Lately I've Been Watching....

My irregular rundown and reviews of films and series I've seen on the box lately. 😎  I mostly watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

If you would like to see more, please click on the 'Lately I've Been Watching' tag at the bottom of this post.


5 part series: Chernobyl

5 stars plus plus  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

For full review, please click HERE

Film: The Road

5 stars plus ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Yes, yes, of course I've seen it before, more than once, but we watched it again the other night and I was once more struck by its brilliance, so I had to include it.  Actually like it more than the book.  If you haven't seen it, do!  Watched on Amazon Prime.

Series: Yellowstone (Season 1)

5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Best described as a 21st century Dallas, set in Montana rather than Texas!  Kevin Costner plays the ranch owner, with the four kids, all so different... 

• Kelly Reilly as Beth, the caustic, business-savvy daughter with a drink problem (JR and Sue Ellen rolled into one)
• Wes Bentley as Jamie the family lawyer; the 'nice' one, always at odds with Beth-JR-Swellen (he's Bobby!)
• Luke Grimes as Kayce, the wild one who got away, and married a Native American; they live on a reservation (Gary)
• Dave Annable as Lee, who only wants to stay close to the ranch (Ray Krebbs).  

There are two main sources of conflict: the snake-like property developer (Danny Huston), determined to change the face of Montana with his luxury developments, and the Native American main man (Gil Birmingham) who wants his people's land back.  Loved it, and trying to save Season 2 to watch all at once, instead of watching week by week!
 

Series: Salvation

4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watched the two available seasons of this - highly entertaining, never a dull moment series about an asteroid heading for earth, with scientists trying to stop it and underground groups trying to stop them doing so.... some of it is totally ludicrous and it features some irritating millennials (Jillian should have been gagged at birth), and people kept being in love with the people I didn't want them to be in love with, but it still had me looking forward to telly time each night.  It's fun, I enjoyed it.  I recommend; alas, there will not be a S3.  A pity TV networks still base viewing stats on the people who watch it on the night; an outdated idea, as a huge proportion of people have stuff on the watch lists to see at any time.   

For TWD addicts: features Tovah Feldshuh as the Deanna-like POTUS.

Comedy series: Loudermilk 

3.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐

Watched most of S1; it's about a former alcoholic and the support group he runs, and the stuff that happens to him.  An easy-watch for late at night, quite entertaining and amusing in parts, but not as good as it could have been.  The acting is good, but the content is only average.  Having said that, it got slightly better in the last few episodes, I think because the mood changed from sitcom to light drama; it was more about the story than people saying 'c***' for cheap laughs.  At least there were no self-conscious 'vaginas'.

6 part series: The Hot Zone

3 stars ⭐⭐⭐

For full review, please click HERE

 

Film: The Dark Tower (2017)

3 stars ⭐⭐⭐

As my husband said, 'there had to be a first time' - i.e., Matthew McConnaughey and Idris Elba starring in something that just wasn't that good.  Watchable, only; Harry Potter meets daft monsters and the fight between good and evil.  Also stars Katheryn Winnick (Lagertha in Vikings)

Lately I've been watching.... Chernobyl

I remember when the Chernobyl disaster happened; I was 26.  It occurred in those days of yore before the internet gave us endless real-time footage from smartphones on social media, inside information on news sites, and ten thousand tweets demanding the truth.  I probably saw the official account on breakfast TV, and read about it in the newspaper.

 

That year, along with 1985 and 1987, many calamities took place around the world; the Heysel Stadium disaster, the Kings Cross Fire, the Bradford City Stadium Fire, the Mexico City Earthquake, to name just four.  I believe 1985 was the worst year ever for disasters, worldwide, and this seemed like just another one to add to the list.  The world was a bigger place, thirty-three years ago—however catastrophic a calamity, it doesn't hit you in the face so much when it takes place thousands of miles away.

Especially when there is no internet to tell you how bad it really is, and when the true horror is covered up by politicians.  

Some of my friends used to go down to protest at Greenham Common, and yes, of course, we all knew that nuclear anything was some seriously dangerous shit, but ... Chernobyl was in the Ukraine, and where the hell was that? Ah, in the USSR, a cold and strange place, about which the average person knew so much less than we do now, since its collapse.

This five part HBO series has certainly brought it home.  Here's the trailer:

I love watching dark stuff.  I loved the 1970s and 80s disaster movies, I can't get enough end-of-world scenarios, and I've watched my share of dramatisations of real life catastrophes, too.  But I don't think I've been so shocked by anything since watching Threads in 1984—and that hadn't even happened. 

All those poor souls who died in such agony (and I warn you, this dramatisation leaves nothing to the imagination), the residents of Pripyat who gaily went to watch the fire on the 'Bridge of Death', not knowing that they were signing away their lives for a look at some pretty colours in the sky.  The technicians who were sent to investigate whether or not the core really had disappeared, even though this meant certain death for them.  The firemen given no information about what close proximity to radiation would mean, the civilians conscripted to build around the exclusion zone.

And the more informed heroes: those who cleared the top roof ('the most dangerous place on the planet'), the three who went into the bubble tunnel, and the coal miners who dug for a month beneath the reactor so that a heat pump could be installed to stop the meltdown; by that time, these men knew the risks to themselves, but went ahead for the greater good.  

I wondered if this selflessness showed the best of the basic essence of the Russian character—tough people who experienced more hardship than most of us in the West could understand.  Maybe the tougher your life, the more philosophical a relationship you have with death, I don't know.

Aside from the expected emotions that evidence of such horrific suffering brings about, be prepared to feel open-mouthed, appalled anger about the careless use of ill-prepared technicians to run a test that caused the chain reaction, simply because of misinformation about the dangers present.  About the evil of those who tried to cover up the full extent of the catastrophe.  The blatant lies about the levels of radiation.  The initial refusal to evacuate.  Career politicians who cared more about the image of Russia in the eyes of the rest of the world, and their own people's belief in the strength of their leadership, than the deaths of many thousands, immediately or in years to come. 

'Cut the phone lines.  Contain the spread of misinformation'
  
It was only when scientist Valery Legasov, played so outstandingly by Jared Harris, made them realise that the food and water of a whole nation and beyond could be rendered poisonous for hundreds or possibly thousands of years to come, that they began to accept the truth.

'You are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before'

I felt as though I was watching something truly evil.  Smothered in darkness, like I was watching a bibical depiction of Hell.  Aside from the lies and cover-up, at the expense of so much, this stands as an example of the perils of a communist regime.

Suffice to say that the series is brilliant, a 5 stars plus plus plus.  Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård were utterly compelling, as were Emily Watson, who played a fictional character representative of many scientists who helped Legasov uncover the truth, Robert Emms as Leonid Toptunov, the poor lad with only 4 months' experience who was on duty on that terrible night, Adam Nagaitis as Vasily Ignatenko, one of the first responding firefighters, and Paul Ritter as Anatoly Dyatlov, who allowed the fatal test to go ahead.  But most shocking of all is the reveal that shows how the part he played wasn't even the true crime.

'Why You Should Watch HBO's Chernobyl'

HBO's Chernobyl vs Reality: Footage Comparison

Not a series for the faint-hearted, and it will stay with you for a long time.....

For some more thoughts, read This Post on Dora Reads book blog :)