Poor old Steven. Even nerds in California are celebrating his departure from Doctor Who.
Streaming TV
Cobra Kai
Streaming TV
It’s that moment you’ve all been waiting for: it’s the TMINE Top N programmes of 2018!
As usual at this time of year, TMINE is busily packing its bags to get ready for its annual Christmas break. We’re not there yet, though, as everything will continue until Friday.
But barring minor miracles, unless it turns out Chicago ILL, Dogs of Berlin or Tideland have been cruelly overlooked, there’ll be no shows that are both new and excellent for me to review this year, which means I can at last unveil this year’s TMINE’s Top N programmes, where N is a positive integer that I’ve more or less picked at random each year. This year, N=14, you’ll be excited to hear. Can you guess what they are?
There’s certainly been some interesting new arrivals, whose presence in the Top N you’ll probably have been able to predict in advance – I’ve certainly dropped a few hints throughout the year. But there’s a few surprises in there, I think.
As always, a caveat: I’ve not watched every TV programme broadcast or acquired in the UK this year and I barely watched any live TV, so there are almost certainly some good shows that that I’ve left off the list. There’s also a show or two that got made ages ago but which never made it to the UK or my viewing queue until this year, so it’s entirely possible some quite oldies have made it onto the 2018 list. And, of course, there are a few shows that started well but I’ve not finished yet, so aren’t eligible for the list (honourable mention to the likes of Plan Cœur, for example)
So best not to think of this as the definitive “Best new TV shows from around the world of 2018″, so much as just the top “TMINE would recommend to a friend shows of the ones I’ve watched in 2018”.
As always, too, feel free to leave your own recommendations in the comments, on your own blog or on the TMINE Facebook page. Just for reference, here are previous years’ Top Ns:
And now, to the top N…
Streaming TV
What have you been watching? Including Jongo, Cobra Kai, Shooter and Condor
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
Gosh. Isn’t a quiet? I can’t remember when a July was this quiet for TV worldwide. I wonder what’s up?
There have been a least a few new shows for me to review in the past week. Elsewhere, I cast my eye over the first episode of What We Do In the Shadows spin-off Wellington Paranormal as well as the whole of Netflix’s first Indian original, Sacred Games.
But given the sparsity of viewing options, I had a look over Amazon to see what I could try to play catch up with. First stop was the second season of You Are Wanted. All was looking good for about a minute before I discovered that despite being an Amazon Original and despite the first season having been available with its original German dialogue, season two is only available dubbed in the UK.
FFS. No, thank you, Amazon.
Or so I thought until 10 seconds ago. Turns out that you have to specifically seek out the separate “English subtitled” version, rather than the normal version in order to get the German dialogue. Seriously, Amazon, could you not just have two audio tracks on your video?
I’ll probably watch the proper German one on holiday then.
While I was busily and inaccurately cursing Amazon, though, I did find something else to try, so after the jump, following on from TMINE’s first ever Indian show, I’ll be talking about the first African TV show TMINE’s tackled in rather a long time: Jongo. And on top of that, I finally got round to watching the rest of Cobra Kai.
However, that’s about it. I hope they’re not saving all the new shows for August when TMINE is on its holidays.
Upon which subject, this is going to be the last WHYBW for a good while, since TMINE’s holidays start next week! No reviews, no news, no slightly niche TV observations from next Monday for at least four weeks, I’m afraid. However, I’ll be back from mid-August, so although the Daily News probably won’t be back until September (on the general grounds there usually isn’t much news since everyone’s on holiday) and it’ll take me some time to play catch-up (although, thanks EU!), blogging could resume at any time from that point onwards. So stay tuned. At least from mid-August.
Normally at this point pre-holidays, I’d play my usual July game of “Can I be bothered catching up with this show when I get back?” However, all the usuals are now on the recommended list, so you can probably guess that I will definitely be catching up with Condor, Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger and Shooter when I get back. Oh well, so much for that fun. Maybe next year.
Anyway, I’ll be telling you about their latest episodes after the jump, too, so see you in a mo.
Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Jongo, Cobra Kai, Shooter and Condor”
Streaming TV
Review: Cobra Kai 1×1-1×2 (YouTube Red)
Available on YouTube
The Karate Kid is one of those classic teen movies of the 80s that while not especially good, pretty much everyone who watched it loved it. For those of you who miraculously haven’t seen it, it starred Ralph Macchio as Daniel “Danny” LaRusso, a kid from New Jersey who moves to California with his single mum. Unfortunately, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and some other bullying students from the nasty ‘Cobra Kai’ karate dojo set upon him, and although he’s had some karate classes himself, he takes a beating.
Fortunately, his apartment block handyman, Mr Myagi (Pat Morita), comes from Okinawa and is a true karate champion, so is able to come to Macchio’s aid, after which Morita takes him under his wing and trains him in the martial art of his home island so he can defend himself against Zabka – and learn the true spirit of karate.
The movie was hugely successful and spawned two sequels (parts II and III) with Macchio and Morita, a follow-up movie with Morita and a young Hilary Swank (The Next Karate Kid) and a remake with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, in which Smith bizarrely enough given the title learns kung fu from Chan. Less official remakes, such as Never Back Down (basically The Karate Kid with MMA instead of karate), also followed.
However, the original’s influence permeates pop culture in far more indirect ways, through catchphrases (“Sweep the leg”, “Wax on, wax off”) and even stances (‘the Crane’) that pretty much everyone knows.
Sweep the leg
Small surprise then, given the current fad for all things 80s among both those old enough to remember them and those young enough to regard the original as a ‘period drama’, that we now have a follow-up series, Cobra Kai, from nascent online TV service YouTube Red. It sees both Zabka and Macchio still living in their old home town, 30 years after (spoiler alert) (spoiler alert) Macchio defeated Zabka in the All Valley Karate Championship.
Since then, their fortunes have differed. Macchio is now rich thanks to his success with a luxury car dealership. He’s happily married and has kids, including a teenage daughter. He still capitalises on the events of his teenage years, however, and often references them, too.
Meanwhile, Zabka is down on his luck. A general handyman, he lives in a crappy flat, he’s divorced, and has a teenage son whom he never sees and thinks he’s a dick. He remembers his teenage years somewhat differently, however.
Then one night Zabka defends a nerdy kid (Xolo Maridueña) who lives in his apartment block from a bunch of bullies, and before you know it, he’s taking on Mr Mijagi’s mantle to set up a new Cobra Kai dojo and train Maridueña – and anyone else willing to accept him as their sensei.
It’s not long before Macchio finds out about the reborn Cobra Kai. I wonder what will happen next…