Week 8
18th-24th February 2019
So this week I have only watched one thing - Dirty John - on Netflix. That’s because my sister got married on Saturday 23rd of February and between travel and family events, it wasn’t until last night that I got sit down and watch anything - apart from some kids TV.
I watched the first four episodes of Dirty John but I’m going to leave that till next week and review the series as a whole.
Week Seven
11th – 17th February 2019
A short and late post this week because I am in Dublin prepping for my sister’s wedding on the 23rd of February.
Director: Marielle Heller
Writers: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitby
Moviehouse Dublin Road
The cinema started out empty for this 9.30pm screening but thankfully a few more people joined me to watched this delightful film.
Writing female protagonists you often come up against the idea that they should be “likeable” in order to be watchable - and this really puts paid to that idea. Lee Israel is a crabby, alcoholic, forger who likes cats more than people and has a massive sense of entitlement AND she is completely engaging. I found myself taking real pleasure at her flexing her writing skills and creating believable forgeries. The last scene of the movie is particular amusing. And her emotional journey is very satisfying without her changing herself to be palatable.
She is not usually the kind of person who gets to have a movie made about her - mainly because she’s female - there are plenty of grouchy, alcoholic, misanthropic male protagonists. There was a point where she was on a date with a female bookseller and I thought - wow, if someone had come up with this idea fictionally Lee would have been a man.
And I’m so glad she was real - she sounds like a hoot.
Actually, I really liked how her sexuality is neither centred nor ignored. Almost like it’s just one aspect of her personality rather than her defining characteristic.
It’s hard to believe that this is only Marielle Heller’s 2nd Feature. The direction is so assured. Her previous film, Diary of a Teenage Girl, was really visually stunning and this film isn’t quite as showy but the subject matter doesn’t call for that.
This film is so much fun - a really enjoyable and grown-up film about great characters doing interesting and unusual things. I hope Holofcener and Whitby win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay - and it’s shame Heller was snubbed for a directing Oscar.
Co-Creators/Writers: Sharon Horgan & Rob Delaney
Director: Ben Taylor
How I watched it: All4
So the final series of Catastrophe – and one of those endings that has people asking each other – well, what do you think is going to happen?
For me, the ending is symbolic of Rob and Sharon’s relationship and so, I think they’ll be fine, because they have been so far.
Otherwise it’s pretty friggin’ dark.
This series was similar quality to 1 and 3 – much better than Series 2 and I think it’s a satisfying ending for these characters if nothing particularly ground-breaking or surprising. I don’t think I knew anything more about Sharon and Rob’s relationship at the end of the series then I did at the end of Series 3.
But I also had to pause on multiple occasions because I could see what was coming and I cringing so hard for the characters.
I never truly loved this series despite loving both the writer/performers and laughing out loud on a regular basis – and I’m not entirely sure why that is, it just never fired me up.
I can definitely appreciate its quality – but loving a show or a book or an album isn’t just about quality and skill – it’s as much about that x-factor as falling in love with a person.
Week Six
4th – 10th February 2019
I did this weird thing where I interacted with people in the real world and didn’t watch much this week.
And then everything I watched this week, I watched on Netflix – and shows that are originals or only available in the UK & Ireland on the streaming platform.
There is a lot shit on Netflix. A LOT. But it also seems to making some interesting commission choices and giving female directors such as Dee Rees and Tamara Jenkins the chance to make more films.
And then those women go and make amazing TV that everyone seems to be talking about – and you get a bit hopeful that this massive splash will open some doors for other female writers who are going to tell wonderful, weird and not weird stories that will be fresh and new.
Creators: Leslye Headland; Natasha Lyonne; Amy Poehler
Directors: Leslye Headland; Jamie Babbitt; Natasha Lyonne
Where I watched it: Netflix
So. Yeh. This is amazing – the best TV show I have seen in a long time – and the most satisfying. Lyonne and Headland had talked about having a clear story in mind – that it should feel like a four-hour film – and it does.
It’s so great that this was written, produced, and directed entirely by women. Men are not shut out or dehumanised in this story but there is a distinct female perspective and a multitude of complex characters and relationships happening here. This needs a second watch – and I rarely feel that way about anything.
Director: Dees Rees
Writer(s): Virgil Williams; Dees Rees
Where I watched it: Netflix
I’ve had this film on my list for a while because it ticks a lot of boxes: WOC director, female DOP, complex female characters, but it was Cary Mulligan was being interviewed on The Girls on Film podcast and speaking about her role that kicked it up to being my choice for this week.
But gosh this film is long. And it fair plods because, while the cinematography is beautiful, it holds its novel origins too, too close.
The problem lies with the script and the inherent flaw of trying to cram an epic story into two hours fifteen minutes because Dee Rees’ direction both visually and working with her actors is beautiful – she is highly skilled.
And the writing isn’t bad – the dialogue is lyrical and beautiful and there are rich characters here – many, many and fine performances but they are crammed into a space that doesn’t gives us the space to explore any of the individual characters with real depth – and I struggle to identify a protagonist for the film. And so it feels like the first half of the film is setup for Jamie and Ronsel’s return from war and their doomed friendship. There’s a urgency in this storyline because we can forsee how it will turn out badly for the Ronsel – the tension being in how badly. But other aspects are glossed over so quickly – like Laura’s miscarriage and depression afterwards, and the pregnant woman who murders her husband because he is abusing their daughters. These could have been wonderful episodes instead of short sequences that feel underdeveloped within the film.
If this has been given six or eight hours to really breathe it would have been awe-inspiring – as it was, it was meh.
E12 – Director: Jack Dolgen, Writer: Ilana Pena
E13 – Director: Stuart McDonald, Writer: Rene Gube
Where I watched it: Netflix
There’s a conceit within CXG that the songs mostly reflect Rebecca’s version of the world, that they are almost a coping mechanism, an outlet for her mental health issues – and I think that’s part of the reason why this season has felt light on songs – Rebecca has learnt how to manager her Borderline Personality Disorder with real-world skills and doesn’t disappear into her skewed world as often.
And so, when in E12 she gets into a relationship with #fakegreg and is very happy and stops working on her mental health – the songs come back with a bang.
It’s nice to see a TV show make a point that positive change happens gradually and take continual effort to maintain – it takes more than a one-off montage to change things in your life.
E12 revealed the flaw in the recasting of the Greg – the idea is great, and a brilliant way to get around an actor leaving …. But I don’t believe Skylar Austin hates anything let alone everything. He was fine when he was portraying happy, sorted, recovery Greg but fails when the misanthrope aspects that are so essential Greg’s character have to be portrayed. In “I hate everything … but you” he’s trying to tells us, “I’m still Greg” and all I can think is how AMAZING the song would have been done by Santino Fontana … like going out with someone who looks like a hotter version of your Ex and realising the personality falls flat.
Though I am still routing for Greg and Rebecca – despite them putting their relationship to one side in Episode 13 – actually because they’re putting their relationship to one side while she does more work on herself as a person. Greg accepts this graciously and agrees to be friends – contrast that with Nathaniel who just pushed and pushed Rebecca to get better quickly so they could be together – and Josh, who left her at the altar. Both of those characters have matured and grown but are still lacking Greg’s maturity – even in Series 2, Greg left because he knew despite their chemistry, he and Rebecca were a toxic combination due to both their issues and both need to grow.
And the LaLaLand pastiche – “Anti-Depressants are so not a big deal” is epically fun and enjoyable.
Week Five
28th January – 03 February 2019
One month down.
And I am not finding this a constraint or a chore in the slightest. I’m really enjoying myself and rediscovering my passion for film as viewer not just as a maker.
This week, writer/director Oonagh Kearney, writer Rachel Smith and myself attempted the first ever Watching Women Remote Film Club – and it was awesome (for us) to sit and chat about film with fellow BBC Drama Room Alumni. We rambled on for far too long and probably didn’t focus enough on the film but I believe that’s kinda normal for book/film clubs – our 82 minute live feed is saved in the Watching Women 2019 facebook group.
And I finally made it to the cinema for the first time in 2019 – and I managed three cinemas trips this week as the wee one was away with her Dad.
I obviously love film and TV – does anyone attempting to forge a career in this industry not? But attending the cinema is a particular pleasure. I am as prone as the next person to the siren song of my phone and so it’s a delight to step inside a dark room and gives yourself over to another world for a couple of hours.
This week I was joined by Emily for one show, and my sister Grainne for another but on Sunday morning I was the only person in the cinema for Destroyer. Unsurprising – it was 9:25am and not exactly family fair.
I’m an avid solo cinema goer – I’ve probably been to more films on my own then with a companion. A lot of people baulk at the idea of visiting the cinema alone but it actually makes more sense to me –if I’m going to be sitting there not speaking for two hours what does it matter if I know the person next to me?
BTW the blog is being posted a little bit late this week due to Child Meltdowns (Monday) and Russian Doll (Tuesday).
Director: Josie Rourke
Writer: Beau Willimon
Where I watched it: Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
There’s been a lot made of the Mary vs Elizabeth rivalry/sisterhood in the trailers and press for this film, but this is Saoirse Ronan’s film - everyone else, including Margot Robbie, is playing a secondary character.
I think the direction here is daring and assured and I like how the casting appears to be colour-blind. It gives the film some freshness - along with the some of the costume design and James McArdle’s hipster hair and beard.
The acting is excellent - Margot Robbie gives us a vulnerable, flawed, and very human Elizabeth I. Jack Lowden just oozes charisma; it’s clear why such a strong woman falls for his ultimately spineless wretch. David Tennant is delightfully hateful as John Knox.
And Saoirse Ronan is amazing - full of life and heart and a little mardy.
But there is a problem with her character - she is too good, too honourable, kind, too modern in her thinking. She is being mythologised in this film the way Elizabeth has been in the past. I would have liked more shade and shadiness to her character. Surely Mary was not sinless and blameless.
But very enjoyable and I hope Josie Rourke gets to make more films - this is an exceptionally assured debut - as I’m excited to see what she does next.
Director: Ida Lupino
Writers: Ida Lupino & Collier Young
How I watched it: Amazon Rental
This low-budget classic noir has no fat on the plot coming in at just barely 70 minutes. It’s handled with style and panache - lots of driving though the desert yet still captures the dark, grimness of the genre.
Yes, it’s a bit wobbly at places and the protagonists are very passive but I think that stems from sticking too close to the original “True Crime” inspiration. The lesson being sometimes you have to leave reality behind unless you are making a bio pic.
I recommend reading more about Ida Lupino if you have the chance – I’m delighted to have been signposted to her.
Co-Creators/Writers: Sharon Horgan & Rob Delaney
Director: Ben Taylor
How I watched it: All4
I found this series vastly superior to series 2. A lot of the cartoonish aspects that I found so grating have gone - now it feels like two very odd people reacting in a believable and funny way to realistic situations.
Maybe it’s because unlike last series that flirted with Sharon’s post-natal depression but jettisoned it for a tired, old “tempted” storyline this series actual deals with life situations that don’t feel manufactured - a man who hates his job walking away from it and struggling to find anything else and turning to drink, and a woman desperately trying to make up to her husband for a mistake and dealing with ailing parents. The final two episodes are a lovely mix of humour and sadness and oh, my Carrie Fisher leaves us with an amazing last scene. She is so missed.
Excited for Series 4 - which is showing on Channel 4 right now. And I’ve heard it’s the last series.
Director: Yorges Lanthimos
Writers: Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara
Where I watched it: The Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin
This is how you do absurdist cinema - you throw naturalism under the bus and you commit utterly to the world you are building through the characterisation, costuming, dialogue, performances, and direction.
Wonderful.
It is great to see a film about rivalry between women that so boldly strips away the idea that this has anything to do with sexual jealously and lays bare that it has instead everything to do with security and power. It’s no surprise that Davis’s original screenplay was called The Balance of Power because so much of it is not only about who has the upper hand - but the internal balancing act that gaining and keeping power requires.
Olivia Coleman is amazing - her Anne is monstrous, mad, but also heart-breaking in her desperation for love and affection. Her hatred of music and what it stirs up in her is so beautifully handled.
All three of the central characters are marvellous - layered and complex neither good nor bad but human, despite their absurdity. It is a pleasure to see three such talented actors relish these roles.
Nicholas Hoult is also hilarious as the Tory opposition leader but this is very much a film focused on the women at the centre and their sensibilities.
I agree with others who’ve said it falters at the end as it doesn’t really know how to wrap itself up.
Divine but not perfect.
Director: Karyn Kusama
Writers: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
Where I watched it: Vue Cinemas, Liffey Valley
I managed to miss the first 10 minutes of this but I doubt that made much difference.
Urgh.
I was expecting a lot from this neo-noir and it failed to deliver. Nicole Kidman’s Erin Bell is not Medea - she is a one-note character. And that note is not badass but fucked-up idiot. Yes, the usually beautiful Kidman is transformed to ugly (I totally agree with Jan Carson that the make-up is too much) but she did far better work in Big Little Lies and Top of the Lake.
I read a review that celebrated the scene where Bell is forced to give a hand job to get some info - the reviewer used this as evidence that the character was written to be truly female not just a gender-swap gimmick.
Eh? So being truly female means having to degrade yourself sexually to get things done? The scene was pointless and gratuitous and served no purpose other than to degrade the character- which we didn’t need cause we need she was fucked up on account of letting herself go (eyeroll) and I was already convinced of her willingness to do whatever she deemed necessary when she took a bag of guns off a scary man without batting an eye.
And then the bank job scene - what the actual? It made no tactical sense from her end and was just an excuse for a big shoot out. Didn’t make her seem reckless and out of control - just made the whole plot feel ludicrous.
And it’s so reductive to take an anti-heroine and make her central tenet being a bad mother and getting her lover killed. Seriously.
This is not a good script.
Karyn Kusama is a great director and the panache she shows might be what is dazzling reviews but underneath it’s hollow.
Instead check out Kusama’s The Invitation on Netflix - a very smart thriller-horror film that keeps you guessing the whole way and which has the emotional depth this film lacks.
Anything else?
Just Hunted, SAS: Who Dares Wins, and lots of Hey Dugee - which is amazing. The best children’s cartoon in years.
Week Four
21st -27th January 2019
I started this week with a bunch of horny teenagers and ended it with a couple in their 40s desperate to have a baby. It was an interesting contrast.
I also got in gear to tick off all the films that won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with a credited female writer. I’m lucky that I’ve seen 5/8 so I only needed to see The Seventh Veil, Interrupted Melody, and Coming Home. And now, The Favourite.
Also this week on twitter, writer/director Oonagh Kearney has sparked off a remote film club watching the work of Early 20th Century Female Directors.
You can join the Watching Women 2019 facebook group if you want to know more about the film club – our first film is The Hitch-Hiker and we’re discussing in the group at 9.30pm (GMT) on the 30th January 2019.
You can find me on twitter @lisaonscript
Creator: Laurie Nunn
Series Directors: Kate Herron, Ben Taylor
Where I watched it: Neflix
This series owes a huge debt to 10 Things I Hate About You – which is not a bad thing.
Full of quirky supporting teen and adult characters, this “High-school” comedy-drama about a teenage sex therapist is funny, full of heart, and wonderfully diverse in terms of gender, class, and race representations. The stunning Ncuti Gatwa as Eric, comic genius Tanya Reynolds as Lily, and the ever-excellent Gillian Anderson as Jean are the standouts for me in a brilliant cast - I could listen to Asa Butterfield read the phone book.
My one sore point is Maeve – Emma Mackey gives a fine performance - but the character is more idealisation of a type than a believable human being. She’s too perfect – she needs more flaws.
Contrast that with Adam – the school bully. He is aggressive, outright violent, apparently homophobic, a bit of a stalker, and happy to cheat. BUT we also understand that he’s embracing these aspects of his personality because rather than striving for his father’s affection coming up short, he’s decided to fail big. There is more to Adam than the playground bully – I hope we get to see more of that journey.
Maeve comes from a trouble background too – but luckily she’s really, really smart. And pretty. Yeh, she might snap at you but she’ll probably apologies and forgive you for fucking up – cause at her core she’s sweet and caring. It’s not her fault she’s forced to be all brusque and cool.
Eric is definitely my favourite character – and considering the posts on social media, I’m not alone in this. He is joyous and optimistic and naïve. He has a wonderful series arch from a boy who accepts his sexuality but not his presentation of that sexuality – we see him hiding his make-up skills from his parents – to a confident, fierce-as-fuck young man who is able to stand up to Adam.
And his series arc doesn’t shy away from issues affecting LBGTQ+ teenagers but also doesn’t feel to punish him. Something happens that shakes his confidence – and he retreats. I loved that what brought him out of his funk was not the validation of his white, best-friend but opening himself up to his family and their church and finding acceptance and love there – and using that to flower. His relationship with his father is awkward but full of love and care.
This seems to be guaranteed a second series and so I look forward to see where creator Laurie Nunn takes it next.
Co-Creators/Writers: Sharon Horgan & Rob Delaney
Director: Ben Taylor
Where I watched it: ALL4
Enjoying this a lot more than series Two. More when I finish Series 3.
Director: Compton Bennett
Writers: Muriel Box & Sidney Box
Where I watched it: ALL4
This was the first film with a credited female writer to win the Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay.
It’s very of its time and the gender politics are a bit all over the place - it claims to be a psychological drama but descended into romantic melodrama at the end - who will she pick? Look, we’ve all read Twilight, the story of a timid girl with lots of men after her is usually a winner.
And ultimately (spoiler) she chooses the man who has controlled her since she was a teenager - because he finally expresses a little kindness.
Eyeroll.
Except - he’s also the only one of the three who really appreciates her career as a concert pianist and wants that to continue.
Muriel Box went on to direct her own films - and set-up her own feminist publishing company. Maybe I’m reading too much into The Seventh Veil but I think there is the the whisper of that feminist voice in this film - a recognition of how hard it is to be a creative woman.
It’s also interesting that Box never had children herself and motherhood is completely absent from this film. Romantic love and a creative fulfilment are the only important factors in the central character’s life: the fear of losing her career drives her to attempt suicide, while finding a way to combine both love and art brings her back from the edge.
Shame she’s so passive and needs a clever (male) doctor to guide her there.
Also super creepy the idea of marrying the man who raised you from the age of 14.
Like I said - a whisper of feminist, a whisper.
Show-Runners: Aline Brosh-McKenna & Rachel Bloom
Episode Director: Erin Ehrlich
Episode Writer: Michael Hitchcock
Where I watched it: Netflix
Oh, I loved this episode. And if you love romantic comedies and meta-examinations of the tropes of those romantic comedies, you will enjoy this too.
And yay – seems like they are closing of Nathaniel as a potential End-game match for Rebecca. I am still #teamgreg.
Written & Directed by Tamara Jenkins
Where I watched it: Netflix
There’s a weird dissonance when you’re trying to watch a film about a couple struggling with infertility and you have to stop every 20 minutes to try and settle your 3-year-old who finds sleep boring.
I’ve never faced this issue personally but the depiction feels real - the strain that is put on a loving marriage by the pursuit of something that feels essential to its protagonists but appears unachievable. Hahn and Giamatti are excellent. This is very poignant, while still managing to find humour where it can. And Tamara Jenkins has a knack at telling stories of arty people struggling with life - without disappearing up her own arsehole.
Lovely and full of heart and pathos.
Otherwise
Just the usual Cbeebies. And Trolls. God, that child loves Trolls.
Hunted – I want the solo Essex girl to win.
The nominations for the 2019 Academy Awards have been announced today and once again there have been no female directors nominated for the award.
There’s been a lot of attention on this issue and many debates about why female directors are being overlooked for the award.
But the focus on directing overshadows the fact that the Academy’s record with regards to female writers is not great either: This year there are only two female writers’ nominated for Screenplay Awards:
Nicole Holofcener (co-nominated with Jeff Whitty) for Can You Ever Forgive Me? for Best Adapted Screenplay; and,
Deborah Davis (co-nominated with Tony McNamara) for The Favourite for Best Original Screenplay.
Davis is the only the 59th woman to be nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Award since its creation in 1940 and if she takes home the Oscar, she will only be 9th woman to win – and the first since 2007.
To put that into perspective, 437 men were nominated for the award in that time and 97 won.
And it’s not getting better: Since 2009 only 9 films out of the 50 nominated for the Best Original Screenplay award have had females writers credited - there have been four years in the last ten when women didn’t receive any nominations for the award.
Why are women’s voices being shut out the Academy Awards? Maybe it’s because if you’re not given the space to tell your story, it can never been recognised or celebrated. Maybe it’s because even if you do get to make that film, the gatekeepers and the tastemakers are unable to see beyond their own experience to appreciate your work.
It’s a vicious circle because awards, especially the Oscars, influence who gets to make what: a nomination alone can change the course of a creative career - meaning that leaving women’s work out of awards mean less women get the chance to make less films.
What films win awards influences what kind of stories are being told – out of those 50 films nominated since 2009, only 11 have female protagonists, meaning the (most straight, mostly white) male narrative continues to dominate Western cinema.
We are ignoring the voices of women. We are ignorning the stories of women.
We are not allowed to be what we are – three billion diverse human beings.
Instead we are reduced to types.
Instead we are filtered through the gaze of male writers. We are reduced to love interests and murder victims.
We are objectified.
And this matters because the stories we tell don’t just reflect our society – they shape our culture and they influence our society. Art imitating Life imitating Art imitating life – it’s an endless loop.
Our culture doesn’t value women’s stories and women voices, because our culture doesn’t value women. It doesn’t respect their talents and their opinions.
Watching Women is a personal project but it is also intensely political.
I am asking you to be aware of who is telling you stories about woman, who is telling you what a woman should be, how those stories are shaping your expectations about how a woman should behave? How men and women should treat each other – what women think/want/feel – how and why women exist in the world.
Who wrote and directed the film? Who’s voice are you listening to?
And if you are only listening to male voices in film, in literature, on TV, in Music, maybe question why that is – and seek out the voices of the women already speaking and insist room is made for the women who are still fighting to speak.
Week Three: 14th – 20th January 2019
So this week, there’s been a decent split between TV/Film – I also tried to see Mary, Queen of Scots on Sunday but got the times mixed up so I have yet to have a cinema trip this year.
I remember when my daughter was young and her sleep schedule hadn’t kicked in yet and there was nothing I wanted to do when I had free time but sleep and/or watch films and TV.
I probably went to the cinema more than most new mothers because that was my top priority when I had time away from parenting but now she is in bed and asleep most nights by 8.30pm and sleeps through till morning and I can watch things most evenings.
So when she goes away for her contact weekends, as she did this weekend, I take every chance I get to leave the house in the evenings to interact with adults – and that cuts down on the amount I watched.
I also wrote a short film this week, one that’s been swirling around in my head for the last few months – to sum it up in three one words, it’s about Brexit, friendship, and tampons.
Deirdra & Lainey Rob a Train (2017)
Director: Sydney Freeland Writer: Shelby Farrell
How I watched it: Netflix
This film is grand. It has a great title and a strong premise and the characters are really engaging and likeable. The humour is very gentle and I don’t hugely care the plot is completely unbelievable.
My biggest issue with this film is that the pacing is off. It lingers where it shouldn’t but it doesn’t really give a proper space to create an emotional arc for its lead character. And even the manic rush at the end can’t hide how weak the final plan actually is.
This is Freeland’s second feature and she definitely shows promise and inventiveness in her direction but this never feels cinematic and I don’t think that’s just the aspect ratio.
But it’s vastly superior to some of Netflix’s other “teen” offering (Kissing Booth, To all the Boys ..., Sierra Burgess) and I didn’t roll my eyes once. There are lots of female characters doing lots of interesting things and “getting a boyfriend” isn’t a motivating factor for any of them. Plus there is more that just gender representation with diversity in front of and behind the camera.
Catastrophe (S3: Ep1)
Co-Creators/Writers: Sharon Horgan & Rob Delaney
Director: Ben Taylor
How I watched it: All4
I was planning to watch the whole six episodes of Series 3 this week but got waylaid. I’ll post a series review when I’ve gotten to the end – but I felt this episode was a vast improvement on S2 and a lot of that cartoonish aspect is gone – I thought the trip to A&E was particularly lovely.
Excited to be seeing if it can sustain for the rest of the series.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (S4: Ep10)
Show-Runners: Aline Brosh-McKenna & Rachel Bloom
Episode Director: Kabir Akhtar
Episode Writers: Rachel Specter & Audrey Wauchope
How I watched it: Netflix
So this had what the last episode lack: A stand out song. Sports Analogies has Josh and Nathaniel singing up a storm as a pair of rat packers – it bouncy and fun and very clever. And even quite poignant.
As was Rebecca finally admitting she’s been avoiding her biological child because she’s worried the baby will hate her – and she is afraid she is a toxic gene dump. It makes such sense for the character.
Plus Greg and Rebecca. Oh yay, and oh dear. A reunion – but possibly too early? And with Nathaniel shown to be sad about this … doesn’t look good for Greg with quite a few episodes to come.
It’s funny, last series, when I held no hope of Greg returning I thought Nathaniel was sweet and would be all right … but nah – if they are not going to have Rebecca end up with Greg then I want them to finish the series with her alone and ready for pastures news.
I just think Greg and Rebecca connect in a way that she hasn’t with any other male characters on the show – and I love the way they’ve both grown and are able to talk to each other as adults while still maintaining their playfulness.
I still miss #realgreg – it’s the voice. Skylar Austin is very handsome, yes, lacks Santino Fontana’s smooth vocals.
Sex-Education (Series 1, E1-5)
Created by Laurie Nunn
Directors: Kate Herron, Ben Taylor
How I watched it: Netflix
My sister recommended this to me and checked first that I could watch it. This has a female director for 4 of the 8 episodes and a female creator – and the writing team is 5 women and 1 man. Yep, Thank you, Shona!
I am three episodes away from finishing Series 1 of this quirkly teen show that owes a MASSIVE debt to 10 Things I Hate About You so I will post a full-series review next week.
Otherwise …
The usual CBeeBees and Kids Movies. We did start watching Carmen Santigo on Netflix but the animation is really cheap and it’s quite plodding. I don’t recommend.
Watch the new She-Ra instead.
And SAS: Who Dares Wins (S4: Ep3) – bit of a boring episode, actually – I spent a lot of it on my phone. It’s too early to really invest in anyone – pretty much anyone popping up in the early episodes you know is going to get culled. I really like Petra, the Swedish Ex-Special Forces Mole: she is awesome.
Week Two: 07 – 13 January 2019
After starting off strong with four films last week, I didn’t even manage one this week, instead it was all TV.
This was mainly due to real life claiming my evenings – friends, awkward emails, kids with earaches, house inspections – when I did sit down I only had an hour here or there and so TV was my choice.
I did watch the first 7 seconds of Deidra and Lainey Rob a Train on Friday night but then decided to indulge in some gin and human interaction.
So what TV was I watching?
Catastrophe (Series 2)
Creators/Writers: Sharon Horgan & Rob Delaney, Director: Ben Taylor
Watching on All4
One of the amazing things about British televisions series is the short series (season) runs with max 6-8 episodes. It means that you can sit down and watch an entire series over two nights. I’m eyeing up series 3 this week, with a view to starting series 4 the week after.
I have a complicated relationship with Catastrophe. I really like Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney. As a fellow Irish woman, I revel in Horgan’s continued rise. The writing is so sharp and off-the-wall – and I like the swearing and the raunch. It is not afraid to go dark places and deal with difficult subjects. Yes, it’s very funny but it’s not a straight-forward sitcom.
But it is still a sitcom – and that’s where I struggle with it sometimes. The characters are just a bit too cartoonish for me to properly identify. I was worried when Series 1 started that it would be too close to the bone: like Sharon, I was also knocked up during a brief fling with a man from another city – that’s where the similarities end so I need not have worried – from the episode where they sexed the baby at the 12-week scan (eye-brow raised), I knew this wasn’t going to be a kitchen-sink comedy or come close to my reality.
And series 2 has moved away from that “couple from two different countries meet and get pregnant” premise – now Rob and Sharon are married and living together with not one but two children and in a very expensive London house. The show has evolved to be about a relationship between two complicated people trying to muddle along – and the dynamic is very good, at times: The show is at its best for me and when Rob and Sharon are behaving like a believable (but very witty) couple and I loved the episode where they go out for their anniversary dinner.
But overall in this series, Sharon is too unreasonable and unpredictable in her reactions to make me believe she’s real – and Rob is too bumbling, too sex-obsessed. It flirts with post-natal depression and failing to bond with your child but then resolves this to easily, and we’ve seen a lot of this before – having a baby is hard, she doesn’t want sex, he’s horny, outside temptations. It flirts with being something more cutting edge but ultimately resorts back to its sitcom roots by making characters (main and supporting) do inexplicable things just to move the plot along.
I’m interested to see where they go with Series 3 and how it pans out when they move past Sharon’s pregnancies and the continued evolution of the central relationship.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (S4:EP9)
Creators/Show Runers: Aline Brosh-McKenna & Rachel Bloom
Director: Kimmy Gatewood Episode Writer: Elisabeth Kiernan Averick
Crazy Ex-girlfriend is one of those shows I put off watching for ages because I thought I would hate it and then watched the first episode, fell in love, and binged everything on Netflix. Now I make people watch my favourite numbers on YouTube.
The show is in its final series and while things feel like they’re starting to align for the endgame this is a meta-show that plays with audience expectations and is well aware of how it “should” play out so I’m prepared to be surprised.
S4:Ep9 lacks any stand out songs for me but it was highly amusing and if you think you’re getting an episode with a plot about yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis on a series written (primarily) by men, you’re mad. And it’s that first-hand experience that allows it to be fresh when it’s dealing with well-trodden material.
Put that with a CATS parody that had me googling the Heaviside Layer and it’s another example of how smart and different this show is without ever forgetting to entertain and make you laugh (and cry sometimes too).
I still miss #realgreg though.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a good counter-point to Catastrophe because it follows a Tribbani Character-Arc: Joey in Friends was drawn with broad strokes at the start but became more nuanced and rounded as the series continued while the others started nuanced and became more and more cartoonish. Crazy Ex-Girlfriends starts with a cast of big broad characters that seems to be a million stereotypes and slowly but surely adds in texture and nuance and lets them grow and change and become something different than before.
Catastrophe wants to appear to be ‘the real world’ but it doesn’t pull off the facade, at least in Series 2, and that causes issues for me. Whereas Crazy Ex-Girlriend creates a world that is able to divorce from reality with its musical numbers to deliver those bigger, weirder moments and also examines the behaviour of the characters and even references how wrong that behaviour would be and is in a real situation.
I’ll be watching both these shows play out over the next couple of months.
Otherwise …
More CBeeBies, Trolls for the 150th time and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure for the 90th – I also highly recommended Barbie: Life in The Dreamhouse on Netlfix if you enjoy meta, knowing children’s programmes.
We’ve also watched Part 1 of 3Below – and I liked how they made the sister the athlete and the brother the brain. I’m also enjoying Nick Offerman as Varvatos Vex – and doing my own Varvatos impressions , which is cracking up the 3-year-old.
Beyond that SAS: Who Dares Wins and Hunted are back on Channel 4 – and I absolutely love these shows that are both starting their 4th series run.
SAS: Who Dares Wins is absolutely fascinating to me. I started watching it last year as research for a feature script I was writing, and I got absolutely hooked. I would never in million years feel the need to undertake the challenges on the show but I love watching the way the recruits handle them and the different journeys that are taken. The DS staff are all ex-special forces and hugely interesting in their own right. Due to the MOD decision to allow women into all combat roles in the British Armed Forces, including the special forces, the show has opened up to female candidates, which chimes nicely with watching women and I can’t wait to see how they progress.
Hunted, on the other hand, has always had female fugitives and a good mix of male and female hunters – and is probably the only reality TV show I’d ever want to be on, though I’d probably get caught in the first week. I challenge anyone to watch it and not start thinking how they would outwit the hunters.
I think both formats are moving reality TV forward and using the form to create compelling Television. Yes, it’s not scripted but these shows are character and narrative focused and will suck you in – be warned.