The first episode of 'The Luminaries' is a nugget of pure bingeability!

'The Luminaries' has been in the works for quite some time so it made me as cheery as the sun on a June morning to find the whole series available to watch on BBC Iplayer! If you have ever been anywhere near any bookshop in the last few years you will be familiar with the front cover in its book form. It is a series based in 1865 New Zealand where hundreds of people are flocking to benefit and set themselves up for life from the goldrush that is occurring there at this time. We get into this story through the viewpoint of Anna. We meet her in the darkness of night. She is disorientated and her pink dress is tattered, yet glowing like she is somehow bleeding gold. She is being followed by two men. The situation is ominous and there is a dead body close to where she was. She is arrested and is assumed a prostitute and taken to jail where she watches what then happens to the body.

The episode changes pace and the setting switches to a brighter, more beautiful day. Anna is now free and wearing a reasonably pricey striped Edwardian dress looking out at beautiful landscapes of the kiwi coast. There is a man splayed out on the deck who wakes up and walks up to join her. He introduces himself and they hit off and the flirtation in the air is thick, and innocent. It is both of theirs's first sea voyage. There is a level of virtue to both of them yet it almost seems like they both have secrets that suggest this is not the case. They are both bound for New Zealand to dig for gold. Anna gives him a button for his vest which has lost one. He is impressed by this kindness and they arrange to meet at his hotel to get to know each other later in the day.

We are then back to just following Anna and the mystery shrouding her as she embarks in this new place - travelling alone, unmarried, illiterate yet has some means in the form of money and clothing. Her purse is stolen by a thief as soon as she gets onto land.  A woman named Lydia Wells played by Eva Green stops him and makes him drop it. Eva Green maintains her feminine powerhouse type of character that can install fear yet slithery trust in any character she takes under her wing. She is fantastic as that, but equally fantastic is Anna's mistrust of her. She discovers that Lydia reads fortunes and obviously does well looking at the embroidered dress that she is wearing.

People gather in the town square as nuggets of gold are valued and counted. Anna watches on in total curiosity and we are gently reminded of the ominous way her dress had twinkled in the flashbacks. Anna then goes on to try to wait for Emery at the hotel she thinks he is at but is she is cornered and intimidated by men who ask her if she is buying or selling in a classic sexist vulgar way of the decade. We see Emery having funny conversations with his friends who are mocking him for wanting to meet Anna and his sweetness of his character is revealed further by when compared to Romeo, he says "I'd rather be Juliet. Way better lines." He is not a typical man of the period especially due to the colour of his skin, unfortunately. 

Anna escapes to the only contact she has made apart from Emery who is obviously Lydia. Lydia offers her a room. A room her husband clearly is never there to stay in. She has many quirky, expensive items related to planets that Anna looks at in admiration. There is a lot more to Lydia than meets the eye and Anna realises that in these moments that she might be a dangerous but good asset to have.  These are two starkly different women in their outlook, yet deeply similar at the same time. There is much to learn about both of them and the episode does well at portraying that. 

It definitely seems like a stylishly generated show that has potential to hook you in if you love a good period drama.

I will share more TV goodness with you very soon readers!

The Serial Television Watcher

Quick Fire Review: 'Can You Hear Me?' Episode 1

I saw this show in the 'what's coming next week' section on Netflix. I look at that quite often and I was truly interested by 'Can You Hear Me?' had to offer. It is about three friends from a low income neighbourhood who find humour and comfort within each other. I grew up quite poor and I found this subject really relatable and I like shows about friendship that cut through the bullshit and show real strife and reality. Each episode is around twenty-two minutes long and it is a perfect bite of content. It almost has a web-series vibe to it because it comes across more authentic and less sensational. There is such a cute stop animation intro scene which leads into the song 'The best things in life are fee' by Janet Jackson starts. The editing introducing the setting is fun and engrossing and there is a youthfulness to the way areas are being shown in such high energy.

The song mentions money and "that's what I want" and that is an easy, simple way of conveying the character's situations. We meet the first girl who is called Ada who is wearing a nineties-style choker and blagging her way through her therapist meeting. She looks at a chart of an emotional scale and seems to lie and be completely disinterested in being there. Flashbacks show her being the opposite calm- screaming, shouting, whacking people. There is funny editing showing her doing so. I like how this slightly trivializes what she does and shows how non severe she sees her behaviour. We meet another character sat in a car, not answering texts and reading Agatha Christie. Her name is Caro and her car horn doesn't work. She seems more subdued compared to Ada who leaves the therapist's room and presents her middle finger to the people she does not know in the waiting room. She seems very brash and thrill-seeking as she leaves without a car in the world and jumps into the car with Caro.

Initially we see these two young woman as  quite rude characters. Ada gets out of the car and gets a woman who has stopped in her car to move and uses quirky phrases like "move, you big strawberry". This reminds me of the british TV show Skins which uses language like that which actually sound as if young people actually use them. They arrive as a burrito fast food chain and  there is a sadness to Caro because she can't decide on what to eat and you get the feeling it's not just food that she is indecisive about. Perhaps it is her life too. They get shouted at by an employee but  we discover that she is putting on a pretence of what her boss would want to see and she is actually their friend - Fabiola. Ada and Caro sit with their food. Ada steals bites from Caro's meal and the quiet personality with the robust personality makes entertaining and nice viewing. I like the dynamic a lot and even more so when Fabiola gets off her shift and joins them. The trio are three vastly different people and is very representational of different women in society which is a massive "thumbs up" from me if I want to do a "Simon Cowell"!

Fabiola gives them brownies but professes she is on a diet. She is bigger than the other two so she definitely seems to have insecurities about that. They return to Fabiola's flat where her mother is (who appears very ill) and they lounge and chat like regular young girls and they have conversations about pay checks and welfare checks and whether they count as being paid. They don't all agree, but get along so well anyway which is refreshing and realistic.

They go out to the subway and sing together for money with no instruments just acapella voices that don't necessarily go together. The songs being about Jesus is the only way  Fabiola agrees to it. It goes well and they acquire money pretty easily. They are clearly hacking the system and are really resourceful people which excites me about the plots to come. The episode ends with them lying on a train track, running when a train comes and Ada ends up renting movies by showing her breasts to a video store guy. Caro later has a panic attack when reading a text from "Keven" who she has been avoiding. Ada and Fabiola react in different ways but one thing is certain - they both care very deeply for her. I, for one, am exciting to see where this show goes and it is shaping out to be one of my favourites I have seen during lock down!

Have you given this Netflix series a watch yet?

Over and out,
The Serial Television Watcher