I’m very surprised to be writing this based on my feelings after the first episode but once I set expectation on the series I enjoyed it. I think I expected Lord of Rings but actually got something like the original film. A fun adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Category: tv
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After a shaky start I’ve been slowly warming up to the new Willow series on Disney Plus. As someone that is Welsh I was curious to check out all of the filming locations. Visit Wales has a nice breakdown of the locations here.
It’s exciting to see Wales being used for more filming, it’s also being used for the upcoming Acolyte Star Wars series.
Willow also filmed somewhere not too far away from where I live at Puzzlewood.
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I like to look back on the shows I’ve enjoyed over the past year, I don’t have all the streaming services but of the ones I have these are the shows that stood out.
- Andor: I don’t like to rank Star Wars but I do feel Andor is the best written and performed show Disney have produced so far
- Obi-wan Kenobi: I really enjoyed this one. Seeing Ewan and Hayden return really got me, I do wish they hadn’t used the studio so much to do it and been on set but that aside I enjoyed it
- Demon Slayer: I love Anime and I’m not sure why this passed me by. You can watch season 1 on Netflix but I subbed to Crunchyroll to watch season 2
- Rings of Power: Admittedly I’ve not completed the first season yet but for production value alone this is worth a watch. I’m enjoying this series a lot
- Moonknight: Not a character I knew before but a well told story and some great acting
- For all mankind: this series took me by surprise. I’m a space nerd so was curious to watch it but I’ve been really hooked on it.
What’s on your list?
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Bad Batch was great last season and we’ve just got a trailer and release date of Jan 4 2023. The trailer looks fantastic and if you’ve not watched season 1 yet go now. It looks to run to end of March then Mandalorian S3 will begin in April.
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Spotted this video showing where Andor fits into the Star Wars timeline and it’s good (even showing a Rogue One clip that didn’t make it into the movie) but doesn’t show us everything. In terms of the main movies it’s set between Episode III and Rogue One, in terms of everything else it’ll be around the time of the Star Wars: rebels animated series.
Set around 5 years before Rogue One and right in the Rebels timelines its got me thinking about cameo’s and I’m thinking we might see Ahsoka given her involvement in the early days of the rebellion. Who knows we might even see some of the Rebels cast but I’m not counting on this one.
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I’ve just finished Stranger Things Season 4 and wow what a show. I’ve loved it since the first episode and it’s just gotten better and better.
One thing struck me though comparing it to Star Wars, episode length. Stranger Things isn’t afraid to do over 2 hours an episode. Most were over an hour and it got me thinking that Star Wars is too short.
Obi-Wan I feel could have been more than 30 minutes an episode. I have no idea why some were so short when you get this rich story telling. Book of Boba, the same too short.
Andor I’m hoping is at least 45 minutes an episode.
She-Hulk is perfect at 25-30 minutes and I feel Marvel have been doing it right.
Why doesn’t Star Wars take a leaf out of Stranger Things and give us 1hr 30 minute episodes.
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My free week trial has ended with Paramount + and I see no reason to keep it going. I signed up primarily to watch Halo and whilst it was ok (aside from being completely unrelated to my favourite video game franchise) there’s nothing on there that would get me paying the £6.99 a month.
I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if it’s a UK thing but I’m seeing nothing of interest.
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I totally forgot about season 3 of For all mankind starting today. I really enjoyed both season 1 and 2 of this show.
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I’ve used NOWTV to watch F1 this season but I’ve recently cancelled my account, all for one reason – their iOS apps.
I started to watch it on Apple TV and ads aside (losing the audio, which isn’t a bad thing) it worked ok but their iPadOS might be one of the worst apps I’ve experienced. For example I missed FP1 today so wanted to catch up, I was presented with the never ending waiting loop as seen in the image above. This happens about 70% of the time on any of their streaming – it’s not really acceptable when they charge £30 a month. This was the final straw for me and I’ve cancelled my account until they show some focus on their mobile experiences.
I’ll listen to it on the radio for the rest of the season I think unless I see some improvement.
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It’s interesting to see Netflix is losing subscribers and as someone that occasionally dips into the service it’s not a surprise. I’d argue that Stranger Things is the only reason to subscribe for a month and binge. Drive to Survive was good in the first 2 seasons but is now blatantly made up for the drama.
I’ve found their original content to be overwhelming in terms of numbers of it available and underwhelming in terms of content.
In an age where a lot of us are watching our spending and there’s now good competition from the likes of Disney and Apple it’s no wonder they are losing Subscribers, especially when they seemingly put the price up whenever they feel like it.
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I’ve been an F1 fan for as long as I can remember, only cemented when I was lucky enough to get to travel to Belgium and watch the GP 10 years ago, wow time goes quickly. Unfortunately here in the UK we are stuck with paying SKY for our coverage. The best deal I found on this is £20 a month for NOWTV so it’s not exactly cheap.
F1 TV has been the best experience for me to watch in the past with no ad breaks but the same race coverage. You also get the ability to catch up straight away instead of the day after like with SKY.
I’ve seen a massive uptick in views on my post about this and it shows the interest that us here in the UK have for paying F1 for their own service. Unfortunately we won’t get this in the normal manner and have to pay SKY for a good while yet.
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I’ve only really just started out with Apple TV+ and started to watch Foundation. I’m a big sci-fi fan and it looked interesting. I’m 4 episodes in and it’s hooked me. I can see this series running for multiple seasons already and has a lot of world building to do.
I love the design of the world, somewhere between the patina of Star Wars and Blade Runner. The acting is fantastic and the budget is sky high, it’s one of the best looking shows I’ve seen. Amazing filming locations and cool ship design along with it too.
I’m not spoiling anything here so far but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how good this show is after seeing it being dumped on a bit.
The first episode is free so if you’re into epic sci-fi I definitely recommend giving it a go.
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Disney+ has had a great start and this week saw the start of The Book of Boba Fett. He’s in my top 3 favourite characters and this is a story I’ve been waiting for since I was 6 years old watching Return of the Jedi in the cinema. I wasn’t apprehensive at all given the creators behind this project and their work on The Mandalorian, knowledge and obvious love for the franchise.
I’ve only seen it once all the way through so far so I’m still digesting it but I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen on the first viewing. I love the music and the way it’s intermingled the present along with flashbacks. There’s a few classic characters in there and some cool new ones.
It’s hard to talk about this episode without spoilers so I’ll leave this as initial impressions but I’m very satisfied with the first chapter.
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Link: Star Wars YouTube
I’m a huge fan of The Clone Wars series and the final season that included The Bad Batch were some of my favourite episodes. This is going to be an interesting series to see what happens to this group of clones after the fall of the Clone Wars and the start of The Empire.
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As an F1 fan it’s been a frustrating time trying to watch live coverage without spending a fortune on a SKY package but there is a way to watch the official F1TV live coverage from the UK. You’ll also save a good bit of money vs the £35 a month SKY Sports package, which is completely wasted on someone that isn’t really interested in any other sports.
The first thing you’ll need to do is get yourself a VPN, I recommend getting ExpressVPN via your iOS device and signing up for your free 7 day trial to give it a go. If you decide to sign up it’ll be £90 a year (around £8 month) or £11.99 a month if you want to pay monthly.
Once installed and setup (set your location as the USA), head to the App Store and download the F1TV app. Now you have the app installed, launch and sign up to F1TV Pro for £5.99 a month. This gives you access to everything, live and archived races. You can also replay the races when you want if you miss the live stream rather than wait for the SKY schedule.
So total is around £14 a month, less than half the price and much better access.
LJPUK 