October Film & TV Wrap Up

I’ve decided to start doing more film and TV related posts so I thought a good way of getting into this would be a monthly wrap up of what I’ve been watching much in the way that I do with books. Unfortunately, this has actually been a pretty bad month for watching stuff, but hey ho, let’s just go with it.

Catastrophe

I’ve just watched the first season on All 4 so will be starting series two now. It’s about a couple who after a 6-night stand discover she is pregnant so decide to make a go of it. It’s a really warm and funny sit-com and as the series’ are super short (6 episodes) is really fast paced – I guess like Sharon and Rob’s relationship. Highly recommend.

The Apprentice

Stuff the X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing  and even The Great British Bake Off, The Apprentice is my favourite TV “talent” show. Mostly for the complete and utter lack of talent. They’ve even dropped the whole “12 of Britain’s best business minds” schtick. Nope, its 12 chumps who don’t mind looking useless on telly. I love that they still have the same old wonderfully dated tasks where no-one is allowed to do internet based research. Gutted that the power of Claude’s glare is being diluted by the week though, he’ll be missed on the interview week. Hope they’ve found a real monster to replace him.

The Interview

Guys, I watched The Interview. The film that got far more coverage than it deserved thanks to North Korea freaking out over the negative portrayal and the fact that it was a comedy about an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-Un. Really they should have thought about what complete and utter shite it is and counted on no one sober wanting to watch it. Don’t get me wrong, there are one or two genuine LOL moments, but mostly, it’s more of the self-indulgent crap that Franco, Rogen et al. seem to be so fond of these days. My prevailing impression of it was that James Franco was doing far too much with his face the entire time. Literally a different ‘comedy’ face in every shot. At one point he says “that is the strongest ecstasy I have ever done in my life”. I don’t think that was in character, I think that just happened.

What We Do in the Shadows

A much better comedy was this Kiwi vampire mockumentary from Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Although the mockumentary format is a bit tired now, this was well suited to it. It follows four vampires who live together and have to tackle the mundane such as whose turn it is to do the dishes, as well as the slightly more unusual such as not hitting a main artery when draining someone. Ridiculous but fun. Worth it for the Rhys Darby cameo as the alpha werewolf alone.

Scream

I’ve only watched one episode of the new Scream TV series so I don’t have much of an opinion yet but I will say that it already seems awful. It’s the self-aware element of the film dialled up to eleven. Plus the new ghost face mask looks ridiculous – like they’re actually trying to make it seem scary which kind of defeats the whole point, doesn’t it? Anyway, more on this next time.

What have you been watching recently? Any recommendations?