Lao Tzu once said, “He who is contented is rich.” I’d like to believe that this idea was running through Louisa Durrell’s mind when she and her family decided to leave their comfortable home in Bournemouth and move to Corfu after her husband died and her family began to decline. Louisa and her family quickly went from riches to rags, all the while content with the warm Mediterranean sun beaming down on their faces and the taste of fresh olives lingering in their mouth.

            Amazingly, simplicity and acceptance seem to be a common theme in the TV show The Durrells in Corfu, a series based on Gerald Durrell's autobiographical novels detailing his life with his family over their four years spent living in Corfu, Greece. The tangled, confused, and chaotic family spend those years learning to find the pearl in every jagged oyster. The family board a ship to leave the only life that they had known to arrive on an island with crystal blue waters, emerald green palm trees, and sand the color of gold, only to find that they are staying in a home in which the bathroom has unwanted reptilian visitors. Larry, the oldest son, is about to finally relieve himself after a few hours of traveling on the boat but is unexpectedly welcomed by a warm blooded Grecian reptile relaxing in the bathroom. Through many challenges like these and unwanted experiences, the family is able to finally become stronger than they had ever been, so that they could conquer every little obstacle that may approach them with intent to rip their family apart. I think the actors put on a good show about being able to move on after loss through acceptance and reality.

            The show’s scenery also follows this trend of simplicity, devoid of opulence and dusty with the crumbles and collateral damage of the collapsing family house. The camera operations capture the beauty of Greece in every scene, not missing a single glisten of the flaxen blonde sun and the crash of the salty royal blue waves. The chirp of the crickets and cicadas punctuate outdoor scenes, and compose the soundtrack of this rural island, and the hospitable conversations between the Durrell’s and the locals in Corfu articulate that healing comes through acceptance and finding happiness in simplicity. The viewers are able to find beauty in these small ripples of hope and happiness which can be seen through the characters content and merriment.

            While on the island, each family member discovers their own niche, whether it be Larry’s writing, Leslie’s hunting, Gerry’s collecting animals for biological discovery, Louisa’s constant sweeping of the house, or Margos job working as a nurse's assistant in the only hospital in Corfu. Moving from posh Bournemouth to the wilderness of coastal Greece, where mosquitos outnumber residents proved a challenge, but the Durrell family quickly found their way. The Durrells in Corfu is a precious and worthful show, through which the viewers learn many valuable life lessons. The struggles that the family experience are familiar to many of us, such as coping with and moving on from death.

            The Durrell family somehow manages to go from faking the acceptance of their loss in the family, to learning a more authentic lesson about dealing with life after the loss if a significant person. During this transition into their new life they had finally learned to let go of and live with the reality of the loss, no matter how hard it was, and they managed to do so with grace and beauty. During the show’s three seasons, changes in the individual family members are very clear and are initiated through new friendships and relationships among locals living in the island. Margo goes from ballgowns to books, Larry goes from sleazy to sympathetic, Louisa from fearful to fearless. This lesson of coping with the sense of grief is what helps the Durrells accept their past and move on to their future.

            The Durrell’s experience traumatic and catastrophic events that change their wholes lives forever, and they do so with grace. They stride through the streets of Corfu, greeting locals out in public, all while their private lives are crumbling. They grab their towels, a bowl of grapes, and head to the beach to wash away the frustration and sadness of their lives. The Durrells in Corfu show truly lives up and does justice to the reputation created by Gerald Durrell in his autobiographical novel. The show will leave you with a feeling of acceptance, love, closure, and hope for the future to come.