Good Girls Revolt Makes Me Want To Revolt

I had every intention of watching Good Girls Revolt when it was first released on Amazon, purely because of the name. I had no idea what the series was about because I hadn't seen any trailers for the series (although I use Amazon Instant Video frequently and am bombarded with ads for various other Amazon  tv series) so all I had to judge it by was its promotional poster which tells me nothing. Other than there is three women in it (one that I mistook for Clemence Posey). And it's on Amazon. And there might be some bad wallpaper.

I didn't watch the show right away which was a mistake on my part, I always feel that even though I am only one viewer a show would've survived if I made the effort to watch it. In my defence for an online series the show was cancelled awfully quickly after it was first released which made me believe that it must have been truly awful. Amazon has kept Hand Of God on for two seasons and although I initially found that show intriguing it has become terrible in a short space of time so I figured Good Girls Revolt must be terrible and made me put off watching it for even longer. Then one day I found myself at a loss and decided to watch the first episode and see how it was and now I find myself ten episodes later wanting to scream "WHAT THE FUCK AMAZON".

Z: The Beginning Of Everything Is Dazzling Drama

It's probably no shock at this point that I think Amazon is making great strides in streaming television and they've released another series that is sure to be (or at least I hope it will be) a hit. Z: The Beginning Of Everything was released last week and I have come to the realisation that I can binge watch any show, no matter the genre or the subject matter. Z is an adaptation of Z: The Novel Of Zelda Fitzgerald and follows the exploits of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (Christina Ricci) of F. Scott (David Hoflin) and Zelda Fitzgerald fame. If you haven't been living under a rock for almost a century the name F. Scott Fitzgerald should be familiar to you. If you have studied English anytime in the last century you should be overly familiar with him due to his most famous work The Great Gatsby as well as numerous others including The Last Tycoon. Scott may be the most famous out of the pair and is a prominent character in the series but Z is most definitely Zelda's show.

Is Timeless... Well, Timeless?

*Spoilers for Timeless*

Yes, I had to use that title. It's a shame I can never be a father because I could tell some killer dad jokes.

Timeless is a science fiction drama that follows historian Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer), Sergeant Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter) and programmer Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett) travelling through time in search of the villainous Garcia Flynn (Goran Višnjić). Flynn had previously stolen a time ship and decided to alter history for unknown reasons, the teams job is to prevent any changes from occurring and to eliminate the threat to history. They are aided in their mission by Connor Mason (Patterson Joseph), who's company Mason Industries created the time machines, and Agent Denise Christopher (Sakina Jaffrey), a homeland security agent tasked with stopping Flynn and recovering the stolen tech.

Who's Left Standing In The Walking Dead?

*Spoilers for The Walking Dead*

A few months ago I wrote a post about how The Walking Dead had lost it's stones and needed to man up and at the end of that post I said that I hoped to write a retraction following the sixth season finale. Due to my frustrations I didn't bother because it wasn't warranted but now I've watched the seventh season premiere I am ready.

The sixth season finale saw the introduction of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a character who had loomed over the entire group (and the audience) during the latter half of the season. Negan and his group had threatened and bullied existing colonies in the area to do their bidding but Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his tribe weren't willing to give in to any sort of intimidation by him. Before their formal introduction Rick and his group, as well as the Hilltop Colony that we'd met earlier, decided to neutralise the threat by exterminating what they believed was the whole of Negan's crew while they slept. Unfortunately for them Negan is well organised and didn't leave all his eggs in one basket and he decided to let them know that he wasn't to be trifled with. He intercepted Rick's group as they were on their way to Hilltop to get medical care for a sickly Maggie (Lauren Cohan), the finale ending with a Negan speech and his bat (Lucille) getting acquainted with one of their skulls.

Designated Survivor: Will It Survive The Season?

*Spoilers for Designated Survivor*

If you scroll through the posts of this blog you'll probably realise that I love Kiefer Sutherland/Jack Bauer/24 so it should come as no surprise that I sampled Designated Survivor, Sutherlands latest outing on the small screen. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't enthused when I first heard about it. It's not often that someone comes off a successful television show and jumps straight into another, Sutherland attempted to do so with the two season Touch which I didn't hate but I was put off by the network meddling which changed the show completely in its second season. The premise of Designated Survivor didn't quite appeal to me, we already have an entertaining enough real life presidential school fight going on so do I need to waste a part of my week to watch this?

Yes. For now anyway. Designated Survivor follows Tom Kirkman (Sutherland) as he is thrust into the role of being the president of the United States following a catastrophic attack during the State of Union address. Most of the members of the cabinet were present with the exception of Kirkman, the Secretary of Housing and Urban development, who was named designated survivor. A designated survivor is something I knew nothing about but it is a member of the line of presidential succession who is forced to sit out in group meetings and in the case of an event that would wipe out the heads of state they would take on the presidency and make efforts to rebuild the cabinet. I did kick myself for believing that this wouldn't be of any interest to me, it may be because my expectations were low but I enjoyed almost every minute of the first couple of episodes.

The Night Of: Satisfyingly Unsatisfying?

*Spoilers for The Night Of*

A while back I had the experience of being underwhelmed by Jason Bourne and not even just a little underwhelmed, wholly underwhelmed. Normally it would annoy me a great deal knowing that I'd wasted two hours of my life but I'm glad I endured it because the film featured Riz Ahmed. I loved him in Shifty, Four Lions and much more and was glad that he was getting some love from Hollywood so I was eager to find out what else he was up to lately. Then I found it. The Night Of.

The Night Of follows Nasir "Naz" Khan (Ahmed), a Pakistani-American who is arrested for the brutal murder of Andrea Cornish (Sofia D'Elia). He spent the night with her but due to his drug addled state he has no recollection of the evenings events, making him the prime suspect in the eyes of the police. He may have had no priors, motive or blood on his person but he did have what could possibly be the murder weapon and that was apparently enough for the police to arrest him and not chase down other leads or suspects. John Stone (John Turtorro), an ambulance chaser-esque lawyer, stumbles upon him mistakenly believing he has been arrested for a minor offence, soon discovering that he has taken on more than he bargained for. Thrilling drama ensues.

An Amazon Future Hit: The Last Tycoon

I have recently stated that streaming media is the way forward and one of the companies that are capitalising on the phenomenon is Amazon. The way they're doing it is more ingenuous than the others, by giving viewers the options of watching all the pilots they order and asking them to leave feedback so essentially they choose what the viewers want. This is great because the studio manages to engage viewers even before a show officially launches and if a show is a dud then they find out before they waste time and resources on it. Its such a simple idea and I find myself wondering why more studios and television networks don't do this. This first look is one of the reasons I enjoy using Amazon Instant Video, even more so than Netflix. Yes, I said it. Flame me.

One of the latest offerings the service has is The Last Tycoon which is based on an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Last Tycoon follows Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer), a film producer, as he tries to make creative and innovative cinema following the death of his actress wife Minna (Jessica De Gouw). The only issue is that it's 1941 and around then there was a little movement called the Third Reich, and during this period they made attempts to interfere with Hollywood productions. As Hollywood was in the midst of it's golden age and other countries weren't focusing on output in entertainment because they were suffering through a war. Hollywood films were what the majority had access to so of course the Nazi's attempted to filter it by making sure nothing defaming about them and their 'cause' was put in the films. They also wished to cleanse the work force in Hollywood of Jews and a lot of studios relented, including Monroe's.

UnREAL: Addictive Behind The Scenes Drama

In my adolescence I ingested various different reality television series like Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! but I've matured over time and that type of drama doesn't appeal to me, the only reality-eqsue show I watch avidly is The Apprentice. Due to this I found it surprising just how much I enjoyed UnREAL. First of all it's on Lifetime and in England the only exposure we usually get of their offerings is television films that are on weekdays on Channel 5. Nobody watches Channel 5. Secondly, it follows the cast and crew of a reality dating television show that is eerily similar to The Bachelor (so I've heard). Lifetime/Channel 5 and The Bachelor were never even on my radar, the closest I had ever gotten to a dating show was Beauty And The Geek, and even then it was just a few moments, yet UnREAL has become must see television for me.

The show follows Rachel Goldberg (Shiri Appleby) who is a producer on the fictional reality television show called Everlasting. Rachel previously had a breakdown whilst working on previous seasons of the show due to the pressure placed on her to create drama for the series, exposing the truth of what sane human beings already knew. Reality television is fiction. Rachel works under Quinn King (Constance Zimmer) and Chet Wilson (Craig Bierko) who are the executive producers and show runners of the series and has to deal with the demands from the two as well as their constant bickering and struggle for control. She works alongside (more like competing against) other producers including Jay (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) as they each manage a group of contestants, manipulating them into following Quinn's story for the season, making them become a "villain" or "wifey" for the male suitor.

Why Is Z Nation Not Dead In The Water?

*Spoilers from the first episode of Z Nation*

Z Nation has been on my watch list for a while and after watching the first episode last night I can swiftly remove it.

Z Nation takes place during a zombie apocalypse and initially follows Lt. Mark Hammond (Harold Perrineau) as he transports Murphy (Keith Allan), who may be the only person that can save the human race, to a lab in California with the help of Citizen Z (DJ Qualls). Along his travels he encounters a group of survivors including Sergeant Charles Garnett (Tom Everett Scott) and Lieutenant Roberta Warren (Kellita Smith) who decide to aid him in his quest. If you hadn't already noticed I love zombie fiction and even the stuff I admit isn't quite good *cough*Fear The Walking Dead*cough* I make attempts at watching more than one episode. That isn't the case with Z Nation. I did wonder if it was because The Walking Dead has ruined any zombie show for me but I've come to the realisation that that is not the case, Z Nation is just plain bad.

The Path May Lose Its Way

*Spoilers for season one of The Path*

Streaming media seems to be where it is at these days, auteurs are given greater creative freedom and aren't bogged down by the standard run time and censorship that conventional television stations have to adhere to. Some of the shows that they come out with are great, some are more questionable, but one thing that is certain is that viewers are lapping it up. When you think a streaming television service everyone's mind jumps firstly to Netflix and secondly to Amazon Instant Video, especially in the UK because they seem to be the only two major ones we have access to. There are actually others out there, including Hulu and I heard about one of it's latest offerings and was intrigued. The Path starring Aaron Paul, Hugh Dancy and Michelle Monaghan to name a few premiered in March and was quickly renewed so I had to check it out.

The Path follows the exploits of a "religious" movement *cough*cult*cough* called Meyerism, and although the creator has denied that Meyerism isn't inspired by Scientology it seems an awful lot like Scientology. Go ahead, flame me Scientology interweb dwellers. The protagonist Eddie Lane (Aaron Paul) begins to have doubts about his faith following a religious retreat in Peru, this is a complicated matter because his "religion" doesn't take kindly to people that doubt their faith, dubbing them deniers and ostracising them. Due to this he has a fear of speaking out as his devout wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) and children also belong to the "religion" and leaving the movement would mean also leaving his life with them, and this is the only life he knows. If matters weren't worse already he also has to tend with the cult leader Cal (Hugh Dancy) who has feelings for his wife and would do what he can to plant a wedge in between the two.

I Really Wanted To Love The Strain

I have stated my adoration with Guillermo del Toro before, I think I fell in love with his work even before I knew I loved film. Even though I have an obsession for him I put off watching the 2014 adaptation of his co-written novel, The Strain. I did still purchase the season one DVD when it was released and ever since then it has been gathering dust sitting atop my shelf, but the summertime slump in television got to me so I picked it up and binged. I almost loved it for a while there.

The Strain follows Dr. Ephram Goodweather (Corey Stoll), a doctor for the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and prevention), and his merry band of misfits as they fight a growing strain of a vampire virus that it sweeping over New York. Eph's group includes colleagues Jim Kent (Sean Astin) and Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) who have made the discovery of the virus with him and are attempting to find a cure for it. Others adopted into the fold include Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand), a rat catcher with an admiration for dynamite, and hacker Dutch Velders (Ruda Gedmintas) who inadvertently aided the vampires to take over New York and has now switched over to the good side. The group are aided in their quest by the ever watchable Professor Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley), a holocaust survivor who has an in depth knowledge of the virus and has a long standing grudge against patient zero and the loyal servant that aids him, Thomas Eichhorst (Richard Sammal).

AMC's Preacher Would Make Me Go To Church

If you've been living under a rock then you might have missed the onslaught of comic book and graphic novel adaptations that have been taking over the big screen as well as the small. This year we've already had four Marvel and DC releases in theatres with another two yet to arrive, as well as The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On television Marvel and DC have a combined total of eleven on going series, not including shows that are yet to premiere as well as numerous others originating from other publishing houses. Preacher is a new edition to that list and as of right now it seems like a cut above the rest.

It has only aired three episodes so far and it already stands out from it's peers. It's in the Deadpool section of this comic book adaptation craze, it isn't shackled by political correctness or a younger skewing target audience. I was unfamiliar with the comic book series and only initially heard about it through Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who were tapped to adapt it. I essentially grew up with the two and their stoner comedies, loving most of their efforts so much that I managed to write a six thousand word essay on drug comedies. No, I did not tell my tutor that they were the inspiration. The duo adapting the series intrigued me and I was looking forward to checking it out. It wasn't what I expected.

Any Human Heart: Mini-Series Vs. Novel

*Spoilers for for the novel and the mini-series of Any Human Heart*

I recently professed my new but undying love for the novel Any Human Heart which is a compilation of fictional journals by Logan Mountstuart, a novel that proved that "every life if both ordinary and extraordinary". I had purchased the mini-series prior to the novel and it's been sitting on my shelf gathering a large amount of dust and after reading the novel I was quite happy for it to gather even more. Although I was aware that there was some critical acclaim for the series I was afraid that my love for the novel would make my opinion about the series biased, I would feel that the series paled in comparison. I had nothing to fear.

I recently had a birthday and rather than be fun and celebrate I decided to take a few days off of work to stay at home. I planned on it being a lazy few days where I'd accomplish something which I love, mass procrastination. It was not to be, I saw a light shining on the DVD and for some reason I couldn't resist. I popped it in the player and sat atop my bed for several hours ingesting the mini-series in one binge watch session. I've already lived with Mountstuart, loved with him, grieved with him and died with him so what impact could the mini-series really have for me? I feared that it would dilute the events that happened in the novel but it didn't, it opened my eyes a little more.

The Flash Just Messed Everything Up

*Spoilers from Arrowverse/Flarrowverse/IDon'tCareWhatIt'sCalledVerse below* 

Season one of The Flash was amazing and although season two has its qualities (mainly E2 Harry Wells and Cisco) it isn't in the same league. This season the writers showed us that they don't have a story they are following, they are just making it up as they went along. Season two brought us a dull villain who had no reasoning for being other than conquering Universes, which we didn't see a motivation for other than him being a psycho who had the mannerisms of a regular man. The series also tossed around with the mythos it had established early on in the series and bought in time remnants and time wraiths which don't make any sense to me. Killing your time remnant should kill you in the present and the time wraiths should make Legends of Tomorrow obsolete. The biggest error in season was the last few moments of the finale, the events that should have widespread repercussions.

The Man in the High Castle: TV series Vs. Novel

I have recently taken up reading again and one of the novels that I tackled was The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, originally published in 1962. I was unaware of the the writer but unbeknownst to me I was well aware of his work because adaptations of his bibliography boast the likes of Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau as well as many others. The were a couple of reasons that I chose this novel, one of which was the fact that I wanted to spend £20 on Amazon to get free delivery, the other being the Amazon Instant Video adaptation of the book which I devoured over the course of a couple of weeks.

I fell in love with the series during the first episode, the alternate universe truly captured me. The Man in the High Castle TV series followed what life would be like if the USA had lost against the Nazi's and Japanese, leading them to divide the country and ruling over their respective territories. The US is now a society where fascism is rife and conformity is the key to the citizens survival, denouncing their faiths, loved ones and in some cases their whole personalities. The setting is intriguing and daring because of peoples sensitivity towards the wars. What makes this a riveting tale is the uprising against the totalitarian governments, with members getting inspired by videos which are depicting an alternate lifestyle where the US won the wars. The members of the resistance strive to collect as many of these videos as they can on behalf of a man known only as "The Man in the High Castle" in the belief that these videos mean something and could somehow change the world.

Spoiler Or Not A Spoiler, That Is The Question

I recently wrote about The Night Manager that aired in the UK earlier this year and it's starting up on the other side of the pond so I decided to investigate what the Americans think of it. When I say investigate what I mean is that I was procrastinating at work and wandered onto IMDB. I didn't end up getting much information about their thoughts and feelings towards the series but what I did witness was a lot of people complaining about the amount of spoilers on the boards. I've had this discussion with friends extensively in the past and actually wrote about it a little in regards to Game Of Thrones, but can you really call information about something that has aired/been released a spoiler?

In the past regions have had to wait months/years for foreign television shows/films and we've come a long way since then, sometimes we only have to wait a day after the country of origin airs it. It may not seem like a long time but that's still an extra day for the episode to be spoiled with memes, message boards, friends Facebook posts etc. but do you have a right to get mad because it's spoiled the episode for you? In short, no. When an episode/film/book has aired or has been released all the information is out there and no longer a spoiler. It may not feel fair that you don't have access as early as others to eliminate the reveals you wanted to wait for but sometimes it can be avoided so the threat of spoilage can be diminished.

Any Human Heart Makes Me Realise I Have One

*I'll try not to spoil anything because I actually want you to go and read it*

Short stories, poems, novels, the back of a cereal box. It didn't matter what it was, I used to devour them over and over again. I even used to spend my Saturdays at the library, not for the internet but for the numerous books they had at hand. I don't quite know what happened, some say I got lazy, some say it was the fact that we no longer needed dial up so I had the freedom of going onto the internet whenever I liked. I think it's because the literature that seemed the most popular seemed completely awful. No, it didn't just seem completely awful, it was completely awful. Up until a couple of years ago the last books I had read for pleasure were the Harry Potter series and even though they had a fantastic story line even I can admit they weren't the best written books.

I love watching television and films and this whole blog is proof of that, but I also loved having stories play out in my head. I enjoyed inferring meanings from writing and building up my own version of the characters from the information given. I missed just sitting back in a quiet room reading a book for a few hours, I got more satisfaction out of it than staring at a glaring screen under my duvet. Fortunately I have an Amazon account, unfortunately I don't know when to stop buying so I now have a lot more books than I had six months ago and I'm almost finished with them. Up until a few months ago I would have said my favourite book was The Great Gatsby and why wouldn't it be? It's set in my favourite era and although the novel is short and the story line isn't too complex there is so much to it. It has some of the most beautiful writing I've ever seen in a novel and so vivid, I still haven't watched the film because it feels like I have already watched it all.

I never thought The Great Gatsby would be displaced in my heart but then Any Human Heart by William Boyd came along. Any Human Heart is a compilation of fictional journals and an early quote from it has stuck with me:

Supernatural Is Back On Top

*Spoilers for season 11 below* 

I am aware that there has been a decline as there is with any show that has been on as long as Supernatural has but I didn't notice the effect it had on me until the last episode. For years I was watching episodes of Supernatural whenever I could get my hands on them, sometimes waking up at the crack of dawn to put myself in a state of awe before going to school/college/university/work. Yes, I've been watching that long. I've had a longer and more loving relationship with Supernatural than I've had with living beings and I didn't regret it. In the last couple of years I seem to be watching the show at a delay which I didn't have a problem with, I wasn't getting angsty waiting for my fix, I was just carrying on with life and watching the next episode when I could.

Then the last episode happened. "Don't call me Shurley" marked the return of Chuck Shurley (Rob Benedict). Also known as Carver Edlund. Also known as God. The person I will refer to as Chuck Shurley initially entered the show in the season four episode "The Monster at the End of This Book" as a writer chronicling Sam and Deans lives in a cult book series titled 'Supernatural'. He is then revealed to not only be a writer but also a prophet of the Lord sent to aid Sam and Dean on their quest to stop the impending apocalypse. Rob Benedict was brilliant at portraying the troubled man with dreams of Sam and Dean that haunt him both day and night, but he's also an incredibly humorous character. It is later revealed that he is God and has seemingly abandoned the universe he built, either hoping they will learn to fend for themselves or not caring either way.

Peaky Blinders Almost Lost Me

*Spoilers for series three of Peaky Blinders*

I've been a huge fan of Peaky Blinders ever since it's initial outing in 2013 for a multitude of reasons. It's period setting in the 1910s and 1920s of Birmingham following a gangster family through the excitement of their daily perils, as well as their need for wanting better for themselves was one of the reasons it captivated me. The show is incredibly well written and looks incredible which is likely the reason that it's managed to attract a steller cast in Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory and Sam Neill, not to mention their recurring cast which includes Tom Hardy who is a joy to watch, even if we're watching him watch pain dry. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two series of the BBC show but during the first episode of the third run I almost lost interest. Almost.

One of the central storylines in the series is the relationship between Tommy Shelby (Murphy) and Grace Burgess (Annabelle Wallis). In the first series Grace was an undercover agent tasked with infiltrating the organisation and against all odds (even though it was still quite predictable) she managed to pierce Tommy's guarded heart and they fell in love. The relationship was rocky at best because of their differing morals but eventually, with the aid of an unplanned pregnancy, the two found their way back together with most of the events of the first episode of series three taking place at their wedding.

Will 24: Legacy Live Up To Its Predecessor?

I'm a huge fan of 24 and have been since it started. I remember staying up late on a Sunday night to watch it on BBC2 and being exhausted the next day, but not caring because I'd had 40 minutes with an amazing show. I recall the heartache I felt with the news that it was moving to Sky One, a channel we didn't have and one that my parents weren't planning on paying for. Eventually we managed to procure the series before getting with the times and abandoning free-view for Sky. That roller coaster was nothing compared to the show actually being cancelled. Done. Vamut.

Then something beautiful happened, something that used to be a rare occurrence. It came back. 24: Live Another Day arrived on our screens in 2014, four years after the show was originally cancelled. As with the original run I was enthralled and others seemed to be too, it did well in the ratings as well as critically. The limited run ran for only 12 episodes rather than the usual 24 episode format, condensing all the drama and removing the filler that we'd usually get (e.g. Kim and the Coyotes). The series finished off open ended so there was room for another series a few years down the line which is what was I was expecting (or hoping with all my heart), so the news of 24: Legacy was initially an unwelcome one.