If there is one thing I do more than shopping, it's watching TV shows! And with the years, the quality of its scenarios and its actors has greatly improved. So big names such as Nicole Kidman, Drew Barrymore, Jim Carrey or Amy Adams have come to the dark side too... and that's not to displease me.
So today I wanted to do a little update on the series I've been watching these last two years (so created in 2017 max) - knowing that 2018 is not over yet. The opportunity for me to share with you my favorites and my disappointments.
Of course this only remains my opinion of small Krevette not easy to satisfy. Because yes, I am someone very critical, I filter a lot of series even if I happen to take some risks from time to time. (Often due to a deep boring phase that I have trouble overcoming x'D)
Anyway. So let's start with the positive...
BEST
In order of preference then, I have "only" 4 TV shows left in my hands. 4 very good series that I liked to watch for different reasons. They have a very different style from each other.
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Sharp Objects, 2018 [9/10 *note provisoire] : Crime reporter Camille Preaker, suffering from alcoholism and recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital after years of self-harming, returns to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate the murders of two young girls. The assignment takes her back to her childhood home under the critical eye of her mother, Adora, a small-town socialite, which forces Preaker to confront some personal demons.[1]
My rating is temporary because there's 2 episodes left to finish season 1, which will most likely be the only one. This mini-series is based on Gillian Flynn's novel "On my skin". And I must say that it is a marvel! First because I love Amy Adams, she is a very good actress who knows how to give life to her characters. And then because the story is very well told, very well staged. Visually it's like watching a movie. There's a soul in this story and Camille Preaker's character is pronfond, broken, and interesting to follow and discover over the episodes - parallel to the investigation that's under way.
I really recommend you to take a look at this series of 8 episodes, you will not see them pass! (I'd like to say more but it's hard without saying too much ^^ ')
The End Of The F***ing World, 2017 [8/10] : James is a 17-year-old who believes he is a psychopath. He kills animals as a hobby, but grows bored of the practice. He decides he wants to try killing a human. He settles on Alyssa, a mouthy, rebellious 17-year-old classmate with issues of her own. She proposes they run away together, hoping for an adventure away from her turbulent home-life, and James agrees with the intention of finding an opportunity to kill her. They embark on a road trip across England, and begin to develop a relationship after a series of mishaps.
Another very good note for this series that comes from England this time. The premise is already funny and intriguing in itself. I'll let you take a look at the trailer and if after that you're not tempted I don't understand! (That's how I got myself into it, And I do not regret one second) I loved the black humor of this tv show so much that I watched it 2 times already!
The story is short and we get carried away easily with these two teens in trouble. I laughed a lot and at the same time I greatly appreciated the depth of the characters and the performance of the actors. (You may have already met the young man in Black Mirror and the young woman in Penny Dreadfull) This is really a series that will make you have a good time. I'm looking forward a season 2!
The Handmaid’s Tale, 2017 [7/10] : I already told you about it here so I will not repeat myself. At the time I had only seen the season 1 cons, I found the second less successful but it is still a very good series to discover.
13 Reasons Why, 2017 [6/10] : Seventeen year old Clay Jensen returns home from school one day to find a mysterious box on his porch. Inside he discovers seven cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his deceased classmate and unrequited love, who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On the tapes, Hannah unfolds an intensely emotional audio diary, detailing why she decided to end her life. It appears each person who receives this package of old-style tapes is fundamentally related to why she killed herself.
The premises always sucks. Anyway. I was drawn to the background story, a teenager who commits suicide and why. This is a delicate subject to address and staging, hence the many polemics around this series but I found the season 1 very successful in its narration. I loved the many visual effects that help us move from the present to memories - sometimes even in a very poetic way. I'd have add one more point if I had to take into account only the first season but there are two to note and I find the second less successful. It upsets the pace of departure a bit, but it brings new perspectives too. All in all it is a good discovery and I can not wait to watch season 3.
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We now go to the tv showss that I put in the "ok" category, that is to say, the stuff we look at rainy days without much thought. It's nice to watch from time to time, sometimes very funny, but we wouldn't make it a favorite. It can even be a good series but the scenario has not been well enough conducted / exploited. I hope you understand the idea xD
OK
Always in order of preference here are 3 nice tv shows to watch. This time there are 2 comedies, because I think, comedies can easily be unpleasant. This is not my favorite theme but these two have gone through the cracks!
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Big Little Lies, 2017 [6/10] : When Madeline and Celeste take new-in-town single mom Jane under their wing, none of them realize how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all. Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
I'm not a fan of big castings because most of the time it stops there, there's nothing behind. But as I love Nicole Kidman I didn't resist to take a look at this tv show. Overall it is nice, I like its atmosphere and its very cinematic visual but I found that the end was a bit easy. It ruined everything. (Remember that I am very demanding ^^ ') That doesn't prevent me that I put more of the average because there is a real work on the 3 main characters and that the actresses carry very well their role. I even enjoyed Reese Whitherspoon, that's a first! (It's crazy how excited I sound for a 6, lmao)
Future Man, 2017 [5/10 *note provisoire] : A janitor, Josh Futturman, successfully completes his favorite game, Biotic Wars, when suddenly the game's two main characters, Tiger and Wolf, appear and recruit Josh to save the world from the real Biotic Wars.
If I had been told that one day that I would watch (and enjoy) a tv show like this one I wouldn't have believed it! Future Man is clearly a comedy, with the main character, a super Geek, and two video game characters. It's far-fetched and completely crazy and I think that's what works. Some episodes made me laugh a lot and overall the scenario is fun. This is not a series to take seriously at all, it's really to look for fun. I have 2 episodes left to reach the end of season 1 so my rating is temporary.
Santa Clarita Diet, 2017 [5/10] : Joel and Sheila Hammond are everyday suburban real estate agents in Santa Clarita, California. The couple face a series of obstacles when Sheila has a physical transformation into a zombie and starts craving human flesh. With Joel and the family trying to help Sheila through the trying time, they have to deal with neighbors, cultural norms and getting to the bottom of a potentially mythological mystery.
You must know that I have a fear of zombies, so I dreaded a bit this series at first but it's a comedy: everything is fine! I even find this little story fun, I like a lot the role of the husband he is very funny and cute. Drew Barrymore motivated my choice at the begenning and it's a tv show that can be viewed very easily. I liked the 2 seasons and I wait for the third.
BAD
Patric Melrose (2018) [4/10] : Following the death of his father in the 1980s, Englishman Patrick Melrose attempts to overcome his addictions and demons rooted in abuse by his father and negligent mother.
This mini-series starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the leading role is inspired by a series of semi-autobiographical novels by Edward St Aubyn. I watched because I like this actor, I loved Sherlock, Imitation Game and other stuff in which he played but Patrick Melrose is so bad! Only the pilot is nice, it is even funny. The rest really didn't pleased me. The story could have been interesting but I didn't like the images of the series (strange colors moving? I thought I had to adjust the screen of my TV) or the tempo.
Alias Grace, 2017 [4/10] : In the nineteenth-century Canada, an American alienist, Simon Jordan, is trying to assess whether Grace Marks, a maid sentenced to death (sentence commuted to life imprisonment) for the murders of her master and a governess, should be pardoned. Is she innocent or guilty, crazy or sane?
Big disappointment with a leading actress rather disappointing in her role. The story promises an ambiguity that does not exist, the created suspense hides no mystery. If the adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale is a success, this series, which is also taken from a novel by Margaret Atwood is not at all! I only liked the costumes and some interesting secondary characters.
The Alienist, 2018 [4/10] : The psychological thriller drama is set in 1896, when a series of gruesome murders of boy prostitutes has gripped New York City. Newly appointed police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt calls upon Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a criminal psychologist and John Moore, a newspaper illustrator, to conduct the investigation in secret. Joining them in the probe is Sara Howard, the headstrong secretary to the police commissioner, as well as the Jewish twin brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, both detective sergeants in the NYPD. The team finds opposition within the NYPD, primarily from Captain Connor and the recently retired Chief Byrnes, both of whom are more committed to protecting the reputations of New York's high society than they are to finding the perpetrators of the crimes; as well as from the working poor and lower class citizens who distrust them for being outsiders.
Big problem of rhythm in this tv show because I had to wait for the 6th episode to feel liket something was finally happening. It's slow, and the pilot made me wanna go to bed. A season 2 is apparently planned, I will probably take a look at it but my enthusiasm has clearly collapsed in season 1. Again, I console myself with the costumes and the 19th century atmosphere.
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But as it's more fun to finish on a good note, I'd like to list tv shows that I want to test. One of them has already started (Life Sentence, with one of the actresses of Pretty Little Liars in the leading role) but the other two are planned for in a few months - which may interest you if you don't have heard of it yet ;-) There is Jim Carrey in one and Emma Stone in the other.
WANNA WATCH
Life Sentence, 2018 : When Stella finds out her terminal cancer is cured, she is going to have to learn to live with all the choices she made when she decided to "live like she was dying". As she adjusts to her post-cancer world, she learns how her husband and family must also deal with the self-destructive choices they made to help Stella enjoy what they thought were her final years.
Kidding, planned for september 2018 the 09th : Kidding will follow "Jeff, aka Mr. Pickles, an icon of children’s television, a beacon of kindness and wisdom to America’s impressionable young minds and the parents who grew up with him – who also anchors a multimillion-dollar branding empire. But when this beloved personality’s family – wife, two sons, sister and father – begins to implode, Jeff finds no fairy tale or fable or puppet will guide him through the crisis, which advances faster than his means to cope. The result: a kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.
Maniac, planned for september 2018 the 21th : Maniac follows "Annie Landsberg and Owen Milgrim, two strangers drawn to the late stages of a mysterious pharmaceutical trial, each for their own reasons. Annie’s disaffected and aimless, fixated on broken relationships with her mother and her sister; Owen, the fifth son of wealthy New York industrialists, has struggled his whole life with a disputed diagnosis of schizophrenia. Neither of their lives have turned out quite right, and the promise of a new, radical kind of pharmaceutical treatment—a sequence of pills its inventor, Dr. James K. Mantleray, claims can repair anything about the mind, be it mental illness or heartbreak—draws them and ten other strangers to the facilities of Neberdine Pharmaceutical and Biotech for a three-day drug trial that will, they’re assured, with no complications or side-effects whatsoever, solve all of their problems, permanently.
There it is for my little tv show update ^^
And you, what recent series have you tested? What are your last favorite?
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