tv show – that lemon life

The Incredible World of DARK

Hola everyone.

How are you all doing on this fantastic Friday? I hope so far you’ve had a great week and that you’re all feeling well. Personally, I’ve had a super busy week, juggling free time with my new job at my mum’s company and my also new job as editor-in-chief of our uni magazine LDN (link here), which the team and I have been trying to give a huge makeover and thereby rejuvenate it and turn it into the amazing paper it can and should be. And I know it sounds a tad stressful as a whole, but, actually, I’ve really been enjoying it. I’d rather be busy and happy doing more stuff, than wandering around the house, not knowing what to do with myself. And it kinda makes me enjoy and savor some chill and free time even more, which is actually what I want to talk about today – a very specific, but incredibly amazing TV show that has been ruling most of my free time the past two months. As seen from the title and the cover picture, you can probably guess which show I am talking about. Exactly. DARK. Probably the best show I’ve ever watched in my life. But let me start from the beginning.

For those of you who don’t know DARK yet – my god you’re missing out -, here’s a short intro: DARK is a German sci-fi thriller series co-created by the great Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese and produced by Netflix. Set in the fictitious German town of Winden, the show starts right during the aftermath of a child’s disappearance, which exposes the secrets of, and hidden connections among four estranged families as they slowly unravel a sinister conspiracy which spans several generations. Throughout the series, DARK explores the existential implications of time and its effects upon human nature.

I’m purposely not going to reveal any more about the plot, as literally everything is a spoiler and as this is literally one of the best, if not even the best series I have ever seen, I don’t want to spoil this perfection of a show for anyone. What I need to add though is that the show is in German (although it has been dubbed and translated into many other languages), so if you don’t speak German, I would highly highly highly recommend watching the OV version with subtitles. No dubbing can come close to how perfect the voices of the German actors go with the show and with the overall feel of it. Seriously.

I think what makes this show even more special for me, is that I got to watch it with my best childhood friend Maria, who I usually very rarely get to see as I obviously live in London and she lives and works in Vienna. But – and this is going to sound super insane – thanks to the quarantine (crazy, I told you), we were both forced to stay at home and as we only live minutes apart from each other, we spent most of the quarantine watching movies and tv shows together. And DARK was one of those shows – or more like the one show that ruled our weekly and daily tv marathons. I remember googling which shows to watch on Netflix and DARK immediately seemed like the most promising and interesting one, even before I had watched the trailer, which then sealed the deal. Usually, I am not that attracted to German-produced movies and shows, so I think both Maria and I went into that first episode with a bit of uncertainty.

But after like the first five minutes, that was more than forgotten. I can’t remember the last time I had such a fantastic, thrilling, and exciting TV/movie experience. We fell in love with the main character Jonas in an instant. And the amount of times this show has made us do multiple facepalms, made us cover our faces in shock, even made us jump off the couch out of utter surprise. It’s truly insane but in the best way possible.

So far, we’ve seen the first two seasons of the show (I even watched it twice) and as the third and last season has been released last Saturday (happy apocalypse day btw, for all my DARK lovers out there), I couldn’t be more excited to finally get behind all the mad secrets and hidden stories of Winden. But as much excitement I feel towards the prospect of finally getting to see the new season, the thought also gives me this somber, even sad feeling. It’s sad to see this show end. But I know the last season will be a hell of a ride. And I’m more than ready for it.

I probably don’t have to mention that I HIGHLY recommend watching this show, I think I’ve made it very clear that you all need to watch this show right now. Honestly. You will not regret a single second of it, I promise. And for all of my fellow DARK fans, I’d love to hear what you think about the show – but no spoilers, please – so don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and comments down below. And until then, I wish you all the best weekend and, as always, thanks for reading. x

The Romantics

Hola everyone.

How are we all doing on this beautiful Monday? I hope so far you’ve had a great day and that the past weekend has been nice. I, on my behalf, am pretty good, thank you. I’m currently juggling uni, work and free time, but I can’t complain, as I think that, besides missing my family and my pets and my home in general, I couldn’t be any happier than I am right now. My time here in London has been the absolute best so far. I can’t even believe that it’s not even been two months since I moved here. It feels like I’ve been part of this city for such a long time. But that’s probably thanks to Brighton and just my overall situation. I feel right where I am. And I love it more than I could ever describe.

And speaking of that – this is also what I wanted to talk to you guys about today. Love. Or parts of it, at least. You know, I think nowadays it’s very hard or difficult for people to believe in love, to put their soul and trust into it. Although it’s the one constant in our life that surrounds us every single day, and we might not even notice it. Because love isn’t just what two partners feel for each other. It’s shared between family members, parents and their children, friends, grannys and their cats (or in my case, me and my babies). We might not think of these kinds of love as true love, but it is, just another version of it. I for my part am a hundred percent certain that there isn’t any bigger form of love than the one shared between parents and their kids. My mum once told me that I’m the reason for her to be on this earth (I’m trying very hard to not tear up at this part) and, in all honesty, I can’t imagine there’s any deeper version of love than this. At least in my opinion.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been a romantic. A hopeless one, to be exact. I want all of it. The cheesy gestures. Tons of butterflies. Sweaty, nervous, shaky hands. Throwing pebbles at windows. Finding a bunch of flowers on the doorstep. Goodnight and good morning texts. The whole deal. I’ve always been in love with the idea of true love, which is funny, as I’m one of the people who unfortunately have never been a recipient of such cheesy gestures. And sometimes it gets difficult to not lose hope. But then something happens, you experience or come across something and suddenly it all comes flowing back. And in the case of the past few weeks, that something was a new TV series I found on Amazon. Which is exactly what I wanted to share with you today. I know, what a dramatic way to introduce a TV show, but I felt like being a bit emotional and dramatic.

The show I’m talking about is called “Modern Love” and The New York Times fans among you will probably recognize that name from the column of the paper, which is exactly what the show is based on. The episodes embody the cinematic versions of the columns and the absolutely stunning stories that are told in them. And oh my god, I can’t remember the last time when I instantly fell so deeply in love with a series as I did with Modern Love. I adore it to pieces. And actually, I have to thank it as well, because it made me fall in love with love. With true love, in whatever form and between whoever. And it made me happy. So so happy.

The show itself features eight episodes with eight different love stories that explore this very phenomenal feeling in its multitude of forms – including sexual, romantic, familial, platonic, and self-love. They only have two things in common – all of them revolve and happen in the beautiful New York and all of them depict a form of love. So far there unfortunately only exists one season, but I’ve got high hopes that there will be another one to come (please please please).

As you can see in the trailer, the show doesn’t just contain super lovely stories but also features uber-fantastic actors and actresses and stunning cinematography. Needless to say that I cried more than just a few times. It’s just too beautiful. And too much for my romantic heart. If I had to choose, I’d probably say that the first two episodes and the seventh one are my favorites ones. All of them touched me in different ways, but these three earned a special place in my heart (especially the first one, just putting that out there).

But, of course, I love all of them. The show is absolutely beautiful and I can only recommend it to any and all of you. Please go and watch it, seriously. You won’t regret it, I swear. Open your heart and let it make you fall in love with love. It’s currently available on Amazon for free if you’ve got Prime, so it’s basically just a click away. You know, the show left me with a feeling of hope that isn’t easy to evoke, so it really is something special. If any of you have already watched it or want to watch it, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and comment down below. I’d love to hear what you thought/think. And until then I hope you enjoyed this post and wish you not only a great week but also lots of fun watching the show (which I hope you’re going to do). And, as always, thanks so much for reading. x

Ps: you can also check out the column on Spotify and on their website.

Winter Is Here

Hola everyone.

And welcome to another week. Can’t believe we’re already reaching the middle of February. When did that happen? Time really does fly by, doesn’t it? That’s why we need to enjoy it to its fullest. Which is something you could say I did in the past few weeks. Which is exactly what I wanna tell you all about. Today I’m gonna tell you the story of how I, despite all my beliefs, became a Game of Thrones fan.

Yes, I know. I’ll give you all a minute to process that and calm down again. Yes, it’s really me, Laura. I know. I can’t believe it myself. I, the person who really really REALLY disliked Game of Thrones until a few weeks ago now calls herself a fan. Life is full of surprises. And I did not only watch it, oh no. I devoured it. I binged it. I didn’t watch anything else for about three or four weeks. Which is exactly how long it took me to get through all of the seven seasons. I’ll let you do the math, but yes, that’s not a long time. And every single time I felt my mind going a bit twitchy because I was sitting at uni and just wanted to know what would happen to Jon or Daenerys in the next episode, I got this instant feeling of shock and surprise and, quite frankly, happiness.

But before I get into why I now really really like the series, let me first explain why I disliked it so badly. Well, I first got in contact with the show when my parents started watching it and I got see a few bits here and there. And I literally hated all of it. And that never really changed throughout the years. So, whenever someone asked me why I didn’t like the show, I told them that I thought that it was either a porno or a slasher/gore horror movie. Which was true, at least, because nobody ever seemed to come up with an argument against that. And let’s be honest, the first two seasons are indeed just a mix of those two things. So, as you can probably guess, I didn’t really enjoy watching it the first few days. That’s just not my cup of tea, you know. I love horror movies, but not that kind. But I thought I should just give it a chance. There had to be a reason for the extreme hype around it. And I wanted to know that exact reason. It was a bit like Lord of the Rings for me. I never liked it until I saw the ending of the second Hobbit movie by accident on TV and couldn’t stop myself from falling in love with the whole story. And that was exactly what I hoped would happen with Game of Thrones. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to like it.

Which I then did, after I let myself fall into it. The more episodes I watched, the more I enjoyed it. And maybe that’s just my opinion, but for me the show gets better with every single season. Compared to the last two, the first two seasons really are utter crap (my favorite two episodes are the last two of season 6; so epic, I can’t even describe it). Sorry, not sorry. And I can’t be the only one to notice that they literally got rid of all the crappy stuff. Of course nudity is still a big thing and it wouldn’t be GOT if not at least one person got killed in every single episode, but none of that is crappy in any way. They really topped up on the quality and I’m so utterly thankful for that. The more constructed the stories got and the more characters started to grow and change, the more I got to love the show. I caught myself cursing at different characters, even clapping and cheering when one of my favorite characters killed off one of my most hated ones. I got so intrigued by the story, I felt like a part of it myself. I still do, actually. And it’s all very fresh, as I just finished the series last week.

I know that the last season is supposed to be released in the middle of April or something like that, which I’m super excited for. I don’t wanna spoil anything, but I honestly have no idea how any of them want to win the real war. I mean, whoever dies, they’re just going to have to kill them again. And from what I’ve seen online so far, I’m not the only one who thinks the war is literally impossible to win. Which is exactly why I’m so excited to see how it’s gonna end. Very very hyped up, honestly.

So yeah, there you go guys. That’s how I became a fan of Game of Thrones and again learned you shouldn’t judge a movie or a series by a few minutes. But what do you think about the show, guys? Do you like it? Let me know your thoughts down below. And until then I hope you enjoy this post and wish you all a nice week. And, as always, thanks so much for reading. x

We are all mad here

Hola everyone.

Today I want to talk about another amazing tv show I’ve fallen in love with the past month. Bates Motel. Some of you may probably know it already, as I think there was quite a big hype about it when it came out first. To make it short first, the series is totally fascinating and you need to give it a go.

So, what is it about?

Does the movie title Psycho remind you of something? Exactly, it’s this classic, groundbreaking horror/thriller movie by Hitchcock. And Bates Motel is just like that, because it tells the story of how the psycho became the psycho. The one that kills his quests in his hotel. Mad, I know. The story begins with the death of Norman Bates – the psycho guy – father. Shortly after this his mum Norma (yes, really, Norman and Norma) decides to move to another city with him, White Pine Bay in Arizona, and buys a motel and a house for them. That’s why it’s called Bates Motel. After this the series basically continues to represent the madness of both Norman and his mum and their really, really strange relationship, which is quite freaky sometimes. And definitely not normal. People are going missing, guys are being killed and thrown into a lake and let’s not forget that the city lives off the sales of it’s own “secret” marihuana field. Crazy people in a crazy city. The perfect conditions for pure chaos.

I can’t really tell you why I started watching this show. I knew the name and saw it on Netflix and just basically gave it a go. I watched the first episode and it was clear to me that I would be binge watching this show throughout the summer. And the best part is that my parents enjoy it too, so we’re all deep in the mad story of Norma and Norman and we all love it. I especially, as I’m a huge fan of creepy stories. No wonder as I also watched every single season of American Horror Story.

So yeah, that’s Bates Motel. So far I’m right in the second season now and it’s so great, I can’t even describe it. Freddie Highmore is literally the best actor for this role. You look at him and you can really, clearly see the madness in his eyes. That’s what I call good acting. And let’s not forget Vera Farmiga, my lovely friend from The Conjuring. She’s the best, seriously. She embodies the character of Norma so well that we’ve all become such big fans of her acting, it’s crazy.

There’s literally nothing bad to say about this show. It has crazy people who do crazy stuff, a lot of secrets, mind-blowing actors, a great scenery, super weird relationships and a huge amount of surprises and twists. I really love it. And I can just recommend it to you guys. If you’re into some mad stories, this is the right aisle for you.

So, there you go guys. Another tv show recommendation from me to you. I hope you like it. Oh and if any of you already know the show or want to talk, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below. And until then I wish you all an amazing weekend and, as always, thanks for reading. x

Sherlock

Hola everyone.

You know, Netflix is actually a pretty cool thing. Yes, I did say before that I’m not the biggest fan of it, but it’s true that it has some big advantages. You can watch tv shows and movies that you could never watch anywhere else (except for that illegal stuff, but we won’t talk about that). And as you can probably guess by the title, I recently had the chance to watch the tv show Sherlock.

I just finished the last season, season 4, yesterday night and, honestly, I’m blown away. I mean, I’ve always been a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I loved the two movies with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Maybe that’s why I was quite skeptical towards the tv series. But I think to be able to review both of them in the best way, you really have to separate those two. Because apart from the names and some main plots, they are completely different. And I tried to do that and that’s why I really fell in love with the tv show too.

I guess you all know the name Sherlock Holmes and what it means, the stories behind it. And the tv show Sherlock is like those stories, but just taken to our time, to the modern times. That’s also why the movies and the tv series are so different. I actually really enjoyed this aspect, but I think the old times just embody the stories better. But, anyways, I enjoyed it really much. Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock is truly mind-blowing. No wonder he had his big breakthrough because of this show. You can really see Sherlocks craziness in his eyes. And Martin Freeman as John Watson is just as good. I fell in love with Freeman when I saw him as Bilbo in The Hobbit and I’ve been a fan of him ever since. Maybe that’s why Watson is my favorite character of the series. Whenever he appeared, I saw Bilbo. And I love Bilbo. So it was pretty much obvious that I’d love Watson too. I think both actors are amazing at showing so many emotions with so little actions, with just their mimics, the looks in their faces. Especially at the last seasons. And yes, I did cry indeed. Quite often. But I laughed even more.

I think my favorite seasons are the second and the third one. And apart from the amazing acting, I loved the way the tv show works the most. You really have to concentrate on the stories and think. I often went to bed afterwards, still thinking about an episode. And I loved the amount of crazy and superfrustrating cliffhangers and shocking plot twists. That turns a good tv show into an amazing one. And the fact that one episode is one and half hours long, just makes everything even better.

You know, all I can say is that the stories are from an English writer, the tv show is English, the actors are English. Of course it had to be awesome. So, I can only recommend you guys to give this show a go, you won’t regret it. Seriously. Oh, and if any of you have already watched it, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below. Or if you just want to know more. Or say anything else. I’m here. And until then I wish you all an amazing weekend and hope you enjoyed this post. And, as always, thanks for reading. x

Please Like Me

Hola everyone.

No, this post won’t be about me begging you guys to like me – which I hope you do. Today I’ll be talking about a tv series I finished lately called – you guessed it – “Please Like Me”. And I loved it so much that I thought I’d introduce it to you.

To be honest, I can’t even exactly tell you what the show is about without spoiling some parts of the plot, but I’ll try my best:

“Please Like Me” is about the life of Josh – a 20-year-old guy – who discovers that he’s gay right at the beginning of the first episode due to the fact that his girlfriend tells him and breaks up. After that shocker he finds out that his mum tried to kill herself and he now has to help her and his family deal with her depression. And let’s not forget his dad who divorced from Josh’s mum and now hides his girlfriend from her.All while exploring his new found sexuality, hooking up with hot boys and living in an apartment together with his best friend Tom and his annoying girlfriend who wouldn’t just leave. Oh and his absolutely adorable dog John.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it. But let me tell you, we just touched the surface of the show and there’s so much more to it. I found the show on Netflix and just got curious, so I tried it out. I wasn’t really prepared to find such a cute, brutally honest, comedic tv series. Actually it’s an Australian comedy drama series and when you get to the very end of the show you slowly realize why it’s described as a drama too. But I don’t want to spoil anything. I guess you just have to find out yourself.

Overall I would describe the show as a vacation for the mind. Every little episode just brings joy, despite the drama aspect. What I loved about it the most is the style and the humor of the show and how it deals with aspects like homosexuality, mental illness, and relationships. It’s brutally honest. It doesn’t try to hide anything or make it look like there’s beauty in suicide or breakups, because there simply isn’t. And that’s what makes it so special. And apart from that the humor is seriously the best. Honestly, all the characters are quite insane. Like, who let’s his girlfriend wait in the car for hours just because he doesn’t want his ex-wife to know? How weird is that? And you sit there and all of these strange situations happen and you watch it and think “oh my god, how is this really happening? They are crazy, completely crazy”. And then you just have to laugh. Because it’s so weird and awkward and honest that it becomes funny. I’d describe it as some kind of British humor, again really honest and weird, but still amazing. And let’s be honest, the acting is mind-blowing. The characters just seem so real, they feel like real people. Which they are. Personally, I’d say that this show is better at dealing with and talking about suicide and mental illness than 13 Reasons Why, which just turns the fault to all the other characters. I’ve never seen a show as real as Please Like Me.

And actually the series is mostly written by Josh Thomas, who plays Josh. He’s an Australian comedian and with that show, I think he created a total masterpiece. For me, this show was an emotional rollercoaster and I enjoyed it so much, I was really sad that it had to end. So I can just really recommend it to any of you guys, please give it a go. And don’t hesitate to ask me about it. And if you watch it or already have seen it, I’d be superhappy to hear from you. And until then I hope you enjoyed this post and wish you all an amazing week. And, as always, thanks for reading. x