Netflix

The Holiday Calendar (2018)

 

The Holiday Calendar

The Holiday Calendar (2018)

NETFLIX

Director:

Bradley Walsh

Starring:

Kat Graham

Quincy Brown

Ron Cephas Jones

Ethan Peck

Plot:

A struggling but talented photographer inherits an antique holiday advent calendar, the contents of which seem to predict the future. Will this magical calendar lead her to love this holiday season?

Review:

Abby, Kat Graham, lives in a nice loft apartment in an unknown small town. She is an artist, her chosen medium, photography. Which means that she works at a small photography studio owned by someone that seems to know nothing about taking pictures, and she never shows anyone her true passion.

Josh, Quincy Brown, is Abby’s best friend who has spent the last eighteen months traveling the world and becoming a name in the travel blog world. She is a little jealous of him, but it’s truly unknown why since she could have done the same thing.

A few weeks before Christmas Abby is given an Advent Calendar from her Gramps, Ron Cephas Jones, as a gift from her recently departed grandmother. Is the Calendar magic? Who knows? Just don’t point out that it’s like astrology to Abby or she will flip.

Abby’s world isn’t really turned upside down, and there is very little in the way of sweep you off your feet romance, but she does eventually realize that her best friend makes a great partner, in more ways than one.

Josh was the highlight of the movie. He loved his best friend, but he didn’t act like a total dick when she started dating someone else. He was actually mostly supportive on that angle. I appreciated that, even though there were comments about the friendzone that had me rolling my eyes.

The Holiday Calendar was a cute festive movie that was only halfway boring to watch.

3.5/5

Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Christmas Chronicles

Christmas Chronicles (2018)

NETFLIX

Director:

Clay Kaytis

Starring:

Kurt Russell

Darby Camp

Judah Lewis

Plot:

The story of sister and brother, Kate and Teddy Pierce, whose Christmas Eve plan to catch Santa Claus on camera turns into an unexpected journey that most kids could only dream about.

Review:

The first movie of my holiday season and I don’t think I could have chosen better. From the minute I saw the trailer I was excited to watch and it was an effort to wait until after the Thanksgiving holiday was over. Things ended up being perfect when I was able to watch with both of my kids and my husband; it was a definite Hallmark moment.

Anyway, Kate, Darby Camp, and Teddy, Judah Lewis, have recently lost their father and are having a rough Christmas. Their mom is having to work a lot and isn’t there as much. It’s hard and very emotional, the intro borrowed from Up. One thing leads to another and the kids decide to stay up and catch Santa in the act, low and behold, it works!

Kurt Russell as Santa is inspired and he was so freaking perfect! Ugh! It was awesome!

Christmas Chronicles hit a lot of the best Christmas movie tropes. There was a musical number, there were lots of lore explanation, there was a cynical child that needed to be shown that the world doesn’t completely suck. Even the elves were cool. There was a car chase! Seriously, what more do you need from a Christmas movie?

Fair warning, I cried at the end.

Christmas Chronicles has definitely been added to my list of yearly Christmas movies. It was everything I could have possibly asked for.

5/5

Maniac (2018-?)

Maniac

Maniac (2018-?)

Network:

Netflix

Creators:

Cary Joji Fukunaga

Patrick Somerville

Starring:

Jonah Hill

Emma Stone

Sonoya Mizuno

Sally Field

Plot:

Two strangers are drawn to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial that will, they’re assured, with no complications or side-effects whatsoever, solve all of their problems, permanently. Things do not go as planned.

Review:

This started out super weird and I wasn’t sure what was real or not. The world was not our own, they had tech we don’t, but it wasn’t magical. It was very odd. As the show progressed I no longer had that issue, even though, they were reality hopping. Things were still weird, but I knew what was happening.

I never warmed up to Jonah Hill’s character. He seemed very devoid of emotion and I had a hard time caring about him at all. Emma Stone, on the other hand, I loved. She wasn’t a very likable character, but I got her emotion and I enjoyed watching her.

I hesitate to say the show was entertaining. I don’t think I enjoyed hardly any of it, but it wasn’t bad. It just ended up not being my cup of tea.

3/5

Dramaworld (2016-?)

Dramaworld.jpg

Dramaworld (2016-?)

Network:

Netflix

Creators:

Josh Billing

Chris Martin

Starring:

Liv Hewson

Sean Dulake

Noo-Ri Bae

Justin Chon

Plot:

What would YOU do if you fell into your favorite K-drama?

Review:

I’ve never watched a K-Drama but I didn’t have to, to love this short little show. By the end of the first season I was standing in front of the TV laughing and then screaming, “Nooooooooo!” when I realized there wasn’t a second season yet.

This was incredibly entertaining and so much fun to watch. It had me pouring through Netflix’s Korean Romantic Dramas searching for stuff to add to my queue. Hopefully, they hold up to what was created in Dramaworld.

Claire, Liv Hewson, is a college student that spends all her free time watching K-Dramas because real life is the worst. Next thing you know she’s fallen into one. The show is wish fulfillment at its best. With just ten episodes, some of them just over ten minutes, there’s no reason not to try it out if you’re a fan of romantic comedies.

I eagerly await season 2 and I’m a bit bummed there isn’t a release date as of yet.

5/5

Lost in Space (2018-?)

Lost in Space (2018-?)

Network:

Netflix

Creator:

Irwin Allen

Matt Sazama

Burk Sharpless

Starring:

Molly Parker

Toby Stephens

Maxwell Jenkins

Taylor Russell

Mina Sundwall

Ignacio Serricchio

Parker Posey

Plot:

After crash-landing on an alien planet, the Robinson family fight against all odds to survive and escape, but they’re surrounded by hidden dangers.

Review:

I have never seen the original TV show and only vaguely remember the movie that was made with Matt LeBlanc, so I was excited to see a SciFi tv show that was about a family surviving. I was hoping for a positive SciFi show finally, one in which there is a happy ending and the world isn’t bleak. This is not that show.

Earth is ruined, barely livable, so those that can are escaping. The Robinsons are an exceptional family, each of them super smart and skilled, in their own way. They love each other and even though there is some relationship drama between the husband and wife it’s all stuff they now have time to work on, since they’re on some strange planet just trying to escape.

Every episode presents a new obstacle and just when you think things are going to run smoothly, nope, something new pops up and goes horribly wrong. Every single episode they are trying to survive a new horror. The way the writers treat this family is like torture porn. If they’ve finally figured out a way to take on the planet Doctor Smith, Parker Posey’s character, is fucking things up for them. She is one of those characters that you just want to kill and the way the show ended at least her side of things is somewhat satisfying.

By far my favorite character was Don, Ignacio Serricchio, who is funny and a good person without being too good. He makes the right decisions when push comes to shove but he’s also not stupid and he’s thinking about his future. He’s great. Also, I totally ship him and the Robinson’s oldest daughter, Taylor Russell. Though, he is a bit old for her, but whatever it’s space! A new world! It could totally happen and not be gross.

Anyway, I liked the start of the show because I had hope that things would get better for them. They were smart and capable and loved each other and yet everything just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse. They are making a second season and I will end up watching it, but it is not something I’m going to rush to watch.

3/5