Beginning on March 13^th people could no longer go to the movies to watch the latest releases of either sequels or plain old new movies that had been talked about for months.  COVID-19 took its toll on all the movie theaters leaving them with no business and forcing some to go out of business for a while. In short this meant streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon videos had a breakthrough, producing many shows by the week and automatically putting new releases of movies on to these streaming sites.

In other ways regularly scheduled shows were postponed and taken off a normal one day a week schedule and have not yet returned almost nine months later.

Netflix is a movie and series streaming service, for award winning films or Netflix originals. While we were all stuck in quarantine binge watching and re watching shows, Netflix producers were hard at work making new shows and movies by the week to keep America and other nations entertained.

One show that caught my attention a few days after being released was “Sweet Magnolias” a Netflix original.

A Netflix original “Sweet Magnolias,” was released May 19^th ,2020. Starring actors such as Brooke Elliot (Dana Sue Sullivan), Joanna Garcia Swisher (Maddie Townsend) and, Heather Headley (Helen Decatur) as the main characters.

Three South Carolina women who have been best friends since high school help each other through hardships, romance, careers and family problems. Maddie a mother of two boys, Tyler and Kyle and a young daughter Katie, recently divorced after her husband has an affair with a much younger woman that he works with. Dana Sue deals with being a single mother who has just left her husband, a teenage daughter, and the firing of her vindictive sous’ chef at her own restaurant. Helen on the other hand is much more put together, living single but wanting her childhood sweetheart back.

In some ways I could relate to the show with how Maddie and her ex-husband deal with their older sons sporting events. With divorced parents especially when it did not end well, they are forced to split the games and not be in the same place at the same time. What the son’s father and his father’s girlfriend do not know is they make it to where he cannot perform to his best potential. One of my favorite scenes from the show is when Tyler is starting in his high school baseball game and he is nervous. The pressure of his father badgering him and his “stepmoms” constant chatter mess with his focus and he cannot concentrate on the game itself. Forcing his father to politely tell the stepmom they need to leave and later explaining that she should not go to anymore.

Sweet Magnolias is a unique show that I believe everyone should watch at least once. It is not like your regular South Carolina show where everyone is too wealthy for their own good and knows nothing but money. The show has a perfect balance of good times and bad.