Newsletter #39 - February '25

In which I revert back to being a Telly Addict.

This week's Newsletter will mostly be about TV I think. As a kid I was a total telly addict. I could nearly always be found about a foot from the screen most mornings and nights. As I got older, music took over and I spent most of my teenage years outside in the back lanes drinking cider and causing mischief. There was the dole period of my life when I watched every soap opera and talk show under the sun, but for the past couple of decades if I’ve had a television then I’ve rarely plugged it in.

I do love a really good series though, and in the golden age of streaming they’ve been abundant. I’m not sure how long that will continue, but for the moment there are more things that I want to watch than I could ever have time for. So I try and limit myself as much as possible. A couple of episodes a week would be perfect for me, after all my reading pile has grown out of control. But since leaving Facebook a fortnight ago, and after another brief bout of burnout which has left me bed bound a handful of times. I've been back on streaming shows with a vengeance.

It started innocently enough. A few weeks ago I decided to pick just one new show to watch which led me to Paradise - the TV series that is not my own personal utopia - I'm not even sure if I should tell you what that show is about due to the fact it might spoil the big reveal of the first episode, but it tackles a few issues that are close to my heart and if you need something easy to watch that has enough drama and depth to stick with it then this is a good shout. Sterling K. Brown is brilliant in the lead role also.

What I've loved about nearly all of these series is that they're being drip fed weekly so it has cut my instinct to binge. All bar one of them that is. I'll cover that right at the end as I've completed the whole series this weekend.

I might have been fine with just a couple of things to watch, after all the news is drama enough these days, but I keep seeing new series of shows I'm already invested in.

The first of those is Severance, the brilliant surreal sci fi black comedy which is back for a second series. Although slow at times so it can take my inattentive brain a while to watch, I'm fully invested in the goings on at Lumon Industries, and the characters are perfect. Any show that features John Turturro, Christopher Walken and Patricia Arquette isn't going to steer you far wrong.

If you appreciate the above actors then you're likely a similar age to me. If you're just a little younger then maybe Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci are more recognisable for you.

They're both in Yellowjackets, which is a supernatural thriller with plenty of murder and intrigue. Set between modern day New Jersey and some time in the 90s when a plane full of school girls crashes in a creepy forest. That part is Lord of the Flies meets Alive, with a touch of Evil Dead and The Blair Witch Project for good measure.

I thought I'd be bored by Season 3 but I'm really not. Again the characters are all interesting and easy to invest in despite doing plenty of truly terrible things. The younger actresses include: Ella Purnell who has popped up in some other decent shows recently such as Fallout and Sweetpea; and Sophie Thatcher who stars in a new film called Companion, which is most definitely worth watching.

Then they go and release a new season of White Lotus. Anyone who has watched the previous 2 series will understand how I got drawn in again. I think the second episode might be out today but the first is an instant reminder that the creators really know how to build up tension. I'm not certain if it will match up to the previous outings but I'm more than willing to find out. You don't really need details, just go and watch it.

Although I've been glued to the news and podcasts such as The Rest Is Politics and The News Agents recently, I'm grateful for the return of two American shows that add a touch of comedic relief to the frankly head pickling rate that the last remnants of social democracy are being dismantled in plain sight. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and the US version of Have I Got News For You are just about keeping me sane by acknowledging the sheer preposterous nature of political discourse right now.

Finally there’s A Thousand Blows, the new Disney + series from Steven Knight of Peaky Blinders fame. It’s a similar formula, making the bleakest British history more sexy and exploring the moral conundrums of living in a violent society. This time he’s gone back to the Victorian East End of London and the main characters include the Jamaican boxers Hezekiah Moscow and Alec Munroe, the ‘Queen’ of the notorious 40 Elephants Gang - Mary Carr, and the Bill Sikes like bare knuckle fighter Sugar Goodman played perfectly by Stephen Graham. All names taken from actual history.

That’s part of the fun for me. Even though the real life versions of each character differ wildly from their fictional counterparts, I enjoy digging through history to discover more about them. The series is definitely not a history lesson in itself, but it is a binge worthy watch. Though be warned, there is a serious lack of resolution as we are made to wait patiently for the second half of the story in Season 2. It might even be worth just holding on and doing all 12 episodes when that finally arrives.

My only ventures out this week other than work and walking the dogs, were to catch BOYO at a pleasantly packed out Paradise Garden, and the Big Halal Lifestyle Expo at the Cardiff City Stadium with my uncle and Dad who has been down all weekend for my Great Uncle Neil’s funeral. I’m going to try my hardest to keep it chilled this week as well, but I’ll be out for some serious dancing at the Tribe Of Vibe night in Cardiff this Saturday.

Also if you haven’t got It’s A Disco Thing in your diary yet then it’s Saturday 8th March. Here’s a playlist filled with some of the new tunes you might hear down there.

I’ve also boosted up my Jazz Meets Hip-hop playlist from last year. It was initially supposed to be a series but I got waylaid so I’ve extended it from 20 tracks to 60. I could have added plenty more but this keeps it as all killer, no filler still.