Blogmas #3-Best Films I Watched This Year

I admit that I'm a little disappointed that I didn't watch more films this year for the first time, but I am pleased that I saw some good ones! 

The best three are...

Other really good watches...

Others worth a watch...

Blogmas #2-Best Reality Series I Watched This Year

When I think reality tv, it isn't things like real housewives kind of stuff. I go for fun gameshows, cooking competitions, series about tough jobs and hobbies, that kind of thing. Here are some of the series I really enjoyed this year and what I need to catch up with.

NB: Oops! Forgot to post this yesterday!

1) American Ninja Warrior
Season 11 was the best ever! Total Victory for one of my favourites! I'm already waiting for season 12 in May!

2) My Kitchen Rules
I just started watching MKR this year and have watched a few seasons of the Australia, New Zealand and South African versions. Still hunting down the US version online.

3) Pimp My Ride
I love seeing those heaps of junk turned into gleaming cars and vans and seeing what weird gadgets get put into the finished vehicle.

4) Spartan Ultimate Team Challenge
I love this kind of thing and I was cheering on the ninja warrior teams! I preferred the first season with the outdoor race. Pity there were only two seasons to enjoy! 

5) Masterchef Australia
I really don't think the right person won last time and felt she got preferential decisions. Now I worry that I won't enjoy it as much with Matt, George and Gary all gone.

6) The Titan Games
I used to love the strong man competitions on tv every Christmas so it was fun watching strong men and women in this new set of challenges. 

7) Sasuke
I'm totally up to date on Sasuke and waiting for a copy of the new series when it is televised. My dad and I have been watching all the previous shows too for added fun.

8) Ultimate Beastmaster
I loved the three seasons that I've watched and I still hope there might be a fourth. It was fun watching the event and the rivalry between each country's commentators!

9) Outback Truckers
My dad and I enjoyed this in the afternoons, watching reruns of two seasons. I don't know if there is another season coming or if it is finished.

10) Deadliest Catch
A binge watch of seasons 13, 14 and 15 was fun and I'm ready for the new series!

I need to catch up and watch these over the winter

1) Take The Tower 
I'm not sure what to expect from this one but any new thing like this will be worth a watch. Besides, my dad loves Dolph!

2) Wicked Tuna
I'm going back to the very beginning as I can't remember where I stopped. A good excuse for a great big binge watch!

3) Bering Sea Gold
I like seeing what Emily and Sean are doing but I miss Zeke and I'm not greatly excited about future seasons as I don't like the new big dredge guys or the Kelly's. Might be time to pack it in.

4) Yukon Gold
Again I don't remember where I'm at so I plan a binge watch of every season.

5) Gold Rush
I'm one season behind but I think I might go back and refresh my memory by watching the whole lot again.

6) Gold Rush White Water
So great to see Dakota Fred back again and I look forward to the two seasons so far.

7) Masterchef US 
I still have the last season to catch up with this winter.

8) Great British Bake Off
It recently finished on our Ch 4 and I need to watch it. I've heard that it's been dumbed down so if the challenges are too easy, that won't be as much fun to watch.

9) Ninja Warrior-various
I've been able to grab seasons 3 & 4 of NW France, 1 & 2 of NW Switzerland, season 1 of NW Italy...you don't need to know the language to enjoy the competition!

10) Top Chef 
I have one season of Canada left to watch then I'll binge watch the whole lot of the US version.

NonFiction November Final Tally

I've seen a couple of my blogging friends taking part this year and as I always enjoy a bit of non-fiction, I decided it was time to give it a try! It was a successful month! These were the five books I planned to read and all were successfully finished.

1) Jeffrey Archer-Heaven (Prison Diaries #3)
2) Ant Middleton-First Man In
3) Jeremy Thompson-Breaking News
4) Alex MacCormick-The Mammoth Book of Shark Attacks
5) Myles McNutt-Game of Thrones: A Guide to Westeros & Beyond

In addition I also read...

6) Game of Thrones Costumes
7) The Photography of Game of Thrones
8) The Art of Game of Thrones
9) Kim Renfro-The Unofficial Guide to Game of Thrones
10) Michael Ashcroft-Jacob's Ladder

Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup-Game of Thrones part 2!

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with some reviews from November!

1) Insight Editions-The Art Of Game Of Thrones 
Filled with gorgeous illustrations and artwork from HBO’s hit series, The Art of Game of Thrones is the definitive Game of Thrones art collection. The official collection of behind the scenes concept art and production design from HBO’s landmark TV show Game of Thrones. Learn how BAFTA and Emmy award-winning production designer Deborah Riley and her team brought to life the iconic locations of Westeros and beyond. One of 4 comprehensive and officially licensed Game of Thrones retrospective books from Insight Editions.

• UNMATCHED DEPTH - 432 pages of concept art, sketches, and production design images covering Game of Thrones seasons 1-8.
• DETAILED REVELATIONS - Comprehensive behind the scenes details covering the design of iconic locations such as King’s Landing, Winterfell, Dragonstone, and Castle Black.
• CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CREATORS - Authored by production designer Deborah Riley and including an exclusive foreword from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B.  Weiss and preface from Emmy Award-winning production designer Gemma Jackson.
• A PRESTIGE COFFEE TABLE BOOK - Deluxe 9.75 × 13 inch format.
 
I wasn't sure exactly what this was going to be like as art department pretty much covers everything built on set but it is in fact concept art of all the major people and events from the tv series. Visually the book is stunning-the artists have perfectly captured the faces of all the main cast for later seasons when the stars have been cast, a few early ones with blank faces done before filming it seems. The double or full page art of the castles like the Eyrie with the stunning mountains and interior bird murals are gorgeous. Harrenhal was brooding and creepy, Dragonstone looked stunning, with the art showing the arrival of Dany and taking in the beach, castle, walkways and sea. It made me wish I was there and that I could draw like that! I could see myself living there as it is remote, secluded and beautiful!

Niggles? A couple of minor ones. There are pages of black and white blueprints which really seem pointless with small writing beside them about constructing the set. There aren't too many of these pages but I don't find them that interesting to look at. There is not a lot of text in the book which allows for reading it easily in one night. However the people that write the actual text don't seem to have watched Game of Thrones as the information is often wrong. An example is the Three Eyed Raven telling Bran, Meera, Jojen and Hodor to flee because the Night King is coming to the cave-trouble is, Jojen dies before the group ever get inside the cave so how can he flee south with the others? Another weird one is Varys and Tyrion being in Volantis to negotiate the end of slavery and then getting on a ship to go back to Dany in Meereen. Um, it is Jorah who kidnaps Tyrion from Varys to take to Meereen where Tyrion meets Dany for the first time. I just find it lazy writing to not fact check this stuff before printing it and it is frustrating! 

The book is beautiful and I could look at the artwork many times so the book was certainly worth buying!

Read November 2019
5 stars.

2) Kim Renfro-The Unofficial Guide To Game of Thrones
The everything-you-missed, wanted-to-know-more-about, and can’t-get-enough guide to the Game of Thrones television series—from the first episode to the epic finale. Valar morghulis!
Spanning every episode across all eight seasons, INSIDER’s entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro goes deep into how the show was made, why it became such a phenomenon and explores every detail you want to know. It’s the perfect book to look back at all you may have missed or to jump-start you on a second viewing of the whole series.

As an entertainment correspondent, Renfro has covered the show’s premieres, broken down key details in scenes, explored characters’ histories, and interviewed the cast, directors, and crew. In this book, she sheds new light on the themes, storylines, character development, the meaning of the finale, and what you can expect next. Some of the questions answered here include: What was the Night King’s ultimate purpose? How did the show effect George R.R. Martin’s ability to finish the book series? Why were the final seasons shorter? Why did the direwolves get shortchanged? How were the fates of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen foretold from the start? Was that really a bittersweet ending?

Winter may have come and gone, but there is still plenty to discover and obsess over in this behind-the-scenes fan guide to the Game of Thrones HBO series.

Any book that says 'unofficial' or 'behind the scenes' leaves the potential buyer a little unsure of whether it is a guide to the series or delving deeper. This book is not an episode by episode book looking at the plot and deeply at the characters. If you are looking for that kind of guide, then Myles McNutt's book 'Game of Thrones-A Guide to Westeros and Beyond' is a good buy. This book really does go behind the scenes of the series, starting with how the writers met GRRM and got the green light for the show from HBO. It was interesting to get details of why that unaired pilot just didn't work and had to be re-done and which scenes from it are used in the series. It looks at why the show was able to overtake the books and the reasons for the delays with The Winds of Winter. I'm as frustrated as anyone about the delay but if it means the book is as good as A Dance With Dragons which had the same issues, I'll forgive it. I do want a high quality book not thrown together writing y'know?

This book also looks at casting choices and how Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage were the two 'must get' actors, upheaval at HBO with their partners pulling out just before filming began (tut tut BBC!!!) and the sacking of the woman who green-lit the project because HBO hadn't had a big hit in years (how embarrassing!). There are sections about the music, why the direwolves were cut from later seasons and why fans hated those decisions, book fan anger at the plot changes that had no basis in the written material and things not shown that should be, pandering to fans online who wanted certain plots to happen even though GRRM was unlikely to have chosen that route, the prophecies confusions, the season 7 and 8 backlash, costumes, Jon's parentage, Jon and Dany's doomed romance, behind the scenes pranks, how the MC's discovered their characters were to die, cameos and how different the book ending could be.

I found the whole book fascinating and I'm glad it delved more into the production and the book v series issues than just rehashing all the episodes. There was a lot of interesting discussion in here and I'm starting to really understand the fury of book fans when you read the actual reasons given by the writers for cutting episodes in the last two seasons, cutting wolves to insert a CGI polar bear because it would be cool and changing/inventing their own plot issues just to keep things 'unexpected'. Yeah I can get a better grasp on the anger that certain things that were book lore being discarded against the will of the fans. I really enjoyed this book which let me feed my obsession!

Read November 2019
4 stars.   

Blogmas #1-TV To Catch Up With Next Year

I go through this every year don't I, looking at my DVD box sets and stuff I recorded from the tv, and wailing that I haven't had the time to get any of them watched and vowing to do better next year. But I never seem to be able to do better the next year because I spend most nights reading rather than watching to reduce my TBR pile! I will try again next year to at least get a few things off this pile but this post will show you what issues I have ahead of me and the scale of how far behind I am! Sadly I know I haven't remembered to list everything but this is some of what I need to watch. 

I'm aware that some were cancelled after one season so are they worth watching or is there an unanswered cliffhanger at the end? I like political drama, paranormal drama, monarchy, terrorism, apocalypse and horror TV series-any suggestions? I don't like YA drama, haunted house, ghost story, medical, comedy or the typical crime drama. Have you watched any of these series? Which did you enjoy? NO SPOILERS!!!

Series I haven't started
-Homeland
-The Following
-The Blacklist
-Grimm
-Britannia
-Knightfall
-How To Get Away With Murder
-Wolf Creek 
-Lost Girl
-House of Cards (US)
-The White Queen
-The White Princess
-Victoria
-The Crown
-Sleepy Hollow
-Jericho
-The Last Ship
-Strike Back
-Vikings
-Jamestown
-Scream
-Scream Queens
-Slasher
-Westworld
-Harper's Island
-Killing Eve
-The Bodyguard
-Wolf Hall
-Scorpion
-Designated Survivor
-The 4400
-Stranger Things
-The 100
-The Strain
-Watchmen
-Arrow
-The Flash
-The Witcher
-Castle Rock
-Chernobyl
-Dark Matter
-Colony
-See
-Revolution
-The Purge
-Curfew
-Defiance
-The Expanse
-FBI 
-Sleeper Cell
-Sanctuary
-Siberia
-The Terror
-Fear The Walking Dead
-Z Nation
-I Zombie
-Black Summer
-The Mist

Series I started and need to catch up with 
-Lost
-Scandal  
-Continuum
-Supernatural
-24
-Torchwood
-Hannibal
-Elementary 
-Madam Secretary 
-House of Cards (UK) 
-Sliders
-Warehouse 13
-Stargate SG1
-Stargate Atlantis
-The Walking Dead 
-Rome 
-Alcatraz
-Primevil
-Millennium
-X Files
-Spooks
-Doctor Who
-The Vampire Diaries