Lockdown Viewing

Seeing as we are still in total lockdown (in the UK) and it’s a long weekend I thought that I would post some of the TV shows that I have enjoyed that are on offer via the interwebs (as I have pretty much cut the cord). Primarily I’ll go over the shows that I have been watching on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Starzplay.

Amazon Prime Video

Bosch - Gritty cop drama located in Los Angeles, based on Michael Connelly’s novels that feature Harry Bosch. There are now six seasons available on amazon prime, they can be pretty dark. Harry Bosch is played by Titus Welliver as a no nonsense LAPD detective that bends the rules. It sounds like boiler plate cop drama but is very engaging and has surprising twists that keep you watching.

New Amsterdam - Medical drama based in the fictional hospital of New Amsterdam, New York. It’s inspired by the book “Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital” by Dr Eric Manheimer. The show follows Dr Max Goodwin (played by Ryan Eggold) as the new medical director of the New Amsterdam hospital and his dedication to changing things up and making the hospital better for the patients while battling cancer and taking care of his pregnant wife. Two season are available on Amazon Prime.

Picard - Staring Patrick Stewart as Admiral Jean-Luc Picard. Hmmm… for Star Trek fans only. I felt it was a bit jaded and self indulgent and gave some of the actors from The Next Generation some work. The story line is ok, but I think it’s really for Star Trek fans only. Needles to say I looked forward to every Friday evening to get my dose. The full first season is available now.

The Good Fight - A spin off show from The Good Wife starring Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart. The show is set a year after The Good wife finished. The first season focuses on Diane having lost her retirement money and employment due to a financial scam that also ruins the reputation of her god-daughter. It is a thoughtful and often controversial legal drama that is better suited for liberal political minded people to watch. There are three seasons available on amazon prime now, the filming of the fourth season has been halted due to coronavirus.



Apple TV

For All Mankind - One of the first shows that Apple released on launch. It is set as an alternative reality show, basically Russia won the space race by landing first on the moon and the political ramifications that are created in NASA. The drama now surrounds who will be the first to develop a base on the moon. It stars Joel Kinnaman and the first season is available now.

Mythic Quest - It focuses on the team behind the biggest multiplayer video game of all time and the antics that go on in the workplace. It’s a pretty funny comedy that has interesting characters with their own nuances and eccentricities. Stars Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicado.

See - Also a flagship show that Apple launched their channel with. A virus has decimated mankind and those that survived are blind. The lead characted, played by Jason Momoa, is the father to twins born centuries after the virus that have the ability to see. It has lots of action and intriguing characters and is probably my favourite show out of all those on Apple TV. It has been renewed for a second season.

Home - An intersting documentary show that highlights groundbreaking ideas and inspiring stories around the world’s most imaginitve houses and homes. It was an eye opener to the materials used and the architecture that was acheivable with them. Welll worth watching, similar to Grand Designs in some ways but so grander!



Disney+

The Mandalorian - After the fall of the Galactic Emprire, lawlessness has spread out through the galaxy and a lone gunfighter makes his way through the chaos as a bounty hunter. Pedro Pascal plays The Mandalorian. This is basically Disney’s flagship show for their luanch, 8 episode of about 30 minutes with a second season in the pipeline. It features a baby Yoda that everyone seems to have lost their minds over. The show is entertaining enough but not for £60 a year but of course Disney+ offers a lot more.

Disney+ offers all of the Marvel Universe, all of Star Wars (including The Last Jedi from the 4th of May, do you see what they did there?), all the Pixar films, a National Geographic channel as well as the back catalogue of Disney films and TV shows. Out of all the streaming options this one probably contains the most varied of shows and films for all ages. Also, all 30 years of The Simpsons.



Netflix

Marco Polo - Inspired by Marco Polo’s early years in the court of Kublai Khan. First aired on Netflix in 2014 and is still one of my favourite shows on Netflix. It stars Lorenzo Richelmy as Marco Polo, Bendict Wong as Kublai Khan and Zhu Zhu ❤️ as the Blue Princess amongst a host of other superb asian actors. The show took some harsh judgement from critics but most that watched it loved it (8 out 10 stars from 60,000 reviews on IMDB). Two seasons available from Netflix plus a special spin off 30 minute show on the origin of the character Hundred Eyes.

Altered Carbon - Science fiction show set in the future where people can swap bodies by transferring their stack from one body to another giving them immortality. A stack contains everything about them including their consciousness. It sounds crazy I know, but the first season is essential viewing, the second season not so much. The first seaon starts Joel Kinniman as Takeshi Kovacs and the second season stars Anthony Mackie as Takeshi Kovacs. The first two seasons are available now, but don’t rush to watch the second season.

Ares - Is in Dutch, but has English subtitles if you need them. Revolves around an Amsterdam student (Jade Olieberg) that joins a secret society that has been around the since the golden age of The Netherlands. She has to navigate how far she is willing to go to climb the ranks of the society. It is pretty screwed up. Totally rivetting to watch. First season available.

Titans - Titans features young heroes from the DC universe as they come of age being led (mostly) by Dick Grayson. This is for DC fans really, but is great fun to watch and introduces characters that I had never heard of before. In the first season they are trying to prevent hell on earth, you know, as you do. Stars Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson and special mention to Minka Kelly ❤️ as Dove!

Star Trek: Discovery - Ok, so I am being found out in this post that I am a secret Trekky that might have watched everything that has ever been produced by the franchise. Set ten years before the Enterprise (the original with Kirk, Spock and Scotty), the USS Discovery rescues the only officer to commit mutiny on her way to jail, while war has broken out with the Klingons. Stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham. Two season available now with a third to be released at an unspecified date this year.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - Slightly embarrassed to admit, but this was good fun. A coming of age show where Sabrina has to choose between the world of witchcraft and her family or the world of humans and her friends as her 16th birthday nears. It has a 15 rating so don’t mistake it for being Sabrina the Teenage witch that was on children’s TV, it’s pretty messed up and gruesome in many episodes. Stars the extremely talented Keirnan Shipka as Sabrina. Three parts (seasons) are out for your viewing pleasure.

Stranger Things - A Young Boy Goes missing in small town America and the whole town is thrown upside down. His mother, the local cop and his friends search and investigate his disappearance. They start finding supernatural occurrences that seem to be converging on the town along with the appearance of a girl with a shaved head. Good fun, if a little dark, for young and old alike, has a 12 rating as some episodes are pretty gruesome. Winona Ryder resumes her acting career with some really powerful performances. Three seasons out now with another coming.

This is only small selection of the shows that catch my attention on Netflix, I could be here for a year with all the shows that I enjoy so I’ll give a special mention to:

  • You - Man slightly obsessed with girlfriend.

  • The Society - All parents in a town go on holiday leaving kids behind.

  • The Politician - American High School with 1st world problems.

  • Lucifer - The Devil finds himself in Los Angeles.

  • Lost in Space - Family takes wrong turn in Space.

  • Formula 1 Drive to Survive - The Haas tram realises that they could have been rock stars, instead…



Starzplay

I purchased a Starzplay subscription though Apple TV but it is also available through Amazon Prime.

Veronica Mars - Staring Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars. Was a bit of a cult classic when it first came out in 2004 with three seasons and then got a movie that got enough interest for a fourth season in 2019! It revolves around Veronica dedicating her life to finding out who killed her best friend. She solves lots of crimes as a young private investigator and assists her father who is a private investigator after being removed as the county Sheriff. Four seasons and the movie available. There is talk of a fifth…

Harlots - Revolves around a brothel owner (Margaret Wells played by Samantha Morton) as she struggles to raise her daughters in London. Margaret must reconcile her roles as a madam and mother as she defends an attack on her brothel from the local clergy and a rival madam. A fun show that highlights the harshness of life as a prostitute in London in the 18th century. Three seasons out with a fourth in the pipeline.

Manhunt: Deadly Games - The story of Richard Jewell that was accused of planting a bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Involves the vilification of Richard Jewell by the press and the subsequent manhunt for the real bomber. Amazingly interesting story based mostly on facts. Cameron Britton plays the lead role as Richard Jewell. The full season is available.



Also:

BBC iPlayer currently has the full season of DEVS available. If you can access the iPlayer I would highly recommend this, especially if you are technologically minded, understand anything about quantum mechanics and like having your mind bent out of shape. It’s startling good. It’s a mini series that was written by Alex Garland (author of The Beach). It centres around Lily Chan (played by Sonora Mizuno) a coder that is investigating the death of her boyfriend at their place of work. The series explores free will and determinism and the culture surrounding Silicon Valley. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

And finally:

HBO is currently giving access to a lot of their shows for free, worth checking out as there is a good selection of free, not everything but enough to keep you going. If you are outside the US you will require a VPN that has a connection in the US if you want to watch it, obviously.

Hope this gives you some ideas of shows to watch while we wait on the restrictions being lifted!

Lockdown

Coronavirus

It’s life, but it’s not exactly living.

I have been isolated for the best part of five weeks now and it would appear that the lockdown is going to last for another week, month, or three months, depending on which ‘expert’ you choose to listen to. I get the feeling that no-one really knows. Except Donald Trump who will soon declare that America never even had the Coronavirus and he single handedly stop the virus at the border himself.

Most of the advice I have been reading is telling me that creating a routine is the best way for coping. I am fairly sure they didn’t mean watching a shit-ton of Netflix and getting up late everyday. Am also pretty sure they didn’t mean getting up at stupid o’clock and only getting four hours sleep each night either. Most of the time I am between the two depending on what day it is, which of course relies on me knowing what day it is. The longer the lockdown continues the less I care about what day it is.

I am grateful of course that I have managed to avoid this virus so far and that I am in a position that many are not. I am interested to see at what point people stop caring about the stay at home rules.

Stay safe.



European

The light left on for Scotland on the EU commission building

So Britain exited the European Union yesterday and many people celebrated, set off fireworks and generally couldn’t explain what would be different now that we were out of Europe. They stammered and looked stupid when asked what this meant to them and how would their lives be different. Twitter, inevitably, lost its collective shit on both sides of the argument.

Personally, I don’t think a fifty pence coin preaching “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations” is going to mend the wounds north of the border. I will be happy to tell any shopkeeper that gives me that coin to shove it up their arse.

It would appear that Boris has done Scotland a massive favour this evening. Exiting Europe was not the will of Scotland, but her voice was not heard nor listened too in Westminster and now it is inevitable that there will be another Independence referendum.

You cannot ask a nation to stay together on the basis you will remain in Europe and then remove them from Europe a few years later. What happened to stronger together? Oh, that doesn’t suit your message now Boris? Well, fuck you.

I look forward to the £350 million a week funding for NHS, the really great, just the best, trade deals (as long as we don’t work with Huawei) the revitalised industry and claiming back our fishing waters that’s going to happen in the weeks to come. I really want whatever they were smoking when they came up with this nonsense and really want whatever those that voted for this were smoking because my word you had to be a little bit special to fall for the shit they were selling.

We have now entered the transition period where there will be endless trade deals where we give away everything and a period of blaming the facism party and Brexit for everything that goes wrong for the foreseeable future.

This was voted for by people that were millionaires and idiots, you should go check your bank balance and see which you are.

I am now planning my return to The Netherlands where upon I will be applying for Dutch citizenship to get away from all this madness.

2020

As the year ends and a new decade dawns, I have been trying to think of what I am looking forward to next year. Sadly I have been able to come up with very little.

Most of my thoughts are drawn to the end of January and the inventible clusterfuck that Brexit and the subsequent negotiations will be. I am convinced that we will leave without any kind of deal or a deal that is good for those that are already substantially well off. I still find it hard to believe that the idiots that voted for this are the people that leaving the EU is going to affect most. I stand by calling them idiots because I have yet to meet any that actually voted for it, this of course may be a geographic anomaly. The irony of the facist party campaigning that we are better off going on our own after campaigning that we are “Better Together” when Scotland was voting in the referendum for independence just rubs salt in the wound. I can’t even start about the lies that were told during the campaigning.

I literally stopped watching or reading the news after there were calls for the country to “come together” now that Brexit was done. It makes me sad and angry that anyone in power (including the ridiculousness of the royal family) think that the country is going to come together. With any luck it will rip the union apart and we can get Donald Trump to tell us what walls are best for the border between Scotland and England. Not to mention the fact that Northern Ireland looks like it is still going to be in a customs union with the EU makes the whole union a fucking joke.

I have also had to take a break from social media because I just can’t read anymore vile bile that is getting poured out. I suddenly found myself wondering how something that I have found so useful in the past could become so putrid (perhaps I am just following the wrong people).

The fact that it was categorically proven that Cambridge Analytica sold data that influenced the Brexit referendum is an absolute travesty (check out the Netflix film ‘The Great Hack’ for more info on this).. Yet, those that could do something about it have done nothing as it suited their purposes. Influencing an election like this should have triggered a void result. But of course the Brexit referendum was just a trial run for using the same tactics in the subsequent US election, which gave the world Donald Trump as the United States president.

Now we have a baboon for a Prime Minister and an impeached US President. Two misogynistic, racist, homophobic hate inciters. Sterling work!

From Business Live