stuff by paige

I tend to forget that you can watch things on Amazon Prime, but with the release of PANIC and it's multiple advertisements I was pleasantly reminded. Based on the the 2014 young adult novel PANIC by Lauren Oliver, this series covers a small town in Texas' yearly tradition, in which graduating seniors compete in a dangerous game and face their fears in order to win money to improve their lives.  From looking at other reviews, PANIC has gained a mixed receival, however I genuinely really enjoyed it and found it extremely binge able and tense at points. The series is an amalgamation of different genres and themes, including romance, crime, loyalty, poverty, privilege, and gave me similar vibes to The Society (2019) and Escape Room (2019) - but with lower stakes. A lot of the challenges felt a little lacklustre and seemed liked recreational behaviours that some individuals would do without money even being up for grabs.  I never read the book, however I'm thinking that the ch...

When I saw the trailer for this show I was instantly intrigued as it appeared similar to Black Mirror , a show which (despite making me uncomfortable most of the time) I really enjoy.  SOURCE: Netflix The premise of the show is rather interesting; it revolves around a company's discovery of the combination of science and technology to match people with "The One." Once people find "The One," their lives change for the better. This of course raises many ethical and moral issues for characters within the show, revolving around how the DNA matches are obtained and between pre-existing relationships before it was possible to find "The One", which in themselves do make for an interesting watch. The narrative tends to stray from these dilemmas for the majority of the show to focus on a murder mystery revolving around this phenomenon, which you would think would mean for an extremely intense, on the edge of your seat viewing experience. I experienced the compl...

I'm not going to lie, I really had no idea what the heck was going on throughout most of this series, but I did really enjoy watching it. Behind Her Eyes , based off of the book by the same title by Sarah Pinborough, is an extremely suspenseful and interesting thriller. The story follows single mother Lou, who finds herself entangled in a romantic affair with her boss, David, and a secret friendship with his wife, Adele. It is indicated quite early on in the series that not everything is as it seems, and that there is something dodgy going on behind the closed doors of David and Adele's life, which Lou of course decides to take upon herself to try and figure out. There are a WHOLE lot of twists and turns in this show, and I made many incorrect guesses as to where the story was going. The ending was shocking and extremely sad, but also very satisfying as all of the confusing elements in previous episodes finally made sense. The only thing I wasn't too keen on in this show wa...

 After having the first few episodes somewhat spoiled for me on Twitter, I decided to give in and watch WandaVision as it was released weekly (thankyou Phoebe for providing me with your Disney Plus password so I could do so). This blog post will follow a slightly different format to what I usually write with, in that I will be discussing the show episode by episode, with a summary of my overall thoughts at the end. This means that there will be potential spoilers, so this is your heads up to stop reading if you don't want spoilers before you have watched the show yourself (and I highly recommend that you DO watch it yourself). Episode One: Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience The first episode throws us straight into black and white in 50's/60's sitcom style, following newly wed and new home owners Wanda and Vision as they tackle suburban life in West View whilst attempting to hide their powers. This episode feels very much like Bewitched, all the way down to the theme tune...

 Now, I don't usually enjoy costume dramas - partly because of an old lecturer who was so obsessed with them it made me never want to hear of them again - but I actually found Bridgerton enjoyable.  Bridgerton follows multiple girls attempting to find husbands in 1813, Regency Era England, narrated by the all-seeing Lady Whistledown, an anonymously ran paper documenting all of the gossip which takes place during the season.  Filled with fancy frocks, suave suitors and a whole lot of risqué business from the very first episode, I found myself surprisingly intrigued by the show. Despite being set in 1813, the show is far from what you expect, displaying a more updated perspective on the era, with many laugh out loud scenes and some Maturely Rated ones also. The main storyline which weaves throughout the show follows the relationship between Daphne Bridgerton, a beautiful debutante with skin that would put a Glossier model to shame, and the Duke of Hastings, Simon Basset, ...

 Sweet Home is a Korean Horror Drama series which I watched partly out of boredom than anything else, and is a show which I have very mixed feelings about. The shows premise is very promising; a group of apartment residents fighting for survival in an apocalypse where anyone could turn into a blood thirsty monster.  This promise however was let down by the very evident lack of production value in the CGI department, a surprising lack due to the CGI monsters having a significant on screen presence from the first episode. Many of the monsters are reminiscent of those which I have seen in other series or films, however they are not executed even half as well. I am honestly not kidding when I say I have seen scarier and more realistic monsters in a Play Station 2 game.  Alongside this, there is some very bad acting, which thankfully improves as certain characters die off. Despite the main major issues I had with this show, I did manage to sit through the whole thing. This...

I finally got around to watching Season Two of The Mandalorian , which was one of my most anticipated series returns, and I was not disappointed. This instalment follows Mando and fan titled favourite Baby Yoda as they search for Jedi to help train The Child and learn more about him. As with the majority of the Star Wars franchise, this season of The Mandalorian is full of action, adventure and interesting characters.   Each episode follows a similar narrative structure; Mando needs information, he can find it on a certain planet, but the character who holds the information requires him to fulfil a strenuous, dangerous task before he can obtain it.  Although some people might find the repetitiveness irritating, I found it quite comforting, plus if the show was just Mando and Baby Yoda eating soup I would probably still watch it. As always, the planet sets and different character details are stunning. The first episode especially featured some amazing establishing shots, disp...

In all honesty, I had forgotten that Amazon Prime had a streaming service until I started getting advertisements for this show, and was instantly intrigued - sorry Netflix, but it just looked too good. And good it is! The Wilds is an intense and exciting show which follows a group of girls, some friends, some strangers, as they find themselves stranded on a deserted island after their plane "crashes" on it's way to a girl power centric trip to Hawaii. All is not as it seems, and every episode leaves you second guessing characters intentions, relationships and what exactly is going to happen to the girls.  This guessing game is not helped by the non-linear narrative, as the story is revealed through pre-stranded flashbacks, stranded flashbacks, and present day as the girls are interviewed about their experiences on the island, leaving a lot of questions to be answered in the very final episode, and even potentially in a future season. The show does a good job of explorin...

 If you can handle blood, violence and subtitles, you HAVE to watch Alice in Borderland. Adapted from a manga series, Alice in Borderland follows Arisu (Kento Yamazaki) and his friends as they find themselves transported into a desolate alternate version of Tokyo, where they are forced to compete in games to collect cards and extend the days they have left to live. The show is a perfect combination of everything I enjoy about anime and live action - lots of action, tension and crazy story concepts with the element of seeing a real flesh person going through those things, making things seem so much more real and intense.  The show being live action also meant that the cinematography elements hit even harder, especially in the first episode where the setting is established through eerie extreme longshots, emphasising just how desolate Tokyo had become. The games are extremely difficult and usually result in the losers of the games meeting a gruesome end; rather reminiscent of t...

 It has been years since I watched a k-drama, and even longer since I watched one the whole way through. However, I decided to trust my friends judgement when they suggested Itaewon Class to me, and I was... pleasantly surprised?  As you would expect from the term k-drama, the show is literally jam packed with drama, revolving around a variation of high stake themes and expected themes, such as death, violence, romance, business, revenge, friendships and familial relationships. There is always something exciting and dramatic happening plot wise in every single episode, and at times I felt as though I had seen a whole series worth of content in one episode. This I felt was emphasised with the extreme time skips which carry the narrative forward, for example when the series moves on ten years within the first few episodes. I initially started watching the show by myself, however halfway into the first episode I realised my boyfriend was watching over my shoulder. Slightly confu...

I have intended to watch Netflix's The Get Down for a long, long time, and I finally got down to it.  Starring, amongst many names, Justice Smith and Jaden Smith, the two season long show follows a group of friends in seventies era Bronx as they find their passions, purpose, and paths in life through music and the relationships they make along the way. Music is the main theme of the show, with genres such as disco, rap and dj-ing explored by the protagonists. This means for an incredibly lively soundtrack which is used as a tool to navigate the narrative and reveal plot aspects. I have been familiar with the shows soundtrack for a few years, due to being introduced to it by a friend, and this made my viewing all the more exciting as I could sing along as I went. The show isn't all fun and music, however. The Get Down is a complex show, exploring not only tensions and drama in the characters relationships but also historical issues through dark themes, for example: poverty, gan...

Like most people in or current world situation, I have been spending a lot of time binge watching things on Netflix.  When I saw Down To earth with Zac Efron suggested on my home page, I was instantly intrigued. Zac Efron has made a documentary?  Huh?  The show follows Zac and his friend Darin as they travel around the world, visiting places and communities and exploring how different areas of society are living sustainably and offering new methods and solutions for the fight against global warming and climate change. A particularly interesting aspect of the show to me was how blatantly aware Efron is of the world he lives in. Hollywood is extremely detached from the reality of our worlds problems, taking their time to promote fads and over consumption rather than tackling real world issues. Efron uses his voice and influence throughout the show to highlight these problems, and shed light on solutions for power generation, food and produce production and consumption...

When this show, inspired by Charles Forman's comic book series, was first released on Netflix, it was all I ever heard about. It was all over Twitter and Instagram. Friends constantly pestered me, asking if I had seen it yet.   No , I thought, irritated, I'll watch it in my own time, thank you very much.  And so, time passed. People stopped posting cute interviews of Alex Lawther (who plays the character of James in T.E.O.T.F.W) and eventually, so did the persistent comments telling me that I just had to watch it. And so here I am, at 03:05am, after remembering that this show exists due to a subtle reminder from a friend, and binging it all in one night (it wasn't that difficult really, each episode is only twenty minutes long).  Overall, I am torn about this show.  It had a lot of aspects that I would usually enjoy: British humour, awkward characters, drama, Bonnie and Clyde-esque themes. And however much I would love to whole heartedly enjoy it, the p...