TV Binge – Making a Murderer

January 20, 2016 by Bel 2 Comments

If you’re anything like me (and I hate to admit I’m a bit of a sheep) when the internet starts talking about something or other, I want to know what they’re on about. Sometimes I miss the original wagon (like Orange is the New Black, I binged season 1, when 2 came out) but occasionally I’m just late and I run to catch up! Last week and the week before there was a lot of fuss about something called “Making a Murderer”, a tv series on Netflix and of course that meant that I had to find out what everyone was talking about!

The show is a 10 part documentary, all about a man called Steven Avery. It follows through the story of his life – his original arrest, wrongful imprisonment and eventual release. It then goes on to cover a murder he was arrested for, his arrest again and his now imprisonment again.

I have to admit, a part of me doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. The documentary was pretty interesting but in parts it dragged and when you were binge watching, some of it was a little repetitive. However the story line itself was fascinating and I completely see why it lead people to speculate as to whether or not Steven (and in turn his nephew) were really guilty or not.

I personally, don’t think he was. Obviously this is going to split opinion and of course the documentary was definitely biased towards showing his innocence rather than proving his guilt. However I genuinely don’t think Steven is smart enough to commit this sort of a crime, let alone his nephew being involved.

Whatever you do or don’t believe after watching it, its definitely an interesting in watch. I read this week that there is a possibility of a new series, documenting from where it picked up onwards – but I suppose more time will need to pass before that happens. If Steven is innocent, will he ever get the chance to prove it and be released again? I suppose that would make for a good series. However if he doesn’t get that chance or he really is guilty, then I don’t suppose there is much more that can be said!

Game Review – Firefly the Board Game

November 18, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

Chris bought this Firefly the Board Game at London Film and Comic Con last year, along with a few expansions for it. While I wasn’t with him at the time, I believe he got “quite a bargain” and paid a lot less than it usually sells for in the UK – since its a US import. For those of you who don’t know, Firefly is a TV series that was far too short lived and has now become part of cult tv. The show features a spaceship called Serenity, of Firefly class (its model basically). It’s crew is a band of misfits, brought together through various stories. If you haven’t seen it, then you definitely should. There is literally only one season of it but its great and really worth a watch – if nothing more than for the fact Nathan Fillion is in it (and he gets naked at one point!). It’s also by Joss Whedon – master of all things geek.

Anyway, back to the game! The really great thing about this board game is that you can play it alone. Don’t ask me how as I haven’t done so – but it was one of the biggest selling points for Chris. He has played it by himself and I believe he found it enjoyable. He has also played it once with myself, Jon and my brother, once just him and Megan, then also with myself, Nat and Jon.

While at first the game seems a little complicated, it isn’t really. You pick a ship and a captain, then add money, fuel and parts to your hand. You gain jobs from various people around the ‘Verse and depending on which “goal” you’re playing, have various tasks to complete in order to win. There are shops to buy more fuel and parts, along with crew, guns, transport etc. There are ways to be both moral and immortal – there are ways to be both legal and illegal. Its a lot of fun, with multiple ways to play and tactics to use, in order to make sure its never the same game twice.

I have to admit that I always want to be Serenity and I always want to be Mal. Luckily both times we’ve played, no one has cared that I wanted those specifically. Luckily you don’t actually need a knowledge of Firefly in order to play either – which was good as Nat has never seen it. You do need quite a lot of space to play, but mostly that’s not a problem as we do have a large dinning table. One thing I have found though, is that games seem to take a lot longer than the estimated time on the goal cards – this last game should have been 2 hours but it was over 4 by the time we were packing away. There are a lot of great elements to this game – its competitive but not too much so, its skill based but you also don’t need to be a genius. I have to say that if Chris was to get this board game out every time we had friends round I wouldn’t worry at all. I genuinely enjoy playing it a lot – at least until it gets around to midnight and the tiredness is fighting in. That said, we have a lot of great board games and I’d really like to get a few more out – so stay tuned and I might well be sharing them with you next!

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 I search for TV 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!

Television Binge – Grimm TV Show

September 10, 2015 by Bel 4 Comments

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!

T-Shirt Tuesday (Sinceriously)

March 3, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Last week I didn’t get around to posting my T-Shirt Tuesday (or Thursday for that matter) so I wanted to make this one count! While I’m still no further with my t-shirt project, I did still want to showcase the t-shirt I’m wearing.

Last week, this epic t-shirt arrived through my door. To be honest I’d almost forgotten I’d ordered it. I love this t-shirt for 2 reasons, the first being that it has Stephen Amell’s face on it (sorry, but it’s true!). The second is because this t-shirt is part of a campaign, called surprisingly “Sinceriously” (I say surprisingly, because you can read that on the t-shirt, right?). The word is a combination of Sincere and Seriously (look, a word the American’s didn’t steal the U out of!) and its designed to bring attention to this campaign.

“It’s a campaign to get people talking. And what better way to get people talking than by creating a new word” – Stephen

If you haven’t watched the TV series “Arrow”, then you most definitely should. And if it’s really not your thing, then give Stephen Amell a follow on Facebook anyway. YES, he’s hot. And yes, that’s the reason I was first interested, but not only that, Stephen is just an amazing guy with a huge heart. He’s using his fame to do good and in my book that makes him more than just a celebrity.

I bought my t-shirt in the first wave of the Sinceriously campaign but there has been a second one since. Sadly this is now closed but perhaps there will be another one or if not I’m sure there will be another good cause to back instead. I will wear my Sinceriously t-shirt with pride because not only do I have Stephen Amell’s face on my boob (seriously, it is! not to mention the tee is green to remind me of Arrow!!) I also know I’ve helped a good cause and hopefully will raise awareness by wearing it. Well done Stephen, the award for Awesomeness goes Sinceriously to you!