Online/Streaming... NOW! - Long Weekend Edition

As it's a long weekend (in Sydney and some other Australian states) why not head off to Bali this long weekend. Well I have it's 6 hours away, less of a rats race, still pumped for the AFL grand final yesterday and loads of sunshine.

Heaven is only 6 hours away from the hell of Sydney. Why not these coming Summer holidays give it a go. No not a paid endorsement of the Indonesian luxury island of Bali, more a get out of jail card from the pits of hell of Sydney. Thanks Gladys for creating such a mess, these songs go out to celebrate life escaping from a lockout ridden, nanny state where businesses close daily and good luck getting a feed after 8pm.

Now a post usually reserved for my music blog Flashing off the Record, time to look at some new music from Friday. This weekend Flashing off the Record is celebrating a stunning record from Eves Karydas, it landed on Friday and is getting us ready for Summer, it's called summerskin.

A remix album of the 2016 alt-j album Relaxer landed on Friday, Reduxer. It has heaps of guests and it sounds cool thus far, checkout the GoldLink feature below.

From Tuesday the latest from John Butler Trio will be featured on Flashing off the Record. The album is called Home and this video became available over the long weekend.

Get ready to move, Dillon Francis is back! This time with Wut Wut and a busload full of guests

With footy finals weekend in full swing I was sure The Living End would be performing something from Wunderbar on at least one of the codes? Oh well, good timing maybe for the release of their new album. This is the boys eighth studio album and marks over 20 years on the scene. Good job fellas.

Bringing Lana Del Rey along for one of the songs on her new record, Cat Power is back with Wanderer.

Super fun stuff here, it's Nile Rodgers & Chic with It’s About Time. Polish off those disco balls y'all!

Long weekends are for dancing, hello new Roosevelt, Young Romance.

Speaking of dance Sigala get everyone from Kylie to Craig David on Brighter Days. Brighter Days, YASS cause Summer is almost here!

On the singles front, talented act, Yeo is back with a new single, The Comments


Until next New Music Friday, where we can expect new releases from Bleeding Knees Club, Bootleg Rascal, Last Dinosaurs and more...

Movie Matinee Madness - Searching

Where is the Crazy Rich Asians hype for this Asian American lead thriller? John Cho basically is Searching via screens, FaceTimes and video chats.

Searching is first up despite my query and excellent modern thriller. Cho is outstanding, Debra Messing is great on the other end of the "search" as a detective and Joseph Lee as Cho's brother is extremely handsome.



OK so a dad detective looking for his school girl via social media profiles and whereabouts may not sound like everyone's cup of tea, but this film, is excellent.

The start of the film is moving, excellent character development and sets up the tech savvy dad David Kim as a caring, loving husband and father.

I am going to be honest this is my favourite thriller in sometime. It's fresh and it' totally on social trend and John Cho's performance is simply outstanding.

I am forgetting young Michelle La as missing Margot. A teen with a few things to hide and an interesting relationship with her uncle is an interesting character for this film to revolve around.

I loved every minute of this and so glad I saw it on the big screen. There is honestly something to be said for still seeing films at the actual cinema.

Great job all evolved, yep 5 Stars.

9-1-1 Season Two (double opener)

Moving from Wednesday's to Monday's and adding a bumper opening over two nights, 9-1-1 is back for 2018-2019.

9-1-1 was one of the biggest breakthrough hits in early 2018 and like most of Ryan Murphy's hits, he sampled it, it worked the first 10 episode season has now grown to a second 16 episode run. Like Empire and Star the show will be spilt in two so we will get one half this side of Christmas and the other sometime in 2019.

With Connie Britton leaving at the end of season one, we score 90's scream queen Jennifer Love Hewitt. Love Hewitt commences as Buck's sister, Buck is the star hunk Oliver Stark from season one, but now faces a new hunk on the block, Ryan Guzman playing single father Eddie Diaz.

Peter Krause and Angela Bassett continue to lead the show whilst being backed up by a strong supporting cast. Scoring a Sunday night monster 10 million (or close enough) live viewers, the show is a shoe in for a third season.

FOX struggles with dramas at present and with Empire entering a fifth season and looking a little tired, a fresh hit like 9-1-1 is just what the doctor ordered.



9-1-1 is good escapism TV, it's easy to watch, easy on the eye and a great cast on board.

Interesting stories and the major earthquake were a good way to open the second season. Sunday was a blockbuster night on US TV with new Lifetime series You being an early frontrunner for one of my favourite new shows, The Deuce rolling on HBO and Shameless only one episode away from it's 100th episode.

9-1-1 continues Mondays on US Fox network, I will be interested to see how episode two goes up against The Good Doctor and new NBC drama Manifest.

Playing For Keeps

Channel Ten has a hit and miss past with local drama, Sisters last year was a massive dud, Secrets and Lies whilst not very popular here, was remade in the USA and actually got a second season unlike it's original Australian series and Neighbours just goes on and on and well on.

So it is interesting to see Wrong Girl star Madeline West return to the network for Playing For Keeps. Whilst the Wrong Girl is yet to be announced for a third season and with Craig McLachlan's situation it's unlikely to return, West has a much more commanding role in Playing For Keeps.

Also starring Olympia Valance, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor and familiar ABC face Annie Maynard, Playing for Keeps launched last week with close to 600,000 live viewers.

Whilst not hitting the magic million mark, Playing for Keeps is off to a better start than Nine drama Bite Club, which is actually a well received (by critics) series and honestly not bad.

Australian dramas are on struggle street right now, they are not as cheap to make as reality rubbish and don't draw the crowds like The Block or The Bachelor.

So it's a tough place to be right now, Australian stories need to be told and the one of WAGS is honestly an untapped tale that us sport loving Aussies demand to hear/see. Madeline West is great as the lead WAG and we get a wee mystery to start the season which is may be less interesting than the bitchy behaviour by the existing WAGS to the new WAG from regional Victoria on the block.

AFL is the most popular code right now and less scandalous so it's probably a better bet than NRL. Will the show last more than one year? Will it get the viewers it deserves? Time will tell but there was buzz in my office about it, as the subject matter is something that does interest Aussies leading into Footy Finals times.

(Mini) Sunday Spotlight: Tia Gostelow

Hailing from Mackay now calling Brisbane home, Tia Gostelow has got it going on right now. Releasing her debut album on Friday, touring the East Coast of Australia next month and playing at Fairgrounds in November.

Young star was originally discovered as part of Unearthed High on Triple J and continues to show Unearthed brings Australia some of our biggest stars.

Working with Lanks on Strangers and appearing on Like a Version with a great Empire of the Sun cover, Tia Gostelow is way beyond her years. With a number of recent achievements, no one is more deserving of today's Mini Sunday Spotlight than Tia Gostelow.

Check out some highlights thus far below.

YOU | Lifetime

I swore to myself I would not take on any more new TV shows, however with The Sinner wrapping up, Insecure almost done, Fear the Walking Dead wrapping up same day as Insecure and The Bite Club about to conclude locally, I added YOU to my list.

Coming to Netflix in Australia, YOU has had two episodes in the USA on Lifetime (the network for 40 year old women and gay men) and having less than a million viewers for each episode but critically it's been a hit.


Trash meets thriller is a real buzz with this show and former Gossip Girl (spoiler alert if you get the reference) Penn Badgley stars as the lead Joe Goldberg a stalker who is actually kind of sweet.

It's a boy meets girl at a local NY book store, he follows her, he gets into her online world and now in the year 2018, know needs a private detective, we all overshare.

YOU could be a breakout hit, after two episodes I am already hooked. With How to Get Away with Murder, 9-1-1, Empire, Star and Station 19 incoming I need less on my books, however I think I just found space on my dance card for this thriller.

Keep an eye out on Netflix soon for YOU.

Movie Matinee Madness - The Nun

The Conjuring series has now spun out to five films. Two original Conjuring tales and two Annabelle films, now it's time for the Nun to strike.

In Romania in 1952 a demonic force is running wild, mainly in the form of a nun and for a packed Wednesday midweek session, this film had me shook!



I used to be a whole bunch better in scary films, but now in my thirties, I get freaked, easily.

There are a whole bunch of jump scenes in this film and the tension builds and builds and builds.

It does take a while to get to the point after the initial scary set up scene, but once it hits it's stride it works. Using original Conjuring stars Vera Farmiga's sister Taissa (pictured in the still above) as one of the main stars is an interesting move too.

Demián Bichir from the US season of The Bridge is a great choice for the Father who visit's this haunted and unholy site in Romania.

Overall I have enjoyed these Conjuring films and I that continued with The Nun. I liked Annabelle but the fact is a scary Nun is a bit more intense than a doll, as ugly as the doll was.

The Nun is the latest in James Wan's horror story, it's pretty excellent for the horror genre and I am giving it, 4 solid demonic Nun stars.