Onscreen, kindness and inevitability go hand in hand.
Build a show or a movie around a group of characters driven by goodness or decency and it tends to result in whatever story that validates our brave heroic protagonist and provides comfort to the most amount of viewers.
In turn, that clear, expected trajectory usually ends up enervating any narrative drive and gives it the relative heft of a cirrus cloud.By all indications, the same should be true for “All Creatures Great and Small.” Adapted from the beloved James Herriot memoir that already spawned a beloved TV predecessor a half century ago, this latest version (originally created for Channel 5 and now arriving as part of PBS’ long running “Masterpiece” series) seems destined to fall into the same formula.What’s remarkable is how much of that bouncy, vibrant spirit this series is able to retain while also bucking some
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