What I'm watching this month...

It's Valentine's Day weekend, so you can be sure that DVD players everywhere were whirring away, playing every known romantic comedy under the sun, both yesterday and today. Whilst I do enjoy a lovey-dovey film from time to time,  I managed to convince my significant other into starting the first season of Bates Motel this weekend; a programme I had seen but they had not.

So cosy on the sofa, eating our heart-shaped Thornton's chocolates, we started the first episode. And if a dark, twisted drama with strong Mama's boy undertones doesn't say 'I love you', then I don't know what does.

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

Courtroom dramas have never been my thing. I've never watched an episode of Law & Order in my life and the genre doesn't usually appeal, so whenever I saw an article about how The Good Wife was one of the best television shows of the moment or no matter how many people recommended it over Twitter, I fervently ignored it.

If truth be told, unless I really like the sound of a new series' storyline, its the cast that draws me in. Seeing as I only really knew Christine Baranski from things such as Mamma Mia and The Grinch, I never liked Chris Noth in Sex & The City anyways and don't hate me, I always thought Julianna Marguiles always came across as a little stuck up. So quite frankly, I was put off. I now realise that impression was COMPLETELY unjustified.

Fury review

The last time we saw Brad Pitt as a wartime hero, it was in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds as the brutal, caricatured, Lt. Aldo Raine, but now in Fury, Pitt leaves the comedy behind and gives a visceral, rugged and more importantly, realistic performance of a battle-wearied Sergeant hellbent on protecting what's left of his squad from the Nazis.

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

It's probably no surprise considering the content of my blog that my favourite genre of television is drama. Don't get me wrong, I do love a good comedy series hugely, but nothing can get under my skin quite like a tense drama. The Following is like no other murder-based drama I have ever watched before and I think that's part of the reason I enjoyed it so much.

5 Reasons You HAVE To See Gone Girl

On the week of its release, I managed to go see a preview screening of David Fincher's latest movie, Gone Girl and was blown away by the film I saw. Here, I list the best things about it and narrow down a mere 5 reasons why you cannot miss it this Autumn...

A Walk Among The Tombstones review

I don't really need much encouragement to see a Liam Neeson film. Okay, so his back-catalogue of movies has had a fair few misses as well as hits (I'm looking at you, Unknown and The Grey), but films I love him in such as Taken and Non-Stop are more than enough to convince me that this actor is actually a talent and despite being relatively typecast, does still make some good'uns.

Unfortunately for me, I think this blind admiration for Neeson may have shot me in the foot when it came to his latest drama. Despite many people telling me it looked a bit naff, I refused to listen and wandered into the cinema with a spring in my step to see A Walk Among The Tombstones.

Is 'The Blacklist' the new, and improved, 'Homeland'?!

New crime drama The Blacklist hit UK screens last Friday on Sky Living and there has been nothing but praise towards it's first two episodes amongst viewers and critics. Twitter was rife with people stating that it was one of the best pilots they've seen, whilst the ratings were going through the roof beating Homeland in the same week.

The shows do bare many similarities in style. Both are serious. Both tackle the idea of crimes on a big scale.  Whilst Homeland circles around the CIA, The Blacklist is all about the FBI, both agencies fighting criminals, but two very different kinds. Whilst the former is based in global politics, the latter concentrates more on individual villains.

Drama Matters...yes it does!

Back in March 2013, UK channel Sky Living aired 6 consecutive one-off original episodes all about the subject of love and romance in the 21st Century. Now this autumn, they're starting a similar series focussed completely on drama instead!

Selling itself as a celebration of drama, this series only features five alternative stories, one less than it's love equivalent back in the Spring. Sky Living couldn't have picked a better time to exhibit such strong examples of drama, what with another season of Homeland starting on Sunday and other shows such as Breaking Bad, Ray Donovan and Downton Abbey making drama shows more popular than ever at the moment.