On the box

Compared to normal, I've really not been watching very much TV. I've normally always got a box set on the go but with the combination of all my favourite shows coming to a season close, having already watched every chick flick american series and having nice weather literally all summer, I haven't spent much time in front of the TV at all. But just the last couple of weeks, I've made it through 1 box set and 2 new movies so I thought I'd share my thoughts!

I mean, we only had to wait 14 years for it! Obviously in cinema land though, no time had passed at all and the movie picks up exactly where the last one left off. For those of you who can't remember, superheroes are still illegal but The Incredibles aren't going to take that lying down. And neither is millionaire Rick Dicker, who recruits Bob, Helen and Lucien to help fight for superheroes to become legal again. While the first movie was very much about Bob and his journey as a superhero, this time the spotlight is on Helen as her former self, Elastigirl. So while she jets off on hero missions, Bob is faced with the much harder task; look after the kids. With Violet going through teenage angst over the guy she fancies, Dash refusing to ever do as he's told and Jack-jack discovering he has a seemingly-infinite amount of powers, Bob has his work cut out for him. Although the villain and main dramatic part of the plot turned out to be exactly as I guessed, I still really enjoyed the film. It was authentic in its follow-on from the first one and it was great to see it being about girl power this time, with the man left at home to take care of the kids. Edna was hilarious again and it was a classic feel-good disney movie. Although I didn't like that Dash had a different person doing his voiceover, because he didn't sound right. But I suppose after 14 years, it's understandable that the original kid might not have such a high-pitched voice any more, and they did find a pretty close match. Overall, would definitely recommend, especially to those millennials who grew up watching the original movie, like me.

They don't seem to make that many new chick-flick series any more. All the best series were like early 2000s; gossip girl, one tree hill, the OC. But one that I'd seen the advert for and instantly added to my list was Life Sentence. It always makes you more likely to watch when a series stars someone you recognise and Lucy Hale was great in Pretty Little Liars. The series is based on Stella who's been suffering with cancer for 8 years and is expecting to die any day. But then after a clinical trial, she is faced with something completely unexpected; she's cured. And it turns out that while she was ill, her whole family were protecting her from some hard truths. Like that her mum and dad are basically broken up, her sister has never gone after the job she wanted because of needing to be there for the family and her husband has been pretending to like all the things that she does to make her happy (when he actually hates them). So after spending so many years preparing to die, it turns out that Stella is completely unprepared to live! She has to muddle her way through finding a job, planning for a future with her husband that neither of them expected to have and to deal with the mess that her family have been covering up for years. From the trailer, I thought it looked amazing and I think that the concept was a great one. I already knew that the show had been cancelled after its 13-part first season and after watching it, I can see why. Despite the good idea, the execution was quite poor. There were some great characters with a lot of potential but it feels like the writers never gave them a chance to blossom. Storylines were over as quickly as they began, characters were skipped past, tension was never built and all in all it just felt a bit rushed and slapped together. I feel like it could've been great. The introduction of a love triangle that makes Stella question her marriage was intriguing and her brother had a lot of storylines that felt like they were right on the edge of being really good. But then they would just write it back out again. The whole thing was very confusing and it felt like maybe they tried to cram too much in to just 13 episodes. What they should've done instead was perhaps just focused on a couple of plots and done them really well. I did enjoy the series though; it wasn't one that I was literally dying to finish so that I could turn it off. But it was definitely fair that it got cancelled. Luckily they didn't leave it on much of a cliff hanger so it does work quite well as a series and feels complete in itself. Plus, it has a nice message about living life to the full.

Another one that took its sweet time in delivering us a sequel was Mamma Mia. This time only 10 years after the first movie, Mamma Mia 2 follows Sophie as she tries to reopen her mums hotel, a year after she's died. With the support of her 3 dads, she battles with missing her mum, arguing with Sky and feeling as if she's not done enough. Simultaneously though is the really great part of the film. We're taken on the journey that Donna went on when she ventured off to Greece and had the summer of her life that resulted in Sophie. So we meet young Donna, young Tanya, young Rosie, and young Sam, Bill and Harry as they muddle their way through young adult life, following the plot that we know and love. Obviously with a hell of a lot of musical numbers thrown in there too. The first thing I'll say is that the casting was perfect. Young Tanya was the absolute spit of the older one! Each and every character had been cast excellently and all looked (and acted) like their present-tense counterpart. Lily James has a beautiful voice and so her numbers were really good, and I'm so glad that they included Mamma Mia again (they kind of had to I suppose). The soundtrack wasn't quite as strong as the first movie; it was a lot less upbeat, but I think that's in keeping with the whole melancholic feel of the film from Donna being gone. One thing that was annoying me though were all the continuity errors. Although, the first film sort of had a lot too. For starters, Donna was meant to be like 20 when she had Sophie, and Sophie was 20 in the first film which would make Donna 40. And yet she was played by 59 year old Meryl Streep, with all 3 guys also noticeably older than 40. And at the beginning of the first film, it says Donna met them in the order Sam, Bill, Harry. But then when Harry sings Our Last Summer, he talks about meeting Donna in Paris and following her to Greece. So that's the way they play it in the second movie. With her meeting Harry, Bill, Sam, then Bill again. And remember how in film one, Sophie says that Donna got the money to buy the hotel from Bill's great aunt Sophia, who she was named after? Well in film two, Donna and Bill appear to have more of a summer fling, never to be heard of again, and she is given the hotel by a woman in the local village. It definitely wouldn't win any awards for its accuracy, but this film was amazing. It made me laugh, it made me want to cry and it did as I expected and found a way to weave Meryl Streep in to it afterall. The rendition of Super Trouper at the end including all the past and present characters was amazing and I also liked that they played musical snippets of songs from the first film in the background throughout. An incredible, fell-good film that will have you singing along!