Week 1- This week I've been watching The Office (US). I watched this on Netflix and I chose to watch the US version and not the UK version because I prefer the actors in the US version. I find it funnier, whereas I personally find Ricky Gervais quite crude. In the episode Christmas Party, Michael hosts a Christmas party in the office with a game of Secret Santa, but it all goes wrong when he changes the game to "Yankee Swap", where everyone gives their pre-bought presents to a different, random worker. I've enjoyed all of the episodes of The Office (U.S.) that I've seen because I really enjoy the mockumentary style. Overall I enjoyed this episode and I know I will continue to watch The Office.
Week 2- This week I've been watching Skins on Netflix. I used to watch Skins very regularly a year ago but had to stop for a while, and then picked it back up again this week. I'm on season 7 episode 5 Rise Part One. This episode is the second to last episode of the whole series, and I'm glad they're finally wrapping up the characters. In previous seasons, characters had been left open ended without continuing into the next season. All the questions are now being answered. I like the style of Skins as it's quite dramatic but has relatable elements thanks to the characters being a similar age to me, going through the end of school and moving into adulthood. Sometimes the episodes can be hard to keep up with because they are particularly fast-paced and can change very quickly so it's hard to leave an episode in the middle. This is something I find unusual from Skins because usually TV programmes will accommodate for their audience, in the sense that when watching TV most people aren't paying as much attention as they do in a cinema watching a film, but Skins doesn't make much room for this and requires a similar level of attention as a film does. Luckily it's on Netflix so it's possible to pause and come back to an episode but even then it's hard to keep track of what has happened. Overall though I enjoy Skins thanks to its fairly relatable characters and its gripping storyline.
Week 3- This week I've been watching Hell's Kitchen. I finished the whole of season 12 in a week and found it at times hard to watch but for the most part entertaining. Gordon Ramsey's tightly regulated kitchen competition uses dramatic editing and the foulmouthed Gordon to add drama and keep the viewer entertained and intrigued. The style is very American in that it's very dramatic and based around a lot of conflict between the contestants, in a similar ilk to other American reality television shows such as Storage Hunters. I dislike the reality TV element to the show as it makes it cringey to watch, however I enjoyed the competition as you form a 'bond' with some of the contestants and so you start to root for them in the show which leads you on to watching other episodes. Overall I found it interesting to watch but I won't be watching it again for a while.
Week 4- This week I've been watching Louis Theroux's Dark States. I watched the episode Heroin Town on BBC iPlayer and I found it to be very interesting and quite sad. Theroux investigates an area of the US where heroin is a huge problem for the community, and how it has affected peoples lives. I enjoy Louis Theroux's work a lot because of his 'outsider' approach to reporting. He keeps an open mind and tends not to be judgmental towards anyone which I think some documentaries of the same ilk have the risk of slipping into. Theroux tends to give the facts and the stories that the viewer wants to know rather than trying to twist the words of the people he's interviewing. I found this particular episode sad because of the content and the stories he was presenting, but I still found it interesting because it shows the dark side of America that most other shows tend not to portray or be allowed to portray.
Week 5- This week I've been watching Tornado Hunters on Netflix. Tornado Hunters is a documentary that follows a group who go after tornadoes to get photos to sell to the media. I watched the first episode and didn't find it particularly interesting because I think in the whole show they found 1 storm. I had mistaken the show for Storm Chasers, another American programme based off of the same premise, and a show that I had enjoyed. There was some funny moments between the people involved but other than that it wasn't really something that I enjoyed. It wasn't bad, but it just didn't interest me.
Week 6- This week I've been watching Peaky Blinders. We had been watching Peaky Blinders in class and I had watched the first episode and wanted to continue it. I really like the style of Peaky Blinders with the use of black backgrounds and white highlights and coloured lighting for foreshadowing. I find this show really interesting from an analysis point of view and also like the actors used. I don't relate with any of the characters which means I don't watch Peaky Blinders very often. I prefer shows where I can relate to someone in the show because then I like to know what happens later to that character. However I do still like the characters and I'm interested in watching the show further.
Week 7- This week I've been watching Stranger Things. Stranger Things released their new season this week and I had been keen to watch the new episodes. I really enjoy Stranger Things as I like time period it's set in and I like all of the characters. I'm still excited to continue the rest of the episodes that are left of this season.
Week 8- This week the show of choice was MindHunter. I watched this on Netflix as it had been recommended to me by friends and Netflix itself. I watched the first episode and it wasn't really my kind of thing. I find it hard to enjoy a show if I don't relate to characters but I still watched through and tried to give it a second chance with the second episode but didn't watch the whole episode. I feel like I would be able to enjoy the show if I had more time to sit down and pay attention to it but I was watching it while also doing set reading and so wasn't able to follow entirely what was happening. I thought the idea of it was interesting.
Because I wasn't huge fan of MindHunter I moved onto something else, which ended up being Secrets of Underground London, also on Netflix. I found this documentary interesting as it was about all of the parts of London that a normal pedestrian wouldn't see or notice, and about a lot of the history of the city. It was simple and easier to keep up with while also doing other things, this is probably due to it not being made just for Netflix which MindHunter was. Programmes made for television are generally easier to watch on and off as that's how people usually watch television (have it on in the background) whereas if people go onto Netflix they're there only to be watching something and so their shows that are made just for them may be more in depth and more confusing if you're trying to watch it like normal television.
Week 9- This week I watched the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox. It's a particularly interesting documentary about the conviction and acquittal of Amanda Knox, an American woman who moved to Italy and was accused of murdering her roommate.
I really enjoyed this documentary as they included interviews and actual footage of the court cases and even the crime scene. I find this kind of crime documentary interesting because it means the viewer can come up with their own theories as to what happened and it seems more 'interactive' in that sense. It was directed by the director of a short film I analysed for Script To Screen and so I wanted to what what else he had made. It was well made as it was clear and easy to follow. It followed the format that I have previously mentioned, about how productions made just for Netflix require more attention, and so I was able to sit and watch it all the way through. As there were parts that were in Italian (with subtitles) it did require me to pay attention throughout so I could read what they were saying.
They got interesting people to interview, most importantly the main suspects, but also the lead detective on the case and a journalist that wrote many (what I would call sensationalist) news stories about the case, which ended up being a feature of the actual case and what may have lead the Italian police force to accuse the wrong people.
It was interesting and although I feel it may have been filmed or edited for the viewer to develop a particular view on certain people involved, they covered all aspects of the very hooking story.
Week 10- This week I started to watch The Thick of It for BBC. It's in the style of a mockumentary following political figures in England. I just started it so only watched the first few episodes but I really enjoyed it. I had seen it suggested to me before but I wasn't sure it would interest me because I'm not very interested in politics, however, I had thought it was a drama until we watched it in class. I love the mockumentary style and so I really enjoyed this aspect of it and would love to continue watching in the future.
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