What We’ve Been Watching – March & April

You may have been expecting a One month to go wedding update today, but there’s very little I can talk about and report. Other than I’m very very busy, but things are going well-ish. If you missed my first one of these, I’m doing little roundups through the year of the TV shows and films that we’ve been watching throughout the year – every other month. Last year we successfully completed a 100 movie challenge, and whilst we’ve been attempting to do it this year – progress has been much slower, and it’s only slowing up more and more as we get towards the wedding as sitting down for an 90 minutes plus is a real rarity at the moment, our Sky Box has also been full of programmes we’ve neglected and we’ve slowly been eating away at those in 30 minute chunks at a time.

Television

Girls
A programme that I’ve been watching rather than we’ve been watching. I’ve been watching girls for a few years, and the past few seasons have been a bit bleh for me, I almost didn’t watch this final series as I thought it had gone past it’s best, but decided I had to see where it ended. I’m so glad I did, as it’s brilliant, probably one of the best – the characters are back in the true form of narcassistic characters that you love to hate and kept me guessing until the end as to how it would end. Initially I was a little disappointed by the ending, but the more I’ve reflected on it, the better I’ve liked it.

Shades of Blue
I was off ill for a few days in March and binge watched the whole first series of this alone whilst I was confined to the sofa for lack of other options. I’m a huge fan of J.Lo in general since I was a teen she was total goals for me – and I still love her after seeing her live a few years ago. She stars as a bad cop who ends up going undercover in turn for not being prosecuted. I liked the first season but gave up on season 2, it felt like something that should have been left at one good season!

Big Little Lies
I’m really enjoying the production side of the newest HBO show, it’s very beautifully shot. With a show studded cast which resembles more of a movie line up than a TV show. It follows the events of a small suburban coastal town in the run up to a murder, primarily focussing around bitchy mothers of primary aged children. Whilst no one seems to like each other, from what we’ve watched so far there have been no real grounds for a murder. I love Reese Witherspoon and Shaliene Woodley, I’m looking forward to catching up with this as we’re a little behind on this one!

Broadchurch
I can’t mention these past two months of television, without mentioning Broadchurch. After a bit of a ‘meh’ season 2, season 3 is back and has had me on the edge of my seat. I’ve been saying it’s my favourite series of the three – but it’s probably actually on par with the first thinking about it. I’m sad that it’s the final series – but it’s better that it goes out on a high than a low.

This is Us
I don’t know how I failed to mention this in our first ‘What We’ve Been Watching’, we have been watching this since Christmas and we’ve just finished it, we’ve been loving this show from the first episode it’s had us hooked. This reminds me of a more serious modern family, seeing the same group of brothers and sisters split off in their own lives, with the added flashbacks of their parents before they were born and similarities between events in their lives as children vs adults – it’s funny but it’s not a comedy show, but it’s full of heart and all about family. My favourite characters are probably Kate and Toby – I also think Milo Ventamila’s acting in this is incredible, I totally recommend watching if you haven’t seen it already! I’m really happy it’s been picked up for another season.

Prison Break
Whilst there has only been a few of the new episodes back on our screen, we’ve been enjoying the first three instalments in the revival. We only finished watching the first stint of Prison Break at the end of last year/start of this year (I can’t remember). The revival currently feels like a cross between Prison Break and Old School 24.

Pretty Little Liars
Despite the fact it’s only just come back to our screens (or Netflix only if you’re in the UK – luckily we get it the morning after it’s shown in the US!), how could I not mention this. The first few episodes are full of questions and drama as per usual and I’m hoping they’ll all be tied up and explained by the end of the final series and there is no lingering ‘WTF?!” moments.

Santa Clarita Diet
A New Netflix show starring Drew Barrymore as suburban real estate agent, wife and mother – who coughs something up (with a lot of sick), and feels the urge to start eating people. Funny and short episdodes meant we whizzed through this series quickly as we’ve been so low on time, it’s been the perfect length when we’ve sat down to eat dinner and not keep us tied up for hours. Worth a watch if you want something easy watching and silly to pass the time/need a short programme.

Girlboss
Another Netflix programme, based loosely on the hugely popular autobiography by Nasty Gal founder. I’ve never read the book but after putting this on as background noise while I was doing some wedding designing, I found myself hooked and was on episode 8 in a matter of hours. The first few episodes are a little shaky, and you kind have to get over the fact that the main character is a little bit unlikable, and they definitely tone her down a bit as the episodes go on.

13 Reasons Why
The final Netflix special! I haven’t quite managed to finish this off yet, another one I’ve been watching alone – but it’s one you really need to properly watch and not be doing anything else at the same time, as sometimes things are happening even when it’s silent. The story follows a teenager called who is left a set of tapes following a friend/wor


Movies

The House Bunny
I can’t quite beleive that I haven’t watched the House Bunny before. Since Christmas I have become entrely obsessed with Anna Faris’ Podcast and over the course of about a month completely binged and listened to them all, and now I’m catching up with her old movies I haven’t seen. I actually really liked this film, and thought parts of it were comedy gold. Plus it had Owen Benjamin in it, who I love as a comedian too.

Iron Man 2
I won’t go into too much about Iron Man 2 as I expect 99% of people will have seen it. Probably my least favourite of the Iron Man movies. Ben has been rewatching all the Marvel Movies in Order, and I’m dipping in and out of watching them as I’m not bothered about watching them as I’ve seen most a million times before and I think this is the only one we’ve counted as it’s the only one I’ve watched in full at the same time.

Pan
I was really excited to watch this as Peter Pan was one of my favourite films as a child. With a star studded cast, this had everything it needed to be great, but something about it fell a little short for me. I liked it, I didn’t love it. A lazy Sunday Afternoon watch whilst doing your ironing is the best place for this haha.

Get A Job
I had to just look up what the hell this film was after writing it down on our list, not the best sign. Starring Anna Faris and Miles Teller, as a couple who as soon as one of them gets a job, the other loses theirs. It was okay – I seem to remember thinking it was better than the bad reviews said, but equally I wouldn’t say you need to see this movie.

Ghostbusters  (New)
I’d heard really mixed reviews critically about this, but everyone I know who had been to see it had loved it, so as soon as it was on Sky Movies we watched it. I think this was better than I was expecting, and definitely better than Ben was expecting who grumbled at my suggestion to watch . I don’t think like the original this will go down as a classic though, worth a watch – especially if you like Kristen Wiig.

Sing Street
This was a surprise hit for a random Netflix find. Set in 1980s Dublin, in a rough school & area. A school boy forms a rockband in an attempt to win the heart of the local ‘model’. Surprisingly heartwarming and good musically with original songs.

Imperium
I’d wanted to see this at the cinema last year but we never got around to it. Starring Daniel Radcliffe who poses undercover as a Neo-Nazi. I liked this, but it was a little bit slow moving as a story line – when it eventually got to the crux it was interesting, but it was over and done with quite quickly.

The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug
My fave of the Hobbit trilogy. If you’ve never watched the Hobbit because you don’t like Lord of the Rings, I think they’re worth watching. I way prefer them over it’s more popular films, I find them easier to follow and just I like the story better overall. This one feels more like the wild adventure out of the trilogy, with giant spiders, barrel flumes and a giant dragon in a cave of gold and trinkets.

Moana
Something about Moana never had me interested when it was on at the cinema, which I’m now majorly regretting. I picked this up the day it came out and I can see what the hype is about this film. This is my favourite film that I’ve seen this year. I loved everything about it, it is stunning to watch and I loved that the story wasn’t a classic Disney princess approach, it was more about self discovery and will hopefully be empowering to lots of children (and adults!).

The Jungle Book (New Live Action)
We went to the cinema to see this last year, so this was a second watch for us. This narrowly missed being in my top 5 films of last year but I loved it. It was a little different to the original Jungle Book story line, the main boy in it is incredible, and the film is just so, so good. 100% worth watching if you haven’t seen it.

The Incredibles
Do I need to go into detail on the Incredibles? You’ve all seen it. Haven’t watched it in years and it was as good as I remember.

The Boss
I thought this was going to be terrrrrrible, and had it on as background noise.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but is one of those silly comedies which you feel like you’ve seen a million times before. Starring Melissa McCarthy as a rich business woman, who loses it all, moves in with her assistant and her daugther after prison to rebuild her life.

Suicide Squad
We went to see this at the cinema last year and I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it as much as I did the first time around, I think my expectations were so high that it disappointed me. I do think there were lots of this film missing and parts of the characters aren’t properly developed. There are so many characters who they have to set the scene for that it feels quite gappy to me. Definitely worth watching if you haven’t seen it and like the superhero genre, but for me not as good as everyone else seems to think.

The Shallows
This isn’t a film I’d normally have any interest in. But the reason I was so intriuged was because this film seemed to have a ridiculously high marketing budget. Every youtube video I watched, between every TV ad break and on every bus stop last year it was all about this film. Starring almost exclusively Blake Lively as a surfer on a path to discover her Mother’s favourite beach – who becomes stranded on a rock in the middle of the bay after a shark attacks and eats everyone else on the beach. Actually not as bad as it sounds or as I expected.

Beauty and the Beast (New Live Action)
The first film that we went to the cinema for this year. Quite literally everyone I knew was telling me I had to go and see it and we’re both really glad that we did. It was way better than what I was expecting. I love that it had a little more backstory, the music was wonderful and the whole film was beautiful.

Cruel Intentions
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cruel Intentions and what a weird film it was. Haha, Starring Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Geller and Ryan Phillippe. It was a really odd story line about a step brother and sister who have a bet that the brother can’t have sex with the new headmaster’s daughter before term starts. It’s a dark comedy, described as a thriller – but I wouldn’t quite go that far. It’s pretty twisted whilst still remaining quite ‘mainstream’. Odd movie, don’t know whether I liked it or not!

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
A second cinema visit in less than a week.There was no way Ben was letting us not go to see this immediately. The GOTG is probably my fave of all the Marvel franchises, I didn’t like this as much as the original, I found the first one to be a bit more fast paced where as this was more of a continuous story line as the characters had already been introduced in the first. It was starting to not keep my attention by the end of it as it felt like it was getting a little dragged out once you realised what the deal was.


We’ve watched way more movies over the past two months than I thought we would, we’ve had a lot of sitting down and doing jobs for the wedding which have kept us locked to sofa! We’re at 28 out of 100 for the year. By this time last year we were at 33, so we’re not too far behind. I think the next two months will have us fall behind majorly though! If you want to see the last edition of these, click here.

Have you seen any of these? Or do you have any recommendations of what we should watch?

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Helpless Whilst Drying

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28 Comments

  1. May 3, 2017 / 8:11 am

    I loved the first series of Broadchurch but like you was a little disappointed with series 2! I do think series 3 was better but again I was disappointed with the final episode.

    • I definitely wasn’t into season 3 as much as the first but thought the third was better. I’m still undecided how I feel about the ending, I was kind of expecting it to be one of the main characters, the boy felt a bit random to me, unlike the first series where there was clearly so much thought and planning going up to the reveal of who it was xx

      • May 3, 2017 / 9:26 am

        I agree, it was a bit random. Series 1 was the best!

  2. May 3, 2017 / 8:45 am

    Wow we must have really similar taste in movies and TV shows! Enjoy Big Little Lies, I was a little unsure of it at first but I loved the actors so I kept watching and I’m so glad I did, the final episode is SO good.

    Julia // The Sunday Mode

    • We watched 15 minutes of the last episode last night, but had something we had to do so had to turn it off! Will definitely be finishing it tonight – I need to know what happens now! x

  3. May 3, 2017 / 9:41 am

    1 month to go!! How exciting!! Best of luck with your last few weeks! Hope it all goes well!

    Over the bank holiday I binged on this so bad I had it all watched in one day! I really liked it. Your right tho I preferred Annie as a character to Sophia. Looking forward to another season of it tho!

    Thanks for sharing! A few in here I’ll be keeping an eye on! Xx

    • Ahh thank you, I haven’t been nervous until today – now I’m like how is there only a month to go and why have I got so much stuff to do!
      Yes, Sophia became more relatable by the end – Annie was a better much better throughout though! I’m planning on reading the book now – too desperate to know what happened next haha! xx

  4. rinkydinkyrhi
    May 3, 2017 / 10:08 am

    Wow – what a list!! We’ve watched most of these too and I could probably write an essay of a comment talking about them with you, but I’ll keep it short! I absolutely loved Big Little Lies, you’re right the production was on point. Guardians 2 was amazing – it’s my favourite of all the Marvel franchises too xx

    Rhi | http://www.rinkydinkyrhi.com

    • We’re quarter way through the last episode of Big Little Lies, we didn’t quite finish it last night I’m half temped to watch it on my lunch and not tell Ben, I’m so desperate to know what happens!
      Guardians was really good, I loved the opening sequence! xxx

  5. May 3, 2017 / 1:10 pm

    I literally had so many thoughts when reading this post that I had to make notes before I could comment! so many great shows and films here – looks like we have quite similar taste.

    Ok, so TV – I’m halfway through Big Little Lies and 13 Reasons Why and I’m enjoying them so far. They are “proper” telly, if you get what I mean” and I actually have to pay attention which is tricky as I normally like to blog or something at the same time. Plus my husband isn’t into them so I have to wait until he’s not around.

    I just couldn’t get into Santa Clarita Diet or PLL – have you seen iZombie? It’s like Santa Clarita Diet but (in my opinion) better! (P.s – how do you watch SCD during tea? It’s vile!!)

    I only watched Moana for the first time on Monday and I loved it – the girls were sick so we watched it about 5 times. It’s definitely one of the best things I’ve seen this year.

    Love the Hobbit (and all LOTR films to be fair) and cannot BELIEVE you’d never seen Cruel Intentions. Maybe it’s an age thing – it was one of my fave films as a teen.

    Finally, I can’t wait to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – the first is one of my fave films ever so looking forward to seeing what happens next. Hope it isn’t too disappointing!

    Loved this post – can’t wait to read the next one!

    • i haven’t seen iZombie, I have it on my Netflix list to try! Haha, I don’t know to be be honest, I’m pretty unaffected when it comes to watching stuff like that!

      Moana is great, I can’t wait to have Children who will demand to watch disney films over and over. I’m going to be really disappointed if they’re that one kid in a 100 who isn’t into disney haha!
      xxx

  6. Chloe Amanda
    May 3, 2017 / 1:44 pm

    I Love the house bunny! 😊 beauty and the Beast was amazing! Great post! ☺️

  7. May 3, 2017 / 2:08 pm

    I loved Sing Street! Still need to watch more Santa Clarita Diet, though I hope it gets better from the pilot, which seemed a bit weird and stilted.

    Never met someone who likes the Hobbit movies better than LOTR! 😀

    I would have recs but I haven’t done my roundup for Apr-May, yet!

    • The Hobbit movies are so much more fun compared to the originals, I don’t know why I find the plot so hard to follow.
      I’d describe Santa Clarita Diet as a bit weird and stilted the whole way through, I did enjoy it though – I also like that it’s short, it means that if we didn’t have a lot of time we had something we could watch to fill a small gap!

      • May 3, 2017 / 2:21 pm

        I enjoyed the first Hobbit movie, but the last two really lost me! I think it would have been so much better as just 1-2 movies instead of being stretched out to 3.

        Definitely love sitcoms for those times you only have 30 min! We have to save them. “Should we watch more Brooklyn Nine-Nine?” “No, we have like 90 min. We should watch something longer.” LOL.

        • Haha we do sometimes fall into the trap of being like, oh we’ve watched 5 episodes in a row! Love Brooklyn nine nine!
          Take that back about hobbit 2! I do agree though they could have been smushed into two! One and three could have been shorter

  8. May 3, 2017 / 3:48 pm

    Holy crap, you watch a LOT of tv / movies! 😮
    I agree, Iron Man 2 is the worst of the Iron Man movies. For me, it always depend on the villain. If the villain is lame, then the movie is lame. We still haven’t seen Suicide Squad but we plan to soon just to see this train wreck, and also because it was filmed in Toronto (I saw the set in person since it was around the corner from my work)
    We mostly watch movies, not tv shows – it’s been really light in terms of movies lately. The last movie we saw was Kedi, the Turkish documentary about street cats! 😛
    That last mainstream movies we saw in the theater was Logan (very good) and Kong Skull Island (good). And on tv we saw “Everybody Wants Some!!” (over hyped)
    We’re going to see Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 this weekend! I don’t have huge expectations – it will definitely not surpass the first one for me, I already know it.

    • It’s worth seeing gotg 2 just for the opening sequence! It is good it could of just been a bit shorter or the story been a bit more dynamic, it felt just a little dragged out for what it was but over all it was good.
      I think suicide squad is okay, but was majorly overhyped, it had so much potential and it was just a bit overkill! But when you’re trying to set the scene for 10 new characters it’s going to leave little time for plot development!
      It does depend on the Villain, Bane in Batman made that the best Batman for me! (Probably controversially against the joker!)
      We’ve watched a lot, but I’ve spent a good chunk of time on the sofa making/designing/cutting things out. I feel like this was an irregularly high two months. Prepare for a slim pickings one for the next update haha
      We’ve not seen Logan, Kong and I’ve not even heard of everybody wants some! Wonder whether they didn’t have the money to advertise it here haha!

  9. May 3, 2017 / 4:09 pm

    Wow you’re doing a lot better on films then me. We watched 5 in a month and thought we was great😂 I loved Beauty and the Beast. When it first started I rolled my eyes as I thought it’d be cheesy but it was besutiful x

  10. May 3, 2017 / 6:03 pm

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 comes out here in the States on Friday. My boyfriend & I are planning on seeing it this weekend.

    Cruel Intentions is a guilty pleasure movie for me. It’s on cable here a lot and I usually stop and watch if I come across it.

    • Oh unusual that the UK got it earlier than the US, it’s normally the other way round! I couldn’t work out whether I liked Cruel Intentions or not – I think I liked the ending more than I liked the rest of the movie!

  11. May 3, 2017 / 6:47 pm

    I’ve never watched Broadchurch but I’ve been obsessed with the new episodes of Pretty Little Liars and I binged 13 Reasons Why in like 2 nights! I can’t believe it took you so long to watch The House Bunny – what a classic! Haha. Totally agree about Imperium, I think I still loved it because Daniel Radcliffe is my ultimate love. Moana was something I also thought didn’t look great until I got dragged along to see it and I’ve been mad about it since! Some great mentions on here 🙂 xxx

    • I’m about to start on the new episode of PLL! I though Daniel Radcliffe was great in it, just there wasn’t a lot going on! I’ll fight you for him haha!

      • May 3, 2017 / 7:16 pm

        I’ve been a little behind on the new episodes because of revision so I can’t wait to binge 2 at the weekend!! I think he’s just fantastic, I will definitely fight you for him! haha xxx

  12. May 4, 2017 / 7:21 pm

    I love 13 reasons why, cried at episode 11 it was so sad 🙁 but its a really good series to watch and love guardians of the galaxy! xx

  13. May 5, 2017 / 5:04 pm

    Moana has been my favouriteeee movie this year. Beauty and the Beast is a close second, though.

    Ha, Cruel Intentions is such a 90’s classic! But you’re right, a little weird now that I think about it.

    I just started watching Santa Clarita Diet! Kind of a weird show, but I guess it’s one of those ones you turn your brain off to watch. Binge-watched 13 Reasons Why before that, and especially towards the end it was a bit too heavy of a show to binge-watch.

    I need to watch Guardians of the Galaxy again. Everyone RAVES about that movie, but I fell asleep watching it :/

  14. May 7, 2017 / 10:18 pm

    So many good ones! The house bunny is just such an easy one to watch, and I think it is hilarious. Completely understand what you are saying about Cruel intentions too, I love it but it is very strange! Broadchurch was incredible, I was hooked!
    Another one I’d recommend is Line of Duty, the fourth series has just finished but Ive just watched the third one and now backtracking onto the first and second series which are on Netflix! xxxx

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