Sunday Notebook, Part 2: "Last Chance U," "Mamma Mia 2," more

More notes ....
"Last Chance U." While the current, third season of "Last Chance U" has been mainly about the Independence Community College head football coach, Jason Brown, and his team of players trying to find their way to Division I and other kinds of self-fulfillment, the hero of the piece is an English teacher, LaTonya Pinkard.

More than anyone else, Pinkard -- pictured above -- demonstrates not only the determination to move her students toward academic success but a mission to help young black men understand their place in the world, on and off the football field. We saw a similar figure in Brittany Wagner, an academic advisor at East Mississippi Community College in the first two seasons of "Last Chance U," but the contrast here between coach and teacher is even stronger. Brown has an appallingly limited vocabulary consisting mainly of variations on the f-word, and a fury that is so hard to control that he not only gets into disputes with players and nearly into a fistfight with one of his assistants. Pinkard offers her students dignity, a vivid argument against the use of the n-word, a reading group to help some see beyond their football dreams -- and compassion when these young people struggle. Faculties at every level could use many more like her.

Unfortunately, she is just one part of the Independence system, and for football that's a tight little world. Independence, Kansas, is also known as the home of the famous playwright William Inge, and has a theater festival named for him; aside from glimpses of a poster for the festival, Inge and his cultural legacy play no part in "Last Chance U." And, as he succeeds over the course of a football season chronicled here, Brown's blunt ways are more and more forgiven. He seems neither to sense nor care that young people like Malik Henry and Bobby Bruce are not just flawed; they are vulnerable, they need validation that Brown only intermittently provides. To be sure, his support is not always deserved, but his compassion is almost always lacking. And that's part of why I came away from this disliking the coach, worrying about the students, and admiring Pinkard.

"Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again." This big-screen sequel to "Mamma Mia!" has been picking up good notices and box-office receipts. Though not the biggest ABBA fan, I found plenty to admire in it, with a couple of exceptions I will address in a bit.

The tune-laden film follows two intersecting tracks: Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is getting ready to marry, and to reopen the Greek island inn started by her mother Donna (Meryl Streep), who has passed away; we also see a series of flashbacks about the young Donna (Lily James of "Baby Driver" and "Darkest Hour") came to the inn, as well as her romances with three men on her way to having Sophie. Thus we get the original cast (including Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellen Skarsgard, Christine Baranski and Julie Walters), appealing young actors as their earlier versions -- and at movie's end, Cher. The film has made some wise changes from the earlier movie, particularly in severely reducing Brosnan's singing, so painful the first time around. James makes an adorable young Streep, even if her performance is at times as excessively energetic as Streep's was. There are enough mishaps to keep the story moving from song to song, deep dips into the ABBA catalog and a sweet finish.

Still, two problems worked against my absolute enjoyment. One was the use of "When I Kissed the Teacher" as an early song -- a celebratory little ditty about a student and her instructor, sung at a graduation. That creeped me out. I spend too much time as a teacher, and among other teachers, to be comfortable with a cheerful presentation of student-teacher relations.

Then there's the Cher issue. Playing Sophie's grandmother, she is given a big entrance and a charming duet on "Fernando" with Andy Garcia. (That's not really a spoiler. If you listen closely to the dialogue in the film, you'll know it's coming.) But Cher's presence tilts the balance in the remainder of the movie; oh, we were about these other characters but now we're more about Cher -- and you're not going to miss her blonde flash in any scene.

Works In Progress. I may go back to Sacha Baron Cohen's "Who Is America?" series for Showtime at some point, but I am not sure when. I have in the past found Cohen's satire heavy-handed, and it was much the same in the first episode here. He may trick politicians into saying horrible things, but does any of it really change what we already know about these people's beliefs? It's not as if they had led blameless lives before.

I am still watching "Sharp Objects," HBO's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's unsettling novel but probably only because it has Amy Adams in it. Where I have seen plenty of other productions where I had read the book beforehand, and still could like them (prime examples: "The Godfather" I and II), knowing where this is going just adds to the feeling that it drags. A lot. Flynn's "Gone Girl" made an admirably creepy movie, and two hours of "Sharp Objects" could have been more effective than this series.

I mentioned "Succession" in my blog about women and power in TV series, and I have stayed with it even as its characters prove ever more appalling and, in most cases, inept. OK, so that's some of the appeal. They're so many little flies, with nearby spiders nudging them toward their webs. In addition, when I settle on this as a pointed look at the Trump clan before the presidency -- imagine Logan as Donald, Kendall as Junior, Roman as Eric, Shiv as Ivanka -- then it offers some added, vicious pleasure. I don't know where Connor fits in that analogy, but I would not want to lose him from this. Alan Ruck is a wonderful, spacy Connor, after all, and the cast in total is excellent. The scene with Logan (Brian Cox), Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Shiv (Sarah Smook) at each other -- terrific.