It’s a new year and that means… data caps! My region was lucky to avoid having those for all these years but we’re now getting capped starting this month, with some grace time, and I’ll admit that with a family of four with very different tastes, we gotta be careful how much we do stream. So I made sure to finish out some big shows last month and will probably be a touch choosier going forward, though we’re supposed to be getting some options on how to manage it for those who want “real” unlimited. Oh boy.
We’ve mostly whittled away our list of shows to watch in several of our streaming service queues so we’re definitely in a good place.
Current Netflix queue: Rose Island, I Am Woman, Rebecca, Dolemite Is My Name
HBO Max queue: David Bowie: The Last Five Years, The Flight Attendant, The Third Day, Tolkein, Jojo Rabbit, Watchmen TV, Westworld S3
Hulu queue: Das Boot, Swing Things, I Kill Giants, They Shall Not Grow Old
First up, we finished the second season of Virgin River and I’m glad it got renewed for a third season already. The show isn’t great but it has that charm based on its Harlequin Romance origins that will keep you coming back for specific storylines while rolling your eyes at others. And there is some serious eye-rolling going on with some of these folks that are presented as far too backward for their own good. Still, it’s a lot of fun, the cast is great, and most of them pull off the roles just right.
One show I’m late to is Umbrella Academy with its second season. I re-watched the first season this past summer with my eldest but she didn’t have time to watch the second season until the end of 2020. Which made for a great way to bring the year to a close as this season is just a whole lot of fun even if it is mirroring the base storyline and providing some forward momentum in character growth. It’s more confident of itself, it’s taking a few more chances, and it’s delivering one bloody excellent soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me0eoCwLj-A&t=2s
I had liked their first fuller documentary a few years back with Minimalism but The Minimalists: Less is Now is a nice addendum for it that gets a bit more personal as to why these two fell into this trap, the things they did to escape it, and what changes it made. It does cover more things than just that but it’s the kind of piece I’d recommend watching after the main doc. I’ve adhered to a lot of this outside of my office space for years and it makes a huge difference.
The fourth and final season of Sabrina dropped over the holiday weekend and I’ve gotten two episodes in and will finish that out in the next week or so. I continue to enjoy the show but knowing it’s the end has me feeling a bit less engaged with it unfortunately. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where some of the cast ends up from here, though I suspect most I won’t see again.
