Life with Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows

This top-rated miniseries, based on Lorna Luft's memoir of growing up as Judy Garland's daughter, was made with a brain, a heart, and especially courage on the part of Judy Davis, who won a deserved Emmy for her totally committed, camp-free performance as the show business legend whose career triumphs and setbacks could fuel a season's worth of Behind the Music or True Hollywood Story episodes, from the failed marriages (Vincente Minnelli, Garland is discreetly informed, "is not the marrying type") and her drug-addled tenure at MGM to her triumphant comeback on the Carnegie Hall stage. Although it unfolds as your standard TV bio-pic, Davis' performance sends this over the rainbow. Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)