Sunday, January 10, 2016

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON 'MERCY STREET' HISTORICAL EPIC TV SERIES WITH JOSH RADNOR, MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD, LUKE MACFARLANE, GARY COLE, ANNA SOPHIA ROBB

'MERCY STREET' EPIC SERIES
ON AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Today we're spotlighting the last of the brand new historical TV series to air this January MERCY STREET, which is ready to cobble its way into the small screens at PBS from January 17th! Based on real events, it takes viewers beyond the battlefield and into the lives of Americans on the Civil War home front as they face the unprecedented challenges of one of the most turbulent times in US history.
BLOOD ISN'T BLUE OR GRAY  
Set in Virginia in the spring of 1862, MERCY STREET follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposite sides of the conflict: Nurse Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a staunch New England abolitionist, and Emma Green (Hannah James), a naive young Confederate belle. The two collide at Mansion House, the Green family’s luxury hotel that has been taken over and transformed into a Union Army hospital in Alexandria, a border town between North and South and the longest Union occupied city of the war. Ruled under martial law, Alexandria served as the melting pot of the region: with soldiers, civilians, female volunteers, doctors, wounded fighting men from both sides, runaway slaves, prostitutes, speculators and spies. The intersection of North and South within the confines of a small occupied town creates a rich world that is chaotic, conflicted, corrupt, dynamic and even hopeful — a cauldron within which these characters strive, fight, love, laugh, betray, sacrifice and, at times, act like scoundrels. This series is not about battles and glory; it’s about the drama and unexpected humour of everyday life behind the front lines of war.
THE STELLAR CAST
Mercy Street stars Josh Radnor as Dr. Jedediah Foster (unhappily married doctor searching for ways to advance medical science, sometimes at the expense of his own health)
 Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mary Phinney (feisty widow, and a new nurse with whom he develops an unexpected bond)
 Gary Cole as James Green (the patriarch of the Green family who is struggling to maintain his family businesses in an occupied city)
Hannah James as Emma Green (an entitled Southern young woman who volunteers as a nurse at Mansion House Hospital) 
Brad Koed as James Green, Jr. (desperately wants to be on the front lines for the Confederate cause.)
 Tara Summers as Anne Hastings (a nurse whose claim to fame is her experience working with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War)
 McKinley Belcher III as Samuel Diggs (a black laborer who works in Mansion House Hospital and harbours a secret knowledge of medicine)
 Jack Falahee as Frank Stringfellow (a Confederate spy who is betrothed to Emma Green)
 Anna Sophia Robb as Alice Green (Emma's younger sister, who at first frivolous and naïve, becomes the most radicalized member of the family)
 Donna Murphy as Jane Green (the wife of James Green, Sr. The mother to three is the quintessential Southern belle)
 Luke Macfarlane as Chaplain Hopkins (has a dark past and is newly committed to God and his work).
Check out the first trailer below:

35 comments:

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    1. the colours on some of them might even make you puke :) You will scene in one of the ball scenes :)

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  2. Wow, impressive period and costumes, from the laborer to the incredible dresses!

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    1. should be really interesting to watch, especially with today's situation in America.

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  3. Looks like a good historical to me, although the US Civil War isn't my favourite historical period.

    Ya the clothes are pretty hideous and from what I understand the fabrics were rough and scratchy. The fashion in France was sooo much better.

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    1. mine either, dear.
      Yes, to kitschy and curtain looking :)

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    2. That's it exactly-kitchen curtains. And ugly ones at that.

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    3. you could serve tea on them!

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  4. I've enjoyed some historical TV series. I guess we will see how this one does. I cannot imagine wearing a dress like that too constraining.

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  5. Sounds like an interesting series. I think I would feel claustrophobic in those clothes- not to mention the fact that I am picky about textures! Thanks for sharing. :)
    ~Jess

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  6. I don't think I could have worn those hideous Southern Belle dresses. It must have felt like walking around with a hula hoop shoved up your dress all day long. And the ruffles and bows they had draped on them... ugh!

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    1. they looked kinda like Christmas tree - put on me every trinket, every piece of bow and lace I have in the house lol I'm guessing just the price of the length of the fabric used could feed half of Africa

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    2. And they didn't come cheap either.

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    3. nothing came cheap in the world of slavery

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  7. Wow, that looks really good! I wonder what real life events they're depicting. Is it based after someone's real life?

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  8. Honestly, how exactly did one sit down wearing a dress like that? Looks like an interesting show though; I'd watch!

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    1. I've always wondered too, guess they had some mechanism for that :)

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  9. I love seeing these clothes. Takes you to a whole different period which is awesome. Wow this was one detailed post Dez, thanks for putting in all that work to inform us.

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  10. An epic historical series about the Civil War sounds like something for me. The costumes look fantastic.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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  11. Those period costumes look really good.

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