This year has been strange for TV, with some productions pausing filming, and others managing to get around the covid restrictions. We are still spoilt with so many options (especially taking into account Netflix and Disney+) but sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin.
TV
Sometimes you just want something funny and fairly short, so we’ve been re-watching both Derry Girls and Car Share for some humour. The Forever FM on car share makes me properly laugh out loud , as does all the 90’s references in Derry Girls. We have also been loving the latest series of Gone Fishing for gentle humour and beautiful nature scenes.
I also like a series to get stuck into, and recently worked our way through “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”, a show about an author and her hunt for the Golden State Killer. It was very interesting but also a hard watch as they had lots of the survivors telling their stories.
Queer Eye is one of my favourite shows and sadly I’ve finished the latest series (I was good though and watched only one a week!), but Getting Organised is slightly filling that and the Tidying Up gap. It’s not quite as good, but it has that feel with the music and general positive vibe. Plus they organise everything in colours which I love.
I’ve given up on Selling Sunset though- I had read good things but I was hoping for more house selling and less fake drama.
Also, Bake Off is coming back! During lockdown I discovered a podcast (The Bake Down) where they talked about each show after it had aired (I listened way after seeing the series but they described enough that I didn’t need to re-watch) and they recently had a mini episode discussing how they filmed the new series. It sounded very intense for the contestants, so I’ll be intrigued to see how it comes across on the TV.
Films
After a recommendation on the film podcast we watched Rising Phoenix which was brilliant – I wish we were back at London 2012! The other week we fancied something that we knew was good, so watched one of the Bourne films, and of course I’ve been getting my Disney fix, most recently with Lilo and Stitch.
Podcasts
I am a complete convert to the Travel Diaries- it’s pure escapism. I started with the Michael Palin episode because I could listen to him talk forever, but since that I’ve been going back and listened to others. It might seem strange to listen to a travel podcast when we can’t travel, but it’s wonderful to hear people’s earliest travel memory, special places and of course you can look forward to visiting in a few years time.
The Night Driver is a new podcast by the same team as The Teacher’s Pet, and I’ve found them interesting so far, although I am not sure if I should have saved them and listened to them in one go.
During lockdown I got into listening to the George Ezra podcast Phone a Friend (he was on Happy Place and it appealed to me when I heard him talk about it there), as him and his friend Ollie talk a lot about mental health, but it is also just quite relaxing listening. He was a guest on How do you Cope, which delved a bit deeper into this side of things, and that was good too.
Also, the Bake Down podcast is back- I listened to the last series a while after Bake Off was on (I only discovered the pod in lockdown), but now I can listen to each episode once I have seen the matching one on TV.
What have you been watching or listening to lately? Do you like podcasts that discuss TV shows? I really loved the Crown podcast and also the Blue Planet on- when they have producers and sound artists and a whole range of people on it really gives you a better idea of everything that surrounds the show, and why certain decisions were made.
