Troppo season two kicks off six months after Ted Conkaffey (Jane) and Amanda Pharrell (Chamoun) were introduced to viewers in season one.
In season one they solved their first murder case, the unlikely duo is now investigating the bizarre local murder of a healing retreat leader with connections to an exotic drug ring and a ‘bikie’ gang.
While Amanda tangles with an old enemy and finds a new love interest (who is also sort of an enemy for the first four or so episodes), Ted’s past stalks him and his family to Crimson Lake, with deadly consequences.
My father informed me, Troppo is based on the Crimson Lake books, a contemporary crime series set in Queensland, Australia, written by #1 New York Times best-selling author Candice Fox.
Season Two of Troppo is inspired by the second book in the series, Redemption Point.
US actor, Thomas Jane is Ted Conkaffey, while Nicole Chamoun is partner in crime, Amanda Pharrell.
The show is very Australian, a little bit troppo, but a damn easy watch on ABC iView. Watching the first season so recently, it was a damn easy job getting stuck into the second run so quickly after binge watching the first.
I do think I enjoyed the first season a little more, however this was a good little Aussie crime romp.
ABC have served up some decent drama this year. What's next on the schedule ABC? Are we waiting for after the Olympics? Whilst Seven, Nine and Ten are delivering very little drama on free to air TV this year, the ABC have continued to excel. Well done Aunty!
The Bear is back for a tough third season to watch. OK I struggled a few times to get into the Christopher Storer created series FX on Hulu.
Starring hunky AF, Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy Berzatto, alongside, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Abby Elliott and Matty Matheson. The third season really took a lot for me to get into it.
It was released on Disney+ late last month, which ahead of the third season premiere, the show was renewed for a fourth season, which will film back-to-back with the third season.
So here is hoping for a more engaging fourth season. This show has been one of those huge series that everyone talks about. The buzz is WILD. The awards have been many. However until episode six, Napkins, I really struggled to get a run on with the third seasons episodes.
Disney+ in Australia have loads of quality content right now. Not much in the way of local AU content, however some serious overseas content incoming on the daily.
Towards the end of the season we finally get some grit in the episode Ice Chips, with Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Natalie's (Abby Elliot) mother, while she is giving birth.
This was a refreshing return to that chaotic episode last season, Fishes. Remember that crazy ass family dinner?
Episode nine however, Apologies returns to the much-about-nothing season three vibe.
So before season four drops (date TBA) what happened in Forever, the season three finale? SPOILER ALERT!
Carmy, Sydney and Richie attend the Ever closing dinner. Richie spends time with Garrett and Jessica while they run service, while Carmy reconnects with Luca, who plans to stay in Chicago for a few months to visit his sister.
Sydney converses with Luca and various renowned chefs as they share their stories from past kitchens, and is struck by their aversion to dysfunctional kitchen environments.
Carmy confronts David Fields, his abusive former boss, and accuses him of ruining his self-worth; Fields snidely claims Carmy should be thanking him as his abuse made Carmy a better chef.
Adam reminds Sydney about his prior offer, to which she states she is still interested.
Chef Terry explains her choice to close the restaurant to Carmy, explaining she was tired of the constant stress and wanted to finish her career on her own terms. After the service, Sydney hosts an afterparty at her apartment attended by Luca, Chef Terry, and members of The Bear and Ever's staff.
Noticing the Original Beef's old five-star review and thinking about how the staff has changed since, Sydney runs out of her apartment and has a panic attack.
Carmy checks his phone to discover several missed calls from Cicero and Computer, along with the Tribune review; to his anger, the review is mixed.
Concluding with a To Be Continued screen, will we be waiting until June 2025 for the next instalment? If seasons one, two and three have a pattern, it's that all stream in late June. Until then, Jeremy Allen White, stay sexy!
Fake Premiered on Paramount+ this Thursday, I was done by Friday evening. Yes it's that addictive.
Gold Logie award-winning actress Asher Keddie, who recently shone in Strife is back with another A grade Aussie drama.
Following her run in Lost Flowers Of Alice Heart, Nine Perfect Strangers and Offspring), Keddie is joined by David Wenham (Elvis, Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers & The Return Of The King).
This gripping eight-part series that explores love in a world of liars, cheats, fantasists and online dating apps.
Now this came at a good time, as a lot of recent Paramount+ titles haven't interested in. If I was honest, it could be my first choice of streaming service to cut. They are becoming a little like the Hunger Games, with so many options, such varied content across all streamers.
Fake is getting all sorts of good reviews online. The Logies missed this seriously good local yarn. Not to mention you cannot forget how brilliant Heather Mitchell is as Keddie's mother. Brilliant role for Mitchell. Also Nicholas Brown is also excellent as her bestie Anton.
Anton's husband in the show may also be familiar for fans of the Secret Life of Us.
If this show has wet your whistle here are some other Paramount+ titles: A Gentleman In Moscow, Knuckles, Elsbeth, Little Wing, Ferrari,Star Trek: Discovery Season Five, The Gilded Age Season Two, NCIS: Sydney, Frasier, The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers, ARK: The Animated Series,The Family Stallone Season Two and Top Gear Australia.
So do yourself a favour this wet, cold weekend, give Fake a go. You will love it, finish it over the weekend then join the water cooler conversations next week while school holidays takes half the office hostage.
Troppo is an Australian series which I must admit I slept on, hard. Cause once I started this, I was glued.
OnABC back in February 2022, the series based on the best-selling novel Crimson Lake by Candice Fox, in which a former police officer helps a private investigator look for a missing man in Far North Queensland commenced.
Good news for latecomers like me, Troppo's second season would premiere on today on ABC TV, while getting a streaming run on Amazon Prime later this month.
I can't believe I caught up just in time. The eight episodes just breezed by. With a killer local cast including US lead Thomas Jane as Ted Conkaffey. The series also stars Nicole Chamoun as Amanda Pharrell, David Lyons as Inspector Lou Damford, Sun Park as Yoon Sun Park, Yerin Ha as Ah Rah Park, Ling Cooper Tang as Sergeant Carrie Hench, Kate Beahan as Olivia, Cramer Cain as Wayne & Peta Wilson as Eve.
The series was was filmed in the Gold Coast hinterland of Queensland, Australia, although the story is set in Far North Queensland. Screen Queensland announced the completion of filming of Season Two on October 16, 2023, with the second series to be set six months after the first season.
I am throughly looking forward to jumping into season two over the weekend. I am thinking it's going to be another cold, wet weekend in Sydney. Despite rolling into a new financial year.
So if free streaming and local crime dramas are up your alley, Troppo on ABC iView is a damn fine watch. Next up local series Fake with the extremely talented Asher Keddie!
Clipped just concluded on Disney+ as one of their FX on Hulu pieces of content on the Australian app.
Created by Gina Welch, based on the ESPN 30 for 30 podcast The Sterling Affairs.
Following the Veil, this miniseries premiered early June, with a short six episode run. It is your first post, in the New Financial Year 2024/2025 Streaming series.
Across the six episodes (where no one wins) Clipped focuses on the downfall of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, amid the team's drive to win a championship under coach Doc Rivers.
Starring, Laurence Fishburne as Doc Rivers, Ed O'Neill as Donald Sterling and Aussie legend Jacki Weaver as Shelly Sterling. I literally just watched Weaver in a fun made for streaming film, Stage Mother, alongside Lucy Liu.
Weaver is killing it in the USA right about now!
Also in the early episodes Cleopatra Coleman as V. Stiviano is excellent. Her character gets a little less air time as the series rolled on.
In episode six, Keep Smiling, Doc & the Clippers are facing a big playoff series against Oklahoma City, but the players are distracted by Donald’s disastrous TV interview with Anderson Cooper.
They lose the next game, and soon enough, they’re eliminated from the playoffs, with Doc reminding his players of how much they overcame just to get there.
Donald Sterling wraps the series annoyed that Shelly is trying to line up buyers for his team, and after his on-air meltdown, Shelly starts thinking about invoking a clause in their trust where she can remove him if he’s deemed incompetent.
She has Donald meet with a neurologist, and he doesn’t do great on the test, with the neurologist suggesting he may have Alzheimer’s. But Donald shrugs it off, and when Shelly brings him the hyper-enthusiastic tech mogul Steve Ballmer, who offers to buy the Clippers for $2 billion, Donald dismisses him.
Left with no other options, Shelly uses the neurologist’s evaluation to get Donald removed from the trust, and Donald is incensed.
Donald takes her to court, where he declares that he runs the team. Shelly testifies to Donald’s failing mental faculties, and he gets belligerent, yelling at the judge and calling Shelly a pig. The judge rules in Shelly’s favor, clearing the way for her to sell the team to Ballmer.
Shelly doesn’t exactly end up smelling like roses, either. Even her best friend Justine turns on her after she stays with Donald following the sale.
And after a heart-to-heart with LeVar Burton helps him get in touch with his anger, Doc Rivers tells Shelly off, too. Even though she sold the team, she and Donald still own their practice facility, and she’d still get a ring if they won a title, and “that absolutely fills me with rage,” he flatly tells her.
But the saddest ending of all has to be V. Stiviano’s, with her lawyer reminding her that Shelly is still suing her for the duplex, just as her finances are drying up. She sells her Ferrari but keeps the vanity plates and goes to court to face Shelly, telling her that Donald would have taken her side. But then Donald enters the courthouse and takes Shelly’s hand, leaving V. devastated.
On the witness stand, V. says she was Donald’s right-hand arm, even though she had no official employment record, and that he wanted to take care of her.
But in Donald’s sworn testimony, he says that the cars he gave her were his, and he only put them in her name because of her criminal record. V. loses in court, and we see her taking a sad walk through her empty duplex before moving out, carving “STERLING PROPERTIES” into the wall with her keys.
She has a drink with Deja to commiserate, but even there, a couple of drunk jerks make fun of her and call her a whore. When she stands up for herself, then V. angrily confronts them, she gets punched right in the face.
Bruised and battered, V. turns back to what she knows best: working for Donald, fetching his coffee and medications and signing for his deliveries.
Donald sunbathes nude, somehow coming out of this scandal with a billion-dollar windfall. The Clippers players are befuddled by new owner Steve Ballmer’s rabid enthusiasm, but they bond by playing a midnight game of street basketball, far away from the cameras.
As for Doc, he hits the Clippers court with Elgin Baylor, shooting hoops and talking about their legacies.
Doc wants to be remembered as a winner. But he admits his fanatical drive to win led to his wife just filing for divorce. Elgin isn’t worried about his legacy, though; he just enjoys the sound of a basketball swishing through the net.
So overall it was a fairly depressing finale. The series is full of unlikable people, real people. However Weaver as Shelly Sterling really steals the show in this last episode. Well done.
A Quiet Place: Day One could have just been another lame ass, half-baked prequel. However Day One is actually a damn fine little film.
Maybe my expectations for a good film are so low this year, that he third instalment in the A Quiet Place film series actually kept me on the edge of my seat for this survival/horror/end of days film.
Starring Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, and Alex Wolff, with Djimon Hounsou reprising his role from the second film.
Lupita Nyong'o plays a terminally ill woman during the beginning stages of an invasion in New York City by blind extraterrestrial creatures with an acute sense of hearing. The film received positive reviews from critics, with N’Yongo’s performance garnering widespread acclaim.
Honestly the sweet cat, Frodo made a lot of the film for me. So sweet! However, apparently Nyong'o's had asked the director, if they could change the animal due to a fear of cats, which she ultimately overcame with cat therapy.
I couldn't imagine this film without Frodo.
Honestly I am not surprised Emily Blunt revealed that director, Michael Krasinski has plans for a third and final A Quiet Place film. Acknowledging that he had wanted to see how the second instalment was received before moving forward on the next film, she stated it is intended to be a trilogy.
In July, Blunt confirmed that Krasinski is working on a third and final instalment, separate from the spin-off movie, with intentions to once again serve as director.
In February 2022, A Quiet Place Part III was officially announced with a scheduled release date in 2025.
So we will see the fourth and final film next year. Yet another sequel here we come in the new year.
That said, this has been a surprise little film series to go far. The day one story was interesting, if not a little predictable, but still good.
I might be grading this a little high, however it was good to get back to the cinema, see you for Twisters in a week and a bit!
Well here we go again. Welcome to the new financial year. Hello 2024/2025! Winter saw a load of new, returning and concluding series land.
Station 19 closed its fire station doors, The Big Door Prize was only axed over the weekend on Apple TV+ and The Girls on the Bus only got one season, despite feeling like a miniseries.
There was loads of great Aussie content including the returning champion series Colin from Accounts. Yes it topped the Spring 2022 TV Finales, if you look below it may have also been rather successful over this past quarter.
The ABC delivered some local dramas and comedies, with the fun White Fever and return to Ladies in Black.
SBS gave us Swift Street, whilst Stan gave us a very dark series, Exposure.
The writers strikes are well and truly over for network TV from the US of mother fucking A. All American (and it's spin-off) will concluding shortly. With All American returning next year at some time for a cheaper less lead Spencer James season seven.
So scroll below, find your new financial year viewing below. It's cold (and at times wet) outside, so rug up, fire up your streaming service of choice as I tried to watch one thing from most of them. Next quarter, it's my catch up quarter with only All American (plus the Homecoming spin-off conclusion) coming, I have loads of time to catch up on titles I may have missed. Like Troppo the Aussie mystery from 2022. So far it's damn good!
Until then, if you need more series to catch up on, below are my previous RATED's:
1. Colin from Accounts - Season Two (AU) 2. Such Brave Girls - Season One 3. Baby Reindeer - Miniseries 4. Abbott Elementary - Seasons One to Three 5. I Love That for You - Season One/Series Finale 6. Loot - Season Two 7. Hacks - Season Three 8. Ted Lasso - Seasons One to Three 9. After the Party - Miniseries 10. Interview with the Vampire - Season One 11. Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. - Seasons One to Two 12. Sullivans Crossing - Seasons One to Two 13. White Fever - Season One (AU) 14. Station 19 - Season Seven/Series Finale 15. Mary & George - Miniseries 16. Swift Street - Miniseries (AU) 17. Palm Royale - Season One 18. Reasonable Doubt - Season One 19. High Country - Season One (AU) 20. Ladies in Black - Season One (AU) 21. American Rust: Broken Justice 22. The Sympathizer (Cảm tình viên) - Miniseries 23. Shelved - Season One 24. The Big Door Prize - Seasons One to Two/Series Finale 25. Sugar - Season One 26. Heartbreak High (2022 series) - Season Two (AU) 27. Fire Country - Season Two 28. 61st Street - Seasons One to Two/Series Finale 29. The Veil - Miniseries 30. Exposure - Season One (AU) 31. The Girls on the Bus - Season One/Series Finale 32. Conversations with Friends - Miniseries 33. THEM: The Scare 34. The Swarm - Miniseries 35. Wreck - Season Two 36. Queenie - Season One 37. American Horror Story: Delicate 38. Chucky - Season Three 39. The Equalizer - Season Four 40. Velma - Season Two 41. The Regime - Miniseries 42. School Spirits - Season One 43. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live - Miniseries 44. BMF - Season Three 45. Dark Matter - Season One 46. We Are Lady Parts - Season Two 47. Mayfair Witches - Seasons One 48. The Cleaning Lady - Season Three 49. Big Mood - Season One 50. Girls5eva - Season Three
