I love Love. Love is a new Netflix Original series with all season one episodes ready to stream.
It's so funny and the script is good. I'm watching it now and I just literally clapped at a joke.
I guess if I were to compare it to another comedy, as annoying as it can be when people do that, I'd say Love is that a hipster Curb Your Enthusiasm. The laughs are loud and short between and I can relate to the way the characters feel about things.
The main story is a will they won't they between Mickey Dobbs (Gillian Jacobs) and Gus Cruikshank (Paul Rust). Let's just say I'm already in love with Mickey and I want Gus to be my best friend (although I'd have to take them in small doses - they have BIG personalities).
I've lost track of what episode I'm up to (it's episode 7).
And anyway, Gus is a really nice guy. He tries to be polite to everyone he meets but usually ends up unintentionally saying something stupid or vulgar and people give him strange looks. He works in television.
Mickey has had a string of apparently dysfunctional relationships with seemingly maladjusted men. She's comfortable with sex but she's not been lucky in love. She's funny, likes partying hard, is a recovering alcoholic and likes taking drugs. Her heart's in the right place.
I spoke to a friend on Twitter about Love. She watched it ALL IN ONE GO. She said: "It's easy to binge-watch." She was right but I think that could be doing it a disservice as it could suggest the show is all fun and little substance, which it isn't!
So if you like witty American comedy or Rom-Coms, give Love a chance, you might find it's all you need.
I've watched a lot of films lately. I used to have next to no interest in movies, probably because I find it hard to concentrate on one thing for more than five minutes..................................................
Anyway, where was I? I've seen pretty much all the hyped movies of 2016 so far and to give a big reveal early in this article, nothing I've seen made my 'favourite films' list. The Revenant was hyped for a long time and it looked so good. It looked like exactly the film I wanted to see. But ultimately, there was a lot missing, such as a storyline. I guess that's where films lose out to books.
DiCaprio has been in much better films and acted better. Catch Me If You Can for one! I didn't enjoy Inception, sorry! It looks like Leo will get his Oscar at long last though. At least it'll put an end to the 'Will Leo ever win an Oscar?' saga.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was even more built up than The Revenant and a lot of die-hard fans were eagerly anticipating its release only for many of them to feel let down. Don't ask me why - I wouldn't know - I've always been a casual observer where Star Wars is concerned. Watching parodies on Family Guy seemed to suitably prepare me with enough background knowledge to follow the latest production though and I really liked it!
Obviously Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were the stars of the wars. It was just a very entertaining film with great special effects. It was nice to see Harrison Ford and Chewbacca return. They added some humour in a generally witty film.
Out of all the films I've seen recently, Macbeth, starring one of my favourite actors, Michael Fassbender and another I like, Marion Cotillard, was the one I expected to love. I didn't though. I don't think it translated to the screen although Cotillard was fantastic. Fassbender was lacklustre, for me, but maybe it was his part that let him down? He was the lead of course, but Cotillard's (Lady Macbeth's) soliloquies stole the show. The film's worth watching just for the drama she creates, on her knees alone in a room. I had forgot how amazing she is. Time to watch La Vie en Rose again?
The Big Short wasn't short of big names. Ryan Gosling - God bless him - turned up, Christian Bale - the man the legend - starred. Brad Pitt was there, though his part was easy to forget. It was an interesting and witty take on the credit and housing collapse in the mid-2000s focusing on a few bankers who forecast the disaster and took advantage of it. I left the film feeling sort of helpless in the world and remembered how unfairly the world's wealth is distributed and how there's probably nothing I can do about it.
The Danish Girl was beautifully-acted by Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander who looked good doing it too. The film is about Danish artist Einar Wegener (Redmayne), who finds it increasingly difficult to hide his discomfort at his own masculinity and desire to act like and be a woman from his beloved wife, Gerda (Vikander). The film is based on the true story of Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo sexual reassignment surgery. When Einar eventually opens up to Gerda about who he really is, Gerda stays with her husband and supports him in his journey to becoming a woman physically as well as spiritually. I really enjoyed the experience of watching The Danish Girl. It was easy on the eye, shot in colourful Copenhagen and the femininity Redmayne managed to evoke was mesmeric. He should win best actor at the Oscars but DiCaprio will.
The best of the rest in my opinion, was The Hateful Eight. It's a really fun movie and long if you have nothing to do all evening!
The Endz is nigh! Fans
of Coronation Street and Shameless: prepare for a realistic take on Manchester
street life with new Sky drama, The Endz.
Be warned: this no-holds-barred production contains all sorts of behaviour with drug abuse, violence,
racism, radical views and gang crime all prevalent.
The makers of The Endz say
it is unlike other dramas in its class as it allows the actors and audience to
live as the characters.
They also claim there will
be no glamourisation in this take of life in ‘the ends’ of Manchester and its
gritty nature might make you double check your door at night.
The Endz director, Chris
Kenna, who also stars in the 12-part series, said: “We expect our audience to
be shocked and appalled yet socially reflective on what they observe and learn.
“I loved Shameless but I
thought it was the only thing of its kind (based) in Manchester and I thought
we could show something diverse through local people.”
Chris said that about 90% of
the cast of The Endz come from Manchester and they portray the gritty way of
life in the city brilliantly.
The series is currently
being filmed in Manchester on a Canon 7D and Canon 5D mark 2. It is the first
TV series to be filmed on such equipment, Chris said.
This minimalistic way of
filming shows the potential for cutting edge drama with fewer and smaller
cameras and is an exciting step for the industry.
Chris had a meeting with Sky
chiefs in London and the prospect of a second series is apparently ‘favourable’.
The show premieres on
Wednesday, September 21 on Sky My View Channel 219 at 10pm and will show
once a week.
Outraged Mancunians are
hitting back after BBC presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, slammed Salford when talking
about the BBC’s MediaCityUK.
Clarkson, 51, said
Salford, in Greater Manchester, is a ‘small suburb with little to
offer beyond a Starbucks and a canal with ducks’.
He added: “Every
year we’d end up making a Christmas special from the Dog and Duck or the
nearest Arndale Centre.”
He also said he
would rather quit his job than move up to the BBC’s new venture in Salford.
BBC legend and It’s
A Knockout presenter, Stuart Hall, 81, has come to Salford’s defence with a
characteristically eccentric response, calling Clarkson ‘deluded’.
He said: “Does he
imagine that at the advance of effete southerners we retreat to our outside
lavatories with ripped-up copies of the News of the Screws?
“Manchester is a
seat of knowledge, a breeding ground for brains.”
Once again, the
so-called north/ south divide is highlighted and designer Peter Saville and
comedian Victoria Wood have defended Salford and Manchester.
Wood said she did
not really follow Clarkson’s career and that all she knows about him is that he
wears a denim jacket.
Mr Saville, who was
a designer for Factory Records, said: “Manchester is a great place for it to
be.”
I think Salford can
look after itself though. Northerners know the sorts of things Southerners
think about them and vice versa. It is the way it has always been.
The Today
Programme’s Evan Davis wrote an arguably patronising article following Clarkson’s comments, saying: “I have
been up there for the first time this week."
The heading to his
article on the BBC website said the ‘BBC should give Salford a try’. I’m not
sure how Salfordians will take that. They probably feel like they are coping
fine as they are.
Cllr Bernard
Lea, who will be Salford’s mayor in 2012-2013, said: “Having lived in Surrey
during my teenage years, I can appreciate the image seen by Southern Softies.
The reality is quite different.”
He added: “If I
were to use two words to describe his (Clarkson's) utterances they would be PITY and PRAT.
“A PITY he chose
to make an uninformed comment, and he has made himself look a right PRAT.”
I am from Cheshire
but I have spent plenty of time in Salford and I don’t even feel slightly
offended about comments like Clarkson’s.
Salford is a city
on the up and everyone who lives and works there should be proud of this.
Salford, in my
opinion, is not the most beautiful place in the world and yes, beauty is in the
eye of the beholder, however, that is a reason MediaCityUK will be a brilliant
thing for the city.
In fact, the plans
have already created hype in the area; there is more hope and people want to
come to live and work in the city because they see it as something which will
become better and better in coming years.
The argument
that there is more working talent in London and that the BBC might not produce
the same quality of TV as it does there is a valid one and it is not hard to
see why the young and gifted would want to leave the provinces to test
themselves in the country’s melting pot.
However, people
seem to be missing the point about this new venture. They are wondering, ‘What
can Salford do for the BBC?’ but the question should be, ‘What can the BBC do
for Salford?’
The BBC says that it is paid for by the whole of the UK and it needs to reflect the depth
and breadth of our culture.
It added that BBC
North will help meet the commitment to get as close to their audiences as
possible.
I doubt many
Northerners were not surprised when they heard the BBC would be moving several
of its departments to Salford but surely most people will
support something that will help to improve an area which still requires a leg-up.
