Titans -Wow, where did this come from?

I hadn’t even seen any marketing for it. It just showed up on Netflix out of the blue. Maybe I’m not the target demographic but I’m a huge lover of all things Wonder Woman, Justice League, DC Comics and everything Marvel. Without any of the hype I was impressed.

I have really tried to like all the Marvel series on Netflix but they have been dry, boring and disappointing. Too much violence and ‘realism’ for me to enjoy as a comic book show. I understand that comics are traditionally quite dark but I love the sci-fantasy element of the films and the cheesy cartoons from back in the 80s. Spiderman and his Amazing Friends is still my number one favourite cartoon.

Fifteen minutes into the first episode and a man who is apparently Robin says, “Fuck Batman!” Well, where did this come from? An animosity between between the beloved caped crusaders, the original bromance of the comic book genre? I was pretty much hooked despite the lack lustre sets and no sight of any known actors anywhere. I don’t think I’ve recognised anyone from anything else I’ve seen and I watch A LOT of television.

So there’s swearing, science fiction elements, a bit of spooky gothic undertones, a bit of violence but actually quite tastefully done, and so is the tiny bit of sex and nudity. I mean, I haven’t even seen this balance of elements in the films. It even passes the Bechdel Test, which to be honest, even Aquaman wasn’t capable of passing in the cinema! There are actually two women having a conversation on a topic that has nothing to do with love, sex or men. They have even done their best to make it quite a multi-cultural cast without ever making a comment or issue out of it.

I am super impressed with this first season and the story has built up to a decent plot and climax at the end. I’m ready for season 2 and I’ve just realised that Teen Titans Go and Young Justice League are available to stream on Amazon Prime so I guess that’s what I’ll be watching while I’m casually laying about texting my friends.

Also, I was really impressed to see some characters in it, particularly one with a golden lasso! Sorry, that was just one spoiler I had to throw in!

 

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack

OH MY GOSH! THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD TELLY ON! I know it’s been a while since I last posted. I had a lot going on with my Master’s Degree in Global Film and Television in the first half of December that sort of wiped me out for the next month. I may have stopped blogging but I certainly didn’t stop watching telly! After all, it is my research!

So what have I been watching? I thought I’d break it down by the various ways in which I watch television: Sky, Amazon Prime and Netflix. I did watch quite a few films in the cinema too over the last few months so let me start with them:

Cinema

Wreck It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet – the one kids film my prepubescent kids actually wanted to watch. It was good! A bit like the first film but on acid. The world is Social Media obsessed so it was an interesting take on how Disney would make a film about YouTube stars and appeal to a whole new generation that might not really watch as many Disney films anymore. Genuinely a good laugh and the animation is stunning and eye catching.

Mary Poppins Returns – Another film I dragged my kids to see and actually I really enjoyed it. We had watched the original film earlier that day and they really made an effort to repeat the success by following a formula using nostalgia to attract the older audiences. It was a little sugary sweet – a bit saccharine like, but overall I was super impressed with Emily Blunt’s gorgeous voice. Of course, Lin-Manuel Miranda was what I was excited to see on screen. After being obsessed with the Hamilton album and musical for so long I’ve never seen him perform properly. He really didn’t disappoint at all. I’m pretty much in love with him. See my previous post on Hamilton!

Bohemian Rhapsody – This was an incredible biopic. Rami Malek gave a performance that was truly sensational. I have always loved Freddy Mercury and Queen and this was a feast for the fans. I had watched this not long after I’d seen A Star Is Born so I was so happy to see that this film was so much better. The awards are all going to Gaga but I actually dislike her acting – it’s all too contrived.

Aquaman – This was a visually stunning piece of work and yeah, I enjoyed the story. And Jason Momoa – I have no words. He is just beautiful. I’m glad I saw it in the cinema, almost wish I had watched it in 4DX.

Sky & Terrestrial 

This is Us – I love this American drama so much, the performances are beautiful and the stories are so meaningful. If you love a good tearjerker this is for you.

Grey’s Anatomy – If you haven’t watched this series, you’ve missed a real treat. My husband and I watch it religiously. I’m always wanting more.

9-1-1 – Another fab series from Ryan Murphy and friends. It’s by far the campest series about emergency services I have ever seen but I can’t not watch something with Angela Basset in it, she is a QUEEEEEEEN!

Les Miserables – I’m enjoying this non musical version on the BBC. You get a lot more from the actual story and there are some brilliant actors in it, including the impressive Olivia Coleman.

Call The Midwife – Good old nostalgia pieces. I just love it.

The Orville – Hilarious, especially if you’re a Star Trek fan.

Amazon Prime

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel – I love this show so much. She’s witty, sharp, gorgeous, and epitomises feminism. There are some truly spectacular moments in the second season. Everyone should watch this.

Homecoming – Julia Roberts is incredible. It’s a fairly short piece but poignant and very well written and filmed. She is going to get huge accolades for this and already is.

Outlander – I’m obsessed and I will probably be writing a full blog post about this series very soon!

And finally…

Netflix

The Bird Box – This was incredible. I love Sandra Bullock for producing and starring in this brilliant film. It’s not about romance, it’s not about saving the world. It’s just a simple film about survival. I love it.

Bandersnatch – So much hype and well worth it. A very impressive effort on something that may actually be the future of television. Television does seem to be taking over reading books, doesn’t it? I do wonder about this quite a bit. It’s possibly the subject of my MA thesis.

The Good Place – Basically philosophy for beginners. Plenty of thought experiments brought to life. Kristen Bell is brilliant in this and her ensemble cast in this show have all earned a certain level of fame for just being effortlessly funny.

You – This first season was so dark and delicious and definitely a treat for the old fans of Gossip Girl. A thriller that really preys on our concerns about social media and privacy. This is so good!

Titans – Currently binge watching this at the moment. I was hooked the moment Robin said “Fuck Batman!” I wanna know! What happened? Very clever writing in this show!

That’s it for now. I could go on but I don’t want to bore you. I’ll definitely start blogging again. Let me know if you have any suggestions for shows you want to talk about!

 

 

 

 

A Star Is Born… again

I watched this last night and I’m a big lover of music, musicals, and romantic films and so a lot of my friends were expecting me to love this film. I didn’t. But then I’m not a big lover of hugely popular movies. I didn’t like La La Land that much and The Greatest Showman left me very sour so I’m not surprised that I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to.

If you want a little history about the film, here’s a good article. It might help you understand why the film had to be the way it is, following a formula.

To be fair, I didn’t hate it. Bradley Cooper is an impeccable actor, sometimes a little up himself, but he throws him so wholly into his project. He not only starred in this film, he directed and produced it. His name all over the end credits made sure you came away from the film knowing that. Ok, Bradley, I get it, you’re immensely talented and powerful (for a handsome white guy, I mean they have to stand out from all the rest to get so far to the top, am I right?)

And Bradley is VERY handsome, those eyes are gorgeous, and I’ve been following his career since he featured on Alias as Jennifer Garner‘s awkward friend, Will Tippin. He and Lady Gaga are very cute together. Their romance is really sweet. There are beautiful close ups of their faces and their intense stares at each other. Bradley’s character Jackson Maine has a hearing problem so he often shares conversations very close to people’s faces. Hence the really tight shots. Their conversations are really natural, it doesn’t feel scripted, it feels improvised. I definitely liked that. The songs are gorgeous (bar a few but there’s a reason for that).

I’m curious as to why Lady Gaga didn’t use her real name for the credits, it seems an odd choice. This performance was way better than what she got a Golden Globe for in American Horror Story. Her acting was solid, but when she sang it VERY much sounded like Lady Gaga, and not some random called Ally.

This is where my problem with it was. A friend pointed out that there were no other female characters in the WHOLE FILM! Like where were her friends? And how did I not notice this myself! (Thank you, Adam!) Her closest friend was played by Anthony Ramos (cue screams from me – he was Phillip in the Broadway production of Hamilton) but it was just a bit part and he doesn’t even get to sing! A travesty!

So she has her dad and his driver buddies, the drag queens at the bar she sings at, Jackson and his band, and maybe one woman who shows her to the stage, Jackson’s brother and that’s it. There was something not quite right. If she had a female friend, she probably would have been warned about getting involved with a depressive alcoholic. It also annoys me that in this day and age a woman of her talent would be shown as not getting to where she is without a man!

I really, really wanted to like this film, but there were lots of problems. I didn’t really believe this character of Ally. She sounded like she had balls but she does all this trashy music when she gets famous. She looks like she takes no shit from anyone, but Jackson treats her like a toy. I get that this sort of thing happens but I just expected something modern from this rebirth. It was just so clichéd.

I’m still going to listen to the soundtrack, I really do like it. I saw Lady Gaga perform live at the 02 in Dublin years ago and she was insanely entertaining. I have huge admiration for her as an artist, but as an actor… yeah ok, I think she might get an Oscar for this. Bradley will for sure… it’s his turn. Ugh… I hate that.

The Haunting of Hill House

Right, it’s been a long time since I posted because I’m back on my Masters Degree on Film and Television and it’s a priority for me, I’m afraid. It doesn’t mean, however, that I’ve stopped watching television for pleasure.

I’ve come back from a little hiatus to talk about The Haunting on Hill House! Goddamn, this is good stuff. It’s probably one of the best horror television series I have ever seen. American Horror Story has gotten so ridiculous that it’s lost all it’s appeal to me. I no longer find it difficult to watch alone. This is how I measure what a horror is worth. I cannot watch The Haunting alone. I have to have my husband near by, and I have to watch something ridiculous and silly afterwards so I don’t get all worked up before I sleep. Big Mouth is ideal! (Funny and disgusting, btw, if you haven’t seen it yet, and also on Netflix.)

So why is it so good? It uses a lot of cinematic style filming to capture these elaborate moments of terror. There are ghosts EVERYWHERE in this haunted house. This average American family moves into a house to “flip” it to sell for a profit. It’s a grand house with a lot of lavish marble statues lying around, stained glass windows, a huge staircase in the foyer and rooms hidden all over. Watch the opening sequence, there are many clues hidden in this.

The house very much represents the monstrous feminine, very much the way, the hotel in The Shining is, with it’s huge cavernous interior and it’s mysterious, womb like rooms. There is a sense of safety and a sense of danger both inside this house. It is almost alive and definitely evil, just take a look at the photo above! This series is also a family melodrama as much as it is a horror and there are very many similarities to Hereditary.

So we have this young family who are terrorised by events that take place in the house and as adults we watch the family unravel the past to discover just how evil has entered their lives and torn them apart. Each member of the family has a young actor and older actor to portray them, apart from one, which I don’t want to give away.

Each member of the family has an episode to reveal their own story and the whole timeline fits together eventually like puzzle pieces neatly interlocking with each other. There’s an episode where they all meet again as adults for the first time and the camera pans round the room over and over again, showing them as children, then as adults and beautifully captures the agony and drama unfolding within their lives.

I don’t wish to give too much a way but the the Bent Neck Lady story line is absolutely perfect and the reveal in episode 5 is terrifying and sad and wonderful all at the same time.

Look out for the younger version of the dad played by Henry Thomas, who was Elliot in E.T. (there’s an E.T. lunchbox lying around in one scene, with Henry Thomas painted on it!)

Do not miss this series this Halloween! If I don’t see at least one person dressed as the Bent Neck Lady on instagram this year it will be a terrible shame, and I’ve already bought my outfit so it’s too late for me!!!! Also, a word of warning, don’t let your cat sit on your lap when you watch this, as he will go flying when you jump out of your seat with fear!

 

The Sinners… SO SATISFYING!

I found The Sinner on Netflix last week while waiting for lots of new shows to start this September. I’d heard about it a while ago and was surprised it was coming straight to Netflix in the UK. After watching it I really think it should have been on Sky or Channel 4. It is just absolutely delectable! It’s like a three course, steak dinner. Only eight episodes long, this series is meaty, tantalising, delicious and absolutely binge worthy. My husband and I watched two episodes every night we were free so it didn’t take long.

So, who’s in it? Well it seemed this series was all about Jessica Biel’s character, Cora Tannetti, a seemingly ordinary working mom, who goes to the beach with her husband and son and whilst there she sees a couple frolicking in front of her. Some very 80s style music starts playing and she suddenly snaps, takes the knife she was cutting fruit with, and stabs the man seven times, in front of his girlfriend and friends, her husband and son and everyone else on the beach.

The scene is incredibly shocking in this very small town neighbourhood where everyone knows each other. However this man is apparently a complete stranger to Cora. When she is taken in custody, along comes police detective, Harry Ambrose, played by Bill Pullman.

When Cora reluctantly explains what happened on the beach, it makes no sense to Harry. He becomes fixated on the case despite her admission of guilt and her decision to waive the right to a trial. Harry is sure that that there is more to the case and this is alluded to the audience through flashbacks and strange visuals to some striking wallpaper through Cora’s eyes. The sound and camera work are impeccably used in this show to give the eeriness of a lapse in memory in Cora’s character.

What follows is an almost Memento style, episode by episode, interviews and flashbacks that trace the events back in time in Cora’s life to lead to an explanation as to why she did it. Every episode uncovers more of the mystery: her strict Christian upbringing, her ill sister, her dodgy boyfriend, etc etc.

As it got closer and closer to the last episode, I was very worried it was going to be one of those shows where there are so many plot holes and loose ends, but this show ties almost everything in nicely. When it ends there is such a sense of relief, like you learn every single reason why what happened, happened. These days it’s hard to come across a show that doesn’t lead you on.

There is one unresolved issue though – what is it about Harry that makes him so special? Why does he give Cora a chance when everyone gives up on her. There are elusive moments about Harry shown in season one, but it looks like season two may reveal more about his own mysterious past.

Jessica Biel is a fine actress: solid, emotional and believable. She is gorgeous as ever and waify and vulnerable, playing a character between her early twenties to mid thirties. Bill Pullman is still a fine actor after all these years. I personally loved him in Spaceballs but you’d probably remember him playing the President in Independence Day. He’s just an all American, plain faced, brown haired actor: the kind of versatile performer who gets to play all the great parts. He’s aged of course, but there is such a softness to his face that I can’t help but admire. Flashback to my own teen years when my BFF and I would swoon over him!

I would definitely recommend The Sinner for a good box-set binge.

SPOILERS! – Don’t read on if you haven’t finished watching this.

Surely there was a hospital where Cora’s sister, Phoebe, would have been registered for her healthcare. Why didn’t they flag her up as missing? Surely someone would have noticed! Ahhhhh, that’s artistic license for you. The writers can get away with anything if Bill Pullman is in it! Have you seen Independence Day?

 

The endless list on my Sky planner!

I realise there’s a lot of people not on Sky, so apologies if you don’t know what I’m on about. I bloody love my Sky+ box. I have endless episodes of television planned, recorded and waiting for me to watch. I rarely watch daytime television and other crap because I have the joy of selecting what I want to watch, when I want to watch it.

Sky has this brilliant feature on their EPG (Electronic Program Guide) where you can click on their Top Picks, then you can click on the New Series panel and it gives you a list of all the new shows coming out in the next two weeks which you can set up to record and Series Link them and it will record the whole series for you every week! Beware of the BBC shows as they tend to delete themselves four weeks after airing and then you have to either wait years to watch it or pay for the box set on Amazon Prime.

So what’s on my planner at the moment? What am I excited about?

Well it’s Tuesday, and along with the rest of the nation I’ll be watching The Great British Bake Off! Have you ever seen American cake baking programs? Cake Boss is great but the cakes are all using chocolate modelling fondant and sponge. They get points for creative sculptures, but GBBO is just full of surprises every season. The skills required to bake these creations is way beyond my own in the kitchen, and I’m pretty good! I bloody miss Mel and Sue and the lovely Mary Berry but Channel 4 have done a decent job in making the show fresh and lively. The jokes are corny, but the cakes are gorgeous. Every year my family and I watch it after dinner and by the end of the show, we’re all craving cakes and about the only thing I can do is banana bread as I always have black bananas in my fruit bowl!

Next thing on my list is Wanderlust and I am fond of Toni Collette. She was harrowing and wonderful in her recent film, Hereditary. She’s a brilliant and versatile actress so to see her in this very small town, ordinary couple who are struggling with their marriage and sex life is interesting. Knowing what an A-list actress she is, it’s hard to find the character relatable at the moment. BBC viewers are also in a bit of uproar at all the sex in this show but to be honest it’s not that bad, it’s just that they don’t usually get this explicit about sex on the BBC. Well it’s rare, anyway! I’m interested in the moment, so I’ll be watching the second episode tonight.

Next on my list is The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair on the newly launched channel Sky Witness which seems to be full of crime and suspense shows. I watched the first episode last week because Patrick Dempsey is a dish and I’ve had a crush on him since the 80s, please check out Can’t Buy Me Love. I mean he was great as McDreamy in Grey’s Anatomy but there have been sordid rumours about him since he left the show. It’s a little weird in this show as he’s been aged up to play a writer and lecturer who has an elusive past including a young girl who disappeared. It also looks like he has been digitally aged down in the flash backs to his past. The first episode was ok, I’ll give it one more chance I think.

I happened to find this show call American Housewife which is about a stay at home mom who’s raising three kids and is worried about being the fattest woman in her neighbourhood. Something tells me she won’t give in to the peer pressure of social trends. I like her. I want to binge watch this but we are getting it drip fed on the W channel.

Next is 9-1-1 which my husband and I found on Sky Witness to fill the hole Grey’s Anatomy has left us with during their summer hiatus. It is strangely very similar to Grey’s spin off show, Station 19 which is about firefighters in Seattle that work along the staff at Grey Sloan Memorial. However 9-1-1 is about the whole emergency services unit in Los Angeles. Ryan Murphy is one of the creators which is why they have the amazing Angela Bassett featuring in the show. Her character is a cop who is also a mom going through quite a lot in her family life and tends to cross the line a bit in her position. Connie Britton also features and I’m not a huge fan of hers, despite (SPOILER ALERT) the dramatic death of her character in Nashville! Peter Krause is also in the show and he’s ok too, I suppose. The emergency scenarios are taken from some very famous real life situations that have been in the news over the years. It’s fantastic in it’s pace, the acting is a little hammy, but the show is over so quick and the situations are so out there, we actually really like it!

What I’m really obsessed with week to week is This Is Us. It is a weekly tear fest and I love it. Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore play the parents of triplets, one of which dies at birth but they adopt the same day, a black orphan that was abandoned. What follows is the story of their childhood and how they have turned out in the present day roughly 37 years later. It’s all very normal every day family life but they do confront all the taboo subjects normally not dealt with in real every day family life. They talk about addiction, anxiety and depression, miscarriage, adoption, school, college and even fame and it’s downfalls. It’s probably all a bit over dramatic, but I do love a good family drama.

Finally we jumped on the bandwagon with Bodyguard as soon as we got back from our holiday last week and wow! This is some exciting stuff! So Richard Madden of Game of Thrones fame (think Red Wedding, yup…) plays bodyguard to notorious politician and Home Secretary, Mrs Durrell, ahem… I mean the lady that plays Mrs Durrell, Keeley Hawes (I just found out she’s only a few days older than me! I feel old!) There’s talk of terrorism and double agents, and bad politicians, and sex and loads of saucy stuff. We are hooked!

So I am also currently watching Vanity Fair – which is trying so hard to be the next big period drama, and Insecure – which is incredibly poignant and perfectly imperfect, but I don’t want to lose your attention by rambling… which I think I’ve already done! Do let me know what you’re currently watching on Sky or the terrestrial channels! I love all the new stuff that comes out in September, it sure beats those post holiday, back to school blues!

Knights Of The Rose – A Soft Rock Jukebox Musical? Um… ok.

I wasn’t planning on seeing this show but a friend Whatsapp’d me to say let’s go because the tickets were only £15. Another friend said… hmmm, don’t know… the reviews are terrible. I didn’t read them, I just thought, oh ok, why not, I love going in to London for a show and I could see my friends and hang out with them for a bit!

 Music from Bon Jovi is what appealed to my little group the most. We loved all that soft rock in the 90s. They start off with these knights on stage in glittery ‘armour’ singing Blaze of Glory. It’s a bit like the War of The Roses. The knights have returned home from war after five years. The dialogue is sparse at first in between song after song some almost shoehorned in and don’t actually make add to the plot.

The songs are great, well sung, but they are deeply romantic and passionate songs and without building up the story line, it just makes no sense!

The dialogue is a weird mashup of Shakespeare and Chaucer with references included. This got me thinking, this is just like a show I did recently in my own amdram theatre, Return To The Forbidden Planet. The show is a rehashing of The Tempest with dialogue taken from all across Shakespeare’s work, in a sort of Star Trek style space ship and with rock-n-roll music from the 60s. But that show worked because it’s meant to be a comedy.

Knights Of The Rose doesn’t really feel like a comedy but I found myself laughing out loud inappropriately, MANY TIMES. It was just ridiculous, hammy, and two love triangles as basis of the plot was just unoriginal. I don’t know what was worse, the dancing knights in armour, or the weird horse puppets. The costumes were crap, the shoes were awful, though I did actually like some of the choreography. Lots of snapping!

What was brilliant was I listened to Bon Jovi songs while I drove home and I forgot how much I love their music. I was transported back to my teen years and I enjoyed that more than anything else that evening! Oh the Dim Sum in Plum Valley in Chinatown is ace, and really quick for a pre-theatre meal!

If you fancy cheap tickets, get yourself the TopTix app and go see it, but it’s not gonna win any awards. I feel bad for the cast, they’re all so talented, but you know, show biz is hard! At least they’re working!

SO MUCH TV TO WATCH – a spoiler free roundup of what I’ve been watching!

OMG, there has been so much good television on so I’m writing this post about the following:

• Orange Is The New Black
• Sharp Objects
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• The Affair
• Nashville

So I’ve been crap at writing up my posts and I thought it’s just because I’m lazy. But it’s actually been because there is just so much on and I didn’t know where to start first! I’ve been too busy binge watching or reading to write! Sorry for being shit but ultimately I am the couch potato queen!

• Orange Is The New Black –  If you haven’t been watching this, why? It’s brilliant. Sometimes I worry it’s a bit to soft on reality – after all it’s written from a white privileged woman’s experience in a NY prison with an array of ethnic minorities. It actually pisses me off every time I watch a show set in NY and there are no people of ethnic origin because my experience growing up there is that white people are the minority.  But there have been some hardcore story lines in this series. Corrupt prison guards, corporate overtaking of public services, profits over people, racial tensions, religious wars, LGBT romances, healthcare and immigration… the list is endless. Across the six series there have been some really heartbreaking moments and I was almost getting bored of the depressing and hopeless moments but series six is probably the most lighthearted. There is finally light at the end of the tunnel for Piper – but something tells me, series seven, which is going to be the last one – may turn out to be the most dramatic over all.
• Sharp Objects – Amy Adams is a goddess. Playing Camille Preaker – a reporter who goes back to her sleepy Southern town to work on some cases of little girls who have disappeared. She has a shady and sad past herself and a clear problem with alcohol and self-harm. The mysteries seem to revolve more around her than what goes on in the town of Wind Gap. I can’t help but compare to Adam’s portrayal of Lois Lane in the Superman films but Preaker is like a Bizarro version of our favourite sassy reporter! The rest of the line-up of actors is brilliant – they all seem to have great chemistry with each other. The sound and the camera captures the bleakness, the heat, the scent of death and rotting flesh in this town. The story got me so curious I ended up reading the book in a week. Written by Gone Girl author, Gillian Flynn, this story has many unexpected (or expected) twists and turns. Even if it is a little predictable, turning it into a television series was a brilliant idea – it drags out the story with drama and suspense!
• The Handmaid’s Tale – Yet another adaptation of a book by a brilliant female author, Margaret Atwood, this series is so timely and current with it’s themes. It’s a dystopia based on the idea that right wing conservative government has gone too far. The US is now Gilead – barren of children, using a new religion based on old values, forcing people in to roles based on their status, gender, fertility and wealth. The first series was in line with the book to some extent, all with Atwood’s consent and contribution. The second series veers off from the book but incredibly, people everywhere are connecting with the character of June portrayed by Elizabeth Moss in what might be her finest and fiercest role ever. The end of the second season all had us gripped and moved. For a very feminist story, even my husband identifies with Offred/June and her lioness love for her children and her pride. I can’t help but think this is a warning to the increasing right wing conservatism in the US. The series lends insight into how countries in the Middle East justify the way they treat women and how the corrupt use this to climb in power. I’ve always believed that misogyny isn’t just about men hating women, it’s about women hating women too, and that sometimes, it’s because they’ve been conditioned to do so.
• The Affair – Oh my gosh, I have been quietly obsessed with this show for some time. It started out very much as a he said/she said sort of show. I loved the first season. The theme tune is haunting, the story is perplexing and the characters are ones I have love/hate relationships with. The last season looks like it might be the last. It’s a dark series, there are a few very funny moments but more very sad ones. The stories of these characters and the relationships and affairs they have show how much their actions affect everyone around them. BTW the acting is superb! Dominic West and Ruth Wilson are representing some of the best of British talent. Maura Tierney has been solid since her time on ER and bloody gorgeous Johsua Jackson has set my heart racing since his Dawson’s Creek days.
• Nashville – This started out as such a cheesy show but I liked the music, I bloody loved Hayden Pannetiere and her singing, acting as divatastic Juliette Barnes. Connie Britton played Rayna James, a sort of queen of country music. She’s a mediocre actress at best but her singing was bloody awful and I was never convinced by her portrayal. However!!!! – the story lines were great. I obsessed over the relationship of Scarlett and Gunnar and I reeled over the death of a major character last year. It’s a lot of drama, and very much reminded me of the old Aaron Spelling shows in the 80s and 90s. Good, clean drama and lots of divas and dudes. I am sort of sad that it’s all over and I wish the story lines had finished a little better, but now I’ve got time to go back and finish Empire – a drama about the rap music industry which I think I prefer over country music any day.

If you want to ask me any questions or discuss any of the shows with me, do feel free to comment either on my website or on my Facebook page! I’m happy to have a chat or discussion anytime! Also if you have any requests for opinions or thoughts on other shows I haven’t mentioned, just let me know!

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – How to get a sequel right!

I know I’m a little late on this train but there is an awful lot to watch at the moment! I went back to the glorious Odyssey Cinema in St Albans to see this because at £7 a ticket for myself and my family, the price and the location were perfect!

And oh how we all love Chris Pratt! My teen daughters and I adore him and I’m pretty sure my husband has a man crush on him too! He’s the perfect combination of a guy next door you want to be friends with, and masculine and funny without every being misogynistic.

The story starts with the sassy Bryce Dallas Edwards working to save the dinosaurs at the park from being obliterated by a dangerous volcano on the verge of devouring the whole island with lava. She is notably without her ridiculous white heels in this film as she rounds up a team of a dinosaur vet, an IT geek and the lovely Chris Pratt in an effort to rescue the creatures.

Jeff Goldblum makes an appearance in his old role from the original films but it’s such short scenes I couldn’t help be disappointed. There were a few more old faces and some new but over all it was the dinosaurs themselves that stole the show. Good old Blue made a come back with some darling scenes from it’s childhood while it was being reared by Owen Brady (Pratt).

We also had a notable appearance of a newly invented dinosaur called the Indoraptor which was terrifying and exciting to watch. I loved the references to Frankenstein’s creation in these scenes when the dinosaur handlers wielded electric staffs that cast an ominous silhouette on the walls of the Indoraptor.

The whole film does revolve around the ethics of genetic science and whether we as humans ought to even create such creatures whether we have the ability to do it or not. If anything it says that it’s too late, if we’ve already done it, we ought to protect the dinosaurs from acts of nature. It’s treading on dodgy ethical grounds but the film is the perfect summer blockbuster.

The special effects are awesome, the dinosaurs are magnificent, the locations, in Hawaii again stunning to behold and make me wish I could afford a holiday there! I couldn’t help compare to Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. They just got everything right in this film that they didn’t in Mamma Mia. The chemistry between Bryce and Chris is delicious, and there is almost no sexual content in the film at all (doesn’t need it, in my opinion). It’s just good old fashioned fantasy and fun with a little bit of ethics thrown in. Take your family to see it, it had us all captivated for all 128 minutes.

Also, hang in there after the credits as there is an extra scene you don’t want to miss!!! I’m already looking forward to the sequel which is set to come out in 2021!

Hereditary at the Odyssey Cinema, St Albans

First of all, I would just like to say that the Odyssey Cinema is the most beautiful cinema I have been to in a long time. I can’t believe I have never been as I have lived and worked around St Albans for a very long time. Not only are the prices incredibly reasonable, but this art deco style cinema has the most wonderful seating arrangement. Please check out their website immediately!

I was invited to this showing of Hereditary by my Module Leader and lecturer of my MA in Global Film and Television, Dr Darren Elliott-Smith from the University of Hertfordshire. I took an old classmate of mine from my undergrad days as we loved our old film lectures and seminars and Darren was giving a short talk before the film and a Q&A after.

Darren stressed that the film is brilliant but complicated and that we would probably need to stay after to discuss it. I was intrigued, as my MT nerd friend was pleading with me to watch it as she had so many questions and NEEDED to talk to me about it.

So the trailers for the film make it look pretty scary but I was told it wasn’t that bad, to me, IT WAS SCARY AS F***! I spent a few minutes hiding behind the lovely velvet cushions in the settee seats we had. The film is stunning to watch. I wish I could remember every detail but I need to watch it again. Set mostly in a family home in the middle of nowhere, Toni Collette plays Annie, a mother of two who has just lost her own mother. At the funeral, her eulogy is strange, her relationship with her mother is stranger, her children are strange, her husband is gorgeous (I f***** love Gabriel Byrne, he could be 82 by now but I don’t care because he is still fiiiiiiiiiiine to me.) The actor portraying the son, Peter, is Alex Wolff and he looks remarkably like Byrne, an excellent casting, as he seems to possess the same brooding good looks.

The story of this family’s grief unfolds and revolves around their dynamics. The son seems pretty normal, but the daughter, Charlie, is freakishly odd looking. The character has a peanut allergy, and excuse me if this sounds rude but the kid looks like she’s suffering from the peanut allergy all the time.

 

 

I couldn’t believe that someone could be so unfortunate looking so I was relieved to see the actress is actually quite cute in real life and is just also a very good physical actress!

Speaking of physical actresses, Toni Collette is simply amazing. I have been a bit obsessed with her since Muriel’s Wedding but I also became infatuated when she did United States of Tara where she played a mother with multiple personality disorder. So to see her in a film now that also involves mental illness, I wasn’t surprised to see her acting skills at her best.

 

Toni’s character, Annie is a weird one herself. She’s estranged from her kids, she spends hours in a room on her own as an artist creating tiny dioramas in what seem like doll houses. The scene she depicts seem to be important ones in her life and she seems to find catharsis through her art work. What is beautiful about this film is the concept that the characters themselves are like dolls and this is captured through shots that contain the whole room of their home including the ceiling and with a tilted angle and antique oak furniture, often with spindly legs, seeming like they are actually inside the doll house themselves. This gives the sense they are not in control of themselves and are manipulated by some higher power.

Without giving too much away, why did we need to discuss this? Darren calls it a film of the post horror movement. Not quite traditional horror, which some might say is outdated. Personally I think horror has had to progress because we’re so desensitised to violence and body mutilation. There were moments in the film where people gasped, and there were moments of traditional horror with scenes borrowed from old films and that made people laugh!

Hereditary is definitely horror, with gore and jumps and scares and all sorts but there is also the essence of melodrama. The film is about mental illness, a mother’s anguish and eternal feelings of guilt, and the family dynamics particularly during adolescence. There is a lot to think about in this film.  It’s definitely worth watching and if you get the chance to visit the Odyssey Cinema in St Albans, just go, it’s wonderful!