A few times,I told you about the shows I watched. And it was fun, so I am going to do it again! This was another pretty good batch, especially since I quit two of the ones I wasn’t feeling (see below). The others, I quite liked, even if the gods of streaming smote me once (or several times) more.
So, a list of the shows I’ve been watching since whenever the hell the last post posted was! I will also say, I DNFed two shows, Daybreak and Reality Z. Tried two episodes of both, and…. meh.
I’ve also watched/am watching some of the latest seasons of shows I’d talked about before! Shows like…
►Snowpiercer Season 2
►The Expanse Season 5
►The Challenge Double Agents (Season 36)
►Fear the Walking Dead Season 6
And the best news is, none of them have been letdowns! Anyway, onto the new shows!
Renewal Status Unknown
True story, I hated this show for the first couple episodes. Like I was mostly watching it to make fun of the dystopian clichés? But then somewhere along the line… I actually started to like it! It combines a political hellscape with a raging pandemic (sounds familiar, yeah?) and while it definitely starts off shaky, it really drew me in with a family-centric storyline that I couldn’t help but care about.
These guys, and a few others.
Oh and also, this society is awful, but realistic. It’s Spain, if Spain were the actual worst and took crappy people lessons from the US. No seriously, a main premise is basically all the rich people thinking they’re somehow inherently better than the poorer folks, creating impossible class divides, and then making the entire lives of the poor people amount to serving the rich people. But guess what doesn’t discriminate? That’s right, COVID-19 the Plague! Good times, could we renew it please and thank you?
Verdict: 
Cancelled; Netflix Rude
I hate Netflix sometimes. It made me rage so many times before. It cancels everything. Fall in love with The Society? Axed. Thought Away was awesome? Of course it’s gone. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Like they canceled it so quickly, I wonder why they even bothered making the damn thing? It’s a story about Hilary Swank taking a quick trip to Mars. (No not really, it’s a life or death trip, one that will take literal years, and probably kill some or all of them.) Of course, she leaves her husband and teenaged daughter back on Earth, her husband ends up paralyzed, the whole thing is dicey. Oh and there is some kind of maybe-romance blooming with Decidedly Not Her Husband:
Husband shmusband, I shipped the hell out of it. It’s fine, I shipped the husband with someone else too ?♀️
We end at a point where some questions are answered, but so many more are left for us. I am so sad that we won’t be able to complete the journey with the beyond amazing cast, who truly grow to be a family. Equally lamentable is that we won’t be able to explore Mars with the crew. I have no idea if they’ve considered trying to rehome it (please do) but the producer does speak about what she’d hoped for going forward.
Verdict:
Renewal Status Unknown (Rumors of renewal and anticipated filming dates are swirling, though)
I had no idea until I started this post that the show was based on a book. It looks quite interesting, and since the show definitely is, I shall need to give it a try! (Sadly though, it seems to be hard to find.) Anyway, this is depressing and awful and totally riveting!
Legit the one and only time anyone has ever smiled. In like all of Russia, not even just this show. (I jest.)
It’s basically about a plague (lots of plague shows, yeah?) sweeping Russia (and maybe everywhere else, but we only know what’s going on in Russia) and the main guy needs to grab his families (yes, plural) and get the hell out of dodge. Because not only is sickness abound, but obviously people are acting a fool, as people do in pandemics. Of course, as you can imagine, these families bring drama. And they end up with some neighbors joining the band, plus a few randos they acquire, and most of the season is a journey to the, you guessed it, lake. It’s super isolated and one hundred percent creepy, and everything about this show is gloriously dark and messy. The main guy is kind of an ass, but the show is really good.
Everything looks fine.
Verdict:
Renewed for Season 2
Greg told me that Away (see above) sounded a lot like this show. And wow. It really does! I do wonder if that could be why Away was canceled? Because they already did one of these? Like- the whole premise is about an astronaut woman who…. leaves her husband and daughter to seek life on another planet. You’re not having a stroke, I did just write that two posts up. But, I will say, that is pretty much where the similarities end. On this show, they’re searching outside our solar system for some kind of weirdass musical aliens or… something.
Plot in a GIF, frankly.
For me, Niko was not as likeable as Emma from Away. Her family… I don’t think she ever liked her husband? Which is totally fine, can relate, but then suddenly she’ll seem wholly devoted for like, all of three seconds? It was weird. The daughter is younger, which you kind of feel bad about. Speaking of younger, the whole “crew” of this ship is approximately the median age of 20. I don’t understand. At all. I mean okay, you’re not going to sign up a bunch of octogenarians for the mission, but this is equally absurd. No one has a clue what they are doing, save Niko, who no one wants to listen to because they are literally petulant children.
Guys, Mom said stop.
Meanwhile, ALIE William, the AI, is in love with Niko. I also shipped that. Oh, and while I found the young characters to be an absurd science choice, I did really like their characters themselves, so.
Verdict:
Canceled after Season 1
Guess who else is headed to Mars? Sean Penn! (Idk guys I was on a real space kick this year.) Sean Penn watched the team of astronauts he’d been training blow up on takeoff for the first Mars mission. Whoopsie! Look, I don’t know about you, but I would not be itching to get on the ship for the next round, but Sean Penn gotta do Sean Penn I guess.
I mean, but only cause those other guys blew up, so.
He too has a daughter (seriously, is this some kind of trope?) who he is worried about leaving behind. She’s got a drug problem, and his wife is dead, and it’s messy. Frankly, I was a bit more invested in the life of his fellow crewmen, since Sean’s story dragged on a bit for me. Like- I enjoyed that the story was mainly about the crew and their lives, and space was secondary, but I can also sort of see why audiences weren’t as thrilled? Anyway, it’s decent enough, and I do wish it had gotten a second season!
Verdict:
Canceled after 2 Seasons (But ends in a fairly satisfying way)
More Mars you ask? You betcha! Okay so this was part fictional show, part documentary. And at first, I was fine with it, the documentary part was interesting enough. But then the show part got really good and I just wanted Elon Musk to STFU, you know? We open the show with the crew almost at Mars, so that was different than the other Mars-y shows I have watched. After that… it’s spoilery, but we basically get to see how/if they live on Mars. Which is super cool.
These guys, mostly.
The first season was more scientific, while the second season was a perfect balance of character and plot. I kind of fell in love with it, and found it so thought provoking. It was very The 100 at times, when there was, quite literally, no good choice. And also, just imagine the day-to-day on Mars. It’s mundane but also a constant threat, which is wild.
Verdict:
Renewal Status Unknown
I decided to watch this because apparently a lot of people involved in 3% were involved in this. And you know I love me some 3%. Obviously, it too is Brazilian, and it’s set in the future, though a far closer one. In truth, much of it is very much like our current society, except the part where drones watch you all day every day. That is creepy, and I do not like it, so I figured this would be right up my ally.
Drones! Suits! That one girl! Brazil!
But it was mainly a mystery/thriller more than a sci-fi? Bangs Girl’s dad is murdered, which obviously doesn’t happen like, ever, because of the drones, only the drones didn’t seem to catch his assailant. Luckily, Bangs Girl just happens to work in the Dronatorium (I have no idea what it actually is called) where all the drone science happens. And because she is Very Smart and Important™ she has access to stuff. And people. And she’s going to figure this out! But it just didn’t wow me. Like, I didn’t hate it? And I did push through, but only because it was 6 episodes.
Verdict: 🤷
Renewed for Season 2
I live and breathe for this damn show. It came into my life not long after The 100 ended, and I needed it more than I can even put into words. I just wanted to need to watch something again, and along came The Wilds. At first, I thought it was just going to be girls stuck on an island, let’s cathartically discuss our high school drama, etc. But holy crap it is so much more than that!
Heh.
It explores so many elements, and so many of them are spoilers that I can’t even say too much. But make no mistake, this show is about these incredibly badass women, and what they have been put through by our bullshit society. What they continue to be put through. And yes, there are secrets, and twists, and so much going on that I’d not be able to include it all in ten posts.
Each character will work her way into your heart, no question. You’ll think you have favorites at the start, but frankly, everyone is your favorite, because they are all so well developed and sympathetic. So, should you be watching this show immediately?
Verdict: ❤️(most loved!)
I watched all those space shows too! I’m sad they’re cancelled. We need good space shows. I just finished watching the (not-about-space) Derry Girls. I liked it a lot. The crude humor reminds me of my friends and I when we were teenagers.
Aw Derry Girls sounds fun! My friends and I were too innocent for this world so maybe I wouldn’t get it as much hahah. And seriously, WHY do they keep canceling all the good stuff? I loved Away, and not knowing how it will play out kills me!
Welp, these all sound a little too serious and dark for my current TV watching moods, lol. I wonder if La Valla was influenced at all by the Franco Regime? Drones watching you all day in Omniscient does sound creepy…but we’re pretty much there with our cell phones…? *cue X-Files theme music, lol* (The premise of Omniscient reminds me of Grand Hotel though! Except it’s historical (so no drones), and Julio is Very Smart, but not at all important, so he has to dig quite a bit to figure out his sister’s death. And it’s somehow kind of light and ridiculous despite all that.)
Bwhahah I feel like most people agree with you? My show tastes run very dark, I’m afraid. Like, The 100 is my palate cleanser ? Also, indeed, it is! “La Valla draws its influence from the real life dictatorship of Francisco Franco who ruled Spain from 1936 to 1975. The security state, citizen coercion and government posters carry Francoist undertones.” Grand Hotel does sound good, I remember you telling me about it- it IS on my watchlist, but again, I seem to be drawn to the dark stuff hahah.
La Valla is probably VERY dark then (from the very little I know about that era). I love how we find ourselves watching similar plot lines, but you have the serious, semi-realistic version and I gravitate toward the slapstick and/or slap-happy one, lol
So true! And yes, it IS very dark! At first, the clichéness kind of made it feel less bleak? but when it actually got like, decent, oof. It IS funny how we go for opposite tones but similar plot. Yours is probably a better plan for like, your mental health, but I prefer to be completely wrecked by my shows, for… reasons I guess? ?
Okay, you’ve got a ton of shows here that I’m interested in! I’m wondering if Tyler Hoechlin has a very big part in Another Life though, now that he’s got the new Superman tv show that just started, will he be able to do another season of that show? Thanks for giving me some new shows to check out. I finished Reign last month and have been just rebinging Outlander because I love it so much. 🙂
So I had to look him up because you had me curious! He does not, as it turns out, play a huge part. Well- I guess the character does, in a sense, but Tyler is dead within the first several minutes I think (so not even much of a spoiler!) Ohhh how is Reign? I have been curious about Outlander too, but I am over here rebinging The 100 so I feel you ?
Okay, after I watched the first episode I had the answer to my question about him! LOL!!! Reign was really good! I liked it a lot. Outlander is good too. I got stuck on The 100 in the second season I think. But maybe now that I can binge it I’ll go try it again!
Oh you SHOULD! S2 is BANANAS, especially the backhalf. 4 is my fave, but I love them all haha. I do want to try Reign, it is on my watchlist with like 293839 other shows, whoops! And Outlander. Gah one of these days!
Shannon i have not seen (or heard) of any of these shows! Netflix is such a pain when it cancels shows. It feels like things will get two seasons and that’s it. Ugh.
YES exactly like why do they even BOTHER, it is so rude! And it seems like a waste of money, too. Like you pour so much into casts and sets and whatever and then just throw it all away? But they are rich and I am not so what do I know? ?
Thank you very much for enlightening me, and most importantly, just in time. Just think, six years already on the Internet, but this is the first time I hear it.
Dear spammer, you have only been on the internet for six years? You were in a cave or something before then? I have been on the internet since like, 1995, just saying.
I don’t watch TV, but it’s good to see you found some winners. I read these posts so I can suggest shows to my dad. He’s run out of stuff to watch during lockdown. I catch him watching subtitled films because he can’t find anything in English to watch.
Awww well- a few of these are subtitled too hahah. But I hope he enjoys some! I would probably recommend To the Lake to my own dad, if that helps!
I am SO bad at keeping up with shows or starting shows that I do want to watch. I have a concentration problem with tv and movies. Anyway, I am curious about The Wilds so good to know that you really liked it!! Sorry some of these were cancelled. I’ve had quite a few shows over the years that I loved and they were cancelled after one season. Not. Cool. Right now I’m obsessed with Prodigal Son. Seriously. It’s my favorite. I also really enjoy 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lonestar. Comedy wise, I’m loving the new shows B Positive and Call Me Kat. I haven’t really watched anything on a streaming network in awhile except for the Night Stalker documentary on Netflix which I would recommend…it’s so creepy though!!
-Lauren
I am BAD at movies. I cannot get into them- like I need more than 90 minutes to care about a thing, maybe? And YES you must watch The Wilds, it is 100% worth it, I promise! And seriously, why the cancelling, Netflix!? Oh I will have to check those out! The Night Stalker one sounds good but like I should watch it during the well-lit daytime hahah.
The Wilds is the bomb as you well know. I NEED S2 like… tomorrow. And I still need to start the latest season of the expanse. I’m bummed about Away too- I stopped watching it after hearing about the cancel. Damn Netflix. And it is SO like Another Life. Well, not really, like you said, but dammit if I don’t get Hilary Swank and Niko confused- they seem so SIMILAR. But you reminded me of it and now I’m looking forward to S2 again… 🙂
You’ve talked me into To The Lake.
I think I watched one episode of Mars, and liked it, but didn’t it get canceled? You might have told me that… so I stopped.
I need to try Tribes of europa, because of course.
I knowww I hope they are working on it RIGHT NOW. And yeah- I think part of the reason Away maybe got canceled was the similarity? But I thought that Another Life was more on the campy side, while Away was more serious, and like- there was obviously room for them both, and if not, why the hell did they make them both to begin with!? ?
YES you would definitely like To the Lake! I mean, it’s like those other depressing Euro shows, but Russian, which automatically makes it more depressing!
I need to start Tribes of Europa too- mostly because I want to make sure it gets all the views ha. But I cannot stop watching The 100! I am now on mid-5, where Octavia thinks that Wonkru is stronger than sandstorms, what fun!
That’s what I don’t get. why make two such similar shows? And Hilary Swank and what;s her name Sackhoff even LOOK alike, or is it me??? But Another had the ridiculously goofy ships crew so… yeah. 🙂
No exactly they DO look alike! And the premise was THE SAME- just a slightly different destination! (And okay more ridiculousness in Another Life hah) Who was like “let’s make Another Life… but with Hilary Swank!” and thought it would be a good, profitable plan? Makes me extra mad, because honestly, had Away happened first, I think it would have been way more popular, but alas.
Yay for The Wilds, and that you liked The Expanse. 🙂 I’ve been meaning to watch Mars for awhile now.
I’ve been hunting for really compelling shows to distract me from life for awhile, but so far most I’ve tried just haven’t been compelling enough (aside from WandaVision)…I’m trying One (on Netflix) right now. Safe (also on Netflix) was good…I might need to back off the thrillers for a bit. Have you tried The Witcher? There’s some time wonkiness, but I loved it.
DId you ever finish S5 of The Expanse? I know everyone was on WandaVision hah. Mars is good- I liked how they did it!
Ohhh I think One is on my watchlist, how is it so far? I have not tried Witcher, I will add that one to my list too!
I did! And loved it.
One is……OK, I guess. It’s hard for me to watch pseudo-science shows with plot gaps, because I get frustrated with the writers. And episode 1 had a lot going on in it, but not really compelling for me. I need to finish the episode- I might’ve just been in a snippy mood.
The Witcher is so good! There is some time switching stuff that they don’t explicitly point out, though, BTW. I loved it, but I know some people who were frustrated by it.
Aw yay! I really liked how it ended up too- and I thought the Cas situation was handled really well too. Ugh, One does sound a bit annoying! I will leave it on the list, but won’t be in a huge rush!
Hmmm The Witcher does sound interesting! I don;’t know if that would frustrate me too, though!
I haven’t watched any of these but I’m starting to think I should because some of these sound so good!
Aw yay I hope you do- especially The Wilds!
I also tried Daybreak and Reality Z and didn’t get super into either. I think I didn’t even finish the first episode of Daybreak lol . I need to catch up with Fear the Walking Dead. I’m so behind. I had to catch up with The Walking Dead over the holidays. There’s a lot to watch in that universe lol I’m going to try Tribes of Europa eventually. ALSOOOO I want to rewatch The 100! Inspired by you hahah
Yeah Daybreak was rough, I finished the first episode but barely hah. Fear is SO good this season, you definitely must catch up! It has finally gotten back to how it used to be, before they ruined it hah. I also need to catch up with TWD, I hate watching it on AMC app because of the commercials but S10 has been going on forever, so who knows when it’ll be on Netflix! Fear I enjoy too much to wait though! Definitely let me know if you try Europa, I want to soon too!
Definitely rewatch The 100 too! I am on S6 of my current rewatch (gonna be hard to do S7, but I’ll power through ha), and I am working on a post, hopefully I can get it up in the next week or so!
I tend to watch mostly mindless TV and Supernatural, but you’ve convinced me that I need to give The Wilds a try. I’ll definitely check it out.
YESSS The Wilds is so GOOD! And it’s only 10 episodes so it won’t take lonG!
I just watched the first episode today, and I really liked it. Will definitely keep watching!