Ah, Fuck it.
Here I am, again. Try to give a recommendation of series I have watched and convince people why you should watch it. I wrote some in my previous writing, here.
Well, Let’s just begin, shall we?
1. The End of the F***ing World (2017- )
In the first minutes the series begin, we will listen a flat narration from James, about his childhood's life. At 9, he put his hand to boiling oil, on purpose, only because he wanted to feel something (What kind of person did that? you tell me). When he was 15, he killed his neighbor’s cat, and another animals after that. At 19, his current age, he wanted to kill something bigger than animals. A girl came to his life, Alyssa, then become the first target of James' killing scheme.
Alyssa is no different. One afternoon she was sitting in front of her friend, and that friend texted Alyssa through her phone. You know what Alyssa did? She smashed her phone down, on purpose, because she's mad, her friend texted her instead of having conversation with her face to face.
Well, that makes two of them.
Alyssa asked James to escape the town. James said yes, so there they go. They went on a journey with discrete intention, Alyssa hated her current life, whilst James wanted to fill his killing desire on Alyssa.
I like how Alyssa and James create a good unconventional pair, the soundtrack, their accent, and the plot of the story is great. There are 8 episodes, each episode only takes for about 20 minutes. So if you’re a busy person it won’t take much of your time and you can binge-watch in one sitting.
2. The Crown (2016- )
British Royal family always takes the world spotlight. Take the Royal Wedding as an example. That event attracted people coming to Windsor Castle to see with their own eyes how that went, and most people around the world, who weren't coming, watched it live on the internet.
Aside from that, we never know what’s really inside The Royal Family, except you are studious enough to spend hours in the library. Fortunately that’s The Crown trying to offer. The closer peek behind the Buckingham Palace, deeper acquaintance to the life of the Royal Family mainly The Queen Elizabeth II.
The Crown is fascinating historical drama which story center around Queen Elizabeth II and her family. You’ll see the queen at the beginning of her reign, how she was taught to act as member of royal family since child, how the queen’s relationship with her father, her sister, her lover, the prime minister, her country and all the people around her. Also how monarch works and most important, the way this shows bring the queen as human being just like us. Not to mention the story of Britain’s history in the 20th century and the major events that surrounded it.
Since this mostly based on historical fact, perhaps you already know where some stories go, yet it still compelling. Don’t mind the mystery. I think what make this still compelling is the sheer attention to every detail in the story.
If you studied English literature it may be useful for you too, just like this show did to me. I had a course about English history and I answered few questions in the test based from what I’ve watched in The Crown. So watching this is like studying history, I kept that in mind while watching it, so I didn’t feel guilty when I lazing around much of my time binge-watch this.
3. Stranger Things (2016- )
Nerd’s adventure; Mike, Dustin, Lucas began when one of their friend, Will, mysteriously vanished into thin air, made the whole town is searching for him. Then came Eleven, a weird bald girl who running away from lab experiment which lead to the first clue in finding Will.
This horror-mistery series maybe one of series which frequently being talked about lately. I feel like horror isn't the main dish they served. Yeah, the atmosphere is intense and got me goosebumps at the moment, but it rarely frightened me. What really fascinating from this show I guess the friendship and romance stuffs, parents-kids relationship, the mystery which keep your curiosity alive, and, most of all, is the funny adventure among those adorable nerd kids.
There’s a strong bond chemistry between the characters. I doubt this series gonna be a hit if it wasn’t for those kids.
So Stranger Things is magnificent in so many ways. The main story and side story is great, the acting, the suspense, the comicality, all of the characters is likable. Just believe me on this: Stranger Things is thoroughly entertaining, and won’t disappoint you like how your lovers did!
4. Breaking Bad (2018-2013)
If you looking for a show that has incredible story while you relax without giving hard thought into it, this must be the perfect one.
Alongside Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad got 9.5 score on IMDb (which is, if I’m not mistaken, it’s the highest rating on IMDb). I think that’s fair, because this show will have you hooked at the very first time of the episode.
What make this show amazing is the solid and dynamic characterization and you can feel the personality and emotion changing from time to time of every character. No characters is black and white. Every character’s decision and action seems reasonable.
Another reasons that make this really good are the way it directed, the drama, and the originality of the story which genius in its simplicity.
The story line actually simple: The ordinary chemistry teacher Walter White who has to get on with his ordinary shitty life problems. Things go from bad to worse, he finds out he has a cancer. Therefore he needs to earn more money. He sees opportunities when he meets Jesse Pinkman, his junkie ex-student who knows a little about drug business so later they partner up. With his knowledge in chemistry, Walter White turns to the dark side and become the mastermind of the purest meth anyone ever cooked. And you know, once you turn to the dark side, it isn’t easy coming back to normal life.
5. Black Mirror (2011- )
Have you ever depicted how our future technology will be? I have some ideas, one of them is I always want that our eyes can record whole activity we've been through, so I can remember all the beautiful girls I accidentally met on the street or take pictures of some particular moments I saw without take out my phone. And guess what? Black Mirror has an episode about it.
You can watch it randomly, because it’s a stand-alone episode. The episodes each season isn’t much, at most it only contain of 6 episodes and the average duration is approximately 45 minutes.
Basically, Black Mirror is a British visionary anthology show about technology which shows the exploration of modern utopia, the dark side of technology, the effects of it to human beings, and so forth. The hideous thing, several depictions in Black Mirror can be happening in this real world in no time, perhaps next year or even next month. Some episodes may be showed metaphorically that make you must read few reviews after if you want to have profound thoughts on it.
It is so meaningful and thought-provoking. I love how Black Mirror satirize our current social life and represent the probability of what our future technology will look like. My favorite episode: The Entire History of You, Black Museum, Arkangle, and Nosedive. What’s yours?
6. Big Little Lies (2017- )
You know series is good when the casts are Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, and Laura Dern.
They acted well as upper-middle-class mothers who have different kinds of family issues they should deal with. One of them has dark past and has to raised her kid without father, one is appears to be happily married yet become the victim of regular domestic abuse of her husband, one is a divorced and remarried whom daughter seems prefer her ex-husband over her, and the other is a witch over-protective trouble maker mom who has a high privileged in the community. All of them mingled by the fact their children go to same school.
Big Little Lies is funny drama-mystery series which gives you a mom-housewives vibes. It might look it’s made for woman, but I, as a man (last time I checked), really got into the show.
Last thing I wanna give credit is the opening song which exceptionally won me. The music, settings, and scenery is just great. It gives you comfort and adds bit extra to the show. I'll show you the opening song I meant.
7. The Leftovers (2014-2017)
Do you remember when Thanos snapping his fingers then some population all of the galaxy was just gone? This show exactly depicting the impact of that Thanos’ doing…
No, no, I’m kidding. It is somewhat related yet it officially isn’t.
The real main story is this: In all of sudden, 2% of earth’s population disappearing off with nobody know how, why and where to. It just, puff… and they were gone. Mysteriousness of loss is surrounded the people in Mapleton.
However the point of this show isn’t to unfold the mystery, it tries to show how the people cope after that inexplicably incident. Loss, Grief, being broken, pain, confused of what to believe, move on, those are sort of feelings they are dealing with.
First episode is good, few episodes later it’s little confusing and there’s a lot of “what the hell is going on” moments which almost made me quit. With a little patience, at 5th or 6th episode I see the good in here. I think it’s Kevin Garvey and Nora Durst, what made me engaged to the show. They light up the screen every second they are on it.
Give it a try. The Leftovers is so underrated!
8. This is Us (2016- )
This is Us is so so so so dope, in every sense of the word. I haven’t seen a series this touching in its every episode.
That’s nothing new actually about the story. Some problems maybe we’ve met in our daily routines. It’s not that we never seen sorts of movies like this. It’s just there’s some magic in this show. I’m still trying to figure out what kind of magic is that. As far as I can tell, the magic comes out from the sublime writing, the beautifully crafted screenplay, the wonderful actors, the gloomy music, and so on and so on.
It’s like watching 500 days of summer, A Walk to Remember, Love Actually, Before trilogy and family's warmth in Little Miss Sunshine, Little Women and The Blind Side, all wrapped up in one delicious package.
You’re gonna experience a roller-coaster feeling. At some point this show gonna make you feel happy and delighted, moments later it’s gonna tear your heart apart and make you bursting out of tears. Afterwards you’re gonna laugh, next thing you know you are left with feeling blue.
You will feel all the human feelings possible can do. You will feel the characters, experience their ups and downs moments, their anxiety, their heartbreak, and, above all, their love. And finally you will realize that somehow their issues is slightly related to yours. Moreover, there are so many life lessons as well we can get from here.
From what I have written here, it looks like I am exaggerating, but believe me, I’m not. This is Us is utterly sensational. It’s like the best drama series I've seen in my entire life!
(P.s prepare some tissues before watching it, you’ll thank me later)
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