August 2020 Watchlist

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This month my watchlist is dominated by non-English language content with Danish, Korean and German dramas at the forefront but the Jordan Peele produced Lovecraft Country looks to be one of this year’s best shows. What TV Shows will you be watching this month?

The Rain - Netflix - All 3 seasons

I only just started watching this Danish post-apocalypse series recently and after the first episode, I was hooked. It takes place after a mysterious virus that is brought with the rain kills off most of Scandinavia (and perhaps the rest of the world). There’s family, end of the world brutality and an interesting moral sci-fi dilemma. Great pandemic viewing.

Stranger Season 2 (비밀의 숲 2) - Netflix & TvN - August 15th/16th

I am so glad that this Korean Crime drama is back for another season, normally it’s one-season and done with Korean TV shows but sometimes and it’s happening more and more now, we get a continuation of a story. Stranger follows Prosecutor Hwang Shi-Mok (Cho Seung-woo) as he investigates corruption alongside Police Officer Han Yeo-Jin (the always amazing Bae Doo-na). I’m not too sure what this seasons story will be as there has been no trailer with English subtitles released yet!

Lovecraft Country - HBO & Now TV - August 16th & 17th

Jordan Peele is one of the executive producers for this show that is based on the book of the same name. The premise of both mediums and their namesakes comes from a mingling of H.P. Lovecrafts iconic bizarre horror and 1950’s Jim Crow America. I’m getting a little bit of an Indiana Jones vibe mixed with a whole lot of darkness! I think this could be one of the best TV shows of the year!

Biohackers - Netflix - August 20th

I am so interested in the idea of biohacking, I watched this documentary when I was younger about cloning and genetic modifications (goats that produce spider silk instead of milk, that kind of thing) and I have kinda been a little obsessed by the idea of self-perpetuated evolution, be that through cybernetics or biohacking. So, this German language TV looks like it will be right up my alley and kind of feels like it might fill the void left by Orphan Black.

June 2020 TV Watchlist

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Summer is here and Netflix is the king of content with quite the line-up of TV Shows that have caught my attention this month. We Have the final chapter of Netflix’s mind blowing German time travel series Dark. Every Korean Drama fan is probably counting down the days until Kim Soo-Hyun's new drama comes out. Queer Eye is back as the world celebrates Pride Month, and Michaela Coel’s new tv series I May Destroy You explores a post #MeToo era story from the point of view of a Black Woman.

Devs - BBC iPlayer - Full series, aired back in April! (way to go Cate)

I don’t know how I missed this show completely for like 2 months as I love Alex Garland’s films (Ex Machina and Annihilation) and I really like Sonoya Mizuno’s work (several being Garland’s projects). I am so annoyed at myself for just being totally oblivious to this shows airing as I found out about it ages ago when it was first announced! Nevermind.

Devs is a sci-fi infused mystery that follows Mizuno’s Lily Chan who is trying to find out why her boyfriend suddenly disappears after being put on a top-secret project at the tech firm they both work at. From the trailer, it looks like the show will explore ideas of fate, free will and determinism.

Queer Eye Season 5 - Netflix - June 5th

I love love love Queer Eye, it may just be the most wholesome and positive reality tv show I have ever watched. The Fab Five (Antoni, Bobby, Jonathan, Karamo and Tan) help a person each episode to transform into the best version of themselves and it’s just so damn inspiring to see people regain confidence and love for themselves.

I May Destroy You - HBO/BBC iPlayer - June 7th/June 8th

Written by and starring Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You is quite frankly essential viewing. This series tackles the issue of sexual consent and exploitation in a post #MeToo world and explores these subjects through the eyes of a black woman in London. From the trailer, it looks like this will be a comedy-drama, offsetting the dark subject matter with humour as a palatable way to engage in a meaningful conversation about a serious issue.

Curon - Netflix - June 10th

Netflix just keeps rolling out exciting international content! Curon looks like a cool supernatural thriller that has taken cues from shows like Stranger Things and Dark, by setting it in a small community full of mystery and intrigue.

It's Okay to Not Be Okay (사이코지만 괜찮아) - TvN & Netflix - June 20th

Interestingly the titles of this tv show do not match up, when you translate 사이코지만 괜찮아 to English it's ‘Psycho but it’s OK’ - which I feel is a riff on Park Chan Wook’s film I’m a Cyborg, But it’s OK (in my opinion anyway). What will this mean for the show? No clue but there could be some fantasy elements or ‘delusions’ in a similar vein to Park’s quirky comedy. That’s enough speculation…

The official synopsis is that its a romance between two people, Go Moon Young (Seo Ye-Ji) an antisocial children's book author and Moon Kang-Tae (Kim Soo Hyun) a Selfless man who works on a psychiatric ward who heal each other. Also, this series is Kim Soo-Hyun’s first drama since being discharged from the army so obviously I am super hyped.

Dark - Netflix - June 27th

This may be bold of me to say but Dark is probably not only the best show on Netflix but one the best tv shows ever created. I have been obsessed since the first episode and have rewatched it periodically trying to get my mind around all the stuff that happens. It’s a mind f***k and a half and that’s what makes it so compelling. In Season 1 the question was not where but when, then at the end of Season 2 another massive curveball was thrown at us ‘What world?’! Ahh Alternate realities exist too!