Although I read more in February and March, I was still on a TV watching binge. The dreary dead of winter I suppose. And still trouble concentrating due to the pandemic. So here's a summary of my watching in both months. This time I decided to organize it by the way I watched it (streaming service, DVD, etc.).
Disney Plus
I spent a lot of time on Disney Plus. First there was WandaVision. Disney/Marvel released new episodes of WandaVision every Friday in February and the beginning of March. Although not perfect, I enjoyed it. It was different than anything else I've seen anyone try on TV, much less anything like I'd seen from Marvel Then they released Assembled - Episode 1, The Making of WandaVision. Which of course I watched. The last two weeks I have been watching The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It seems like standard Marvel fare. Lots of action. Not much in the way of women. Frankly I'm a bit bored.
I also finished watching or re-watching all the Marvel movies except for Black Panther (which I still remember vividly). You will remember that in January I started this project when WandaVision started. Counting what I rented from Amazon (see below), I've now seen all of them except for the Hulk movie and the latest Spiderman movie. I'm not going to list them all.
Last week I started watching Mighty Ducks: Game Changer. Although it's meant for kids, I liked the first episode.
One night I even watched Cinderella with Whitney Houston.
Hulu
This started out as a big month for Hulu because I had been hooked on Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist. I would watch it right after I watched WandaVision on Friday nights. It was a nice Friday night ritual. But then it went on hiatus. It started up again at the end of March but I haven't watched the latest episode yet.
I noticed that Hulu had Doc Martin and I remembered that I own seasons 1-3 on DVD and had never finished season 3. So I watched Season 3 on DVD and then I picked up Season 4 on Hulu. Unfortunately they only have Seasons 1-5 so I won't be able to watch the whole thing but at least I know I have one more season of Cornwall in my future.
I realized that Hulu had Staged available, a BBC series starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen. I watched Season 1 in February and then waited for Season 2 in March and binged it all in one night. (I mean, it's only 8 episodes and the episodes are only 22 minutes.) If I could recommend one thing that everyone should watch, it would be Staged because it captures the tedium of pandemic lockdown perfectly and yet it is highly entertaining.
I also have watched a few episodes of The Orville which I have been slowly watching since last year. Still in Season 1.
Amazon Prime and Rental
First, I finished the latest season of The Expanse. I had been somewhat spoiled because I saw a headline about a sad, unexpected death. But I totally did not guess who died so it was still a surprise.
Abe. Abe is a boy who has a Jewish mother and an atheist father whose parents are Palestinian Muslims and the two sets of grandparents are in fighting form. He loves to cook and tries to bridge the gap between them with food.
Peanut Butter Falcon. Zach is a young man with Down’s Syndrome whom the state has living in a nursing home because they have no place else. He escapes to find his dream, wrestling school.
I also got my musicals fix on Amazon. I watched Every Little Step, a documentary about casting the revival of A Chorus Line. I also watched Pippin - an old video of the original Broadway production with Ben Vereen. So of course I watched it.
First, let's do all the movies I saw on Netflix:
The Dig. With Carrie Mulligan and Liam Neeson. The story of the finding of the greatest buried Anglo Saxon treasure in England. Since I love archaeology, it was right up my alley.
Carrie Pilby. Carrie is a brilliant girl whose brain intelligence is not matched by her emotional intelligence. She was sent to college at 14. Now she meets with a psychiatrist who tries to get her to have a more normal life. Weird, but I liked it.
Grizzlies. A true story about a teacher who comes to a small, depressing town in Alaska and gets his students to start a lacrosse team. Again, weird but I liked it.
Fisherman’s Friends. A London music manager discovers that the fishermen in a small Cornwall town are talented singers of sea shanties and tries to make a record. Again, this was a true story. The small town was Port Isaac which I visited when I went to Cornwall and where Doc Martin is filmed.
Audrey. This was a documentary about Audrey Hepburn. It was informative but also a little weird. There was a ballet theme that was carried a bit too far.
Lupin. Finished Season 1 (which I started in January). They left it on a cliffhanger so we have to wait for season 2.
Five Came Back. A three part documentary about WWII and famous directors that made war films before coming back to Hollywood after the war.
Russian Doll. What a strange and wonderful show. A bit like Kate Atkinson's Life after Life except the character only relives one day over and over until she gets it right. Highly recommended.
PBS
All
Creatures Great and Small. Finished the season and loved every minute of it. Made me look forward to Sunday nights.
iTunes
I hadn't bought anything off of iTunes in months - too much to watch on the streaming services. But I did want to see Picard and I really don't want to subscribe to Paramount Plus for only Star Trek shows. So I bought it. The story didn't really hang together. But, then, what Star Trek stories really hang together. I enjoyed it, especially seeing the gang back together.
Luther. I had never finished the last season of Luther. I had one more episode left and I didn't want to see Alice die. But I finally watched it. Sigh.
