I've Been Watching #10

Hey everyone!

While I've been uploading lots of film and tv related videos over on my channel, it's been a while since my last I've Been Watching post! So thought I would update you on what films and TV shows I've been glued to lately!

TV

Pretty Little Liars

For years now, I've been saying that I need to get into Pretty Little Liars. As a life-long teen TV drama addict, I needed something to replace the giant Gossip Girl/Veronica Mars shaped hole in my life. I still have The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, but PLL had been on my "to watch" list since it hit the screens way back in 2010. Finally Netflix added it to their ever expanding catalogue in January, and it's safe to say I'm addicted.

I cannot stop watching this show. It gets to crazy o'clock in the morning and while my head says "go to sleep", Netflix says "continue watching" and somehow my hand manages to click yes. I spend the majority of my time going "RIGHT, go to the police", but somehow that just makes it even better. This might be a teen television show, but honestly, it is much creepier than I had been expecting! I'm currently devouring season 3 (soon to be season 4), and there have been so many unexpected twists and turns along the way so far. If you can avoid reading spoilers, avoid like the plague - it makes it so much better when you have no idea what's coming!!

An added bonus is that I actually love all four of the main characters. If you have no idea what the show is about, season one kicks off a year after sixteen year old Alison DiLaurentis goes missing from her home in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. Twelve months on, her four best friends Spencer, Hanna, Aria and Emily, start receiving threatening texts and notes from the mysterious A, who knows far too many of their secrets, and is prepared to use them against them. Whether they're at home, at school, or even out of town, A knows exactly where they are, what they're doing, and what to do to hurt them the most. Cue constant fear, torment, and double crossing, with an excellent wardrobe, brilliant soundtrack, and, as always, a very attractive cast. What more could you ask for?!

P.S. I have so much love for Spencer Hastings - she's my kind of character. And, at this point (who knows how I'll feel an episode from now, never mind a season from now), I would quite like to marry Wren. It should be illegal to be that attractive.

Once Upon a Time - Season 4

My beloved OUAT is back!! Season 4b kicked off on Sunday night and I got cosy with a giant cup of tea and a donut to enjoy the new episode on Monday. It did not disappoint. I won't say too much to avoid spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but I'm loving the Queens of Darkness - particularly Cruella at this point. I'm intrigued to see where they're going with this, and I have a feeling (having seen some promo photos for upcoming episodes) it's going to complicate things for Emma, but we'll see. Still loving the Emma/Killian scenes, very nicely done in this episode, and Robert Carlyle will never cease to amaze me. He is just brilliant.

Films

The Theory of Everything

After all this time, I finally went to see The Theory of Everything at the weekend. Roisin and I accepted that this would be a situation where you leave the cinema having had a good cry, and while I think our makeup actually faired pretty well, it really was an emotional couple of hours.

Eddie Redmayne's performance was absolutely incredible - he thoroughly deserved that Oscar, and all the other recognition he has had for playing Steven Hawking. Felicity Jones was excellent too, and while the film obviously deals closely with what Steven is facing, a huge part of the story is what Jane, his wife, went through, and she handled it beautifully. If you haven't seen it yet, I would definitely recommend seeing it at some point if you have the chance - it's an amazing film, about an amazing couple, and it has made me even more determined than ever to get around to reading A Brief History of Time!

Tiny Furniture

And last for today, we have Tiny Furniture, a Lena Dunham film I found on Netflix a few weeks ago. For any recent graduates, this is a must see. It's a quiet film, and nothing too dramatic happens along the way, but it really does reflect what life can be like when you leave the cosy bubble of the university or college environment and have to try to figure out what to do next. Dunham's character Aura moves back in with her mum and her sister, and struggles with career decisions, friendships, relationships, and mostly just wants to hide under her duvet, which is somewhere I think we've all been (unless you're one of the rare few who managed to get a job straight out of uni!). As I said, this isn't an intense or life changing film, but it is certainly a comforting one if you have found yourself in Aura's shoes. It's one of the things I love most about Film and TV (and books) - you can always find someone to relate to, whatever your situation is, and that in itself can make things just a little bit easier.


That's it for today - I hope you enjoyed this and I would definitely recommend checking out all of the above! Next on my must see list are the live action Cinderella, which comes out at the end of the month, continuing on with my PLL binge, and getting properly started on Parks and Recreation - all the love for Amy Poehler.

What have you been watching recently?

Thanks for reading! :)

I've Been Watching #7

Warning - this post is mainly going to be me, fangirling about Orphan Black. Keeping it good and spoiler free though, nothing you wouldn't know from seeing posters or trailers for the first season.

This week has been a mixed bag. I've fallen behind a little bit with The 100, so I'll need to catch up with that when I have time, and I've watched a couple more episodes of New Girl Season 3. I hate hate hate admitting this, but I'm just not as in love with New Girl as I used to be. The first and second seasons are amazing, and The Landlord (S1E12) is one of my favourite episodes of anything ever. I was so excited about season 3 after the way season 2 ended, but for me, it's just gone a bit too OTT. Having said that, the sixth episode (Keaton) felt like the old New Girl!

Connected

I was in a documentary sort of mood last week, so I searched through every last one on Netflix and developed a sort of shortlist. In the end, I went for Connected - the tag line of which reads 'An autoblogography about love, death and technology'. This is a film from Tiffany Shlain exploring the interconnectedness of just about everything and everyone on the planet - something that genuinely interests me. Honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, so I was a bit surprised when I read a lot of negative reviews of it after I watched it. A lot of people felt the film ended up being about nothing, but I disagree. It doesn't solve any of the questions it sets out to ask, but I don't think that was the point. If you go into it with the knowledge that the autobiographical aspect of it is a huge part of the overall documentary, and watch it with an open mind, it's a really touching look at a woman's relationship with her father, and the fact he always encouraged her to be curious, think big, and study and investigate the world around her. Technology is all around us, and it has made the world we live in virtually unrecognisable to the world people lived in even just a few years ago, Tiffany's wish that we could harness that connectivity and use it to fix some of the huge problems the world is facing really resonated with me - I feel like the overwhelming response to Robin Williams's death on twitter really highlighted that to me last week. If you're looking for something that sticks to the technology aspect then you'll be disappointed, because the family side of it wins out in the end, but that suited me just fine. I am now desperate to read a couple of books by Tiffany's father, Leonard Shlain - The Alphabet versus The Goddess sounds fascinating.

Orphan Black - Season 1

*Deep breath...*

Okay. Last week I finally sat down to watch the first episode of Orphan Black. I had heard people raving about it on twitter, but not to an OITNB or Breaking Bad degree, so I actually didn't know a huge amount about it when I put on that pilot episode. A few days later and I have binge watched the first season (in fairness, that's only ten episodes!), and I CANNOT WAIT to find out what happens next.

The premise is something that's either going to hook you, or it isn't. Our main character Sarah, who hasn't had the easiest time of it, is standing on the platform of a train station, and looks on in horror as a woman she doesn't know, but who looks exactly like her (we're talking the most identical of identical twins similar) throws herself in front of a train. This was enough to get me intrigued. Sarah is played by Tatiana Maslany, an actress I recognised from one of my all-time favourite shows, Being Erica. It was only after I'd watched two or three episodes that I noticed that the executive producers of Orphan Black are the EPs of Being Erica - no wonder I'm loving it. I don't want to give too much away here because I hate reading spoilers myself, but it would be ludicrous of me to not praise Maslynav to the max for what she's doing here - she is playing several characters in this show, and she is doing an absolutely incredible job. During the first episode I was a tiny bit put off by her British accent - to her credit, it isn't the generic super-posh English that most people attempt, but it bugged me a little bit during that first episode. By now though, I'm completely used to it, and I just can't get over what an amazing opportunity this must have been for her. This is not a show, or a role, that comes up every day, and from the get go she had me forgetting that it was her playing every character. They all have such distinct mannerisms and body language and voices that it never once occurs to me that it is her every time. The characters are all really interesting and complex, and she deserves so much credit for this.

Moving on from the acting, the storyline is gripping. It's described as sci-fi but to be honest I think that's purely to give it a label, I don't feel like I'm watching a sci-fi show when I'm watching it. It's intense, and definitely a thriller, but mostly it's grounded in just exploring people and how they react to their world being turned upside down. It's totally my cup of tea and I really would urge you to go ahead and watch it, because it's just about the best new thing I've watched in a while.

*...and exhale*

That's it for today! Thanks so much for reading guys, and be sure to let me know if you've watched either of the above - I'd love to know what you thought!

I've Been Watching #5

Welcome back to another I've Been Watching :) I'm still completely addicted to Once Upon a Time, but in the interests of keeping these posts fresh, interesting and not full of "I'm-in-love-with-Captain-Hook-how-can-a-pirate-be-so-attractive" chat, I'll simply say Season 3 is utterly compelling viewing. It really is. Now, on with the update...

The 100

Pronounced "the hundred", just so you know, this is a show from US Network "The CW", where many of my favourite shows of all time have come from; it has now, however, been picked up by E4 and airs on a Monday evening (and is available on 4OD). In terms of genre, this tends to be what you might call the YA channel, only, much like all areas from music to movies to literature, YA has become a bit of a grey area, where the age at which it is initially aimed often has little bearing on the actual audience demographics. I'm a big fan of teen television, and will always defend it to people who dismiss it as nonsense (and trust me, I've heard that plenty times before). Anyway, The 100 is jumping on the Hunger Games/Divergent/youths in a dystopian future bandwagon, and again is based on a book of the same name. It explores a post-apocalyptic world, where planet earth has been rendered uninhabitable following a nuclear war, and the remains of the human race have lived on space stations for the past century. The pilot episode sees 100 "juvenile delinquent" types, (who have been imprisoned on the stations for a variety of crimes), sent down to earth to find out if earth has recovered enough for them to return to, with time and resources running out to keep the space stations going. The lead character, Clarke, is played by Eliza Taylor (anyone remember Janae from Neighbours?!) and I've been really impressed with her so far, while Henry Ian Cusick who plays my beloved Desmond in Lost also stars. The story is gripping and it's really nicely shot - there have been a couple of stunning scenes in the forest so far. We're only three episodes in and it's already incredibly creepy, with life on the 'uninhabited' planet earth proving to be a bit more complicated than anyone had expected. Definitely one to watch!

Not Another Happy Ending

Henry Ian Cusick makes another appearance in this 2013 rom-com set in Glasgow. Starring Cusick, the lovely Karen Gillan and Stanley Weber (amongst others), I desperately wanted to love this film - so much of it is shot in and around Merchant City in Glasgow. But honestly? I just didn't. I'm not actually sure what I thought of it. I found my concentration lapsing at a few points, because it just didn't grip me, and while I love Karen Gillan, I felt like her character wasn't quite developed enough for me to properly care about. When it comes to anything film and tv related, I'm all about character, and I just didn't really connect on this occasion. The premise was interesting - Gillan plays an author named Jane Lockhart, and the film explores her complicated relationship with her editor and publisher Tom (Weber), who believes she is unable to write when she's happy. It's a strange little film, and I think it probably had a lot of potential, but I wonder if the casting is what let it down? I'm not sure. If you've seen it and you liked it, or didn't like it, let me know!

Leesha Vlogs

I never tend to put YouTubers in these posts, and keep it mainly film and TV related, but over the past few months I've found myself totally addicted to Leesha's vlog channel - if you're into beauty on YouTube you might know her more from her main channel X-Sparkage. Last month she gave birth to her gorgeous baby girl Violet, and I've been following her and her partner Paul on this channel throughout the pregnancy. Her vlogs are just so chilled out and relaxed, and kind of what I want to make my vlogs like, if I continue daily vlogging for any length of time! Just now it's mainly about spending time with the baby, and getting used to parenthood, but for whatever reason I just find watching her videos so therapeutic. She just seems like the kind of person you'd want to be friends with, and I love getting a little glimpse into her day to day life - the wonders of YouTube!

So that's it for another edition of "I've Been Watching"! Hope you enjoyed that, and hope you're all having a great weekend!

Just as a sidenote, connected to something I mentioned earlier, I'm daily vlogging over on my YouTube Channel at the moment! If you fancy watching me endure the joys of dissertation work, job hunting, and see the buzz around Glasgow from the Commonwealth Games, pop over and check it out :)

Thanks for reading!