Thursday, March 29, 2018

The Chi


Showtime's The Chi launched in December online and then January on air and I was interested, just a little bogged down with other series. The show wrapped mid March and I have just finished the powerful and brilliant pilot.

I am hoping it's going to be my Bali Easter smashing series around bedtime and in the morning pre Yoga class.

Yes I am off to Bali and cannot wait.

And yes I am hooked on another Showtime drama. Following the brilliant latest season of Shameless and Homeland continues to be a rollercoaster ride, even though we are knee deep in a very political seventh season.

The Chi is full of new and fresh faces, whilst delivering another series like Shameless focusing on the streets of Chicago.

Both series are set in the South Side of this American known for giving us Hope through Obama and both series shows the crime is out of control.



So Australia, here is your next drama obsession, it already has a bright future and has been renewed for a second season.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Jian-Yang returns as the best part of...


Silicon Valley season five.

Jian-Yang has always been my favourite part of Silicon Valley. He is extremely witty, in some episodes has the best lines by far and delivers these lines with no sign of emotion. Some lines are so brilliant I have no idea how he doesn't piss his pants.

Here are some previous highlights thanks to the YouTube...


With his enemy Erlich leaving the series at the end of last season he now has to find someone else to prank call and make their lives difficult.

Silicon Valley is no Veep and not anywhere near HBO's best work, but Jian-Yang is a truly brilliant character.

Silicon Valley season five, just commenced.

Monday, March 26, 2018

Movie Matinee Madness - Love, Simon


OMG, like totally, high school is so different to when I was there, there was no texting (or it was slow and on an old Nokia) and no cool vice principal like Tony Hale (Poor Gary from Veep).

I am not going to lie, I loved this film. It was a fantasy romance but never have we seen a teen gay romance film like this. My only disappointment was the Khalid Love Lies song (with now defunct Fifth Harmony member Normani) barely featured in the film.

Aussies Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why) and Keiynan Lonsdale were great as was parents Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel.

But of course Simon AKA Nick Robinson (straight in real life) deserves credit, he did a wonderful job as the romantic lead.



Directed by the king of Arrow and DC comic series, Greg Berlanti, this really was a sweet film, I don't usually get all excited about romantic comedies but this film really for me was special.

Growing up gay is not easy, growing up in general is fucked up, add in social media, trolls, YouTube comments, forums, snapchat, Instagram and the Fitsbo landscape.

Ok so I am going big and maybe marking easier than normal, 5 Stars. I did love this film.

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Queer Eye, 2018, Netflix


The previous Bravo version ran for 100 episodes and now Netflix has said to the world, All Things Just Keep Getting Better...



The feel good show of 2018 (so far) Queer Eye is just delightful. Well to be honest I am only up to episode two and so far I have been close to "happy" tears twice. It's divine, camp and lot's of fun.

The new "Fab Five" actually are fab. They are warm, open and not too bitchy, but at the same time super funny.

Queer Eye was a hit first time around, but now Queer Eye is another Netflix Water Cooler moment. When shows like MKR and Married at First Sight show the worst in humanity, Queer Eye shows the best and the most fun.

I can't wait to binge the remaining six episodes as this is a massive departure from my last Netflix binge, The Crown.

If you want to smile ear to ear, give the Queer Eye boys a go, this is just delightful TV, well done.

Friday, March 23, 2018

Finales, Finales and more Finales


We farewelled How to Get Away with Murder last week and the fourth season including a crossover with Scandal ended on a relatively high note with a few unanswered questions.

I enjoyed this season, however the second half lacked direction from time to time. Annalise is an interesting character, she was rock bottom at the start of the season, then throughout she rose like a phoenix.

Apparently it's been renewed for a fifth season, but no 100% offical word yet. With Scandal ending however I think they would be mad to kill it off just yet.

Now to two of Ryan Murphy's babies. Like Shonda Rhimes is the Queen of ABC (US) and their drama catalogue, Murphy straddles across FOX and FX.

First up we waited almost two years for the second instalment of the anthology series American Crime Story. In 2016 it blew critics minds with OJ Simpson's story, this time it was all about Gianni Versace. A third and fourth crime story is planned with Katrina and Bill Clinton ready to roll, so how long will we wait for this? We will have to wait and deal with the next American Horror Story season first with Kathy Bates returning.

So how did Ricky Martin and former Glee heartthrob Darren Criss perform in this Sarah Paulson free series? Not bad, Criss was outstanding, terrifying and vulnerable all in one episode.

The show was not a ratings smash, but I think critically and online chatter all account for the show being a bit of a success. Success is not all live viewer ratings these days, it's online likes, shares, DVR's and more.

The opposite to a non ratings smash was the break out new series of 2017-2018, 9-1-1. Murphy hit the sweet spot with viewers, earning more than 10 million viewers per episode. The short ten episode season did not outstay it's welcome.

It brought an all star ensemble cast to network TV and took real life situations and made them 100% more dramatic and at times camp.

Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Connie Britton and Oliver Stark all proved to be viewers favourites over the season run.

So for now a few shows have left my dance card, however so much good stuff incoming, Handmaid's Tale Season 2, live and direct to SBS, Shooter season 3 will return to Netflix and Wentworth Season Six where are you? Foxtel? Anyone?

Enjoy the weekend ahead of two four day working weeks..

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The Crown for a latecomer...


As I write this I am now on episode 20, 19 episodes down and I have to say the Crown Netflix most expensive series to date, has been one hell of a ride. Costing over one hundred million pounds for the first ten episodes it makes Baz Luhrmann's The Get Down seem cheap.

I am not one for history nor the Royal family however this series (particularly the fab Claire Foy) has been a thrilling and insightful ride.

Shame the whole pay scandal with Claire Foy came out right as I was concluding the series.

Netflix has green lit a third and fourth series which will bring a whole new cast. Yes the Royals will be recast. Bye Claire Foy, but hey she is in a film real soon, which looks excellent, Unsane.

So is The Crown worth around 20 hours and in total 60 hours? It is planned for six seasons, ten episodes a piece and roughly one hour each.

Short answer, yes.

Claire Foy deserves all the awards and critical acclaim, John Lithgow was fantastic as Churchill and Vanessa Kirby is delicious as Princess Margaret.

So as Winter looms, the big US shows wrap up (more finale wrap ups tomorrow/later in the week) and we bunker down in the cooler months, fire up your Netflix for this lavish history lesson. Sensational and looks well one hundred million pounds plus, plus.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The Media and Pollsters are FUCKED!


It started in QLD, One Nation lead by Pauline Hanson will dominate the 2017 election. Pauline and her thugs will gain a load of seats and whoever ends up winning the election will need to negotiate with terrorists Pauline's mob.

Election night, Pauline's motley crew takes only one seat, Labor remains in power. Admittedly the One Nation Freak Show did take out 13.7% of the vote, however nowhere near the predicted figure. One seat is a long way from the predicted six.

Next, Tasmania and I admit I like Jacqui Lambie, she might not love us gays, but she has spunk, she is real, she is no bullshit. However she needs to get real about muslims and learn to respect others differences.

This may have been one of the reason Jacqui failed to get a single seat in the recent Tassie election. Even the Greens who are starting to come undone only received two seats.

Like Pauline, Jacqui had a lot of media time, a lot of hype but nothing, nada and my god would Clive Palmer been loving himself sick.

Next and most recently the disaster in SA, Nick X, not a single seat to his name. The way the media were talking Nick Xenophon was set to be the next premier. This was a massive upset, his TV ad was viewed and laughed at by the masses and it begs the questions, do the media have any idea what on Earth Australians want in their leaders? Or do they just want headliner grabbers.

Pauline and Jackie are full of a lot of a hot air, but is anyone buying it? The numbers suggest NO

Monday, March 19, 2018

Movie Matinee Madness - Death Wish


After the brilliance of Shape of the Water and damn did I forget to mention in my review the brilliance of supporting actress Octavia Spencer, what a great performance. Thank you Hidden Figures for introducing me to her.

Now to my second movie of the heatwave weekend, Death Wish.

Eli Roth loves horror, he gave us torture porn like Hostel and Hostel: Part II as well as the Netflix horror series Hemlock Grove and the list goes on. He even was a producer on the recent Baywatch film. Not a great or critically acclaimed resume but still he has a certain market.

Today's screening at 10am in the middle of Sydney, it is no surprise, all four people in the cinema, men, all four men (me included) alone and only one was not white.



So Bruce Willis, guns and Chicago with a crime rampage, it almost sounds like a Donald Trump propaganda film. At times I don't know if they are making fun of guns and the easy access to them or this is just another glorifying gun, action film with a very violent second half.

 There are some terrible moments in this film, Willis described as a 30 year old white male, vigilante. Oh fuck me, Willis is at least 60 in the shade.

At least Elizabeth Shue was cast as his wife only 8 years his junior. I was almost expecting Ivanka to swam in as his wife.

It's not all bad it's just another lazy remake that will most likely just fade away into the shadows. Being released around another US shooting (it is actually hard to release films and not clash with a Trump scandal (hello stormy Daniels) or another shooting) this film has poor timing, it isn't overly long though in length but the second half drags a bit once Willis puts two and two together.

This is a watch at home on a 30-40 degree day or escape to the cinema next Autumn heatwave. 2 Stars.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Movie Matinee Madness - The Shape of Water


I took an afternoon Matinee in on Saturday to beat the heat. Yes promotions have gone out a plenty in Sydney for the major Cinema's as Choovie finally launches a Sydney cinema.

And what better time to see a film on a thirty plus degree day than almost 2pm. Gosh damn Summer is over Sydney, shit and tomorrow hot damn it's meant to be almost 40. Shit.

What better film to see than a film about Water, in fact the Shape of Water.



There is a reason this film won a load of awards, in a time there is very few new ideas about, The Shape of Water is a delicious escape into a wonderful world of cinema.

Sally Hawkins is divine as Eliza, after her wonderful role in Blue Jasmine Sally returns as the delightful awarded lead in this multi award winning masterpiece.

Guillermo del Torro does a supreme job directing, producing, creating and making the story for The Shape of Water.

This is a stellar film, with a great cast and even greater creature.

I enjoyed the pure cinema magic and escapism of this blockbuster film. Taking in over a $150 million at the box office now, this film has been a critical success and financial success.

del Torro will be extremely in demand following this and let's hope the sequel to his interesting film Pacific Rim continues his success.

The Shape of Water is choice, 4.5 Stars, I know I was late seeing it, but damn readers don't miss this.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Long Time No POST


Work has been mad, no movies out there to be seen and SO much TV on right now. All this and not to mention my years of loving music spawned an exclusive music only blog Flashing off the Record. This I try and update daily but this poor old space has been neglected.

With Easter incoming and a possible trip to B-A-L-I I should have more time to blog and hopefully the movie releases will ship shape so I can get into some film reviews for y'all.

So too much TV (locally as well, well done SBS with Safe Harbour, see my recent review HERE) Atlanta has returned, likewise for iZombie, 9-1-1 and American Crime Story wrap up next week and How to Get Away With Murder wrapped this week. It's potentially renewed for a fifth season, although the ratings haven't sent the world on fire in it's patchy fourth season.

Musically though this year is shaping up to be an excellent year, particularly for Australian music. Vance Joy is already up for my Album of 2018 and the number of great Australian releases grows weekly. Not to mention all the good stuff on the way.

Anyway bear with me I hope to have more on the way, but Flashing off the Record is a great place to keep up with the world of new music and the biggest albums/artists of the week.

Until then enjoy the Sydney heat this weekend...


Saturday, March 10, 2018

SBS sails the Safe Harbour


SBS has aired a couple of great 4 episode mini series dramas in recent years. The Principle and Sunshine were critically acclaimed and showcased some of Australia's most popular actors and introduced us to a few new stars in the making. Move over Margot Robbie.

These SBS dramas has been a little more meaty than the average Channel 7, 9 or 10 drama series. But meaty and socially aware do not always equal viewers. More on the first episodes ratings a big decline in free to air viewers HERE.

It's a worrying sign Married at First Sight had over six times the viewers this well made and acted drama attracted in it's first outing.


Safe Harbour features new leading man Joel Jackson, the brilliant Jacqueline McKenzie fresh from Romper Stomper (STAN please hurry and renew this series for a second outing) and Leeanna Walsman.

Leanna has been banging around on our screens (hello Wentworth appearance) for a number of years now and it's great seeing her in this new series.

Despite the poor ratings, I think SBS on Demand like iView is the new FREE destination for great content. Currently screening on SBS on Demand is all their series, Atlanta the brilliant Donald Glover series now in it's second season and also airing week to week, Homeland.

Direct from USA content, great local content SBS is on the way up. And that is before Handmaid's Tale returns. Handmaid's Tale was the talked about/water cooler series of 2017, 2018 it's the Handmaid's Tale bitch. This series is outstanding and I cannot wait till Elizabeth Moss and the gang are back for more of Mike Pence's fantasy series.

So give Safe Harbour a go, it's streaming, FREE on SBS on Demand. Trigger warning though it contains social issues which need discussing but more importantly don't get lost and lose the entire weekend at SBS on Demand.

You've been warned.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

International Ladies Day MixTape


First up from the Flashing off the Record feature record, it's CAMP COPE! This heartbreaking song almost me cry today at work, just beautiful stuff from a mega hyped awesome group.



Released last Friday it's new music from Everything but the Girl diva, Tracey Thorn...



New kid on the scene G Flip has delivered this catchy tune, more info on G Flip can be found HERE



JOY. released a delightful EP last week, here is another cut following Smoke Too Much.



Broods and all girls = The Venus Project, loving this!



No Beyonce, no Pink, no SIA just new female music. So wrap your eyes around these talented ladies as we have paid homage to the finer sex, YASS Queens! It's International Women's Day for a few more hours...

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Saturday Soundtrack - Black Panther & More...


Soundtracks have launched many a great song, artist in the past, however right now we have a serious amount of soundtrack gold.

When last year's album of the year winner (from my BLOG Flashing off the Record) was behind the Black Panther soundtrack I was excited. Kendrick Lamar teamed up with some of music's royalty and up and coming stars to bring us a terrific well rounded record.

Even Triple J got behind the record and for the first time since a Twilight soundtrack (by memory and OMG remember the Twilight soundtracks) they featured a various artists, soundtrack release.

The first single from the record was All the Stars, a great team up with SZA and Kendrick. Then we got another Kendrick team up with The Weeknd.

But it's not all Black Panther fever (despite my five star review this week), we have been gifted another 50 Shades star studded soundtrack and Love Simon for the Mardi Gras film festival also has a fairly all killer no filler soundtrack.

On a musical note, even The Greatest Showman soundtrack has been slaying the Australian Album charts of late. Last week the top five albums in Australia album chart featured not 1, not 2 but 3 soundtracks!

So let's prep for the Mardi Gras with a killer soundtrack Saturday, happy Mardi Gras and happy musical movie loving...





Friday, March 2, 2018

Movie Matinee Madness - Black Panther


Believe everything you have heard, this film is sensational. Apparently Thor's recent Ragnarok was meant to be a changing of the tides for Marvel/superhero films, however I found it rather average, just another Marvel film.

Sure it had a Kiwi director but what Black Panther has is style and a look. This film honest to God is beautiful, the colours it uses, the Wakanda scenes, it is really something else.



The soundtrack to this film (not only a recent JJJ feature record) is 100% amazing, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Vince Staples, Khalid and more. The soundtrack is used for the end credits effectively with Kendrick/SZA's hit jam All the Stars whilst in South Korea the pumping soundtrack assists one of the biggest action sequences of the masterpiece.

All the cast in this film excel and my God there better be a sequel, if I have sat through three average Thor films, I need me some more Black Panther.

Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are amazing as competitive Kings, Lupita Nyong'o is divine as the love interest and Danai Gurira and Letitia Wright are scene stealers and exceptional in their respective roles.

I came out wanting more, I left excited for the future of superhero films, we still have places to go and stories to explore.

This is a breakout Marvel release, a return to form for movie soundtracks and a beautiful, stunning looking film. Easily a 5 Star film, captivating from the opening credits to the end credits. Well done all.