Grimm Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

TV Favourites with Freeview Play

November 11, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

I was recently asked by Freeview Play to make a post about my favourite TV shows and while this sounds like a great thing to talk about (and it is!) how do you narrow it down to an actual list of favourites, when you love so many shows?

As most of you who read my blog will know, I started a small sewing business a few months ago and since then I’ve spent more time sat at the dining table, than I have in the lounge. For the first month I got really behind on all my shows, until I decided to use my iPad to catch up and then keep on top of all the shows I love. Not only that but I have been binge watching series’ like Grimm, Switched at Birth, Awkward, Constantine, Orphan Black and many more. I’ve realised that I like so many different types of genre and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a current series or an old one, I’m ready to give it a go!

So here are some of my favourites.

Currently running – At the moment I’m really into the various superhero series that seems to be popping up everywhere. I’m watching The Flash, Arrow and Supergirl (which are all DC) and though they’re not currently airing, I also love Marvel’s Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter and Daredevil. Other shows that I love and are currently airing are Once Upon a Time, Grimm (which as I mentioned I recently binge watched from series 1-4), Modern Family and Switched at Birth (another one I recently binged on 3 series of). There are of course a few other series that are between series and waiting to start, such as Game of Thrones, The 100, NCIS, Gotham and Vikings.

British TV – while most of the afore mentioned shows are US ones that we either get a day after the US or wait weeks for, there are a few British shows I love. Casualty and Holby City air every week, while X Factor and I’m a Celebrity are only on this time of year. Orphan Black is also a British show that I recently fell in love with and I’m waiting for it to start again. Though most of these shows are my guilty pleasures, I’m not afraid to say I enjoy them. We’re also watching Release the Hounds which is a recent find but an enjoyable light-hearted watch.

Cancelled shows – over the years there have been a lot of cancelled shows that I’ve loved, including Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Doll House (all Joss Whedon!). However I recently watched one series of Constantine and really enjoyed it and I started on Defiance (though I’m not sure if I like it or not) and I found out that had been cancelled too. I also enjoyed both The Following and Revolution, both of which have been cancelled and a recent TimeHop post reminded me of a series called Flash Forward which was so good and such a shame it was cancelled. Finally I’m just now catching up a the last few series of Glee. I was a hardcore fan for the first few but it dropped off and while I still enjoyed it for light-hearted entertainment, I wasn’t bothered either. Now, with my VIZIO smart tv I search for shows to watch and have plenty of series to go at, so I’m just making my way through 4-6 with the hope of ticking it off the list.

There are so many more shows I could give a mention to but I would be here all day. I hope to find and enjoy even more over the weeks to come but I’ll be sure to let you know of what I find!

TV To Get Excited For!

September 17, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

It’s September!! And for the most part, that can be a bit depressing – kids back to school, weather getting colder, days getting shorter etc. However there is one big plus point to me and that’s all the TV shows that begin again! For more family-friendly tv programs, check out AWKNG TV. Here are just a few new season tv that I’m looking forward to! Check with your tv provider if any of these shows will be available to you.

Arrow Season 4 and The Flash Season 2 – October sees the return of both Arrow and The Flash, both of which I love. While I originally struggled a little to get into Arrow, it’s now one of my favourite TV shows. I completely love The Flash too, but in a totally different way. Arrow is dark and a bit more adult, where The Flash is a lot more lighthearted but still gets me quite emotional. While I’m sure it will be the end of October before we get the TV shows, I’m still excited as the trailers start to trickle out. I’m a huge Superhero fan and these two series are some of the best I’ve watched when it comes to Superheroes.

Once Upon a Time Season 5 – I’m such a massive Disney fan and this is pretty much the closest you get to a Disney series for adults. While it wasn’t always as Disney orientated as it is now, its always been fairytale related and that’s one of my favourite topics (not to mention, there are villains and I love them!). Last season was left on a great cliffhanger and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Not only that but I’m going to a OUAT Convention next year and I am seriously SO excited. Lana (Regina), Sean (Robin) and Bex (Zelena) are all confirmed guests so far and I’m sure there will be more!

Grimm Season 5 – I posted last week about my new found love for a tv show called Grimm. Well now I’m up to the end of Season 3 and about to start 4 so I can’t wait for Season 5 to air. It will be hard to watch on a week to week basis instead of binging, but I’m looking forward to it regardless!

Doctor Who Season 9 – While I’m not a huge Doctor Who fan, I’ve also really gotten into it over the last few years. Season 9 starts this coming weekend and I’m pleased about that. I’m still not 100% sure that I like the new Doctor but maybe 12 more episodes will help me decide! I’m sure the Christmas special will be good too.

Gotham Season 2 – I’m not entirely sure when we will get this over in the UK, it might even be next year, but its released in the US soon. I didn’t enjoy all of Season One but it definitely had potential towards the end. I’m excited to see what might come from Season 2 so fingers crossed it won’t be a let down!

The Walking Dead Season 6 – TWD is SO up and down to me. I loved Season 1, Season 2 was okay and after that it became less stable. I enjoyed parts of the last few seasons but I couldn’t say I liked them in full. Hopefully season 6 will be an improvement but honestly I’m not holding my breath.

The 100 Season 3 – I loved both Season 1 and Season 2 of The 100 and it was yet another series that I binged watched, along with Chris. We were late getting into it but once we did, I remember several very late nights, watching “just one more episode”. Season 2 was left on a bit of a cliffhanger so I’ll be interested to see where they take it. A large proportion of the storyline was tied off so its going to have to head in a whole new direction for this new series.

Other notable mentions are; Heroes Reborn (a new/follow-on series to Heroes), NCIS (not top of the list, but I do love it and have seen every season), Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (I lost interest towards the end of series but hopefully this one will be better), Marvel’s Agent Carter (hated the beginning of Season 1 but loved it towards the end – excited to see what comes next).

If you want to have a wide variety of channels and shows to watch at home, you may consider calling your cable tv provider to upgrade your subscription.

Is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to this fall/autumn?

Television Binge – Grimm TV Show

September 10, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

Do you know your Wieder Blutbad from your Fuchsbau? And your Zauberbiest from your Hexenbiest?

In the past I have written about various TV series, that I’ve gotten into and then binge watched! These have been The Walking Dead, Orange is the New Black, Vikings, Game of Thrones, to name but a few. However this last week I’ve really got into a TV series called Grimm and I’m so excited to tell you all about it!

Grimm first aired in 2011, so I’m definitely behind on the times. However I also think it was probably under advertised in the UK (as a lot of things are) so it was never something I got into. That’s not to say I hadn’t heard of it, because I had, but it wasn’t enough to catch my eye. So when I noticed that Series 1-3 were on Netflix and Series 5 was due to start in October, I decided to give it a go. I’ll admit I watched the first couple of episodes a few months back and it didn’t really grab me, but forcing myself to sit at the table and get work done, I needed something to watch on my iPad. After several consecutive episodes I was sold!

In my opinion, one of the great things about Grimm is that there are LOADS of episodes in a series. Unlike Vikings or Game of Thrones where you get about 10 eps, Grimm has 22 (more like OUAT etc). This means when you binge, you really binge, and I’m absolutely loving that.

Wikipedia describes Grimm as “an American police procedural fantasy television drama series”, while the series itself describes it as “a cop drama—with a twist… a dark and fantastical project about a world in which characters inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales exist”. I have no idea what procedural means (and I can’t be bothered to look it up) but I assume both are basically describing what awesome means ;) The series follows someone called Nick, a cop with a partner called Hank. In the first episode or two, its revealed that Nick has a special sort of talent… which later becomes known as being a Grimm. He uses this “job”, alongside his cop role, to rid the world (specifically Portland) of bad guys and monsters. There are other main characters such as Sean, Juliette and Monroe (he’s my favourite) and more join as the series goes on. I really don’t want to spoil it too much for you, so I’m not going to go into any detail.

Series One was a great scene setter. I was engaged in all the episodes, especially as deeper plots unfolded. The end of series one finale was amazing too and – the second thing I enjoy about binge watching – I went straight on to watch Season Two, desperate to know what happened!

I have to admit I found Season Two a little frustrating at times. Again without spoiling too much, at the end of Series One there is a cliff-hanger regarding Juliette, that leads into Season Two. I felt some of her plot line (memory loss) went on far too long and I ended up googling to see how far through the series it was before her memory came back!! It turned out it was about episode 18 so I did feel that season dragged a bit. Finally it got good again towards the end and the season finale was good too (though not as gripping as season one). That said I still went on to watch the next series straight away.

I’m currently on episode 14 of Season Three, so over half way through. I like season three a lot more than season two and I almost feel desperate to watch more! Yesterday I had Nat over and it meant I didn’t end up watching any. Today I’m writing this post and working on some Closet Geek projects, so I’m the same today! All regular TV watching in hold right now as all I want to watch is Grimm! If you haven’t seen it, I definitely recommend giving it a go – though do be warned it is a little dark and does have a bit of gore at times. On the whole when the kids are about, I pause it when they come in and out of the room. I think they’d be okay with it, but since some of the murders can be a bit gruesome, I’d rather be safe than sorry!

NBC is even suggesting “binge watching Season 4” on their website and I definitely hope I can do this in the next few days. It will be so hard watching one epsiode per week once I’ve caught up but its been really great getting here!

Week 36 – Monday Round-up

September 9, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

I am so behind on everything right now that I’ve realised its Wednesday and I still haven’t rounded up last week! To be truthful it was the usual mix of nothing some days and loads the next, but I will try to recap as best I can remember!

Monday we were still in London and I posted about that day here. Since we were actually back by Tuesday, life pretty much returned to normal. The girls went to their dad’s house and Chris was at work so I had a day of sewing, blogging and watching TV (not necessarily in that order!). I made some decisions about the month (that sadly haven’t really happened yet) and tried to take a determined approach to life since it was September 1st!

In the evening I sat down to make loads of hair bows and watch Grimm. It was actually pretty awesome ;)

In the morning I got up and headed out for the girls, about the same time as Chris headed out to work. I picked them up and we headed to Asda Living to pick out some school uniform for Megan and a few last minute bits and pieces they needed. Afterwards we went home and while the girls sat and played on their computers (and Disney Infinity on the Xbox), I made more bows and watched Grimm… right up till bedtime. Other than that there was the odd bit of getting ready for school etc. but that was pretty much it.

On Thursday the girls were back at school and we had the usual mad rush in the morning. After dropping the girls off I came home and started to sew. Nat came around for the day and although we mostly sat and chatted, she helped me cut out pattern pieces etc. until we both needed to pick up the kids from school. After school we all just flaked in front of the TV and computers, recovering from a busy day! Friday was fairly similar, except that I dropped the kids off at school and went on a ribbon hunt in Lincoln. I realised Nat was off so called her to meet up for coffee and we spent the morning chatting and drinking coffee/hot chocolate. I headed home as I needed to go to the post office and get a few bits done. However it wasn’t long before I was back out to get the girls. That evening I spent sewing, getting both a Woody dress done and also working on a Wendy cosplay.

Saturday morning and it was the weekend. The girls had no school and Chris had no work, so it should have been heaven – except I felt awful! I had a headache all day long and this resulted in me crying on and off through frustration. However I managed to get some work done in the end and my headache finally cleared by about 7pm. Sunday was another day of sewing and another day of everyone being off. We spent the day doing our own thing but sat down to a family dinner of fajitas in the evening.

It was a lovely week but as always, highs and lows. This week is fairly crazy so far but I’m beginning to think that’s the new norm!