TV Shows You Should Be Watching Right Now

Big Little Lies

After a phenomenal first season Big Little Lies (which was technically only supposed to be a mini-series) is back! After the shock finale, season 2 follows the Monterey 5 dealing with the aftermath of their rather massive lie. And if you weren’t already excited about the shows return, the fact that Meryl Streep has joined the cast for this new season should secure your attention.

Watch on HBO or Now TV

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I am really enjoying this drama at the moment as it feels rather fresh and original. Women working in the tech industry is never really explored and I love how each female character in this drama has strengths and weaknesses, they are just so real and relatable. Also, when watching a Korean Drama you can’t not talk about the Male lead, and Chang Ki-young as Park Mo-gun is killing it with the charm!

Watch on viki.com

One Spring Night

As soon as I heard that Ahn Pan-seok was making a drama this year I was eagerly awaiting its arrival as I loved Something in the Rain and Love Affair. Jung Ha-in returns after charming everyone in SITR and damn he is so likeable as a single father in this drama too! One of the main reasons I love Ahn Pan-seok’s work is just how real it feels, its as if he is making 16 hour long independent films, he is a genius and I can’t wait to add One Spring Night to the list of my favourite Korean Dramas

Watch on Netflix

Dark

Dark is a German language Sci-fi and its criminally underrated and wrongly compared to Stranger Things. The TV Show follows a small town dealing with the disappearance of a young boy and it swiftly turns into a freaky mystery involving time travel! What more could you want? So buckle up and get ready to watch season 2 on Friday!!!

Watch on Netflix

Years and Years

Russell T Davies has created a rather amazing show. Years and Years is so compelling because it is set in the very near future and it feels like everything that happens in the show could plausibly happen in real life! The cast is amazing and the storylines of each episode are riveting.

Watch on BBC iPlayer or HBO (from June 24th)

Killing Eve

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer as Eve Polastri and Villanelle respectively are some of the most fascinating women on screen at the moment. Ever since the season one finale I’ve been hungry for more episodes to devour and lets just say that I have already binged the entire season and I’m probably going to watch it all over again ASAP.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

5 reason why you must watch Netflix’s Kingdom

Kingdom is Netflix’s new original Korean Period Drama with a twist, yes there is a Zombie outbreak! Directed by first time TV Director (he’s made quite a few films, A Hard Day and The Tunnel) and written by Kim Seong-hun who was behind Signal, one of the most critically acclaimed and popular cable TV Dramas of the decade in Korea.

Zombies in Joseon!

The marriage of period drama and zombies is quite frankly genius, with Zombies going mainstream in tv shows like The Walking Dead, the undead started to lose their appeal. But with a fresh historical setting new life has been breathed into the genre.

The Cast

For Netflix’s first foray into original Korean content this cast is impeccable. Kingdom is headlined by Ju Ji-hoon and Bae Doona who are currently some of the most recognisable faces from Korean Cinema. Ju Ji-hoon plays a crown prince searching for answers and Bae Doona plays a small town nurse who first encounters the undead!

The Horror

While the Zombies are horrifying so are the living and breathing people! Class systems, poverty and power hungry rivalries make some characters do some pretty awful things, including the source of the zombie outbreak!!!

Cinematography

A TV series about Zombies has never looked so beautiful. This is a masterfully shot drama that oozes style and substance. And standing at only 6 episodes long, you can tell an immense amount of detail has gone into crafting this aesthetically stunning drama.

It’s Netflix’s First (truly) Original Korean Drama

Censorship be gone! Hello blood, guts and gore! Anyone who has watched Korean Dramas before know that certain things don’t get aired on national TV, and often if present (Say a gun or a knife, or a bloody wound) they will simply be blurred out which is quite jarring (to begin with especially) as it takes you right out of the action of what’s happening. So thankfully as this is a true Netflix Original it will not have to pander to broadcasting rules in Korea!

Have you been convinced? Then go see what the hype is all about, and be warned you may just binge watch this short little series in one sitting!

Kingdom only on Netflix

5 Reasons Why I’m Obsessed with Maniac and Why You Will Be Too!

Maniac is a limited series based on the Norwegian series of the same name (though many things have been changed as far as I’m aware). Its a Psychological Sci-fi drama with an awful lot of dark humour thrown in. There is also a whole lot of bizarre quirkiness…which leads me to the 5 reasons why you will become obsessed with Maniac 

THE RETRO FUTURE AESTHETIC 

If you put Maniac side by side with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the obvious comparison to be made is the Retro Future setting. I love this aesthetic, it’s clear that Maniac is a weird mixture of 60’s, 80’s and the present time albeit in an alternative universe to our own. The attention to detail in creating the world of Maniac is impeccable and the experience is fully immersive and the fact that no real world issues are explored there isn’t a hint of preachiness in the storyline at all which is also rather refreshing. 

AZUMI FUJITA 

Okay, Annie and Owen are awesome, beautifully realised complex characters but Azumi, one of the central scientists on the drug trial, is personally for me the best character in the series. I don’t know what it is…it could be the similar haircut and glasses, the apparent lack of emotions, the cool fashion sense, her overall juxtapositions in characterisation. Either way she’s an awesome character and I’m kinda obsessed.

Monday mornings got me like…

DREAMS VS REALITY

I love how this show deals with Dreams vs Reality. Annie abuses a drug so that she can see her dead sister in a hallucinatory state. It’s totally messed up and dark, but it makes sense, its rather painfully beautiful. Owen himself is stuck in a family dilemma and struggles with the possibility that he may be  suffering from schizophrenia. 

Maniac raises the question, would you rather be stuck in a dream than face the reality of the situation?

AI

I love Science Fiction, it’s one of my favourite genres in film, tv and literature. I also am extremely interested in Robotics and AI, I think it’s so fascinating. GRTA is a quirky computer that was the brainchild of the equally quirky characters Dr Azumi Fujita and Dr James Mantleray. I’m not going to spoil anything but a self aware computer is never a good thing in fiction is it?

INTELLIGENT STORYTELLING

This is a series that you have to pay attention to, it’s full of recurring details, connections and faces. But your attention will be rewarded with one of the most thought provoking and emotionally rich tv series I’ve watched in quite a while. And once you finish the series you’re going to want to restart the journey all over again.

So what are you waiting for…