Peaches Prattlings











{March 24, 2016}   Binge watching…pros and cons

I think I’ve told you…I love binge watching.

I actually prefer to watch the entire show after its gone off the air, but sometimes I just can’t wait.

I might acutely be addicted to binge watching.  No commercials…just power thru…one more episode…an entire season in the blink of an eye.

I was just doing that with NCIS tonight, I was towards the end of an episode, not knowing where I am in the season and I thought to myself as something huge happened, “I love binge watching,  I don’t have to wait for the next season…unless this is the end of the episodes and I have to wait until the next season is added.”

Grrrrr, what! Oh no! Now I have to wait! Nooooo! What am I going to do now?!

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{February 22, 2016}   Mozart in the Jungle

Just watch it!

It’s sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, and the rock stars are classical musicians. 

There truly is sex, a bit of bed hopping,  pining, forbidden love, experimenting.

There are drugs, DiDi, the percussionist supplies everyone with whatever they need.

There is rock-n-roll, in this case, the NY Symphony Orchestra. And the star power, just in the players themselves.

The series opens with the old conductor, or Maestro, making his exit and the way for the new,  younger,  exciting, challenging and brilliant Maestro, Rodrigo.

It’s funny and cerebral and clever and goofy, it’s about finding out who you are, learning, growing, accepting, discovery, being open to new things, love, loss, passion, greed,  deception, and…and…and…

It’s an original series on Amazon and I love it,  there are only two seasons so far and I want more!

Watch it and tell me what you think!

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{June 6, 2014}   Call the Midwife

Love Love Love!!!

I have heard great things about this show, I was somewhat intrigued, but it wasn’t high on the list. I like period pieces, but I found recently that I enjoy the mystery shows that are period.

I really enjoy the ones set during WWII, I find them incredibly fascinating and enjoyable. My dad turned me on to Foyle’s War, it took a minute, but I got into it hard core, and then it was over. It’s hard when you enjoy a series and then it ends, but that allows you to find other things to watch. Which is one of the things I enjoy about Netflix, it allows me to find a show and watch it to the end, as long the series is over, if it’s still going on, you might not get the entire series.

I had been considering watching Land Girls, which I really liked, I’ll tell you about it some time. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1449940/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It was time for something new and Call the Midwife it is! It’s about the lives of a group of midwives in the late 1950s.

Vanessa Redgrave is the narrator, an elder Jenny Lee, who is talking us through her memoir. Jenny is a nurse and trained midwife, she is joined by Trixie, a vivacious blond, Cynthia, a shy and sweet brunette, Chummy, a very tall, solid and wonderful woman who feels like she is all thumbs. They live at Nanartas house, which is run by Sister Julienne and a group of nuns, all who are midwives. Pam Ferris is Sister Evangelina, tough as nails and a big softy. You may know Pam Ferris as Aunt Marge from Harry Potter or Ms Trunchbull from Matilda. Judy Parfait plays Sister Monica Joan, an aging nun, very forgetful and speaks in riddles. You may remember her as the queen from Ever After or Vera Donovan from Dolores Clairborne. Sister Bernadette is the quiet conflicted one. They are joined by a few male characters, PC Peter Nokes, Fred, the caretaker, the town doctor, Dr Turner.

The setting is the east end of London, very little money, several people to a flat or a room, poor conditions, but the people are happy. The funny or interesting things that I found. The women smoked, not just inside, which was common, but WHILE THEY WERE PREGNANT! Even while waiting for their prenatal appointments! How about the fact that they leave their babies in their prams outside the clinic or houses and apartments, that’s just the way they did it!

No matter what, when you called Nanartas House, you had a midwife come to visit. They would make weekly house calls and sometimes they performed duties for people in Poplar as a nurse, for both men and women. They get involved with the lives of their patients, get to know and care for them, experience their joys and heartaches and a lot of babies! There is at least one to three babies born each episode and you get to see it! Not the full birth, but you see the babies as they are coming out, from the side, you see their head and then their little bodies, it’s amazing.

As you watch each episode, you get involved with these women, their lives and you laugh with them, you cry with them, ooh and ah with their new babies, get scared with them and feel joy. You also see how medicine has changed, but one thing that hasn’t…women are still having babies.

Bottom line, I really like this show and recommend it highly. It’s a show you never want to end, does that help?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1983079/?ref_=nv_sr_1



{October 3, 2013}   My Fair Wedding

No! I’m not getting married, I just la la la love this show!

Years ago, I would watch “A Wedding Story” before I got married, I used to watch “A Baby Story” (my cousing, SS was even on an episode!) when I was newly married and thinking about kids.

Recently, I found two shows that fascinate me. The first is Four Weddings, this is a show where they take four women who have never met and sort of pit them against each other; they are each competing for the chance to win a honeymoon. They attend each other’s weddings and then rate them on dress, venue, food, overall feel. It’s interesting to see how each bride differs in her style and the wedding she puts on. There have been some interesting ones, one bride said her vows in an aquarium tank, another in a converted theater that was set up to look dark and gothic, there were traditional sweet weddings, all different, still not sure why I am drawn to this.
http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/four-weddings

The next show, the reason I started this post, is for My Fair Wedding. I watched it once or twice when I was traveling and thought it as fascinating and then…da da da..it’s on Netflix! And as you know, when I find a show I like, I just watch as many episodes there are and move on to the next show.

My Fair Wedding is hosted, sort of, by David Tutera. He’s a big time famous wedding planner with a thriving business who puts on these elaborate and extravagant weddings. This show centers around one bride that he selects who applies to be on the show and their wedding is, let’s just say, in need of guidance and flat out help. Some have themes: Picnic, Wizard of Oz, Motown! Mini trucks, Asian Fusion, Belly Dancing, the list goes on. Some brides, just don’t know what they want or their ideas are all over the place.

That’s where David Tutera comes in and basically saves the day, he takes over where he needs to. Everything from changing the wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, venue, menu, anything that needs help.

One of the fun things to watch is when he first meets a bride, she shows him her vision and he keeps a straight face, especially if the idea is seriously out there! Off camera, he will tell us, the viewers what he’s thinking, but on camera, with the bride, he’s always intreagued. He is always complimentary when he sees the bridal gown and bridesmaids dresses, no matter how bad they are, he finds something positive.

Sometimes, he does love an idea or a theme, he might go with it in a small way incorporate it into the overall event, or he takes it and runs with it. But what he will do is make whatever is they want happen, within reason. He went against the grain and gave two brides black wedding dresses, who does that!

The big thing he does is listen to the bride, what they want, what their vision is and make it so much more, come to life, almost as he steps inside their minds and sees what they really want, sometimes it’s exactly what they say, sometimes it’s completely in the opposite direction.

The thing that amazes me, and possibly anyone who watches the show and the brides he works with is that he treats each bride as if she is the only bride he has ever worked with, they are the most special and beautiful woman on the planet.

He has approximately three weeks to put the wedding together and he will do things with her to make her feel special, it might be jewelry, selecting flowers, a makeover, signature cocktails, food, perfume, something to help her relax, like swinging from a trapeze, zip lining, hot air balloon rides, you name it, he’ll do it!

Ultimately, no matter what he does, it’s to make the bride feel special and have a day that she and her husband will remember and treasure for the rest of their lives. You can tell how much he touches these women, not just in words, but in action and you truly feel that he loves each and every one of them. Aside from the tears of joy and wonderment when he reveals their weddings to the couple, they can tell how much of himself he put into their theme, ceremony and reception, their words of love and devotion to him for all he did for them, sometimes it’s just words, sometimes it’s a token of their appreciation, in a physical gift or a donation to one of the many charities he is passionate about.

I love watching each and every episode, sometimes I’m not sure about his choices, but he knows what’s best for that bride and the wedding party and sometimes I marvel at how he’s going to come up with a wedding that brings the bride’s vision to life. Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I wanted a themed wedding and how David Tutera would bring it all together.

All in all, I really enjoy the show and it’s just a feel good time and of course, being a girl, from time to time, I tear up at the ceremony, who doesn’t?

http://www.wetv.com/shows/my-fair-wedding



{July 31, 2013}   Duck Dynasty

I tried people, I really tried.

One of the good and bad things about moving in with DCM is that we have cable all the time, so I get to see some TV shows I have missed (Criminal Minds, Leverage), basically the shows I can’t find on Netflix, Hulu or online and a lot of movies, which was what I was doing before.

So, here comes reality TV, why? I still don’t get giving rich people money so we can watch them be obnoxious, vile, rich, useless. You’ve got people thrown together in a house, summer camp, n a bridge, would they do half of that stuff if weren’t watching?

And then there is the flip side, there’s the exploitation of toddlers, white trash and rednecks, when did watching the type of people you would find on “the people of Walmart” live become big business?

We as a society become obsessed with certain shows, I’ll admit, there was a time that CKM and I were addicted to Hoarders, we’d sit on the phone watching in our respective homes, “did you see that?” “OMG!”

My mom! My mom, for those of you who knew her, might be shocked by this, but she la la la loved The Osbornes! That cracked me up!

I think I told you that one of the things I enjoyed about traveling for work was staying in hotels and having cable and being able to flip channels. Now, please keep in mind, on my last contract, I wasn’t in any one city more than two nights, so there wasn’t a lot of sight seeing to be done, sometimes I got to my hotel in enough time to grab some food and sac out for an hour or two before crashing, so TV it was, a good way to wind down and decompress.

There is always a new reality show that people talk about and right now, it’s Duck Dynasty, a family in the Louisiana bayou, staying true to their roots while building their empire of duck calls and decoys, Duck Commander. We got through about 15 minutes, it was the very first episode and there were a few funny moments, sort of, and then they lost me when the guys went out to find frogs because the momma was going to be filming a cooking show the next day. Um, not something I can handle, I once saw frogs legs at a grocery store and couldn’t eat for three days!

I just don’t think I can do it, I hear so many people talking about it, they talk about how funny it is, it’s just not for me. I have heard that the women are ga-ga for their guys, they don’t have a lot of the same drama as the “rich people” reality shows, something to be said for that.

But when I watch some of these reality shows, I feel like my I.Q. drops a lot, so I think I will be skipping the majority of these shows and leave them to everyone else who is fascinated by them. Just like they say there is someone for everyone, there is an audience for the reality show market and more power to ’em!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2229907/?ref_=sr_1



{March 31, 2013}   Castle

As I have probably mentioned, I don’t have cable and if I haven’t, pull your chin back up, not everyone has TV! I say that I don’t have cable because when I say I don’t have TV, most people think I mean I don’t have a TV, just means I don’t have cable.

Now don’t cry for me Argentina, ha ha. I have a TV and I have a DVD carousel that holds up to 400 DVDs and CDs, there are about 350 movies in it and more on the outside (if I put each series in, there would be no room left!), then there are the movies on my two portable hard drives. See…I’m doing just fine, movie wise!

I also have Netflix and Hulu, lucky me! I watch movies on both or I find a TV show that I like and watch the entire series.

I have watched Castle in the past a few times, but I don’t think it was one of the ones I DVR’d when I had cable (possibly, but I don’t remember) and I watch it when I visit my sister, she DVR’s and we watch together.

I found it on Hulu (grrr commercials) and watched this season, now I want more and it only has season 5, bummer. Netflix doesn’t have it, where to look.

Castle is about Richard Castle, an award winning crime novelist who consults with the NYPD, much to their chagrin in the beginning, but as time and cases go on, he becomes a valuable asset to the department and the team he works with. They become more than partners, they become a family.

There are three other main characters in the department, Beckett, the future love interest (spoiler alert?), Esposito and Ryan. There are others that stay for a season, but these three are the team. At home is Castles’s daughter Alexis and his mother, Martha, an actress.

The crimes are inventive, sometimes inspiration for his books, possibly even from his books, the one liners are cheesy as all get out, you might cringe, but you still laugh. (You might have already thought it, you just weren’t going to say it out loud!) Castle will give a new insight or perspective of the crime that might be slightly unconventional, helps add something to the case.

Sometimes there may be a cliff hanger, but in the end, everything works out, it’s a one out drama, dramedy? after all. I recommend it, at least you can find season 5 on Hulu.



et cetera