I often say I’m not really into tv but when I have conversations with people about tv shows I find that I actually do watch more than I thought. I’m a big rewatcher and I have a good few comfort shows that are often on in the background. I’ll post about them another time, but these shows get me through a lot. 😀

I also don’t watch any kind of reality tv or gameshows and such, not for any snobbish reason though, I just can’t cope with secondhand embarrassment, and a lot of those shows seem to lean heavily towards making fools of people and I just can’t.

I did watch The Secret Life of Mormon Wives last year though, I started it because I thought it was a documentary about Mormons, I couldn’t look away once I’d started. This wasn’t a good thing, it was very much like seeing a car crash. I felt embarrassed for, and mad at, almost everyone. I’m not sure I’ll be watching season 2 but maybe I’ll feel like torturing myself at some point! 😀

But I digress…

I usually watch ‘new’ things on Friday evenings/nights and that’s when I’m most likely to binge shows.

So some shows I’ve watched and loved recently? Let’s pick the top three:

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Rivals – Disney+

Based on the book, Rivals by by Jilly Cooper, the second book in Rutshire Chronicles Series, this is as wild as anyone who has ever read a Jilly Cooper book would expect it to be. It begins with Rupert Campbell-Black’s arse in an airplane toilet where he is shagging his latest female companion. So as I said, as you’d expect from Jilly Cooper.

I will not lie, I was a little unsure in the beginning, it took me maybe three or four episodes to get into but once I was in I just couldn’t stop.

Set in the Cotswold’s it was beautifully shot, really well written and it was equal parts fun and edge of your seat watching.

The casting for this was immaculate though!

David Tennant as Tony, Lord Baddingham: What. An. Asshole!! I adore David Tennant and all he does but why do I love him the most when he is utterly horrible? Range maybe? He is a total douchehead in this and he plays it to absolute perfection.

Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black: I really wasn’t a fan of this character or actor at the beginning but by the end I had such a soft spot for Rupert, which I feel was the point. Brilliantly portrayed.

Nafessa Williams as Cameron Cook: Bringing in some much needed 1980’s American glamour. She was beautiful, badass and kind of diabolical! I loved her!

Bella Maclean as Agatha ‘Taggie’ O’Hara: I feel it is impossible not to love Taggie. She is impossibly cute and the chemistry between her and Rupert was slow to build but by the end I was very invested.

Danny Dyer as Freddie Jones: Three!! Three episodes it took me to clock that Freddie was Danny Dyer!! I really enjoyed his storyline with Katherine Parkinson as Lizzie Vereker and I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes.

And most important of all?

Aidan Turner as Declan O’Hara and Victoria Smurfit as Maud O’Hara: Two Irish actors in such meaty roles? It’s the law that I support these two! 😀

Victoria Smurfit might not have been the strongest out of all the cast but she was wonderfully unhinged and reminded me of someone so I was oddly fond of her. Aidan Turner has long been a favourite of mine and I thought he was perfectly cast in this. Delighted to see them both doing well.

The whole cast was great and the above are just the highlights I can think off the top of my head, I know I’m missing some really great characters. This show is outrageous but it also has some wonderful heartfelt moments.

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The Residence – Netflix

This was stunning from beginning to end!

Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp, was just incredible. I haven’t seen her in anything else and I’m here to say she should be in a lot more. She was wonderfully droll and delightfully quirky but never in an off-putting way.

The writing for this show was so, so clever. Totally invested in the ‘whodunit’ aspect but the little insights we get into the people of the White House and Cordelia Cup were just as compelling. The episode that focused on Cordelia’s time with her nephew made me ridiculously emotional. Beautiful!

Oh, and KYLIE!!!

This was also visually stunning, just a joy to watch. I need to watch more Shondaland shows because I’ve yet to watch one I didn’t like. Well, I loved Grey’s but I stopped watching on like Season 10. I can’t commit to a show for over 20 years! 😀

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A Man on the Inside – Netflix

Oh boy, this surprised me!

I went into this thinking it would be a fun Ted Danson show where he would be the funny man and do his customary comedic entertaining thing and it was that some of the time. The rest of the time it was a beautiful and poignant look at aging!

This felt like The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman but with more heart, and I loved that book.

The love, the loss, the loneliness, the building of relationships new and old. Everyone was outstanding in this, it was wonderful to see Sally Struthers from The Gilmore Girls, make an appearance and she was excellent. The standout for me though was Stephanie Beatriz as Didi, her character in “Our Man in Sacramento” destroyed me. I’m still not over it.

This show is entertaining but there is a really important message about how we age, those who care for us as we age and the awful effects Alzheimer’s and dementia has on every single person who encounters it. My mother’s side of the family has a history of dementia and it is truly one of the most terrifying diseases, I often shy away from anything to do with it because it’s really scares the shit out of me, this show made me look at it head on, and it was so emotional. It also made me realise that understanding it is important for a million reasons, one of those reasons being more equipped to help if I came across someone who has it and is in crisis.

This show is also shot in San Francisco, so again, visually stunning. I’m coming to realise that for me to be really invested in a show it needs to be super visual. Weird for a reader but then again when I read I see it as a movie so I guess it kind of makes sense!

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So, a few of my recent favourites, I need to have a think about what to watch next now, I hate trying to find things that will interest me and I feel like in the era of multiple streaming services it’s overwhelming and makes it harder.

If anyone has any recommendations I’d love to hear them, drop a comment with your must watch shows!