Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue was a binge I started on my trip to Japan. The first two episodes were addictive AF!
Like an old school whodunnit, this thriller television series created and written by Anthony Horowitz was top notch.
Staring early March, concluding over the weekend on Stan. This might be my first MGM+ title I have watched.
So what's the drum? Following an air disaster, nine strangers are marooned in a Mexican jungle. However, when they start dying one by one, the survivors must solve the mystery of who is killing them off.
The tight six episode limited season stars Will & Grace's Will, Eric McCormack as Kevin Anderson, David Ajala as Zack Ellis, Lydia Wilson as Sonja Blair, Jan Le as Amy Maclean, Adam Long as Dan Maclean, Siobhán McSweeney as Lisa Davies, Peter Gadiot as Carlos García Méndez, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Travis Davies, Ángel López-Silva as Captain Gabriel Vega & Sebastián Capitán Viveros as second lieutenant Ignacio López.
As we get through the six episodes more and more bodies appear in Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue.
They arrive at the morgue, where the twists and turns come a plenty.
The finale offers a how did it, along with a why did it, with a pretty inclusive ending for a limited series, however it gives the viewer a bit of a, make the ending up yourselves.
This was addictive, easy viewing. I was hooked. I will 100% be taking more notice of MGM+ programming from now on. Most previous titles for now can be found on Stan in Australia.
Rescue: HI-Surf wrapped it's lengthy season one whilst I was off chasing cherry blossoms. So it was an easy pick to finish the final two episodes upon my return. Was there a cliffhanger? HELL NO!
Well unless you count someone driving off into the sunset, after a party? Like they literally just drove off as they left a dull party or had an early start tomorrow.
The party they left was fine, the episode was run of the mill, but nothing for me to scream at Shameless (USA) producer to write/create a second run.
Rescue: HI-Surf was originally piloted for HBO Max in 2021, the series was then picked up by FOX, premiering last September. FOX originally planned to air an episode of Rescue: HI-Surf following its coverage of Super Bowl LIX in February.
However (this is where we should question if a second season is coming) last November, FOX pushed the episode back to its normal time slot, and announced that it would air the third season premiere of The Floor in the post-Super Bowl slot instead. Way harsh!
However the new series for the 2024-2025 season, did premiere last September, following NFL coverage, before moving to its regular Monday-night time slot the following day.
Starring Arielle Kebbel, Adam Demos (Aussie), Robbie Magasiva (Wentworth legend), Kekoa Kekumano, Alex Aiono, Zoe Cipres, Tessa de Josselin, Andrew Creer, Ethan Rich, George Mason, Kekoa Scott Kekumano, Arielle Kebbel, Shawn Hatosy and Ian Anthony Dale
So is Rescue: HI-Surf, just a revamp/reworking of Baywatch? Well yes and no. The 19 episodes, follow a team of lifeguards in the North Shore of O'ahu, Hawaii.
It looks amazing, the male lifeguards are HOT! Particularly, Kekoa Scott Kekumano as Laka Hanohan.
Aside from the eye candy, with Binge losing all HBO content, almost overnight. Is this remaining US series worth watching on Binge? Yes and no. It looks great (both the beaches, scenery and the men) but honestly the character development has been noted for being rather lacklustre.
If the guys weren't good looking, they would be DAMN boring.
With limited series announced for the return of the 2025-2026 TV season on FOX so far, I suspect this might be given another shot. Even with a potential reboot of the show this may have been inspired by, Baywatch.
Here is what is currently set to return to FOX from September this year:
Bob's Burgers—Renewed for a sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth season on April 2, 2025.
Doc—Renewed for a second season on February 26, 2025.
Family Guy—Renewed for a twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh season on April 2, 2025.
Hell's Kitchen—Renewed for a twenty-fourth season on March 26, 2024.
Krapopolis—Renewed for a third season on March 1, 2023 and a fourth season on July 25, 2024.
Murder in a Small Town—Renewed for a second season on January 16, 2025.
Next Level Chef—Renewed for a fifth and sixth season on February 27, 2025.
The Simpsons—Renewed for a thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth and fourtieth season on April 2, 2025.
Universal Basic Guys—Renewed for a second season on May 13, 2024.
My three week long Japan trip is over. Did I keep up/catch up on sometime. Yass sir.
Fallout was a full one season binge for me.
Ceated by Graham Wagner & Geneva Robertson-Dworet, streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Fallout is based on the role-playing video game franchise created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.
Jonathan Nolan directs the first three episodes, with me being late to this Amazon party. As the series landed around a year ago, receiving generally positive reviews, with praise for the performances (particularly of Purnell, Moten, and Goggins), writing, visuals, production design, and faithfulness to the source material.
Thankfully, the series was renewed for a second season. No streaming date has been provided by Prime as yet.
Fallout was also nominated for 17 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Goggins.
Giving Westworld/end of times vibes, this was a perfect and easy eight episode binge whilst overseas.
Randomly I watched this series after attending the sad memorial for an actual atomic bomb. Now if you are late to the Fallout party, well watch out, there are spoilers about the finale below. However like me, you have had a year right! So are they really even spoilers?
Lucy and Norm, independently, learn the truth of the war, while the Ghoul also reminisces about that truth.
Pre-War, Cooper eavesdrops on Barb and her colleague, Bud Askins, to his horror learning they are explicitly managing Vault-Tec's plans to start a nuclear war to eliminate its competitors.
Cooper also meets young Betty Pearson and Hank MacLean.
Norm discovers Vault 31 contains the cryogenically stored junior executives of Vault-Tec, overseen by the cyborg brain-on-wheels of Bud, who traps Norm in Vault 31.
Lucy turns the head over to Moldaver, who reveals that Rose had fled Vault 33 with her children years earlier.
Hank tracked her down and was responsible for the nuclear bombing of Shady Sands, turning Rose into a feral ghoul.
Maximus is forgiven by the Brotherhood and joins the battle against Moldaver's forces. Lucy convinces Hank to give Moldaver the code activating her cold fusion reactor. Maximus frees Lucy's father but attacks him after learning Hank's role in Shady Sands' destruction.
Lucy disowns Hank for his actions after he attacks Maximus. The Ghoul, believing his family might still be alive, invites Lucy to travel with him and Dogmeat to find Vault-Tec's leaders.
Lucy kills Rose and takes the Ghoul up on his offer. Moldaver activates the fusion reactor, powering Los Angeles just before she dies from her wounds.
The Brotherhood forces assume that Maximus is responsible for Moldaver's death and acclaim him as Knight Maximus.
Hank flees to the remains of New Vegas.
Can I wait for season two? Hell no! Finally Amazon has some worthwhile content. Just in time for MAX to launch in Australia. Oh that's right, this also gives The Last of Us vibes. Season two will officially only stream on MAX. Poor Binge.
Mickey 17 sees the return of Bong Joon Ho. The science fiction black comedy film is written, produced, and directed by the Parasite legend! Not to forget Snowpeircer (the film, not the series).
The film is (of course) based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton.
Starring Robert Pattinson as various (spoiler alert) Mickey's. The film also stars Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun (HOT!), Australia's favourite daughter, Toni Collette, & Mark Ruffalo as a Trump figure. That may or may not be true.
OK so it's raining for maybe the third day in a row in Shinjuku, hence me seeing three films across all Japanese cities and not hanging out with the Cherry Blossoms. Well I did one day, then the rain came.
Honestly was lucky to get so much in before the weather turned. Like Snowpeircer Shinjuku station has to be seen to be believed. Hectic AF!
Mickey 17 is set in the year 2054, the plot follows a man who joins a space colony as an expendable, a disposable worker who gets cloned every time he dies for research purposes.
The film deals with many social issues (like Parasite and previous Bong Joon Ho films) which is great in this current world we live in.
Like Mark Ruffalo's Trump like dictator, this film explores Elon's plan to just give up on Earth and relocate to another planet to fuck it up. Well basically.
Mickey 17 has received generally positive reviews from critics but was a box office bomb, grossing $121 million worldwide, losing Warner Bros. an estimated $75–80 million during its theatrical run. Now following Snow White, the box office is not having such a good time.
It feels a little like after COVID when cinemas were desperate to get us back but the content wasn't right and people generally over that two year period moved to Netflix (and chill) and Uber Eats. It's had socially engineering people to go back to the cinemas, now every streaming service seemingly offers you box office films a lot quicker than we got them back in the video store or DVD days.
Times have changed, the cinema game has to as well.
I have received countless emails for cheap cinema tickets/vouchers while I have been away, which usually means the upcoming movies are average, at best.
However back to Mickey 17, I liked it. It wasn't great, it was way too long, but it was decent. Robert Pattinson has come along way since Twilight.
Summer still lingered on well through March. The humidity, the heat, the tropical rain showers. Fuck me with a chainsaw. What an unpleasant few months. Then that mid-March heatwave! FUCK! Are you sure climate change isn't real Rowan Dean?
With US network series back on the streamers, a number of shows are getting ready to wrap up their latest (or last, depending on the networks mood) seasons.
Again there were loads of Aussie series returning or new titles across the last three months. ABC was going off with the final season of The Newsreader, while Netflix gave us the brilliant Apple Cider Vinegar. Black Snow also delivered for QLD and Bump wrapped, with a movie to come this year.
HBO has also finally returned with the brilliant Thai based season of The White Lotus. Look out for that next quarter, along with The Last of Us returning and the final season of the hit and miss The Righteous Gemstones.
Paramount+ has also been busy with a Dexter prequel, the brilliant Landman wrapping it's first season and new spy series The Agency scoring an early renewal.
Back to HBO real quick though, this is the last quarter HBO series will stream on Binge. Yes MAX is coming to Australia. Not another fucking streaming service I hear you say! Yes another fucking streaming service. While Binge will lose a shit tonne of PREMIUM content. This should be worrying for Binge bosses!
Anyway, here are my top 33 shows of Summer Part II below.
For a full double summer list, keep an eye out. If you need more series to catch up on, below are my previous RATED's:
So live from Japan, Australia has delivered some top notch content this past quarter. I will from April till June catch up on Ten Pound Poms, NCSI: Sydney, The Last Anniversary and maybe even Darby and Joan LOL. Sorry Star Wars, but Skeleton Crew was the WORST!
1. Apple Cider Vinegar - Miniseries (AU)
2. Landman - Season One
3. Big Boys - Seasons One - Two
4. The Newsreader - Seasons Three/Series Finale (AU)
5. Black Snow - Season Two (AU)
6. Paradise - Season One
7. Dexter: Original Sin - Season One
8. Bump - Season Five/Series Finale (AU)
9. Optics - Season One (AU)
10. On Call - Season One
11. Squid Game (Korean: 오징어 게임) - Season Two
12. Clean Slate - Season One
13. Invisible Boys - Season One (AU)
14. The Chi - Season Six
15. Human Error - Miniseries (AU)
16. The Sex Lives of College Girls - Season Three/Series Finale
17. Disclaimer (stylised as DISCLAIMER*) - Miniseries
18. How to Die Alone - Season One/Series Finale
19. Reacher - Season Three
20. Bookie - Seasons One - Two/Series Finale
21. Tokyo Vice - Season Two/Series Finale
22. Hysteria! - Season One/Series Finale
23. Extraordinary - Seasons One - Two/Series Finale
