TV series I watched

It was summer break which means I finally had the time to be watching some TV series again. As part of Free for all Friday, I thought I could also give an update of movies/ tv series I watched in the previous month. Because I definitely love bingewatching a tv series and with a heatwave Netflix was just a great way of spending time indoors while sweating buckets. Here’s what I watched.

This post is free of pictures as this would contain copyrighted material which I cannot repost.

Undercover

This is the first Dutch Netflix production which of course had a lot of hype over here. This series details the undercover operation to catch a Dutch drug lord who spends his weekends on a campsite together with the rest of his gang. I really like this and watched the whole thing in a single day. It is a Dutch/ Flemish production had a bunch of cool dialect going on and a bunch of great actors. The storyline was a bit predictable in the end, but I can’t wait for season 2!

Lucifer

Just season 4! I binged the first 3 seasons when they came to Netflix last year. And this year we were treated to season 4. Apparently there is one more season coming and then it will be over. And that is such a shame, because Lucifer is such a great series. It is witty, it is fun, and it plays nicely on Biblical theme. It does get a bit repetitive at times and some of the storyline is a bit ridiculous to be honest, but it is a very entertaining tv series that has a banger of a soundtrack.

If you don’t know what it is about: the devil has decided to leave hell and sets up shop in LA. Here, he runs a nightclub and gets involved as a special consultant for the LAPD. His angelic brother is nagging at him to go back, spills his problems to his therapist and tries to figure out why the detective he works with makes him mortal.

Good Omens

I read the book in May and I got an Amazon subscription just to watch the Neil Gaiman produced series. I am currently in the midst of American Gods. Good Omens is very true to the book and I love how David Tennant and Michael Sheen make the main characters come to life. They were spot on in their acting. The series is as ridiculous as the book, including cheesy, cringeworthy special effects, but it adds to the charm.

So what is it about? Judgement Day is here and Crowly and Aziraphale find out that they misplaced the Antichrist at birth. So they need to find him to prevent Armageddon from happening. Because they kind of like their lives on earth among these funny little humans.

Mindhunter

Season 2 was released in the middle of my summer vacation. So I was on it straightaway. The first season was an instant hit for me and I watched everything in one go. This series is about the people who set up the behavioural science unit with the FBI by interiewing serial killers. The first season focuses more on setting up the unit. Season 2 is more about the personal issues some of the main characters are dealing with while trying to do their work. This is based on true events, but of course a lot of it is fiction.

The Ted Bundy Tapes

I watched this before Mindhunter, but apparently Ted Bundy was one of the serial killers interviewed by the ‘real’ Mind Hunters. This was one of those things that had been on my to watch list for ages. I had heard it was super scary and not for the faint of heart. You do get all the grizzly details of his crimes so it is definitely enough to make you queasy. That is why I thought it best to watch it in the height of summer. I watched the movie featuring Zac Efron right after watching this and they nailed Bundy to a T in that.

The Family

This is mini series that Netflix said was new, so I decided to watch. It is not fiction but more of a 5 part documentary. The focus of the documentary is an organization that is dubbed The Family. Under the guise of religion they are about power and being an old boys club of influence and politics. A strong point about this is that the makers interviewed people involved with the organization making it a very well-balanced series that explores all sides. A must watch if you are interested in global politics.

The Last Czars

Another documentary style series. This is a mix of documentary and dramatization of the events leading up to the murder of the last Romanovs. A tragic tale that features a string of bad decisions and religious fanaticism, this is a piece of history I didn’t know much about. It was definitely interesting and engaging and done very well. I have a book about the Romanov dynasty at home and this series has only made me want to read that more.

When They See Us

This series is the dramatized story of a bunch of boys who were wrongly acccused of raping a woman in Central Park. A case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time and having the wrong skin color had dire consequences for these boys. Not only were they wrongly accused, the prosecution also strongarmed them into confession to crimes they didn’t commit. They all did time and the story also includes how they dealt with their time behind bars. A harrowing tale that I already knew as I watched the documentary about this case a few years ago. All the more current as one of the biggest advocates of getting these boys behind bars was none other than Donald Trump.

Stranger Things

Who didn’t watch the third season of Netflix’s Sci-Fi tale over the summer? I most definitely did. I liked it, but I think it doesn’t beat the first two seasons. There seems to be less and less of a reason of why Hawkins continues to be under attach from the Upside Down, so the storyline was a bit farfetched. Though I did like the parallel of a shopping mall as a cover up for a secret government operation. This season was more about character development and less about everything that made the first two seasons great. There was more color, less of that grungy atmosphere and less reasons to be engaged with some of the storyline going on.

The Great Hack

To round off this post, I also wanted to talk about this Netflix documentary, which I think is a must watch if you care about online privacy and privacy in general. This documentary is a one off episode in which the entire Cambridge Analytica scandal is being detailed and why this organization is quite scary. Pretty much all our details are sold off and used against us and social media plays a huge role in radicalisation and the emergence of right wing politics across the globe. This documentary details the low down, but was a bit one-sided.

What have you been watching?