We've hit Winter here in Victoria, Australia, and the cold weather and early sunset makes for good TV weather. Plus, I'm flat out at work, and the best way to unwind seems to be sitting in front of the idiot box, as it requires less thinking and more zoning out. Yep, life's been a little like that, especially with a leg injury that's stopping me going surfing or doing anything overly physical. As I read a lot for my real life work, sometimes the last thing I want to do is more reading. By day, I listen to podcasts in the garden or walking, so... well, look at me trying to justify my binge watching behaviour. Sometimes a girl's just gotta own it - I'm addicted to a good story.

^{What are YOU watching at the moment?}

Here's what I've been watching this month.

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The Handmaid's Tale, Season 4

I've been watching the last series of The Handmaid's Tale, which I have found excellent. Despite my resistance to anything Coldplay, I did cry as Moira finds June in the rubble of a bombed Chicago (sorry for the plotspoiler). My husband calls it my dystopian porn. I'm certainly addicted - dystopia, sci fi and post apocalypse films are my jam. They're pure escapism, but I also like to think about what I'd do if I was in that situation. I wonder whether anyone who is a misogynistic asshole would watch such a thing, and whether they'd be likely to find Atwood's stark criticism of gender oppression enlightening. Whilst I may have found series 3 a little tedious, this series is showing promise. Will June go back to Gilead or fight to get her daughter back from afar?

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Another Round

We also watched Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round”, which explores Danish drinking culture. We found it absolutely hilarious, especially since we are both teachers. Watching Mads Mikkelsen (you might know him from Hannibal) be a boring middle aged teacher and become transformed by maintaining a BAC of over .5 makes me want to put vodka in my drinking bottle to do a better job of teaching Romeo and Juliet to teach disinterested Year 9's. Watching the teachers push the limits of their drinking to end up fishing whilst inebriated is worthy of a belly laugh. Best of all, is there's no real moralising - sure, drinking might affect your relationships, cause addiction and even death, but hey, just keep living, right? Watching Mikkelson dance at the end is a lot of fun too.

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StartUp

Ah, I really loved this show. Perhaps it's because I know a little about the rise and fall of tech companies and crypto, but I do think it was really well done. Martin Freeman is fantastic as a FBI agent on the take, but he's not the only one to enter into morally questionable territory. No sooner do the characters make gains with their projects than does something happen to turn their fortune into failure, and this narrative arc continues throughout the entire three seasons. I particularly loved Ronald Dacey, the Haitian thug who hopes to make life better for his family and community by buying into a crypto project that he's offered by the people he's trying to shake down for money he's been hired to recover. A lot of the show is Dacey trying to rise above the hustle, but at the same time using his streetwise hustle to gain legitimacy in a pretty white world of rich players. By the end of the series, I was in love with all of the characters, though none of them were particularly likeable, given their propensity to rip off even their friends to suit their own interest. Whilst the series ended in 2018, there is rumour that Netflix might kick start another show - I do hope so, as I haven't been able to stop thinking about the final scene all week, which paved the way for the possibility for another series for me!

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Wakefield

If you'd like an earworm for weeks, don't watch this show. 'Come On Eileen' will be on constant repeat - enough to drive you mad. However, it's a really important plot device in this Australian drama about mental health. In fact, music and dancing feature heavily, as it's part of the main character's process to understand his past. He's a mental health nurse with some mental health issues of his own. Whilst a show about mental health might sound depressing, this is a superb drama with excellent characters and superb acting. Set in the stunning backdrop of NSW's Blue Mountains, the landscape adds drama and pathos. The final scene is poignant and devastating, but there's also a sense of hope, and the realisation that we're all on a spectrum of suffering, whether we're patient or carer.

The Blue Mountains are the backdrop in ABC's Wakefield

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And in other TV show news...

• BRASSIC is one of my favourite British comedies since Misfits. It features Joe Gilgun, who was also in Misfits. If you're not English or haven't lived there, or don't appreciate a British comedy, then don't bother - but I can't wait for the next series.
• Loved New Amsterdam. Totally junk food for the mind. If you were ever hooked on ER, New Amsterdam is almost, almost a replacement - okay, no George Clooney, but gee I enjoyed this little hospital drama, though the hubs made me watch it with earphones. Yep, I get that.
• Please, hurry up with the next season of Taboo - I need me some Tom Hardy grunting.
• When's the new Westworld coming out?
• We watched Greenland on Amazon Prime. I don't mind a disaster movie but I'd probably give this one a miss.
• I totally adored My Octopus Teacher - if you're into nature, freediving or animals, do yourself a favour. This made me immediately want to go dive into the ocean.
• Can't say I wasn't disappointed in the last series of Line of Duty. I found the acting more wooden than usual, the camera work terrible and obvious, and the plot full of holes and untied ends. If they don't do another series, I won't be disappointed, though I have totally loved the series up until then.
• Give Deadwater Fell a miss - it's NOT as good as Broadchurch by any means, and it's just an average crime story with no real suprises. In fact, I think I'm done with crime TV in general - nothing is packing any suprises of late and I've seen enough Nordic Noir to know how to hide a girl in a pine forest.

What have you been watching?

With Love,

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