Just dumping my list of shows (and movies) I watched this year here for my own benefit as TV Time is not as organised as I’d like. And frankly I watched too much and I want to publicly shame myself.
New: 9-1-1, A Friend of the Family, A League of Their Own, Abbot Elementary, Anatomy of a Scandal, The Baby, Bad Sisters, The Bear, The Capture, Chloe, Chucky, Compulsion, Conversations with Friends, Deadline, Dexter: New Blood, Dr. Death, Echoes, First Kill, Hacks, Heartstopper, High School, The Holiday, Inventing Anna, Keep Breathing, The Lazarus Project, Man vs Bee, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Morning Show, NCIS: Hawai’i, No Return, One of Us Is Lying, Our House, Paper Girls, Pieces of Her, Reboot, Red Rose, The Resort, The Rising, Severance, The Staircase, Station 19, Station Eleven, Stay Close, Surface, Suspicion, The Teacher, The Thief His Wife and the Canoe, The Tourist, Trigger Point, The Watcher, Wednesday, The White Lotus, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, Yellowjackets, You Don’t Know Me
Returning: After Life, Dead to Me, Derry Girls, The Flight Attendant, Gentleman Jack, Grace & Frankie, Kevin Can F*ck Himself, Killing Eve, Leverage: Redemption, Only Murders in the Building, Russian Doll, The Secrets She Keeps, The Sinner, Stranger Things, The Wilds
__________________________________________
Top 10: 9-1-1, A League of Their Own, Bad Sisters, The Capture, Chucky, Hacks, Kevin Can F*ck Himself, Paper Girls, Station Eleven, Yellowjackets
__________________________________________
Docs & Reality (New & Returning): The Apprentice, Bad Vegan, Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story, Catching Killers, Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes, Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, Dream Home Makeover, Floor is Lava, Get Organised with The Home Edit, Great British Bake Off, I Am a Killer, Instant Dream Home, I Just Killed My Dad, Interior Design Masters, Into the Deep: The Submarine Murder Case, Is It Cake, Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story, Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, Killer Sally, Love is Blind, Masterchef, The Most Hated Man on the Internet, My Lover My Killer, The Puppet Master, Queer Eye, Sins of Our Mother, Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99, The Traitors, The Ultimatum, Unsolved Mysteries, Web of Make Believe, Worst Roommate Ever
__________________________________________
Top 1: The Traitors!! Everyone should go watch The Traitors. Thank me later.
__________________________________________
And I did treat myself to a Cineworld unlimited card this year so I’ve also been to the cinema a fair bit. So let’s throw my Letterboxd year in too.
Top 5: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Menu, The Black Phone, Do Revenge
5 notes
·
View notes
Andor: Season One (2022) - REVIEW
SYNOPSIS
Set during the peak of the Imperial Empire, Andor tells the story of Cassian Andor in his formative years that would ultimately lead him to become a spy for the Rebellion.
I was not expecting this. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story gave us our first live action peek into the internal politics of the Empire and the Rebellion that consequently added a lot of grey into the black and white morality of the Star Wars Saga. Andor takes this to a completely new level while it covers serious and recognizable themes as a Star Wars property that is the most un-Star Wars yet and a significant improvement over the major misfire that was Book of Boba Fett. This isn't a fast paced space western with a soaring score like the Mandalorian, this is a carefully paced drama with a measured amount of action but spread across a much larger canvas with complex characters who are often disconnected from one another. The major set pieces when they do come are thoroughly earned with clearly established stakes and executed to thrilling perfection. With Andor we've got something that is not just very different but so much more mature. This is, putting is bluntly, Star Wars for grown ups.
Andor plays out against an incredibly vast canvas consisting of several new planets including the worlds of Ferrix and Aldhani but it also includes one strikingly familiar world in Coruscant. More than simply being a quick edit to a CGI backdrop, each location is unique from one another and explores a different aspect of life under the cold and bureaucratic tyranny of the Empire. So much time is spent in these locations that includes a variety of Imperial facilities such as the Imperial Security Bureau on Coruscant and the prison on Narkina 5, that they feel just as lived in and real as anything seen in the Original Star Wars Trilogy. This is world building of the likes we haven't seen from Star Wars while at the same time it treads into darker depths and murkier waters of morality with characters who often can't be divided into a simple category of good and evil. So striking is its pace and tone that I often felt I was watching something closer to Blade Runner than Star Wars. Tonally it also shares similarities to the Hunger Games with the run down, oppressed worlds of Ferrix and Aldhani versus the high society and politicking of Coruscant being similar to the Districts and Capitol of those movies.
Throughout its 12 episode run, Andor tells a slow story of radicalization; the Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) we're introduced to here isn't the committed Rebel agent we see in Rogue One. This is a Cassian Andor who's simply about survival but then finds himself in the sights of sinister Imperial Security Bureau agent Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), who is convinced of the existence of an organized rebellion. Andor is as much an origin story for the Rebellion as it is for Cassian himself as Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) attempts to navigate the complexities of Imperial politics while trying to fund the fledgling rebellion. The characters that feature here are often located separate from one another with only the mysterious and ruthless Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) providing the link between all arcs. There are few characters to truly root for but many who are interesting and complex with Cassian himself, Fiona Shaw's Maarva, Luthen, Dedra Meero and Andy Serkhis' Kino Loy being particular standouts. This is a show with plenty of interesting characters.
The show is very patient with its storytelling and doesn't rush into one set piece after another which will disappoint anyone looking for the more traditional thrills of Star Wars. The set pieces however are all unique in terms of their specific stakes and structures, but all of them serve to make the Empire feel more of a threat than its ever felt before. From the escape from Ferrix, the raid on Aldhani, the escape from Narkina 5 and a few others. The visual effects are always stunning and look especially effective from the use of practical locations and sets. The pace of the storytelling means that each set piece is carefully laid out and understood beforehand by the audience leading into one which generates great tension. For a show that can feel tonally very bleak, these set pieces give Andor several moments of exhilaration and satisfying pay offs. But the real pay off is Cassian's journey as the 12 episodes perfectly capture the cruel, unjust and relentless essence of the Empire. Cassian's arc from a nobody to a Rebel, much the series as a whole, feels completely earned.
VERDICT
Andor is the Star Wars show I didn't know that I needed or wanted and is a rare show that manages to stick the landing with a thrilling finale that perfectly sets up season two. This is arguably the best Star Wars property of the post-Lucas era.
5/5
5 notes
·
View notes
Wednesday Evening Thoughts
I really want to start writing daily again. It doesn't matter what is, whether its journaling, blogging, writing grocery lists or just SQUEEING about things that excite me in point form, or formed sentences. MUUUST WRITE!!
I feel that in the last two years by not writing, I’ve really devolved, I’ve lost my vocabulary, my memory isn’t as sharp as it was my entire life.
I dunno why I’ve been so scared to write but I need to stop listening to the depression monsters and the black brain fog that wants to keep me down.
So, start slow.
It’s the summer and our summer tv season is upon us.
Currently, I’ve been watching Evil: Season 3 and In the Dark: Season 4. Evil is a little more enjoyable because it really is a modern X-Files. I especially LOVED the ep on Sunday where it was a reference and homage to the haunted highway in the States. I forget exactly which highway it is and which state it is. I don’t want to check because I’ll just get distracted and multitask and forget to finish this. ANYWAY, it was a FUN ep.
In The Dark had such a great first season but hasn’t really benefited from further ones. It follows A LONG LINE of shows that had such great premises, whether high concept or not that struggle when the premise is stretched like a band aid.
On shows I haven’t watched yet. Haven’t watched ANY of the following; Ms. Marvel, The Orville: Season 3, The Old Man, The Pirates of Angkor Island (I think its Netflix), still haven’t finished Daredevil either.
I’m REALLY EXCITED for the return of Mysteries Decoded. Season 1 was in 2019! 2019, guys. Thanks Covid.
I’m torn on Mysteries Decoded. I really like the host Jennifer Marshall, but I feel it could be better. But I’m here for it, as many who know me know I’m a whore for Paranormal television.
ANNND The Challenge: USA. Honestly I’m not really into Reality TV, but it has players from Survivor and I’m just so curious. I’m hoping it will appear tomorrow on Paramount+
P.S. Watched two cartoons from the 2000s. The Life and Times of Juniper Lee and The Secret Saturdays. Both on Cartoon Network and featured teens dealing with cryptids, mythological monsters and the supernatural, paranormal and mystic.
P.P.S. How can a show about cryptids NOT HAVE MOTHMAN!!! You’ve just lost your cryptid cred, show! *raises fists in the air* Signed, the biggest Mothman Stan.
Anyways, those are my thoughts. I’m going try to watch The Old Man before bed. Let’s see if i succeed or get distracted.
3 notes
·
View notes