TV series I watched

I already mentioned I got my Netflix game on this summer break and where I watched quite a few movies, I did the same for TV series. I watched a few Netflix smash hits that I hadn’t gotten round to yet, but I also watched some brand spanking new series. Here’s what I watched and my thoughts.

American Horror Story

A troubled family moves to the other side of the country to try and get a new start in life. Little do they know, the house they purchased is one with a very unhappy past. After having moved in, strange things happen that cannot be explained. When the wife finds out that their house is featured on a haunted house tour, she decides to dig deeper. And then there is the matter of the strange lady next door.

I am not a horror fan, but this show always intrigued me. When a colleague convinced me it was seriously not scary at all, I decided to take the plunge. I did read the synopsis online while watching as I am quite easily spooked. As I was watching, the story felt a bit like Amity Horror Ville and after a bit of digging I found that was what inspired this first season. I liked it and will certainly be watching the other seasons, but this is one I will not binge watch.

Stranger Things

When best friend Will disappears strange things start happening in Hawkins. Is it linked to Eleven? A girl who is found wandering the surrounding woods. Meanwhile his mother goes crazy and is convinced she can speak to her son through some strange telepathic connection. As another girl disappears and people from a nearby government facility start roaming the town, it soon comes to light that nothing is quite what it seems to be.

After all the rave reviews, I decided to give this show a whirl. A trippy sci-fi series which hits the 80s bang on the head and some scenes feel like they were lifted straight from ET, this series was a thrill to watch. Great story line, great acting, great just everything. I can’t wait for season 2!

Designated Survivor

Tom Kirkman is not exactly a high flyer in the US government. So he is not surprised when he is picked to be the designated survivor: the only member of congress who is left behind in case of an attack. But then the most unforeseen incident happens: someone blows up the Capitol and he becomes the President of the US literally overnight. He finds himself in a web of conspiracy and many people who’d rather see him gone.

Political drama is right up my street and I am already an rabid House of Cards fan. This runs in the same vein, but the focus is much more on a man trying to find his feet than anything else. I especially liked many of the side characters: the press chief, the chief of staff and his wife who are the ones that keep him grounded. Plus this show couldn’t be more in line with the times.

Jessica Jones

Hesitant superhero Jessica Jones has to face off her biggest nemesis: Killgrave. A mind controller who has only ever learned to use his special skills to get his own way. After she finally broke free from his grip she believed him dead, but then a girl goes missing and Jessica, now a PI, is enlisted by her parents to help her. Soon, Jessica figures out it’s Killgrave all over again. Can she face him when the time comes?

I’m not going to lie. The main reason I wanted to watch this? David Tennant. Yes. He of Doctor Who. Of Broadchurch. And of Harry Potter. I think he’s a great actor and that made me want to watch. He didn’t disappoint and surprisingly neither did the series. This must be my favorite Marvel series I’ve watched apart from Daredevil.

The Missing season 1 & 2

Two seasons based roughly on true horrifying stories. The first season focuses on the missing of a boy in France, much in the same vein as Madelein McCann. The second season focuses on a missing teenager who returns home being not quite the same, only to take her own life. That is losely based on the events of the kidnapping of Natascha Kamphusch. The stories are harrowing, but this series also focuses on how the families left behind cope with such an ordeal.

Not the most fun series per se, but incredibly well done with some excellent acting again. It sometimes dragged out a bit and the obsessions of the father in season 1 and the hunch of the mother in season 2 are a bit over dramatized which made it less believable at times. While media coverage might focus on the missing child in cases like this, there is little regard for what happens to the families they are torn away from. This series shows that quite excellently and does so well.

Shadow Hunters season 2

After bringing Clary’s mother back from her spell induced sleep, Valentine is still on the loose. He is setting up the downworld to entice the Clave and all shadowhunters to despise them and bring down their own demise. In the mean time, Clary and Jace are battling with the fact that they might be siblings, a mysterious stranger comes to town and the Lightwood siblings have some complicated relationships of their own.

Brainless entertainment: that’s what this is. I liked the Mortal Instruments series, but watching the series now only emphasizes how problematic all of the relationships in the books are. This second series veers off the plot line from the books quite a bit and brings in facts and events from other books in the shadowhunter world. While rich, the acting in this series is quite clunky at times and the plot is trying to do too much making it just a little too much at times.

The Defenders

After four individual takes on New York’s superheroes, they are now joined in their vendetta against The Hand. Each characters finds themselves taunted, haunted or simply threatened by the existence of this elusive team of bandits. So they decide to team up and give it their best.

This mini series was enjoyable, but I felt it focused to heavily on Daredevil and Iron Fist. The first one I liked. The second: not so much. In his stand alone series I already thought Iron Fist to be a whiny rich kid who got spiritual and it just didn’t sit well with me in this series too. Because these two characters overshadowed the other two, I just felt this wasn’t as well rounded and very slow to begin. It takes a good couple of episodes for all 4 characters to meet, which made it a bit of a drag at first.

What have you watched?