One of Them Days stars singing sensation, SZA, along with Keke Palmer & Katt Williams.
It gives Insecure vibes, which is interesting as Issa Rae is listed as one of the producers, in this buddy tragicomedy. One of Them Days follows two friends who must scramble to find rent money after one of their boyfriends blows through it.
One of Them Days has received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $48 million. That is huge when the budget was only $14 million!
SZA & Keke Palmer star as aspiring artist Alyssa & waitress Dreux Jones, live together along with Alyssa's boyfriend Keshawn in a rundown apartment complex under a strict landlord.
When the first of the month arrives, their landlord demands their rent money of $1,500, stating that they will be evicted unless they pay by 6 PM, even though both Dreux and Alyssa thought it was already paid.
We have dramas, car issues, NIKE shoe sales, a wild blood donation scene with Janelle James from Abbotts Elementary and great music along the ride.
One of Them Days was a super short, fun, fresh ride at the cinema. It was a refreshing watch after superhero and horror films dominate the big screen of late!
If you need a new film to see, give this a shot. Issa Rae can literally do no wrong. Well unless it was the random second season of Rap Sh!t. That said SZA is a total star. Anything se touches, GOLDEN!
The Way Home, the multi-generational family drama series, has just concluded its third season yesterday lunchtime on Binge.
In the USA the series streams on the Hallmark Channel & Hallmark+. Binge is lucky to retain this title with all things MAX coming soon. As the series was renewed for a fourth season right before the season three finale.
Now to the finale, titled, If You Could Read My Mind. Hello disco tune!
We began the swan song, with a montage of Alice’s trips to 1999 from the first season, mixed with snippets of her visit to 1974, as adult Colton started to become curious about the teenager who’d befriended his daughter. When Alice made a new trip to 1999 in the finale, Colton confronted her at the pond about being the same Alice that he met in 1974. She warned him not to bring up the topic with the Alice that he’ll get to know over the summer of ’99 because time travel is brand new to that earlier version of Alice, so she won’t have the answers that he needs.
We then travel to Feb. 17, 2000, Colton received an envelope with money from Evelyn to help him in his search for missing Jacob, prompting Colton to go to Lingermore.
While there, he gazed at the portrait of “My Katherine”, named just like his daughter, Evelyn noted and started to realise the truth of who Katherine/Rose was, and that Jacob fell into the pond and he’d met him in the 1800s.
Meanwhile, in their time, Alice and Kat jumped into the pond with Del, but while Kat and Del ended up witnessing Del and Colton’s wedding in 1975, Alice resurfaced in 2000 and was greeted by Colton, who wrapped her in his sweater.
Colton shared that the pond never worked for him again after 1974, and it didn’t work for the kids either, so he didn’t mention it to Del. When Jacob disappeared, he was miles from it, and his stuffed animal was found in the ocean. Alice reassured Colton that Jacob will come home one day, but Colton realised from her silence that he will not get to see him again.
In an emotionally charged moment, Colton marvelled at the fact that he got to sing with his granddaughter in two eras, and urged Alice to jump back in the pond. Once she did, he took his own dive and ended up at the Landrys’ summer kickoff party, where he told a young Jacob to remember that he loves him no matter what will happen.
As for Alice, she landed back at the night of the dinner party from the Season 3 premiere, and was the one who pushed herself into the pond that evening. When she eventually returned to her time, Alice told Kat and Del that Colton knew everything when he died.
Del realised that Colton was about to tell her the truth that fateful night, while Kat registered that Colton was on his way to grief group in the hopes of seeing her when he crashed. He knew, and he still loved her, Kat tearfully marvelled.
But what you really want to know is who is the baby that was left by the pond in the Season 3 opener, right? Well, as the finale came to a close, Elliot read a letter from his mother that Vic mailed to him, along with the Augustine ring.
A line from the letter rang a bell for Elliot: It came from a T.S. Eliot poem that was also inscribed on the clock from inside the house wall, but the wall went up before that poem was ever written.
Alice realised that she met Elliot’s mom in ’74 in last week’s episode, while Kat and Elliot theorised that his mom’s line “I jump for love” means she leaped into the pond. But she can only do that with a Landry.
Once again, we were presented with a flash of someone leaving a letter in a baby basinet, then a girl and boy jumped into the pond. A mysterious figure picked up the baby and left him at Del and Colton’s door. As the couple discovered the child and letter, Del, cradling baby Katherine.
Then Casey showed up and gave Jacob proof that Susanna left Lingermore to the Landrys, which should get Lewis Goodwin to drop the charges against him. Casey also let slip a tidbit about the threatening letters Del was getting, and after Jacob discovered them, he decided it was best if he disappeared.
Del relayed the bad news to Sam, who told her, as he stood by the pond, that he just knew it was going to OK. Curious!
Casey also ran into Alice and ruled out that Alice is their mom. But when Alice pressed Casey about being a Landry and a Goodwin, Casey didn’t want to break any more rules.
So we will now have to wait until (possibly) January 2026 to get some more pond time travelling madness.
Yes I said it, the Hallmark, Andie MacDowell as Delilah "Del" Watson Landry lead series is a bit bat shit crazy. MacDowell is supported by Sadie Laflamme-Snow as Alice "Ali" Dhawan, Chyler Leigh as Katherine "Kat" Landry Dhawan & Evan Williams as Elliot "Eli" Augustine.
I sort of get the feeling this series can only go on for so long. Maybe the fourth will be the fourth and final for this pond fantasy series.
That concludes the big week of TV finales we had last week.
With my holiday incoming there will be limited posts for the next lil' bit. I will be back early April, before Easter, however I may share some snaps, insights, or any series I manage to complete whilst in Japan.
Let's be fair, Reacher and Severance will conclude their latest runs, so maybe I will get onto those.
We also have a number of shows hanging in the balance ahead of the US networks present their Upfront presentations in May.
My shows I watch, I am predicting:
CBS:
Swings the axe on THE EQUALIZER, maybe entertains the spin-off for next season. However I think Queen Latifah's series has run out of lives.
NBC:
I am convinced with the NBA coming to NBC, FOUND will also end its run despite, Shanola Hampton being a queen.
ABC:
9-1-1 will 100% be back, with new 9-1-1 location, Nashville landing next TV season. DOCTOR ODYSSEY, could really go either way. Do ABC need Ryan Murphy to be happy or just sub in one Murphy show for the new 9-1-1. Doctor Odyssey has failed to live up to the hype. It also can't be cheap to make.
The CW:
I'm also convinced, new station owners will see ALL AMERICAN as a liability. It's the last remaining original series on the troubled network. Season six ended perfectly. This season with a bunch of randoms has been patchy at best.
FOX:
Last but not least, the other network that was on-sale. But never sold. I feel when THE CLEANING LADY returns to Vegas later this month, it'll be the last 12 episodes we see. Like All American, it felt like it could have ended nicely last season.
Poor RESCUE HI-SURF has also struggled to find it's feet, however I feel with a shorter season next year, this might live to see another day. The network has limited series now the other 9-1-1 (Lons Star) has called it a day.
Time will tell, however I think the axe is being sharpened as we speak, by the respective networks!
The Chi has finally had part 2 of the sixth series land in Australia, on Disney+. This second batch of eight episodes landed back on Showtime in May last year.
I have been eager to conclude the solid sixth season for months now. The longest of all The Chi seasons. Consisting of 16 episodes split into two parts. This was largely due to the Hollywood labour strikes. With Part 1 commending August, 2023, and part 2 the following May. Concluding late last June.
So it had been a long wait for me to check in with my favourite Emmett, and his wild ride with multiple kids to multiple baby mommas. Emmett and Kiesha underpinned a lot the final eight (short) episodes. Taking the spotlight off the crime on the Chicago streets, bringing it back to real life family struggles.
Back in May last year, the newly named Paramount+ With Showtime renewed the series for a seventh season. Production warped early October 2024, so here is hoping like previous seasons we will get it June-August like previous seasons.
Warning: This post contains spoilers from Season 6 finale from here on in....
The South Side of Chicago just got a little less populated. With the exit of three cast members, via two deaths and a long-time-coming departure from the city.
When we saw the credits rolling, two characters — Curtiss Cook‘s Otis “Douda” Perry and Iman Shumpert’s Rob — were dead, and one — Tyla Abercrumbie’s Nina — had said goodbye to friends and family and moved out of town with girlfriend LaPorsha.
Both murders were related. After a season-long battle for power between Douda and Alicia (played by Lynn Whitfield, being promoted to series seven regular this year), the former mayor/crime kingpin was taken out instead by Nuck (Cortez Smith), his former henchman.
And when Nuck announced to Douda’s staff that he was the new boss in town, Rob refused to fall in line. So Nuck shot him several times as he was walking away, then dumped his body on the steps of his mother’s townhouse for Alicia to find.
The Chi is now Showtime's longest living dramas. The show has survived the new naming of Paramount+ With Showtime, out lived Billions, Shameless and any of the former 30 minute style sitcoms from Showtime.
The Chi has a lot to offer, I just hope for season seven Disney+ delivers it to Aussie viewers in a timely manner.
School Spirits is a series I caught up on last winter. It then entered my week-to-week dance card during a super busy US network TV period.
The series returned with three episodes back at the end of January, making it's eight episode run ending quickly, wrapping up yesterday morning.
Streaming on Paramount+, the series like many of recent (Taylor Sheridan) titles Lioness, Landman and Tulsa King awaiting renewal. When on Earth will they renew their recently concluded series.
The second season, opens with Peyton List as Maddie Nears realising Mr. Martin was there when she became a ghost and Janet took over her body, confronting him, making him run away into hiding.
Meanwhile, Janet; inhabiting Maddie’s body, takes a journey to her family’s now-crumbling farmhouse, starting a trip down memory lane. Simon wrestles with his desire to help Maddie and the possibility he had been hallucinating.
The ghostly gang finds traces of Janet's captivity in the school's basement. Xavier wakes up, but not in the land of the living.
Across the second season, death is just the beginning.While Maddie is still trapped in the afterlife, and time is running out. Now, she must work together with her friends in the spirit and living worlds to find a way back before it’s too late.
In the finale, Mr. Martin revealed that, at an extremely low point in his personal and professional life, he did consider doing something rash, even detaching the hose in the lab to create a gas leak. He changed his mind at the last minute, but it was too late; unbeknownst to him, Janet was testing flint torches, causing an explosion when exposed to the gas.
Back in their shared scar, an exit door appeared to the world beyond. Not only did Janet prevent Mr. Martin from going through it, but she also allowed it to close before she entered herself, saying that she had “unfinished business” to attend to before moving on.
Catching Mr. Martin in the first place required the spirits to reenter their scars, generating an enormous amount of energy within the walls of the school and triggering a mysterious change.
The next day, all seemed well enough, at least for Maddie, who woke up in her own body at the hospital, where Xavier revealed that he had spoken to her father. But Janet’s mission wasn’t over.
In the season’s final moment, she confronted Mr. Martin in their scar with more questions. He countered with a question of his own, gesturing to Simon, who had gone back into the school to find Maddie the night before.
We do get some cliffhangers at the end of the season, with Simon's fate not the only one, that remains uncertain after the Season 2 finale. When we last saw Wally, he was facing an exit door in his own scar, presenting the opportunity for him to finally cross over.
The we have Janet, who chose to stay behind and help her fellow spirits!
Let's see of Paramount+ finally start revealing a large number of their shows fates. However for me this one could go either way. The supernatural teeny booper series does feel a little 2000 and late....
Anora was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. On Monday, at the 97th Academy Awards, the film won a leading five awards out of its six nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Madison), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Director
Anora is considered a comedy-drama film written, directed, produced, and edited by Sean Baker.
Starring Mikey Madison as Anora Mikheeva, a stripper who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eydelshteyn.
Alongside Madison and Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, & Aleksei Serebryako star.
I am late to Anora, only seeing it last night. The film premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival back in May last year, where it received critical acclaim and won the Palme d'Or. Later it was theatrically released in October. So it isn't a new film by any measure.
OK so I had been warned about the sex. Whilst not super graphic, its constant for the first half of the film.
Also the film is LONG AF! Almost 2.5 hours LONG!
It really needed some strong editing. However the film has grossed $41 million worldwide, against a $6 million budget, making it Baker's highest-grossing film. Also that is damn fine for a film about a Russian oligarch finding. a pretty NY stripper who also speaks Russian.
Anora was wild and fun for the first act.
However the second half of the film really lost its way. Was it also the best film had to offer in 2024? I'm not sure or sold.
My friend also thought it was random AF as did the younger kids around us.
With Oscars hype, this film is an interesting one. Its more like a modern Pretty Woman less Julia Roberts/Richard Gere, with way more sex and drugs. Plus a banging soundtrack!
A wild ride, some NY to Las Vegas party vibes, this is definitely a film for the younger generation.
Prime Target is a maths (yes 1+1 = 2 maths) thriller miniseries starring The White Lotus and Bridget Jones (the latest one) Leo Woodall as a mathematician.
This was a really low quality Apple TV+, which gave US procedural network TV vibes. It was super basic, but tried to be complex. Whilst being mega fucking dull.
Even a gay(ish) lead storyline was not even to keep any of the 8 episodes interesting.
Basic plot, and I mean BASIC! A post-graduate mathematics student discovers an effort being made to destroy his work in finding a pattern in prime numbers that would allow him to access every computer in the world.
Leo Woodall is Edward Brooks, a mathematics student at Cambridge University, the lead who works with Quintessa Swindell as Taylah Sanders, an NSA agent remotely spying on various academics.
The weakest link had to be bad girl, Martha Plimpton as Jane Torres. So bad man. Like so bad!
If this wasn't a miniseries and easy to have on in the background, I might even have dumped this. Which is weird cause Apple TV+ originals of late have been great.
Bad Sisters had a solid second series. Not as good as the first, but still solid. Bad Monkey was a bit of fun whilst Severance still airing its second series is one of the weirdest things on TV.
Prime Target just doesn't fit the regular Apple TV+ thang. Maybe give this one a hard pass. Its not great.
Paradise is the latest political thriller on Hulu/Disney+ in Australia.
Created by Dan Fogelman & starring Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, and James Marsden.
The eight part first season commenced streaming late January, concluding last night.
Receiving generally positive reviews from critics, the series was renewed for a second season ahead of the finale.
Set in a city-sized underground bunker in Colorado three years after a doomsday event, the series follows United States Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) as he seeks to discover the truth behind the killing of the President of the United States(James Marsden).
As Xavier comes under suspicion for President Bradford's death, he searches for answers about what really happened, and is unsure of who he can trust as his questions lead to many shocking revelations.
Paradise is set in a serene, wealthy community inhabited by some of the world's most prominent individuals. But this tranquility explodes when a shocking murder occurs and a high stakes investigation unfolds.
So how does it all end... SPOILER ALERTS!
Twelve years before the present day, a project manager demands that the bunker construction be shut down due to arsenopyrite poisoning of the workers and gets locked out of the site. Disgruntled and aware of the prediction, he infiltrates a press conference in the White House lawn to assassinate the President but fails, shooting Collins instead.
In the present day, Collins, Robinson and their team surrender and return the weapons. Driscoll assures Redmond that Presley will stay quiet, but is denied the Wii as a reward for her loyalty. Robinson and Dr. Torabi examine the arrival list and confront the diner waitstaff Maggie who confesses that she infiltrated with Trent.
Meanwhile Collins finds notes hidden by Bradford in library books; Trent knocks him unconscious and steals the notes. When Collins awakens, Trent recounts the story how he and the waitstaff stole the identities of the real Trent and his wife Maggie.
Initially comfortable with life in the bunker, the false Trent's desire to assassinate the President resurfaced upon meeting him; Trent snuck in Bradford's bedroom, then killed him with a construction tool on display.
Trent leaves the library, then commits suicide in front of Robinson and Collins, jumping off the skylight's maintenance station.
Collins confronts Redmond and demands his daughter back, while Driscoll shoots her non-lethally. Presley and Robinson encourage Collins to find his wife and other survivors using Bradford's notes.
Redmond is in recovery, Driscoll enjoys the Wii, Jeremy gathers supporters, and Collins pilots an aircraft out of the bunker to search for his wife.
With some answers, some questions and a search for Collins wife, season two of Paradise will be a must watch!
Disney+ has done well with content of late. Sadly that came with a price hike. With streaming services running out of ways to generate income, a year CPI price hike seems something we streamers sadly will need to live with.
Tonight, the finale of Prime Target. The big finales week has just started!
