Republic
5/10
A school full of other people who are not only an audience.
Temperance
5/10
Teen romance wanders in. It does not eat the illness.
Truth
6/10
The sickness is not a twist. They live with it.
Stewardship
6/10
What they are keeping is a friendship through a hard year, which is a thing you can hand on.

Live historicallyShow up this week for a friend who is having a hard year. Do a practical thing, not a speech.