Things in Their Season (1974 TV Movie) User Reviews

Life Moves On

[jayz755 · 9/10 · 9 June 2023]

Patricia Neal plays a farmer's wife diagnosed with an incurable disease. This film is about her dealing with the changes to her family.

This is mostly a quiet film with just a couple of major plot points. It functions more as a slice of life. Given the time, we see this woman's life and how her loss will affect her family. Plenty of time is taken showing the details of running a dairy farm outside a small Wisconsin town.

These details and the performances are what make the film. Leads Neal and Ed Flanders both give excellent, immersive performances.

I happened to grow up in the town, Shawano, where the "town" scenes were filmed. Beyond that personal nostalgia, I found the time and place aspects of the film spot on and excellent. We really learned who these people were. Recommended for fans of slice of life and period detail.

sentimental tearjerker!!

[Tamie_Kwist · 7/10 · 5 April 2001]

This is a touching film about a woman who's always taken care of her family farm and can't seem to find the courage to tell her overbearing husband that she won't be around to do it much longer. The actors are superb in their roles. Patricia Neal was later known for an outstanding performance on Little House On The Prarie. Marc Singer who portrays her son in this film would later be known as "The Beastmaster" and "V's" Mike 'Gooder' Donovan.

Classic Patricia Neal

[lightninboy · 8/10 · 10 May 2005]

This is set on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. John Deere equipment, Ford pickup. Patricia Neal plays Peg, the farm wife, someone who is active in the community and can milk cows and operate a forage harvester. I remember the community had a glee club or something that sang "Downtown." The son, Andy, has a girlfriend and I guess he was going to move to Madison or somewhere. Neal's character finds out she has leukemia and doesn't have long to live. I guess the son is going to get married and stay on the farm in the end. After this movie, it seemed like whenever Patricia Neal was in a show, if she didn't die, someone else died.

Authentic Feeling Heartland Dairy Farm Family Drama

[epetty-08811 · 10/10 · 11 November 2023]

This is a thoughtfully nuanced, slow moving, well-acted heartfelt drama that centers on evolving family relationships of a small Wisconsin dairy farming family. It centers on the interplay of issues that impact the integrated lives of two couples - an older, traditional, hard working dairy farming couple where the wife is diagnosed with terminal leukemia but keeps it from her ambitious husband and their college educated son and his fiancé who want to leave the farm where they have a strained relationship with his father. They navigate struggles differently but honesty and love lead to a touching tearful conclusion.