The Perfect Couple is the Netflix miniseries everyone is talking about.
With an all-star cast, including Australia's own, Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson, and Dakota Fanning
Like Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers for Kidman, the six episode romp, is an adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand.
Landing earlier this month on Netflix, I just caught up with this. What's the basic plot before the trailer? A lavish wedding in Nantucket ends tragically before it even begins when a body washes up on the beach the morning of the ceremony, and everyone staying at the house for the weekend is a suspect.
So this is pure Desperate Housewives style trashy TV. Kicking off with Greer Winbury, a rich author with three kids and a seemingly perfect marriage.
The day of the rehearsal dinner of her son who is going to marry Amelia. The wedding is supposed to take place at the Greer mansion where the rehearsal dinner is also being hosted. It is revealed in the that there has been a murder and the local police are investigating.
Amelia has invited her best friend Merritt to the wedding as her maid of honor who arrives with Shooter—the best man and the groom's best friend.
The entire episode Amelia watches Merritt and Shooter being playful together and looks at Shooter longingly. She also reveals to her best friend Merritt that she does not feel addicted to Benji as a girl who is about to be married should.
Meanwhile, Greer, Benji's mom, reveals to Benji that she is not a fan of Amelia and that she is not sure if Amelia really loves Benji. Benji stands up to his mom to fight for Amelia.
At the end of episode one, it is revealed that the girl who was murdered is Merritt. Amelia is the first to find Merritt's body on the beach and goes into shock upon realising she is dead.
WARNING, spoilers ahead!!!
In the fianle, That Feels Better, Greer and her team ponder how to spin the launch incident and reporters swarm Summerhall, the police take her in for questioning, theorising that she hired Broderick to kill Merritt and had Shooter—who has diplomatic immunity—pay for the hit.
Abby confronts Thomas about his relationship with Isabel and Amelia calls Shooter to apologize for her uncertainty. Greer confesses that Broderick is her brother and the money was to cover his debts. She admits Broderick's existence and that she was an escort when she met Tag to her family and agent.
Amelia's mother had brought pentobarbital pills, but one pill is missing. Thomas stole the pill and initially planned to spook Merritt into aborting the baby, as the sons' access to the family trust would be delayed by 18 years if Tag sires another child.
Isabel produces video evidence that she and Thomas were together at the time of the death, which contradicts Abby's testimony that Thomas was in bed.
Abby—who had drugged and drowned Merritt to ensure access to Thomas's inheritance—is arrested. Greer separates from Tag. Months later, Amelia is working at the London Zoo and meets Greer, who has written a book about Amelia.
Honestly, by the end of this series, I thought, what the hell did I just watch. I'm still not 100% sure what I just watched. This is escapism TV at best. It looks fancy, but it is fairly average. The old saying about Netflix, quantity over quality is definitely true here.
Speak No Evil was a wild ride. I felt it was fairly original, tell I found out it was a remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name. That said though James McAvoy is outstanding in this remake. It is creepy AF!
Alongside McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough, and Scoot McNairy star in this edge of the seat thriller.
Speak No Evil follows an American family who get invited to stay in to a remote farmhouse by a British couple for the weekend, but the family soon learns that the family who invited them are actually serial killers.
This is a big improvement on Afraid for Jason Blum/Blumhouse Productions banner. Cause that was average AF.
Speak No Evil has received generally positive reviews from critics, for me, this was a perfect Sunday night film.
It had a building start, a creepy middle, then a wild conclusion.
I cannot say enough how well James McAvoy portrayed this complete psycho. It made me think twice about who I would next talk to on holidays.
Also for a Sunday 6:45pm session, the session was near full. This weekend I have been delighted to see back-to-back cinema (near) excellence. Thelma was super sweet, while this was a super fun, tense ride.
I honestly really got into this and McAvoy's scenes in a singlet or underpants!
Thelma is a delightful new film. Starring one of my personal favourites, June Squibb. Who I read today will star in an episode of American Horror Stories. Yes that is coming back (to Binge) next month! I know.
But back to Thelma. Not with Louise, just Thelma solo. Although Squibb is joined by Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Snowpiercers's final season villain, Clark Gregg, Parker Posey, and Malcolm McDowel.
The film is written, directed and edited by Josh Margolin. At the end of the film, we get a real life vision of Thelma, who the film is dedicated to. This gives the film an even sweeter feel.
Thelma has received generally positive reviews, while (to date) grossing $10 million worldwide. So what's the deal with Thelma?
Well, 93-year-old Thelma Post lives alone in Los Angeles. Her aimless but loving grandson Daniel (Danny) often visits and looks after her needs despite not taking responsibility for his own life.
When Thelma is scammed (how on trend) she goes all Beekeeper. Jokes this is nothing like the Jason Statham revenge film.
Thelma is sweet, with great humour across the short runtime. Less than an hour and a half we see Thelma running wild in LA. Chasing down the scammers with her friend Ben.
This film is so adorable, I was hooked. I think I saw the trailer or the poster previously and knew I had to see this.
I have seen so many films recently, but this felt fresh. Scammers have been in the news along with banks this week, so it was totally on trend.
If you have been scammed, this might make you feel a bit better or warn you for next time. June Squibb is delightful.
OK, so posts have been light around here. I had some Singapore times, so Les Mills Live times, eating too much, while doing all 30 episodes of the Bel-Air reboot.
The reimagined version of the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and is based on Cooper's short fan film of the same name.
The 2022 version stars, Jabari Banks, Adrian Holmes, Cassandra Freeman, Olly Sholotan, Coco Jones, Akira Akbar, Jimmy Akingbola, Jordan L. Jones, & Simone Joy Jones.
Streaming on Peacock (in the USA) and Stan in Australia, the first ten episodes landed back around Valentine's Day 2022.
The second season was released roughly a year later, the next month, the series was renewed for a third season which premiered last month, concluding last Friday.
The series follows Will Smith's complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air. The reboot dives deeper into racial tension, culture shock, and the elitist world of the black bourgeoisie.
Season one opens in West Philadelphia, with straight-A student Will has a high chance of winning a college basketball scholarship. After a game, he and friend Tray are insulted by gang member Darnell and make a bet with drug lord Rashad.
Will and Tray win, but Darnell instigates a fight by throwing a basketball at Rashad's head, making it seem like Will threw it. When Rashad and his crew gang up on Tray, Will clears the court by firing Tray's unregistered gun into the air and is arrested.
Will's mother and her brother-in-law Philip Banks get him released and flown to Bel Air, Los Angeles to live with Philip. He hitches a ride with someone named Jazz and goes to a fundraiser for Phil's District Attorney campaign.
Will flirts with Lisa, his cousin Carlton's ex-girlfriend. Will later flirts with Lisa again and nearly starts a fight when Carlton's white teammate Connor raps ethnic slurs.
Later in the pilot, Will catches Carlton sniffing Xanax and agrees to stay silent if he helps get Phil to ease up on him. At Connor's beach party, Will kisses Lisa. Jealous, Carlton pushes Will into the pool. Will cannot swim, so Lisa pulls him out, and he punches Connor and Carlton.
The Will, Connor power struggle evolves across all three seasons, however by the end of season three, they are more like family, business partners.
Speaking of the third season. It is set during an eventful summer.
Bel-Air’s third season found Will shifting his focus from basketball to business, partnering with Carlton on an exciting new venture.
Carlton however, continues to struggle with his own addiction, and a relationship with Amira, who he met in rehab.
Meanwhile, Phil and Vivian Banks marriage faced several external challenges, Hilary’s life with fiancé LaMarcus took a few unexpected turns, and Geoffrey’s checkered past in London came back to haunt him.
It was a big third season, which left the door fully open for a fourth season of this California life of the rich and famous. With so much happening in one family, there are loads more stories to be told outta this Bel-Air mansion.
I enjoyed this loads more than recent All American, All American: Homecoming episodes. Which in a way have the restrictions of network TV. With Bel-Air streaming, we get swearing, sexy times and more adult content.
While All American and it's spin-off play it safe, Bel-Air has a little more grit, whilst still keeping it addictive with easy on the eye cast and fun storylines.
Bel-Air streams all 30 episodes right now on Stan. I cannot believe with all the returning series and incoming series I somehow managed to get through all episodes in time for Only Murders in the Building, The Old Man, Reasonable Doubt, Tell Me Lies and Tulsa King all returning recently or in the next week.
This will be the first TV season in years after COVID and strikes where there is an oversupply of new and returning series. Happy TV viewing folks!
Afraid (stylized as AFRAID) is the future of horror. With technology overtaking and/or brainwashing people via Alexa or Siri.
Written, produced and directed by Chris Weitz, also being produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Jason Blum and Weitz through their Blumhouse Productions and Depth of Field.
Starring John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, and Keith Carradine. Afraid follows a family whose smart home AI increasingly interjects itself into their lives.
While things start of fine, they quickly decline. With the kids being the easiest to manipulate.
With a quick run time of 84 minutes, there is zero mucking around with plot twists and turns.
Afraid has (not surprisingly) received negative reviews from critics, as the horror genre usually gets a bad wrap.
However this did feel rushed, or could have just been an instalment on Ryan Murphy's side hustle, American Horror Stories.
I didn't hate it, but there was no scary moments or moments of tension.
Sadly for me Afraid maybe should have just been a straight to streaming. Sorry Blumhouse the quality is a little on the slide at present.
So real talk, 9-1-1 streams on Disney+ or free to air on Network Seven in Australia. I was waiting (patiently) for all ten episodes of season seven to drop on Disney+. Months after it aired in the USA, I gave up. Luckily whilst in Singapore, their Disney+ had all ten episodes of the crazy, addictive seventh series.
It felt like a reset. Back to basics, no filler episodes, character focused episodes.
Maybe the move to ABC from Fox was a good thing for the series that originally launched bacj in January 2018.
Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear, 9-1-1 follows the lives of Los Angeles first responders: police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and dispatchers.
With some long running cast members, including, Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Guzman, Aisha Hinds, Kenneth Choi and Gavin McHugh. There were a few new faces this season, however there were no crossovers with the spin-off, Lone Star.
That said, there was a random Bachelor crossover episode. The Bachelor also airs on ABC in the USA. This was possibly the weakest episodes. With the season opening up with the three point Titanic style storyline.
Back in April, ABC renewed the series for an eighth season which was set to premiere (in the USA) later this month.
However not sure when it will land in Australia. That said the cliffhangers in the tenth episode, All Fall Down don't really need my attention ASAP.
So that Titanic storyline kicks off season seven with Abandon Ships. The episode opens with a fighter jet crashes into the home of a bickering couple, Chimney falsely believes that his relationship with Maddie is "calcifying" and attempts to fix it; following an emergency where a woman's relational pressure gives her boyfriend severe hypotension, he realizes his misunderstanding.
Eddie learns that Buck's relationship with Natalia has ended and, later, that Christopher misses his mom, prompting Eddie to give Christopher a letter that Shannon wrote for him when he was younger.
Meanwhile, Bobby and Athena encounter Norman and Lola Peterson, a couple whose relationship they helped mend in Season 2 (episode, Buck, Actually), on their cruise.
When Lola goes missing and another woman with Norman is wearing Lola's ship ID, Athena suspects Norman of murdering her, but later learns that she was taken by a gang of pirates who think Norman possesses a dongle containing a fortune in Bitcoin on it. The pirates board the cruise ship and take everyone hostage.
So the shit hits the fan out at sea for three episodes, before returning to more week-to-week drama.
One of the dramas this season. Buck goes bi! Yep after years/seasons of fan pressure between Buck and Eddie. Well Buck goes for a former 118 member, Tommy.
This is a fun storyline across the season. The US border also gets a feature with the cartel becoming the big bad of the second end of the season.
We get a wedding too in the mix this season. But not the kind of wedding you expect.
9-1-1 really was firing on all cylinders this season. A fresh network and ten episode run, gave this show more life than ever. Previously it did feel a little like it was on life support.
So to, the finale, All Fall Down, Maddie and Chimney foster Mara while Hen and Karen work on rectifying her adoption process. Marisol leaves Eddie following the Kim incident while Christopher refuses to speak and has his grandparents move him to Texas for the indefinite future, having deemed the situation too unhealthy to be in.
Athena confronts Amir, who she believes to be the perpetrator of the fire which destroyed her house and incapacitated Bobby, but his detainment is interrupted when the cartel shows up, out for revenge after Amir inadvertently killed one of their members in Jacumba. Alluding that they were responsible for the fire as Bobby had associated with him, Amir offers himself to the cartel peaceably.
Athena later saves Amir from the factory that the cartel takes him too, helping him overcome his trauma when a fire breaks out. Bobby recovers and, after a heart-to-heart with Amir, returns to the firehouse. There, the 118 are met with former Captain Gerrard, who abruptly publicises Bobby’s retirement plans before announcing that he himself will be taking over as captain, much to everyone's dismay.
So the big finale cliffhanger is Bobby leaving the 118?
No lives in the balance, Christopher back in Texas with Eddie's parents, however it was a bit of an anti-climax.
I am waiting to see what the new drama will be at the top of season eight, whenever Disney+ decides to give us season eight. Let's hope this newfound ABC quality continues across the next season.
Hopefully now I am back in Australia I will have another film review for you soon, or continue to smash through Bel-Air's three seasons.
The Twelve is a quality anthology series, that kicked off it's second season in mid-July. Concluding with an explosive conclusion the day I flew away to Singapore. So you can imagine my excitement of catching up with the finale upon landing in Brisbane this morning.
The second series focuses on Bernice Price (Kris McQuade) who was found dead on the Price property. On trial her daughter Sasha and farmhand Patrick, the tight-knit community must put aside past encounters to find out if they are guilty of her murder. Now sadly McQuade is one of the standouts in this season.
Sadly her death and the case being based around her, means her appearances are limited.
Let's just say though, she is highly unlikable. Even with her family. With some twists and turns across the shortened eight episode season. We meet a new twelve.
The second series moves away from Sydney to Western Australia. Regional WA is a very different setting to Sydney.
The community gets more involved in this season, as a lot of the twelves lives crossover outside the courtroom.
As we meet each of the twelve, the two convicted family members and reconnect with Sam Neil as returning lawyer, Brett Colby.
Joining Neil and the outstanding Kris McQuade are, Fayssal Bazzi as Jude Persand, fellow lawyer, Frances O'Connor as Meredith Nelson-Moore with, Myles Pollard as Neal Collins, Shareena Clanton as Kora Gardner, Stefanie Caccamo as Claudia D'Angelo, Erroll Shand as Patrick Harrows, Amy Mathews as Sasha Price, Elena Mandalis as Connie D'Angelo, Sharon Johal as Parvinder Sangar and Josh McKenzie as Joey Kovac.
It is also nice to see the return of Blue Heeler, Tasma Walton as Thelma Connell, with one of the most interesting stories of the twelve. Not to mention Anthony Brandon Wong as Winston Hang, who has a little in common with the murdered McQuade.
I think I enjoyed the short, sharp second season over the first.
Each episode we got deeper (and at times darker) into the case. However in the end, the ending was a little less surprising than I would have liked. That said the ending did have a satisfying conclusion.
I do hope Binge have the budget to give The Twelve a third run. Maybe in Tasmania next time? Following Deadloch and Bay of Fires?
There is some quality Aussie TV currently screening. Let's hope the quality continues well into 2025.
The Crow is a cult classic film I have never seen before. Full disclosure. So I went into the 2024 gothic superhero remake, directed by Rupert Sanders .
The reboot of The Crow film series, it is the fifth film in the franchise, and is the second film, after the 1994 film, to adapt the 1989 comic book series by James O'Barr.
Starring Bill Skarsgård as Eric / The Crow, a man who is resurrected to avenge the deaths of himself and his girlfriend, played by FKA Twigs. Yes the legendary, Two Weeks singer! And man she looks young in this film. That said she is 36, 6 years my junior!
The film is exceptionally violent, the last twenty minutes or so is pure blood, blood and even some black blood for good measure.
The film never outstays its welcome, clocking in at under 2 hours, moving through the plot thick and fast. From the fast, deep, strong love of Eric/The Crow and Shelly.
The violence becomes a little much by the end of the film, with a big climax you could see a mile off.
I feel like this was totally a short story turned into a long form film.
I didn't hate it, but I have nothing to compare this with. Never seeing the OG 1994 cult classic, I was blind to the obsession with the original film.
This wasn't the worst film I have seen this year. But in saying that, it also wasn't the best film I have seen this year. It has been a mixed bag of films in 2024, however after a huge day/weekend in Singapore of Universal Studios, Les Mills Live and way too much walking/shopping. I needed to just chill out and enjoy the air con and an easy to watch film.
OK, so for my star rating. I can't fail or pass this. 2 stars feels too little, but fair, however FKA Twigs is an artist I have loved for years.
So let me just get it over the pass mark, 2.5 Stars for the 2024 The Crow remake.
