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: I Am Woman, Rebecca, Disenchantment (upcoming season), Cool Hand Luke
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
In the finishing things out category, I polished Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Last Tango in Halifax. While I think Sabrina could have been better overall, I’m glad we got the four parts that we did for it and the cast did a great job of capturing this world and all its weirdness. Shipka in particular did come across as Sabrina as seen in the books, creator depending to some degree, and I really enjoyed her performance throughout it. Halifax was great to get a couple more episodes out of and I was amused that they finally slid Brexit into it as a point of contention between the elder couple while not saying who leans which way, even though it’s pretty freakin’ obvious. I will always hope for another special or more of this group of characters.
In an area where I’m behind by about four episodes, I did catch up to episode six of The Expanse with its most current season this past week. My viewing partner for this isn’t regular so I can only get a couple in here and there. I continue to just really adore the show and all that it’s doing even while frustrated with some of the reality of how it can play out. The actor for Marco Inaros is fantastic and seeing the discussion about how the Belters need to do this is fascinating. But the argument made in these episodes makes it clear that the Belters are a dead-end offshoot of humanity unless they go in a radically different direction, which Inaros isn’t offering. With them unable to live on planets for the most part, and those that can will end up staying there and no longer be Belters, the only real option for them is to become a true spacefaring species. But in a time when the Ring exists, there isn’t even a need for that to a large degree either. They are a dead-end species at this point and lashing out.
I happened across Finding Joy on Amazon Prime and had to check it out because it includes Aisling Bea in the cast and I adore her. Plus, more homegrown Irish TV is exactly what I want to see. The first season, which is the only one available to Prime users as I don’t have Acorn, is a lot of fun in a traditional woman figuring out her life sense. There’s some quirkiness to it works and a mix of positivity elements that reminded me of Ted Lasso to some degree. It’s got a solid cast and some good situational humor that comes from it and really just made me laugh and smile throughout a whole lot of it as Amy Huberman, lead and creator, goes all-in on it.
In the realm of background movies watched during the week while working on the site, I had a pretty good range though it was more action-oriented. I ended up with Kingsman: The Golden Circle as I somehow don’t have the first one and am not sure why. I ended up in that because I showed my eldest Kick-Ass for the first time and we had a lot of fun watching that. And it all in turn lead me back to Atomic Blonde as I needed more of that kind of solid violence and cinematography.
I did dip into the animated realm a bit and ended up watching the Aladdin film for the first time in the longest time and the thoroughly enjoyed CG animated Epic. But then anime bug bit and I got distracted by the original Patlabor film and delved into No Game No Life: Zero for some modern animation comparison time.
In terms of older films, I did get a couple in as I revisited Rising Sun, which is still a strange and weird favorite after all these years. Snipes and Connery are great but there’s such a weird thing about the Japanese elements that itch. Lastly, one of the films that has such a solid cast but a weird feeling in general to it is 1999’s Ride the Devil, which I think I own only because it has Jewel in an acting role and I had a huge crush on her back in the day.