AV Brew: Wine, Popcorn & Stream – September Edition
September was an odd month. I realized, as I got to the middle of the month, that I wasn’t sure I had watched anything at all besides Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther after the passing of Chadwick Boseman. Then I started searching through my watch logs on my streaming platforms and saw there were a few things that caught my eye…
Disney +
One evening, I needed something that wouldn’t be too taxing on my mind right before bedtime. I stumbled upon Disney’s selection of animated shorts.
Auntie Edna, what happened the night Jack Jack stayed with Edna Mode.
Bao, Best Animated Short of 2018 about a woman making traditional Chinese buns and missing her son.
In 2019 Pixar created the Sparkshorts division which creating shorts with mature themes. There are seven titles as of May 2020, I have watched three.
Purl, when a pink ball of yarn starts the first day of work at an office full of grey suits. What changes the work culture or the ball of yarn?
Float, a father discovers his infant has unique abilities. As the child grows, the father had not found a way to handle the stress of having an exceptional child.
My favorite of all the shorts I watched was Loop. The story of two kids trying to make a connection while adrift on a lake; one child is nonverbal autistic. This story is just so beautiful and covers so much ground in less than 11 minutes.
I love how Sparkshorts did not shy away from the representation of race and sex in their shorts. Purl is a female ball of yarn in a male-dominated office, Float’s family is Latino, Loop’s characters are African American and Latinx.
Animated shorts are less than 15 minutes, if you need something to take your mind away for a moment turn on one of these.
Amazon Prime
I found this series on Amazon’s Hispanic Heritage Channel and thought it would be interesting to watch. This Spanish language series took its inspiration from the 2015 FIFA scandal. There are eight episodes with English subtitles, it is easy to follow and very entertaining. According to the show notes an English dubbed version will be available later this year.
Netflix
In 2019 everyone was Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. This year, they are doing The Home Edit. This is a home design show helping people purge and organize their stuff. Each episode features a celebrity client and a regular homeowner. The hosts are engaging and clearly explain each step of their organization process. I love that they included a client who they worked with before and needed their services again.
As home design shows go, it is pretty good, and picked up a few tips. If you spent some of the stay at home time purging and cleaning your home, give this how a watch for ideas for optimal organization.
Released in September of 2020, Away is a 10-episode drama series about an international 3-year mission to Mars with all the complications of politics and family that would come along with such a mission. Headlined by A-list actors, this is a 2021 Emmy play for Netflix. I could see this cast in a movie but with all the topics they are trying to cover the long-form series is a better way to tell the story.
I have watched two episodes so far; I am finding it a little slow but beautiful to watch. The special effects for a TV series are astonishing. I plan to finish the season however this series requires my full attention.
If you are a fan of One Flew Over the Coocoo’s Nest (also on Netflix), then Ratched is logical viewing. This eight-part series is the story of Nurse Ratched twenty years before the events in the movie. The show just premiered on September 18th, so I am only a few episodes in, and I’m hooked.
Everything from the costumes to the hairstyles to the set design are of the late 1940s and wonderfully shot to capture it all. The writers have also inserted some taboo subjects for the time period and with the solid actors chosen for this show, Netflix has another winner on their hands.
That’s it for September, I have movies already listed for October including Enola Holmes and watch out for the latest episode of The Movie Remix on Youtube.
Pop Culture Uncovered 