TV Show Review - You (Season 1)

Season: 1
Genre: Thriller/ Drama
Number of episodes: 10
Year: 2018
Starring: Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Shay Mitchell, Ambyr Childers, Luca Padovan, Zack Cherry, Nicole Kang, John Stamos, Kathryn Gallagher, Daniel Cosgrove, Victoria Cartagena, Mark Blum

Description: Clever bookstore manager Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) relies on his savvy Internet know-how to make the woman of his dreams (Elizabeth Lail) fall in love with him.

Review: “You” is a new Netflix show, created by the brains behind “Riverdale” and “Supernatural”, “Arrow” and “The Flash”. After seeing this first season, I can best describe it as “Dexter” meets “Pretty Little Liars” meets “Gossip Girl”.
The show follows Joe, a friendly and charming man who manages a bookstore, restores rare and old books and is friends with the kid next door who is in a problematic realtionshio with his mother and is happy with Joe’s attention. When Joe falls for one of his clients, Guinevere Beck (Beck for friends), we meet the other side of Joe. Because he becomes a psychotic stalker.
From the moment he meets Beck, Joe sees it as his task to make her life better and to save her from the toxic people in her life. It starts by secretly watching her and finding out details about her life via social media.
The first season of “You” is full of tension and is intriguing. It keeps your attention from beginning to end and it’s hard to stop watching. Penn Badgley, who we now from “Gossip Girl”, is very convincing as Joe. Both as the creepy stalker and the charming do-gooder. Elizabeth Lail plays Beck, who does a good job as well portraying the gullible and naïve writer-to-be. What I think is done so well, is that for some reason the ‘villain’ in this show, is not actually the real villain. Even though he does bad things (very bad thing), somehow you can never really hate Joe. But Beck and the people around her are the people you really start to dislike.
“You” is a strong thriller series, that doesn’t let you go while watching it. It’s mysterious and surprising. Season two will be released in 2019 and I can’t wait!

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 33: Mother's Day

Director: Garry Marshall
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 118 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis, Julia Roberts, Britt Robertson, Timothy Olyphant, Shay Mitchell, Sarah Chalke, Jon Lovitz, Hector Elizondo, Larry Miller, Jack Whitehall

Description: Three generations come together in the week leading up to Mother's Day.

Review: Mother’s Day is the day that we celebrate all the great mothers on the planet. They deserved their own film, but this is not really the tribute I was hoping for.
We follow several stories revolving around mothers a week before Mother’s Day. Jesse has to solve a fight with her mother, but also kept it a secret that she married an Indian man and together they have a son. Her sister also hides something, the fact that she is gay. Kristen is adopted and wants to meet her biological mom: career lady Miranda. Sandy has to share mother’s day with her ex-husband’s new wife, who is much younger than her. And Bradley and his daughters are still struggling after their wife/ mother’s death.
We had “New Year’s Eve” and “Valentine’s Day”, which weren’t all that great to begin with. “Mother’s Day” isn’t either. I liked Jennifer Aniston, but I always like her. But the rest of the cast is a bit bland. And that story of Jess was just oo ridiculous. She and her sister kept such a big secret, because their parents are pretty racist and not very open minded. And everything is forgiven and forgotten in literally one second. Not believable at all.
I don’t think “Mother’s Day” is film that would make a lot of mothers happy. It’s hardly funny, super cliché and predictable. Out of all the assemble films with multiple storylines, that eventually cross paths, there is only one film in this genre that wins. And it’s not by Garry Marshall (it’s “Love Actually”, in case you were wondering). So if you want to watch a film with your mom on mother’s day, don’t watch this.

Rating: 2/ 5

TV Review: "Pretty Little Liars" Season 2

Genre: Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller

Year: 2011

Number of episodes: 24

Starring: Lucy Hale, Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Ian Harding, Holly Marie Combs, Chad Lowe, Laura Leighton, Sasha Pieterse, Janel Parrish, Keegan Allen, Torrey DeVitto, Tyler Blackburn, Tammin Sursok, Bryce Johnson , Drew van Acker, Yani Gellman

Description: Four friends band together against an anonymous foe who threatens to reveal their darkest secrets, while unraveling the mystery of the murder of their best friend.

Review: The second season of ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars" is even more exciting, complex and especially entertaining. Even more then the first season. One of the two big mysteries, Alison's murder and stalker 'A', is solved in this season.

The four friends Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily are still stalked by the mysterious 'A', who is Always one step ahead of them. Spencer was spared, byt her brother-in-law Ian wasn't. Ian disappeared and nobody believed Spencer and what she saw really happened to Ian. The four girls are seperated and send to a therapist. But their search for 'A' continues and the girls keep ending up in dangerous situations and they don't know who to trust.

It's really easy to call a show about pretty teenage girls a simple teen drama. Especially because most of time it's exactly that. Aria's relationship with teacher Ezra continues, Hanna is in war with her new stepsister Kate and deals with a on and off relationship with Caleb. But the show is surprising enough and has great twists. The final episode has several references to the Hitchcock movie "Psycho" and it's a very exciting episode. And there is also a special Halloween episode. It's an intriguing whodunit and the storylines are constantly trying to mislead you.

There are shows that drag their storylines endlessly, but "Pretty Little Liars" has a good pace. Season 2 gives us some answers, but also gives us a lot more new questions. The mystery continues. A good mix of mystery, thriller and teen drama.

TV Review: "Pretty Little Liars" Season 1

Genre: Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller

Year: 2010

Number of episodes: 22

Starring: Lucy Hale, Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Ian Harding, Holly Marie Combs, Chad Lowe, Laura Leighton, Sasha Pieterse, Janel Parrish, Keegan Allen, Torrey DeVitto, Tyler Blackburn, Tammin Sursok, Bryce Johnson

Description: Four friends band together against an anonymous foe who threatens to reveal their darkest secrets, while unraveling the mystery of the murder of their best friend.

Review: I’m a pretty good girl, but everyone likes a little gossip and intrigue now and then. And the people who deny this are liars. Well, “Pretty Little Liars” is the perfect show for teen drama, mystery and lies.

Four friends, who are very different from each other, also have many things in common. One of those things is where this show starts with. The disappearance of their friend Alison. A fun thing about a mysterious show like “Pretty Little Liars” is that I constantly want to reveal the mysteries. But I also don’t, because then it all ends. The show does this well, lots of twists, some predictable some surprising. You really want to find out what happened to Alison.

The story revolves around five friends. Alison DiLaurentis is the one that goes missing in the first episode. A year later, the other four girls are brought together again. Hanna Marin is the friend that wants to be like Alison. When she met Alison, she was a little overweight and very insecure. Because of Alison, Hanna became more self-assured and she also acts more like Alison. Spencer Hastings is the most serious one of the group. She is good with computers, is serious about school and is very intelligent. Spencer’s parents have high expectations of her. Aria Montgomery is keeping a secret for her father, who she caught cheating on her mom. But she also has a secret of her own, when she starts dating her English teacher. Emily Fields (my favorite character this first season) is the caring one in the group, she is a good swimmer and she is also struggling with her sexuality when she meets a new neighbor.

Alison is the pretty girl, that everyone adored. She likes a challenge, but do her friends really know Alison all that well? When the four girls reunite, they start receiving messages from someone called A. Together they try to find out who A is and they also stumble upon many secrets and lies.

The fact that we don’t know who A is and the story keeps revealing new surprising information, makes “Pretty Little Liars” a joy to watch. It’s an exciting show, filled with lies, intrigue and mystery. I can’t wait to start season 2.