Series · Netflix · 2022

The Creature Cases

A mystery that ends in a fact about a real animal. The agents are children, and the fact survives them.

The Creature Cases dresses a nature documentary as a detective story. The detectives are young, which is the concession to the shelf, and the answer is a real behavior, which is the part worth keeping. Better than a fantasy that resets. Watch one, then look the animal up in a book so the episode is not the only source.

The eight

Industry
6/10
The job is to look carefully and report.
Household
4/10
Partners, not a family. The agency is run by animals who are the adults.
Piety
4/10
Curiosity without contempt.
Courage
5/10
They go into the habitat.
Republic
5/10
A case is closed for the sake of the animals, not for a trophy.
Temperance
7/10
Bright, and the scare resolves into an explanation.
Truth
8/10
The reveal is biology, and the biology is the point.
Stewardship
6/10
A child may look up the animal afterward. That is a success.

Live historicallyRead one page about the animal after the case ends.

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.