What’s streaming?
The actresses we know and love are ditching the big screen in droves, joining their colleagues as they move to our silver screens.
We see it every day now. Major movie stars we’ve come to know and love are showing up on our TV screens all the time. You can watch Reese Witherspoon in her latest series, Little Fires Everywhere or Rose Byrne (pictured above) and Cate Blanchett in Mrs America, or catch up with Anna Kendrick in her new show, Love Life.
called Little Fires Everywhere.
They’re joining the myriad of big screen actresses who’re now gracing our small screens every day of the week. Why is this happening? It’s because the streaming audience has grown so much that the budgets for television productions have been able to expand as well. Now, television can offer actors everything the big screen offered before – fame and money.
As well, breakthrough shows like Game of Thrones have proved television can provide entertainment which is just as good quality, if not better, than movies. So now, everywhere you look, there are movie stars on television.
Nicole Kidman teamed up with Reese Witherspoon in the series, Big Little Lies, last year. Meryl Streep even joined them so with all of that talent on board, we could hardly wait to watch the show on Foxtel – and now it’s available on Binge.
When Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin turned up in Grace and Frankie on Netflix the writing was really on the wall. They’re already up to the sixth series of that show now because it’s been so successful.
So there’s no need to go to the cinema to see your favourite actresses in their new show. Just sit back on your lounge, turn on the TV – and enjoy.
Little Fires Everywhere picks up where Big Little Lies left off
There’s no avoiding the fact that Little Fires Everywhere will be compared closely to Big Little Lies, the other book-to-TV adaption produced by and starring Reese Witherspoon. But really, this is where the comparisons should end because although both shows look at women’s lives, they each have something different to offer.
Little Fires Everywhere is an adaptation of Celeste Ng’s bestselling 2017 novel and it stays fairly close to the author’s material. Reese Witherspoon plays Elena Richardson, a wealthy woman and journalist. Her world is run to a strict schedule and her family have to stick with it. Most of them do except her youngest child, Izzy, and this becomes a major part of the drama in the show.
Other serious themes are explored including motherhood, racism and class – and it’s all entertaining viewing.
The eight episodes of Little Fires Everywhere are available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video.
Ready for some more royal drama? Then The Great is for you
Stan has been running The Great for a few weeks now and this is exactly the kind of royal drama we all love seeing on our screens. It provides a superb mix of wealth and power with a constant darkness bubbling away below the surface.
The Great tells a different version of the life of Catherine the Great, following her arranged marriage to Russian Emperor Peter III. Elle Fanning – the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning, plays Catherine but she’s also the executive producer on the series.
At first Catherine is swept up in the romance of her new life and impending wedding to Peter, setting off from France to Russia so she can be his devoted wife and serve her new country.
But what she finds at the end of this journey is nothing like the fairy tale world and marriage she had in mind. In the end, she has to change and adapt to this strange new life, even taking over in some areas, and we watch her every move with bated breath.
The Great is streaming on Stan now
Don’t forget to Binge
Now that Foxtel’s new streaming service is available, try it out and see what you think of it with their free two-week trial. It’s packed with all those great shows you may have missed out on because you didn’t have Foxtel, like Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, Euphoria and Succession.
You can also catch up on the new shows like Bad Education and Mrs America.
Watch a whole lot of new shows on Binge here…
This week in movies…
Taylor Swift City of Lover Concert
and now available on Disney+.
This Taylor Swift concert was filmed in Paris in September of 2019 and as well as being a fantastic concert performance, the movie gives you access to behind-the-scenes moments with the singer you won’t be able to see anywhere else.
Swift performs songs from her award-winning album, Lover, and as it’s all filmed in Paris – the city of love – so this is really a treat to watch. Sit back and enjoy this film.
Watch Taylor Swift City of Lover Concert on Disney+ now
This week in TV…
Operation Buffalo – all about those Maralinga nuclear tests in the 1950s
While Operation Buffalo is a television show about historical events, it does preface the series with a notice stating it’s ‘a piece of historical fiction.’ Still, this one is definitely worthwhile watching because many of us are unaware of these events in our own historical past.
This six-part series is from Rake creator, Peter Duncan, and it’s in some part a satire and in other parts, a thriller. It explores the secretive nuclear testing at Maralinga in the South Australian outback during the 1950s.
Operation Buffalo stars Ewen Leslie, Jessica De Gouw, James Cromwell and Tony Martin, and shows the stupidity of the times when Australian politicians were touting British nuclear testing as a good thing.
Paranoia runs rife and nuclear bombs are not the only things being tested, as loyalty, love, and betrayal are pitted against each other. Take a look.
Operation Buffalo screens on the ABC on Sundays at 8.30pm and streams on iView