New shows to indulge in

This week's post is just fun stuff to watch because sometimes that's what we really need from our TV.

I’m still enjoying Springtime on Netflix - jaunting in my spare time in the farmlands near Halifax with these friends, but not with these friends (who notably lived there at different stages of their lives) unfortunately.

Admittedly, this past week, my TV habits have been moored in a little bit of fluff, a little bit of murder, and some make believe. If this isn’t your jive, don’t read on.

If you’re the least bit curious though, keep reading. You might just find there’s something for you.

Some Make Believe Magic Fun:

The Nevers on HBO Max. I don’t know what it is about this show but it’s addictive. Maybe it’s the Victorian turn-of-the-century costumes. Who doesn’t love a corset? Or maybe it’s the fact that just when you think a character is swarmy, new things are revealed about existing characters that blow your entire notion of what’s swarmy thru the roof.

The Nevers is a Joss Whedon creation and however you feel about him, he did create Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which means he gets how to construct a narrative with a bad-ass woman(en) kicking everyone else’s butts, literally and figuratively. The set, the cast, and the story all keep me in suspense wanting for Sunday to roll around for the next installment.

The acting is pretty good as well. Without giving too much away, there was an event that precedes present day in the story in which London city folk (and perhaps beyond London?) were “touched” during a supernatural event and “the touched” were gifted super powers. The only challenge is that stodgy society isn’t really digging this divide and the touched are also being exploited. Oh and the person you think is good in the beginning, well, maybe 2 episodes in you know better.

Dial “M” for “Murder” or “Mare”:

Mare of Easttown also on HBO Max. Apart from the fact that I ALWAYS want to call this show “Mare of Eastham” (because you know Kate Winslet is really British even though she hits a perfect mark on landing the Philly accent of the show’s titular character)

This show is all small-town, edgy feels, social class angst, people with bad secrets and a few who have likely done really bad stuff to other people. It centers around the murder of a young single mother in the present but the show alludes to the disappearance a year prior of a teenage girl. The mystery is just part of the story. It’s the backstory of Mare’s family situation and her friends who are all somehow connected to this tragedy but you don’t know just yet how. And btw, I’m just playing Poirot here in saying that. I really don’t know how this one will play out but something tells me the culprit is closer than you’d expect.

Oy. The Fluff:

The Baker and the Beauty on Netflix. Boy meets famous celebrity model in a men’s bathroom a few minutes before his fiancee proposes to him with a rather silly song in a very public restaurant on their anniversary. Model recommends to boy the soup. He orders it and this soup ends up all over him courtesy of the disgruntled, very upset fiancee because the boy turns down said fiancee’s proposal. Ok, so the start is cliche and the show pretty much is too. But it’s also fun.

This boy happens to be Cuban and lives in Miami. His family is in each other’s business at all times, is loud and feisty and there for one another. (see cliche above) The model doesn’t really have a family except for her manager who is harboring a secret. The model is also a successful business owner who wants to be an actress and can’t afford bad optics. The boy comes with his fair share of bad optics.

The show is originally an Israeli show but was redone for American audience. It’s so popular on Netflix there’s talk of a second season and chances are I would watch it as would my family.

Oh and the dumped fiancee might just be my favorite character on the show which makes this show’s arc just a little more interesting that it could have been.

More Make Believe

Shadow and Bone on Netflix. Only watched the first episode of this popular YA series by Leigh Bardugo but it’s entertaining. There are wistful orphan heros who may or may not have superpowers that hold the “light” and shady characters who are trying to make money at all costs, even human ones, in what feels like a dystopian fantasy world.

There is likely a love story here (if the thumbnail below is any indication) or maybe the show’s producers are just playing with us.

Meh, but my hubby likes it and I really wanted to like it:

The Mosquito Coast on Apple TV. Remake of the Harrison Ford’s 1980s film with River Phoenix, The Mosquito Coast, is about an eccentric inventor and his family who are living off the grid and are very anti-capitalist, anti-consumer. Coincidentally the reboot of this movie is a series with Justin Theroux playing the dad. It was Theroux’s uncle who scribed the original story as well so it’s all in the family, here.

In this 2021 version, Theroux, who has a lot of facial hair, creates stuff that people don’t seem to understand so he’s not really paying bills, he changes his identity a lot and keeps his family moving from place to place to avoid capture by the government. One episode in and you don’t know why he and at least his wife are on the run, but that’s really the premise. Oh, and strange cars that look like federal or state cars are watching the house. But are they really, or are we all just too paranoid? This show has feels of Breaking Bad as my hubby pointed out which makes it redeemable.

I’ll give the show its due with this trailer and let you make up your mind. It almost makes me want to revisit giving it a second chance.