#SUMMER-BINGE-FEST - Dirty John

Airing on Valentine's Day in Australia (so sweet) is a true crime story from the USA, Dirty John. Originally airing on the highly esteemed US network Bravo. Former scripted TV hits include Girlfriends Guide to Divorce and Imposters.

Bravo is the home of reality hits like Million Dollar Listings Los Angeles, Top Chef, Don't be Hardy, Vanderpump Rules and more!

Dirty John has had a lot of coverage online, people in the office were discussing it and finally as we concluded Summer I have binge watched the entire eight episodes this week.

It's easy to watch, great to see Eric Bana back on the small screen and Connie Britton is alwasy wonderful. From her abrupt wrap up on 9-1-1 this was a meaty true crime role for her to get her head around.



Dirty John follows crazed con artist John Meehan and his relationship with Debra Newell. It quickly goes pear shaped and we get to see a few flashbacks into his career as a con artist.

Veronica and Terra Newell were a little average and at times hard to watch but both actresses have had some fine roles in the past. Juno Temple has recently been in Vinyl as well as a pile of films and Julia Garner is best known as the girl with the foul mouth in Ozark.

Dirty John is a quality drama on a not so quality network, luckily in Australia it airs on Netflix.

Whilst this is not perfect, it's a damn easy watch, Dirty John is streaming now. This concludes my #SUMMER-BINGE-FEST as tomorrow is Autumn (in Australia).

Cinema Slut #2019 - Escape Room

I had Escape Room on my list of to see films since it landed. The sessions were reduced week two, so I was happy when I caught a 10.10am session Sunday.

Escape Room has actually been a box office smash, taking in almost $120M against a budget of slightly under $10M

The biggest star of Escape Room is Jessica from True Blood, Deborah Ann Woll or is she now better known as Karen Page from the Netflix Marvel shows?



Anyway Escape Room holds it's suspense, delivers a great thriller and avoids using over gory scenes that Saw used in the past. This was a fairly simple film but extremely well executed.

The editors also did a magic job keeping the plot rolling and film at a neat 100 minutes.

Films generally drag on for way too long, forget to get to the plot or deliver an unsatisfying ending, Escape Room succeeds on all these accounts.

Jay Ellis from Insecure continues to be a handsome almost lead and Deborah Ann Woll is extremely convincing in her role.

I enjoyed this thriller, it leaves it wide open for a sequel and like Happy Death Day, this is one of those low budget films that just seems to soar!

Well done, 3.5 Stars.

Cinema Slut #2019 - What Men Want

For Empire star Taraji P. Henson she was staying out of the headlines despite Jussie Smollett dominating the headlines. For Taraji she has long been the queen of Empire the diamond in the pack of the Fox show.

Cookie Lyon is one hell of a character and Ali Davis (Henson's lead) in What Men Want is a force to reckon with.

Along side Henson is Ariana's ex Pete Davidson, Erykah Badu, Silicon Valley's Josh Berner and a load more talented folk, even Shaq O Neil pops by.



This had a few laugh out loud moments, however it's feel good nature and fun approach to relationships made this a highly enjoyable Saturday night at the pictures!

What Men Want is a throwback to the 200 film What Women Want starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. Honestly I vaguely remember this film but Mel has nothing on Taraji, her fashion, her sass and her on scene dominance is something else. It's the reason why Empire  is Fox's number two drama.

Along with some great scenes, the music dominates this film with hits by TLC, En Vogue, Salt N Pepa and Jill Scott.

What Men Want is a fun night out with a capital F, date night movie tick, feel good film tick and general all round decent night out flick tick, 4 Stars.

(Mini) Sunday Spotlight: Kehlani

Hailing from Oakland, California Kehlani has been ripping it up for a number of years now.

I was super lucky to see her support Halsey on one of her most recent visits to the nation. Kehlani demands attention and commands the stage when she performs. With a number of hits under her belt, working with Calvin Harris, Chance the Rapper and more Kehlani is a real talent to watch.

So this Sunday let's chill with some smooth sounding Kehlani, her latest mixtape While We Wait was definitely worth the wait with some great collaborations with 6lack, Ty Dolla $ign and more.

Take a listen, look below to the start of something special, it's Kehlani, it's Sunday, Good Morning!

#SUMMER-BINGE-FEST - The Cry

The ABC has over delivered in the drama department of late, Mystery Road has a monster year in 2018 winning a pile of awards, Glitch has also been a critical dream, Harrow, Pine Gap and Jack Irish all rounded off a solid list of Aussie dramas on Australian TV.

So in 2019 the ABC is out of the gate first with The Cry. A co pro with the BBC, hitting the airwaves and iView (to binge all four parts) ahead of Bad Mothers and Ms Fisher's latest outing on Seven was a bold and smart movie.

Only SBS on Aussie TV like the idea of a four part series, so this was a nice move for the ABC to venture into a mini series/self contained story.

The Cry stars some of Australia's most loved stars including Alex Dimitriades, leading male Ewen Leslie, Asher Keddie, Shareena Clanton (best known as Doreen from Wentworth, also screening past seasons now on Aunty) and English leading lady Jenna Coleman.

The Cry is captivating and on a quiet, cold (weird for summer) and wet Saturday it was an easy watch in one day. Yes I did all four episodes in one outing.

The show reminds me of The Bodyguard, leaving you waiting till the last very episode to figure out what is going on and what happened to baby Noah.

The Cry, it's decent viewing on a wet Summer's day and streams now all four hour long episodes on Australia's premier catch up service iView.

Is there TOO much Australian Drama for March, 2019???

With Netflix, Stan (owned by Channel 9), Amazon Prime and god knows what other streaming services dishes us up a serious amount of drama, do the latest commercial (ABC and Foxtel) Australian dramas stack up?

Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries commences this week, whilst Secret City - Under the Eagle begins in March and The Heights starts Friday nights (off time for a local drama). I did take a look at Bad Mothers which aired it's first episode on Monday.

And oh boy was it bad.

Why on Earth would Melissa George return for this? Like other recent series, Bite Club, some one about terrorism that got canned after one season, the first season will run for a compact 8 episodes.

Oh that other Channel Nine drama was Hyde and Seek remember that? Well you could think Bad Mothers is the same show, Mandy McElhinney has yet again been cast on Nine (formerly part of the long running Love Child) and a death occurred in episode one.

It's very easy to compare this trashy drama to Channel Ten's Playing for Keeps last year. Mothers/Wags add murder to the mix with a back drop of Melbourne. Fingers crossed for the Bad Mothers crew like Playing For Keeps it may get a second series. Channel Nine currently only has one other drama on the books Doctor Doctor with incoming reboot Seachange to air later this year.

Honestly Secret City - Under the Eagle is our best hope on Foxtel at a decent new drama. With reboots like the Ms Fisher's thing on Channel Seven and ABC's The Heights, I have the highest hopes for Secret City after the first fantastic six episode season.

Secret City commences with a double episode on March 4th. In a compact second season, the conclusion will air April Fools Day.

I may have been a fool as I have not had a chance to check out The Cry on iView yet, however want to. It has had good reviews and my own parents binged it in one weekend. Bless.

I welcome the drama back to Australian TV, but please as a self confessed enemy of average, please keep the quality high. Channel Nine you seldom make many dramas anymore so come on. Your strike rate ain't great lately, Channel Ten, I still have no idea why CBS brought this one trick Bachelor pony and Channel Seven (AKA Liberal propaganda network news network) let's hope the ABC spin off gamble works.

Whilst the reality giants remain Married at First Sight, My Kitchen Rules and Dancing with the Stars. Anything other than white people crying in a kitchen, cooking or otherwise is always welcome. So come on Networks don't disappoint. If all else fails you can make a drama about One Nation and Pauline's hunt for cane toads or the blood on her Canberra office, oh drama!

Cinema Slut #2019 - Happy Death Day 2U

Have you ever seen a sequel to a film and wished they had a quick recap?  Like... Previously on Desperate Housewives.

Well Happy Death Day 2U delivers this and more whilst ticking so many diversity boxes along the way.



The first film was a monster smash hit, it was a huge box office success story with a tiny budget of only $4.5M. The budget was doubled (and so it should for a sequel) for this film and it still keeps the fun however delivers very few scares.

Jessica Rothe and Phi Vu are outstanding in this sequel, the characters are likeable but the sci-fi element of the film was a little off.

A third film being set up via the end of credits clip could well be in the works.

I wanted to like this a lot and I did for the most part, however it had a bit of a random plot mixing sci-fi and teen-slasher horror together and I don't know if we needed some of the tech elements.

Either way this was a big of fun escapism.

3 Stars.