Netflix series Blown Away is a reality show focused on ten master artists with their eyes on a $60,000 prize and the title of champion. All they have to do is create the best glassblowing sculptures according to a group of judges.
Hosted by Nick Uhas; the contestants include Alexander Rosenberg, Patrick Primeau, Momo Schafer, Leah Kudel, Deborah Czeresko, Janusz Pozniak, Annette Sheppard, Edgar Valentine, Benjamin Kikkert and Kevin Kiff.
Based on some of the YouTube comments, looks like I may be one of very few who are interested in this one. I’m not into the annoying reality TV tropes or tricks that this will surely contain. But I do want to learn more about glass blowing, the people who love it so, and last but not least, I want to feast my eyes on the creative results.
It also looks like I missed the first season of this series. In which case I better start with that. Let’s hope it won’t have me re-thinking my season 2 viewing plans.
The Queen’s Gambit (2020), Anya Taylor-Joy, Netflix
Based on the novel by Walter Tevis, The Queen’s Gambit is a new Netflix mini-series about a female chess prodigy named Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy).
Also starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Bill Camp, Moses Ingram and Harry Melling, the story starts with Beth as an eight year-old orphan who’s quiet, sullen, and seemingly unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess.
I’m mostly interested in Taylor-Joy’s performance. I’m also curious about Beth’s journey from an ‘unremarkable child’ to a chess superstar. Especially as I wonder what her life might have been like had she not discovered the game.
Chloe Pirrie, Annabeth Kelly, Marielle Heller, Janina Elkin, and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd also star.
Long Way Up (2020), Ewan McGregor, Charlie Boorman, Apple TV+
Long Way Up is a new Apple TV+ Series that follows best friends Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman as they travel 13,000 miles through Central and South America, on their electric Harley-Davidsons
I’m in mainly for the tour of south America and to witness the kindness of the locals.
It’s intriguing that at time of writing, on IMDb, this series has been classified as Reality TV . I can understand why a little since it doesn’t seem to be a documentary. Neverthless, my fingers crossed that it isn’t edited in the style of reality TV shows. The way there’s only ever a morsel of new information in each episode. Information that will be teased a million times within the episode, before you actually see what happens.
In hopes of learning a little something about the ultra-orthodox Jewish experience and also because the trailer was great, I watched Netflix’s four-episode miniseries Unorthodox. The story of nineteen-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman Esther Shapiro, a.k.a Esty (Shira Haas). Young Esty flees her arranged marriage and very religious community for a new beginning in Berlin, Germany.
Episode one of Unorthodox is one of the best – if not the very best one because it’s well-paced, thrilling and very engaging. It starts on the very day that Esty flees Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. The story for all the episodes is then told in a clever way that shows us Esty’s life from the day she flees, combined with flashbacks of what her life was before she got married; before the idea of fleeing became the only option.
The reason why the second episode is my least favourite is that the first one set such high expectations, particularly in terms of pacing. So much so that I really couldn’t wait to see precisely when young Esty’s hopes of a happy marriage would be dashed. Especially because her wedding day, though filled with nerves, also included plenty of joy and hopefulness. Unfortunately, the wedding day scenes went on for too long. I’m sure that my identifying with Esty in her nervousness, combined with my general aversion to being the centre of attention in a big gathering, all worked to make the wedding day seem that much longer.
Everything I’d been impatient about in the second episode finally starts to unfold in part three. Haas performs brilliantly in all four parts of Unorthodox. Yet, it’s in episode three that I truly feel for Esty, because this is where we see the loneliness and desperation that can come with being a complete outsider.
The final part is perhaps much like the first, very suspenseful, since you have no idea how things will really play out. As a person who tries not to take her freedoms for granted, I couldn’t help but admire nineteen-year-old Esty. Even though she proved naive in several ways, her courage in desperate situations is admirable.
Unorthodox is a good miniseries with a great story and very talented cast. It answered many questions for me, including those I didn’t even know I had.
In watching Unorthodox, the main challenge you may face besides the slower pace of episode two is probably trying to stop your mind from correcting ‘Esty’ to ‘Etsy‘. I failed miserably at this and I’ve never even shopped at Etsy.
New drama Mrs. America has Cate Blanchett playing Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. Schlafly becomes the leader of an unexpected fight against the Equal Rights Amendment movement in the 1970s.
Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Paulson and Rose Byrne are among the key cast.
I’d been wondering about where one of my favourite actors had gone. Turns out Blanchett was busy working on a very promising new drama I simply can’t wait to see.
Knowing how far we’ve come with the fight for equal rights, I’m looking forward to seeing Schlafly’s journey unfold. I’d also like to find out to what extent she remained adamant that the Equal Rights Amendment was a bad idea.
Kayli Carter, Jay Ellis, Ari Graynor, Melanie Lynskey, James Marsden, Margo Martindale, Niecy Nash, John Slattery and Jeanne Tripplehorn also star.
The Movie My Life 