Scorchin' Summer Streamin' 26 - 9-1-1 - Season Eight

9-1-1 is the OG of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, & Tim Minear's 9-1-1 franchise. Moving from Fox to ABC; that's not the Aussie ABC, but US. Disney+ finally popped season eight up, earlier this month. I did manage to get a start on the season last year in Japan. So I only had eight or so remaining episodes to catch up on. The series has always been a bit soapy, however this season jumped the shark hardcore.

The lead disaster was around bees! Yes that's right bees! Apparently season nine goes to space. How much longer can the series try to out do itself.

That said, with the Texas bound Lone Star edition wrapping, 9-1-1: Nashville has commenced. And boy it is bad. Lone Star had heart and (in my opinion) better, more likeable characters than the OG series.

That said, Angela Bassett really had some strong performances. And no the crossover episode to the now cancelled Doctor Odyssey, doesn't go into too much depth. Literally she sees the boat, end scene. End episode, crossover completed on the short lived random Joshua Jackson series.

Alongside Bassett, Oliver Stark, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Guzman, Aisha Hinds, Kenneth Choi, Corinne Massiah, Elijah M. Cooper, & Gavin McHugh all star. Although there was big cast departure towards the tail end of season eight. More on that later. 

Last April 9-1-1, the series was renewed for a ninth season, which premiered last October. Hopefully I don't have to wait till next February to watch it! Bloody Channel Seven with their legacy deal on the OG 9-1-1.

So how does the bee drama unfold at the top of the previous season?

Hen and Karen make progress with regaining their foster license; Hen notices that Chimney and Mara are growing close. Buck and Tommy help Eddie throw a birthday party for Christopher over video call, but Christopher is vacant and eventually leaves to celebrate with new friends, much to Eddie's dismay. Bobby is now a technical advisor for firefighting TV show "Hotshots;" he is undermined by production, but idolised by the lead actor, Brad Torrence. 

A truck carrying 22 million killer bees crashes downtown, threatening the lives of a mother and daughter and, later, the attendees of a perfume party. Buck's initiative allows the 118 to handle both situations efficiently, but he is punished by Gerrard for unruliness. Buck later saves Gerrard from a flying circular saw, but knocks him unconscious in the process. 

Meanwhile, Athena escorts her first fiancé's killer, Dennis Jenkins ("Athena Begins"), to L.A. so he can testify in a trafficking case in exchange for freedom. En route, she detains a fake officer who tries to take Dennis into his own custody; Dennis reveals that someone wants him dead. They board an L.A.-bound plane which, due to the bees obstructing visibility, violently collides with another plane.

The season got dark with Bobby aka Peter Krause passed away in their contagion style emergency at the back end of the season.

With the removal of Bobby Nash, I'll be interested to see how (the current) season nine unfolds. Nine seasons is a big achievement, however it looks set to go even further. Sources say season ten is almost a sure thing.

So how did the final episode of the eighth season wrap?

Before the collapse, the 118 hosts a goodbye lunch for Eddie, where Hen gifts him his 118 turnouts. 

Hen also admits she turned down the offer to become captain and Buck says he put in for a transfer from the 118, feeling it is no longer the same without Bobby. 

At the apartment building site, Athena tries to help Graham and another civilian who has been crushed by the debris. The 118 arrives on scene and quickly becomes overwhelmed after the building suffers another collapse. Eddie, seeing the event on the news, puts on his old turnouts and arrives at the scene to help. Chimney, hearing Athena has been trapped in the building, goes in by himself to help her get out; they learn Graham was impaled, but said nothing because the other civilian, who he previously had been feuding with, needed their help more. This causes Athena to accept what Bobby did for Chimney and the two reconcile after the team saves Graham. 

Back at the firehouse, Chimney tells Eddie he is not living in Texas anymore and tells Buck he's not transferring, making a speech about keeping the importance of Bobby's legacy alive. After the speech, Hen slips up and refers to Chimney as "Cap." Hen and Karen formally adopt Mara, Eddie and Christopher move back to Los Angeles and begin unpacking boxes, Buck starts looking for a new apartment now that Eddie is back, Athena begins work on selling the house, and Maddie gives birth to her son. 

Upon Athena arriving at the hospital, Chimney tells her they named the baby Robert Nash Han, after Bobby.

The season wrapped up nicely. I must admit watching it over two parts (partly in Japan last year, last eight episodes this week) felt disjointed. At least I got to watch the first emergency and later Bobby emergency uninterrupted.

9-1-1 is one of Ryan Murphy's longest running series, will it overtake American Horror Story? Speaking of Ryan Murphy. It's his season, with two 9-1-1's returning soon in the USA (Nashville only here), Love Story starting and The Beauty coming to a horrific conclusion early next month.

So expect more Ryan Murphy through my final half of the Scorchin' Summer Streamin' 26 series. 

Happy Valentine's Day. 

Officially two more weeks of summer. Unofficially March is still HOT AF, hence my Q1, 2026 blog series title.

See you next week for the Tell Me Lies finale and hopefully a movie or two!

NOT another streaming Movie - We Bury the Dead

After the fun Send Help last Friday, it was gonna be hard to see another good picture, back-to-back.

However We Bury the Dead, was a damn fine effort.

Actually from 2024, the zombie/survival/horror/thriller film finally got released in Australia & New Zealand last week.

Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, We Bury the Dead had its world premiere in November at the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival. While getting released  in North America in January.

Starring English star Daisy Ridley, Mark Coles Smith, & Brenton Thwaites. 

The plot centers on a woman desperate to find her missing husband and follows her journey as she takes on grief and the undead.

After the United States accidentally detonates an experimental weapon off the Eastern coast of Tasmania, the city of Hobart is destroyed, and victims on the island not caught in the immediate blast are rendered brain dead. 

Soon it is found that some of the brain dead are regaining motor function, becoming undead, with some of them becoming violent. American physiotherapist Ava Newman (Ridley), whose husband Mitch was on a business trip in Woodbridge, volunteers as part of an Australian military effort to retrieve and dispose of the bodies of the population. 

Ava is assigned to the northern part of the island, far from Woodbridge, retrieving bodies and alerting soldiers to kill any undead who wake up.

It's an interesting concept. I was hooked and loved the 90 minute run time. Meaning the film just gets right to the point, real quick!

Filming began in February, 2024 in Albany, Western Australia. Alongside, Ridley, Coles Smith & Thwaites, Kym Jackson, Matt Whelan and Deanna Cooney joined the cast, as Lt. Wilkie, Mitch and Bianca respectively.

Filming wrapped the next month. So I really wonder why this was held for release for so long.

Either way this was a fun Tuesday night at the cinema. I also really try and support as many Aussie films as possible.

Enjoyable, original (even in a world of The Last of Us and The Walking Dead/multiple spin-offs) and beautifully shot.

In the current climate of world instability, imagine if something liked this did happen in Tassie?

I hope 2026 continues to give solid films. Hopefully next up, Wuthering Heights. More new music from Charli XCX, yes please!

 

We Bury the Dead, gets a solid 3.5 Stars.

Scorchin' Summer Streamin' 26 - Girl Taken - Miniseries

Landing around a month ago on Paramount+ Girl Taken is a based on the novel Baby Doll by Hollie Overton. 

Seventeen-year-old Lily is kidnapped by her trusted teacher. Five years later she escapes captivity and returns home, revealing years of abuse in a hidden cellar and forcing her family to face the trauma in a fight to reclaim their lives.

The British series was adapted for the six-part series for Paramount+ by David Turpin, Suzanne Cowie, and Nessa Muthy. 

Directing episodes are Laura Way and Bindu de Stoppani with Mick Pantaleo as producer. Executive producers include Suzi McIntosh for Clapperboard Studios and Mike Benson for Paramount+.

Filming took place in last June, with Jill Halfpenny & Alfie Allen as leads. Alongside older and younger sisters Tallulah and Delphi Evans as twins, Niamh Walsh, Levi Brown, Victoria Ekanoye, Holly Atkins, Vikash Bhai and Kiran Krishnakumar.

This was fairly B grade TV if I'm honest. Paramount+ are lucky they still have Taylor Sheridan and CBS content on their service.

That said with two Yellowstone spin-offs incoming Paramount+ has some serious drama incoming.

I don't want to be too negative about this series. Alfie Allen did play a creep well. It really is Allen season, with Lily selling out tours in Australia, that hit record, Alfie's past Game of Thrones work.

So I am not expecting Girl Taken to rate highly on my Scorchin' Summer Streamin' 26 RATED list, however if you like a kidnapping drama, maybe this is for you.

Till next time.

Scorchin' Summer Streamin' 26 - Spartacus: House of Ashur - Season One

Spartacus: House of Ashur is a thrilling, erotic, history-bending, roller-coaster experience that builds on everything that made the original series a colossal hit. 

What if Ashur lived and the Romans rewarded his treachery with the gladiator school where he once bled? 

Welcome to the House of Ashur. No longer a slave, Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) has clawed his way to power, owning the same ludus that once owned him. But ruling a band of merciless gladiators is child’s play compared to surviving the savage world of Roman politics—a cutthroat game in which betrayal isn’t a sin, it’s currency. 

Flipping tradition on its head, Ashur unleashes Achillia (Tenika Davis), a fierce and powerful gladiatrix eager to prove herself worthy in a man’s world. Together, they ignite a new kind of spectacle that shocks, disrupts, and offends the elite with every drop of blood.

Starring Nick E. Tarabay as Ashur, Graham McTavish, Tenika Davis, Jamaica Vaughan, Ivana Baquero, Jordi Webber, Claudia Black, India Shaw-Smith, Leigh Gill, Jackson Gallagher, & Jaime Slater.

Yes this is horny AF! Like the original Spartacus run, you even get some man on man action. Plus a fair amount of penis. And the boobs! So many boobs! The million dollar question is will Starz renew the historical romp?

I bet Aussie streamer Stan wishes it would. I did read somewhere it was meant to be a miniseries, somewhere else season two was mostly writtern.

I for one would watch season two. Wanna find out how season one wrapped on Friday? What am I going to watch on Stan on Fridays now? BOO!

Gabinius is laid to rest at his villa. Caesar informs Cossutia that Pompey has been stripped of his title and protection, while Caesar himself has been promoted to legatus and ordered to find and kill him. 

Servius, Gabinius' brother returns to reclaim the household and proposes holding funeral games. Believing Ashur to be beneath him, Servius has him removed from the villa but Viridia kisses him before he leaves. 

Settling in, Servius tries to assert his control over Cossutia and Viridia. At the ludus, Tarchon helps train Achillia to take on the Scythian, while Proculus pairs Satyrus with Galatea, another female gladiator for the games. 

Ashur gifts Achillia her own private quarters, cementing her position as champion of the ludus, while Ashur promises Korris ownership of the ludus once he is given control of Capua's games. Cornelia leaves the villa to return to Rome, with Messia following her. 

At the games, Servius excludes Ashur's gladiators from all but the main event and forces him to sit with the plebians. Satyrus and Galatea defeat their opponent before Achillia battles the Scythian in a brutal fight that sees both fighters lose their weapons and intrude into the stands. 

Achillia ultimately defeats the Scythian, killing her by jamming her shield into her mouth and splitting her head open. Before she leaves, Viridia sees Ashur celebrate in the stands with Hilara, saddening her. 

Back at the ludus, Tarchon and Achillia sleep together. 

While Caesar prepares to leave, Ashur asks him when the new arena will begin construction but Caesar tells him that Crassus has decided to use the funds to build new villas instead, despite their agreement. An enraged Ashur attacks Caesar, and after a long fight Ashur kills him by stabbing him in the chest and hacking his head open with a sword.

Will Starz renew Spartacus: House of Ashur, gosh I hope so, but I also reckon this has been a surprisingly good return to the Spartacus franchise. Bring on season two!

Scorchin' Summer Streamin' 26 - Fallout - Season Two

Hi post-apocalyptic Amazon series Fallout, concluded this past after starting right before Xmas 2025.

Based on the role-playing video game franchise created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the series is set two centuries after the Great War of 2077, in which society has collapsed following a nuclear holocaust.

Starring Yellowjackets Queen, Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Moisés Arias, Frances Turner, Kyle MacLachlan, & the White Lotus MVP, Walton Goggins. 

Season two continues the story set in the wasteland of post-nuclear America and introduced New Vegas, a major location from the video game Fallout: New Vegas.

Lucy and Cooper travel to New Vegas hoping to learn the truth about Vault-Tec, Cooper's wife and daughter, and Lucy's father. Maximus, having been promoted in rank within the Brotherhood, becomes increasingly disillusioned with the Brotherhood's internal corruption and the conflict between his own conscience and the order's code.

Last May, Amazon renewed the series for a third season. Which I had entirely forgotten about.

Macaulay Culkin, Justin Theroux & Kumail Nanjiani all joined the series for a varying number of episodes. I think we will get more Culkin in the third run.

If like me you took a few days to catch up, don't read on! However this season continued to be fun, with some whacky soundtrack choices along the way to Vegas!

In 2077, Hank and Steph get engaged in Las Vegas, while Cooper is arrested after taking the blame for Barb for handing the relic to the President, secretly tied to the Enclave. 

In 2296, the Legion schism ends when Lacerta Legate proclaims himself Caesar and plans to seize New Vegas. Norm and Claudia survive a radroach attack at Vault-Tec HQ that kills the rest of the Vault-Tec executives as they attempt to bring Norm to trial. 

In Vault 32, Steph activates a Pip-Boy from Hank's box and contacts the Enclave to begin Phase 2. Fighting between Maximus and Deathclaws reaches Freeside, where the NCR rescues him. The Ghoul enters the Vault-Tec facility with House's help. 

Lucy mercy kills Welch, but is captured by Hank and then saved by the Ghoul. Lucy implants a control chip in Hank, who admits his Enclave ties before activating it himself and losing his memory. The Ghoul finds his family's cryo-pods empty and a clue pointing to Colorado. Maximus and Lucy reunite as the Legion marches into New Vegas. 

In a post-credits scene, Dane retrieves Liberty Prime blueprints for Quintus.

So it looks like we are off to Colorado and possibly some more robot action.

This is a fun show in the mix of Amazon's macho male action stars and teen dramas to the max. Amazon have some big months ahead with Deadloch returning next month and Cross returning this week. I wish they had an event like Apple TV had last week.

Amazon are really coming into their own. I still need to watch Thief too. 56 Days also sounds interesting... and horny! lol

NOT another streaming Movie - Send Help

Send Help, my latest film is a darkly comedic psychological thriller from genre-bending visionary director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, The Evil Dead).

Rachel McAdams (Spotlight, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., Mean Girls), Dylan O’Brien (Twinless, Saturday Night), Edyll Ismail (La Brea), Dennis Haysbert (Far from Heaven), Xavier Samuel (Elvis), Chris Pang (Crazy Rich Asians), Thaneth Warakulnukroh (Thai Cave Rescue), & Emma Raimi (Happy Pills), all star in this Aussie/Thailand production.

Linda Liddle (McAdams) and Bradley Preston (O’Brien), two colleagues who find themselves stranded on a deserted island after they are the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it becomes an unsettling and darkly humorous battle of wills and wits to make it out alive. 

So great seeing Aussie's Xavier Samuel and hunky Chris Pang, on the big screen, to a packed engaged cinema crowd on a Friday night.

Send Help has received positive reviews from critics, and has grossed $32.6 million against a $40 million production budget.

This film could be in line to be one of the first financial success and critical successes of 2026 at the cinema.

Filming ultimately commenced last February, in Sydney, Los Angeles, and Thailand, concluding in April. 

This was fun, the audience was laughing, I was jumping a few times. This was a solid film, with a great performance from the likeable and relatable Rachel McAdams. Lets be honest, we have all felt like Linda in an office situation before.

I really enjoyed this thriller. You might even spot Centennial Park in the movie. Which is hosting Laneway this weekend.

Be safe music festival friends. Why on Earth is Laneway on a Sunday too. I went last year. That was ROUGH!

OK, so Send Help is damn fine. 4 Stars.

Scorchin' Summer Streamin' 26 - Dog Park - Season One

Streaming now is Dog Park on ABC iview or Sundays at 8:30pm on ABC TV. ABC has started the year strong. With Goolagong (I've almost finished it - review incoming) and new shows galore incoming. Bad Company with Kitty Flanagan & Anne Edmonds looks like a real highlight!

Breaming with an all Australian, all-star cast. This show has laughs, sense of community and warm moments. However its also a little sad too. Particularly episode five.

It has a very Melbourne feel too. One of the stars of Aussie TV's summer Brooke Satchwell is back after her great role in Dear Life. That said her role is a lot less in this six episode series.

Short, sharp and dog filled episodes were an easy Sunday binge for little old me in the middle of the summer humidity.

Roland (Leon Ford) is a fumbling, inexpressive parent to teen daughter Mia (Florence Gladwin). He’s a cold, grumpy husband to wife Emma (Brooke Satchwell). And he’s a pretty lousy dog walker to the family pooch Beattie (Indie).

Also in the cast/dog park group, Samantha (Celia Pacquola), Penny (Elizabeth Alexander), Pamelia (Grace Chow), Jonah (Ras-Andrew) & Samuel (Ash Flanders).

So its a damn fine, solid cast! It's no wonder I smashed this series in around 24 hours. It's just been one of those weeks when sitting to type this up, has been held up multiple times.

What a week, bring on the weekend. Hopefully I'll get to see Send Help or another film.

The first episode of the series took me a little more time to get into than I expected. Dog Park presents as more of a character study of this Melbourne group. More than a straight up Melbourne based Fisk comedy.

That said, this looks very much like Chippendale (my inner city suburb) of an afternoon, where neighbours, locals gather after a long day at work. To unwind with their four legged friends. Chat shit with other locals, so this was relatable.

It did however make me miss the little four legged guy I'd walk around these inner city streets. So warning you might get triggered like me.

Dog Park was great though. Give it a binge, this weekend!