I've Been Watching... #2

It's time for another update on what I've been watching recently! Netflix is a wonderful, wonderful thing...

First, let's talk about Fargo. It started on channel 4 a few weeks ago now (we're now 7 episodes in) and it is phenomenally good. Insane, but phenomenal. I usually don't have the patience to watch a TV show as it airs - I am useless, and hate waiting a week between episodes - but I've been managing to keep up with Fargo pretty well. I've never actually seen the original Coen brothers' film, but having heard such good things about it, and being a massive Martin Freeman fan I was intrigued to see what the TV show would be like. The cast is absolutely outstanding - Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton are both superb, as are Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks. My mum mentioned to me that this is the first major role Tolman has landed, which is hard to believe because she is absolutely excellent. Thus far, the show has focused on the unravelling of Lester Nygaard's (Freeman) life following an encounter with a stranger going by the name of Lorne Malvo (Thornton), and the attempts of Deputy Molly Solverson (Tolman) and officer Gus Grimly (Hanks) to solve a series of crimes they believe Malvo is connected to (it is so difficult to summarise what has happened so far without giving anything away!!).

You can catch the show on Sunday night (9pm) on channel 4, or catch up on 4OD (but I'm pretty sure by now the first two or three episodes will be unavailable), otherwise I've been informed by a friend that it is showing on Norwegian Netflix!


Next up we have season one of MTV's teen dramedy Awkward. I watched this entire series over the course of my one month free trial of Amazon Prime Instant Video. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this show, but as a lover of all teen television I was willing to give it a shot, and I'm really glad I did. Is it a little bit predictable? Yes. However, there are some genuinely interesting and well developed characters here that kept my attention through the whole series. It is funny without being too over the top, and explores high school in what feels like a pretty up front way. This isn't your Gossip Girl-esque Upper East Side party zone (which, incidentally, I thoroughly enjoy too), nor is it the opposite extreme which usually depicts teens in pretty dire situations. The only issue for me was main character Jenna's parents - believability sort of went out the window there, and it felt like a sort of awkward (pardon the pun) stereotype of "young parents". That aside, I couldn't wait to get stuck into season two, but to my horror it wasn't available. I'm sure I'll catch it somewhere eventually though!


I FINALLY started watching The Office (the US version) a couple of months back - just when I had lots of uni work to do, of course! It really is as good as everyone told me it was. I am, unsurprisingly, full on obsessed with Jim and Pam. John Krasinski is now, pretty much, my ideal man! I've been a fan of Steve Carell for ages, and he is just brilliant as Michael Scott, he is guaranteed to make me laugh in every single episode. I'm halfway through season four at the moment, so I still have lots to watch, and that pleases me - I love having something familiar to tune in to.


And last but not least for this little update, we have a typically cheesy, rom-com style film called Stuck in Love. As a fan of the majority of the cast of this little movie, I had almost bought it in Asda for £5 a couple of months back, but in an attempt to save some pennies I put it back! This was a wise move, as it appeared on Netflix a couple of weeks later. Starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Logan Lerman, Kristen Bell and Nat Wolff, for a rom-com there are a couple of darker storylines running through the usual romantic stuff here. Much like Awkward, is it a little predictable? Yes, but I genuinely really enjoyed this film, so much so that I got home from a night out the day after I watched it, and put it on again. Any scenes between Lily Collins and Logan Lerman were fantastic - I'm pretty sure I tweeted that they were metaphorically making my heart swell they were so cute, and that's always a hit with me. Is it life changing? Probably not. But I'd definitely say it's worth a watch if rom-coms are your thing!

This is not an exhaustive list of what I've watched over the past couple of months, but just a few words on some things I've been really enjoying! Hope you enjoyed this, and let me know what your favourite films/tv shows of the moment are!

Thanks for reading!