My latest must-watches and don't-bothers

Being back in lockdown, I obviously don't have any restaurant trips or fun days out to share with you and I feel like I've done a few too many fashion posts in a row. So what else, other than a TV blog post? Because let's face it, that's all most of us are spending lockdown 2.0 doing anyway. But rather than a straight up review of each thing I've been watching, I'm splitting the list into thumbs up and thumbs down. If you haven't seen my thumbs up shows yet then I'd recommend, and if you were about to press play on one of the things on my thumbs down list then I'd recommend you keep scrolling instead!

Olivia meets her match - Thumbs up

Olivia Atwood seems to be a bit of a marmite person, right from back when she was on Love Island. I loved her on Love Island, I loved her on Celebs go dating and I loved her on TOWIE ("she's just got herself uninvited from my 80th birthday party" was a personal favourite quote) and so I obviously wanted to give her new show a watch. Her one-liners are as funny as ever and it's really nice seeing the dynamic between her and her fiancé Brad. For any reality TV lovers, this one is definitely worth a try.

Love, guaranteed - Thumbs down

From this trailer, I was super excited to watch because it seemed like the cheesy kind of rom-com that I absolutely love. But this one feel flat even for me! There was zero chemistry between the main couple and the supposed meet cutes, funny moments and falling in love scenes all took me a moment to realise that's what they were meant to be. The writing was poor, the plot was obvious (and not in a satisfying way) and the best part was when the credits rolled. Even for cheesy film lovers, I wouldn't bother with this one.

The crown - Thumbs up

Okay so I know I'm seriously late to the party with this one but all the recent talk about The Crown has prompted me to finally give this watch-list-resident a go. I'm only a few episodes in so far but I already ~love~ it. I love a historical drama that's based on true events so I can obsessively google the real life version and fall in love with all the ways in which the show stayed true. It's a bit redundant to ask for no spoilers on this one, but anyone else considering trying it, I would say do it!

Can you keep a secret? - Thumbs down

Another cheesy rom-com that I was expecting to love and hated! I initially put it on because I recognised the synopsis as a book on my to-read list on goodreads and given that the book is by an author I love, I thought I'd give the film a try. Well, it was painfully obvious that it was based on a book because the whole film was rushed and it felt like it was going by at lightning speed. Romantic books in particular don't often translate very well onto the big screen because books highlight the small moments that lead to falling in love; the snatched conversations and the prolonged looks and the character's thoughts. Movies capture none of that, so while I'm sure the book is probably pretty good, the film had an unrealistic plot, a got-together-too-quickly couple and a things-are-not-all-that-bad main disruption plot point. I can't comment on the book yet, but definitely give the film a miss!