Home Before Dark, I See You and Vivarium

My Top Three This Week 

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. If you can not get enough Tiger King check out the podcast Joe Exotic:Tiger King  for many of the crazy details that were not included in the Netflix series and look for an upcoming production miniseries with Kate Mckinnon  as Carole Baskin I keep getting so many recommendations from people and it is so great to get turned on to something new and that is why I keep looking for some gems  that might have been missed. I am sure many of you have binge watched the fantastic Gentefied, the third season of Good Girls and Ozark like me arguably some of the best shows on the small screen.I have a few of my new favorites below

1) Home Before Dark on AppleTV+ is one of the most interesting series I have watched in awhile. The story of a journalist's family who leave Brooklyn after a tragic news story and move back to Eerie Harbor his hometown. His nine year old daughter Hilde , a budding reporter herself  also self publishes her own newspaper and uncovers clues for a 30 year old kidnapping cold case that rocked the town and also happened to involve her own father. Jim Sturgess, Kylie Rogers, Abby Miller and Brooklynn Prince as Hilde turn in well thought out performances and Prince is a star on the rise. Is it coincidence that this budding  reporter earns her name from another famous reporter on His Girl Friday ( Hildy played by Roselind Russell. This is captivating television. #Homebeforedark

2) I See You streaming on Netflix is a twisty turny movie that keeps getting better the further it goes. If you don't know what phrogging is you will find out in this movie and it is super creepy and a real thing. Starring Helen Hunt, Jon Tenney , Judah Lewis and Owen Teague (IT), this is a tale of a town dealing with a disappearance of a young boy and the apparent haunting in the house of the lead detective Tenney and his wife and son. (Hunt gives a solid performance and Owen Teague proves again that he can play anything from his role in Mrs. Fletcher and the bully in IT. This was a nice treat to find. #ISeeYou

3)  Vivarium , available for rent is a  creepfest told in such clever way it seems to integrate dark humor and a slowly building quiet terror . Imogeen Poots and Jesse Eisenburg  star in this film  of a young couple looking for a new home , wanting to start a family who find themselves in a cookie cutter neighborhood with no visible neighbors or a way out. A small baby is left for them to raise along with daily food dropped off in front of their door. The young couple slowly go insane as they try to escape and find the secret of their new world.  #Vivarium

Bonus: And now for something wacky. Watch Lazy Susan starring Sean Hayes as Susan the epitome of a narcissistic , lazy woman who lives off of her family and shops in the stores using motorized shopping carts and uses  her belly button as a reservoir  for ketchup to dip her fries versus getting up for a dish. Starring some great comedy costars such as Allison Janney, Matthew Broadrick, Carrie Aizley , Margo Martindale and the hilarious Jim Rash. This almost feels like a Kristin Wiig vehicle. Hayes is excellent as Susan as well as a great supporting cast.
#LazySusan

                                                                               

Devs, Tiger King and Freaks

My Top Three This Week 

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. It has been a traumatic time since I last posted. The news is terrible and we are in a global panic. Many of us are now sheltering and working from home or self quarantining .  With so much time on our hands and the need to take a break from the news here a few of my favorites right now.

1) Devs on FX and streaming on Hulu  is a fantastic and cautionary tale about playing God and technology. Set in a Google like campus in Silicon Valley the story focuses on a couple  Sergei and Lily who work in research for a tech company called Amaya. Sergei gets transferred into development and becomes one of the "Devs" and mysteriously commits suicide within days of his new post. Amaya is run by an obsessed Forest played  by Nick Offerman who is secretly housing some of the world's biggest  terrifying innovations. Lily played by the amazing Sonoya Mizuno goes into full investigation mode while enlisting an ex boyfriend and trying to escape the greatest villain in recent history -Kenton perfectly cast Zach Grenier. One of the creepiest visions in this whole series is the 50 foot statue of a little girl overlooking the campus of Amaya.  #Devs

2) Tiger King is the WTF of the week for me in the best possible way. This Netflix original documentary series is the most outrageous show on television right now and I am watching it like a treat -A little dessert every night . This is a tale of murder, big cats, mullets, country music and not just a couple of toothless characters. Joe Exotic a zookeeper known as Tiger King runs a animal park with over 200 big cats and various other exotic animals and two husbands. His story connects with a host of other eccentric characters who seem broadly drawn cartoons. Even Carole Baskin who runs Big Cat Rescue seems like some drugged up earth mother who is Joe's nemesis . This has something for everybody. #Tigerking

3) Freaks on Netflix is such a wild movie I don't know how I missed it. Starring Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Grace Park and Lexy Kolker , this film opens with a young girl  who is confined to her room by a survivalist father (Hirsch) who seems intent on keeping his daughter  Chloe safe after the death of her mother. This is such an artfully directed film that you are kept guessing what is real  and is what is inside of Chloe's vivid imagination. When all is revealed in a twist it becomes a completely different story. Hirsch and Kolker as well as the amazing Bruce Dern show us an authentic world where people are a "little" different. #Freaks

Locke & Key, The Outsider and The Stranger

My Top Three This Week 

Greetings to my semi-constant readers. So much great content out there and I am right here watching it all for you. I had so many favorites this month such as AJ and the Queen 

and Parasite and this creepy frightening book called Imaginary Friend that I am currently reading. But on with the show..



1) Locke & Key the newest Netflix offering is based on King's son Joe Hill's best selling graphic novel by the same name ( see a trend here?). A gigantic creepy house with hidden worlds and keys along with some killer cinematography and a mourning family make this a new gripping favorite of mine. The awesome cast include Keyhouse, Connor Jessup , Emilia Jones and Jackson Robert Scott as Bode Locke someone to watch for. #Locke&Key #LockeandKey

2) The Outsider on HBO is another Stephen King home run as well as for HBO. Based on the best selling novel from King this follows a horrific child murder with evidence putting away a seemingly innocent man (a perfectly cast Justin Bateman) . The conflicting ironclad DNA puts him in two places at the same time. The twists and turns uncover a horror that does not stop. Ben Mendelsohn is terrific as the small town sheriff who becomes obsessed with righting a wrong and Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney is an uncanny P.I. And a shoutout to Mare Winningham and Julianne Nicholson who round out a flawless cast and story. #TheOutsider

3) The Stranger, a Netflix Original is a great bingeworthy story based a best seller by Harlan Coben about the dangerous power of secrets and the dire consequences of keeping them. A mysterious stranger tells Adam Price a secret about his wife she could not p0ssibly know. That is just the beginning as the lives of several families unravel as she moves on from secret to secret. Some great storytelling and gripping storylines as well as some great actors make this a guilty pleasure. Stephen Rhea, Jennifer Saunders , Siobhan Finneran and Richard Armitage share some great screen time. #TheStranger

Bonus: Apple Plus is Streaming one of the most tense and moody horror series around in Servant the newest offering from M. Night Shyamalan. Another dark secret, another creepy house and a sinister nanny. A Chef, his wife , their baby and his nanny collide as the dark story unfolds and I cannot stop watching this. Rupert, Grint, Lauren Ambrose and Toby Kebbell have fantastic chemistry and Nell Tiger Free is riveting as Leanne who is either really good or really really bad. Either way I am watching and waiting to find out. #Servant

Robyn, Lizzo and Sutton Foster

My Top Picks for 2019- A Look Back

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. As I look back on 2019, I realize I saw some amazing live performances, read some some great books, saw Hamilton twice, made it to see Madame X Madonna  and Kesha and traveled to some wonderful places. Here are some of my favorites.

1) Robyn- The Honey Tour was one of the highlights. Robyn gave it her all. So good I saw her twice and I would see her again in a heartbeat. This proved to be one of her strongest albums in years and they were all fantastic.#Robyn #TheHoneyTour

2) Lizzo Cuz I Love You Tour was a huge dance party that brought the house down and if this doesn't cement her as one of the most influential artists of the decade , nothing would. Truth Doesn't Hurt. #Lizzo

3) Sutton Foster on NYE brought a decade to close with some of the best vocal arrangements and Broadway sparkle to San Francisco with hits from Sweet Charity and Into the Woods and Thoroughly Modern Millie . The Tony winner  brought the crowd to their feet with a great medley of If I Were a Bell/Singin In The Rain / Down With Love. #SuttonFoster

4) Some of the best times were Disney this year at Shanghai Disneyland and Christmas at the California Disney Resorts. Both were unique and Shanghai offered a Pirates of The Caribbean ride that literally blew me out of the water. Nothing felt more Christmassy than Its a Small World done up with lights and a bow #Disneyland

5) Kyoto was a huge travel destination for my family and the temples and Geishas and Sushi were a thing of beauty. This is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and you haven't lived until you have eaten a Matcha biscuit and sipped a Latte on a Japanese floor pillow at a Starbucks inside of an old tea house in Higashiyama #Kyoto

6) The Institute by Stephen King was one of the best books I read this year as well as Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng ( Soon to be an acclaimed series on the small screen) I had so many favorites to choose from but these two were standouts. A special shoutout for The Ladies Who Punch by Ramin Setoodeh which was the juiciest gossip I read all year. #StephenKing #TheInsritute #LittleFiresEverywhere

7) Euphoria, Years and Years and Evil were some of my must watches of the year and high recommends . Standout performances in both and I expect a lot from Euphoria and Evil in the upcoming seasons.

Closing out 2019 is saying good bye to a decade and hello to a whole new world and possibilities. If you have enjoyed this blog then it was all worth it.