Honey Badgers and the Countess of Grantham: What I love about PBS

The snow pack is melting in the rain, and the streets are flooded. Oddly, there is lightning and thunder, which seems strange after all the recent snowstorms.

Winter has been a time to find indoor activities, and we have enjoyed watching the Sochi Winter Olympics. As good entertainment as that is, I dragged myself away last night and changed the channel to the NATURE episode on PBS. We receive PBS for free, as well as CBS, NBC (the Olympics) and other popular channels with a digital broadcast signal.

Last night, this NATURE show was all about one of my favorite animals, the honey badger. This African carnivore is actually in the weasel family, the narrator told viewers. I've blogged before about the honey badger; I photographed the one above at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. This was a new special about them, and a pair were filmed up close living at a wildlife rehabilitation center. Other wild ones congregated around a refuge dump. The two caged ones, Hammy and Stauffel tore through locks and bee hives, made ladders to escape their pens and attacked other animals when they escaped. I'm just coming to realize how intelligent they are, and am fascinated by this discovery that they can problem solve and make tools.

But back to PBS. This was one great show worth seeing. Public television has so many great shows. One of my very favorites is Downton Abbey, which I have watched for several years now. I was very into Gosford Park, the 2001 movie also written by Julian Fellowes and filmed as a predecessor to Downton Abbey.

This is season 4 for Downton Abbey, and many viewers are just getting on the bandwagon. A couple of years ago, the show was sublime; Sybil was still alive, Maggie Smith was killing it as the Dowager Countess and the story lines were fast and new. This year has been a little scattered. I'm disappointed with the way Bates, Anna and the rapist's storyline has played out. Having the guy come back in the house somehow seemed far-fetched and disjointed.

Will Mary wrestle any more pigs? Will she quit pining over Matthew and say 'yes' to one of her suitors? Downton Abbey's season finale is this Sunday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m., so hopefully some questions will be cleared up. I can't wait. I will be watching next year, season five -

PBS has so many good shows. It's an impressive list: the Nightly Business Report and other news broadcasts, Nova, Frontline, Independent Lens, Austin City Limits.

Great Performances and other Masterpiece Theater classics besides Downton Abbey. Cooking shows, travel shows, Equitreking (horse-back travel) and children's shows. Science, history, art and culture. It's not great being stuck indoors in bad February weather. But if one has to be shut-in, an hour or two of PBS this winter just might make it not quite so bad.

Dallas Buyers Club heats up a Snowy Winter

I see the sea of white that is snow, taller than people where the snowplows have piled it. It's been a snowy winter of 2014, and we've had many days of zero degrees, even the negative teens. That's right; -16 or -13 degrees Fahrenheit: record cold for Indiana.

For Monday is predicted the beginning of a few days of thawing weather. Yet, here we are on Valentine's Day with a whopping 12 to 18 inches of accumulated snow on the ground in this area. So it’s a pretty, white Valentine's Day (Dr. Zhavago?) with snow-drifted spaces and shiny clear icicles hanging down.

This is a good time, mid-February, to catch up on movies nominated for the Academy Awards. One of the great films of 2013 is the Dallas Buyers Club. This filmed was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee from a screenplay written by Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack. It's set in Texas in 1985, and is based on the story of Ron Woodroof, a working man who is discovered to be HIV-positive. It's a smart movie, covers a lot of current and important themes, and also "feels good" - there's the idea that somehow the human spirit can triumph in even very adverse circumstances.

If that wasn't enough, the movie is electrified with performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. The film has already won awards at the 2014 Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Leto is amazing as Rayon, a transgender person in the film. The actor lost 30 pounds for the role and looked convincingly female: beautiful costumes, hair and makeup, is topped off with inspired acting.

McConaughey became a shell of his previous self in his preparation for this role as an electrician rodeo cowboy who somehow contracted HIV. Whether it was through sex with a prostitute IV drug user, his own drug use or possibly in some other way - that remains unclear.

Once diagnosed, the former macho man experiences discrimination, homophobia, shunning, and feels forced to go to drastic measures to try and save his life. This movie draws you in to begin to understand the complexities of the the drug trials and drug cocktail experiments that have finally allowed AIDS and HIV+ patients to live (or live longer) with their afflictions.

Lead character Ron bribed a hospital worker to provide him with the AIDS drug AZT because he was only eligible for a trial of the drug, which gave him a 50/50 chance of getting a useless placebo. But on AZT he only became more ill, his condition under the powerful drug worsened and exacerbated by alcoholism and cocaine abuse. Then after being unable to get AZT, Ron visits an ex-patriate American doctor in Mexico who is running an unusual medical clinic. Ron learns about unconventional and alternative medication regimens and strategies that also rebuild his immune system. Among other medicines he takes vitamins and peptide T, a protein not approved by the US FDA.

After some time in Mexico on this new drug and vitamin regimen, Ron returned to the USA smuggling the unapproved drugs and eventually established the Dallas Buyers Club to help other HIV+ people obtain these miracle drugs. All the while he was having to fight convention, challenge the FDA and also buck the medical establishment.

This story also does something else - it portrays the change of heart of a homophobic person. Gradually, little by little, empathy arises, fear subsides, humanity rules out. Whether the real Ron was homophobic or just more defensive, you see Karma come back around in this movie. As Ron learns to master his universe, if only for a time, it makes those of us watching feel that we can do anything too.

Love, be it collegial or romantic, straight or gay, familial or brotherly - love conquers all. So Happy Valentine's Day to you.