Tag Archives: docuseries

Reality TV Round-up – May to July 2025

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Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer (2025)

A look back at the women who disappeared from New York City and Long Island before the 2010 discovery of female remains found in the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island, which lead authorities to believe the deaths were all connected. – IMDB

With any crime documentary series, its always interesting to see how certain events unraveled. With this one, its intriguing because it starts off as one case that actually verges off into something else that seems much bigger. However, its how things sometimes are when

Netflix documentaries are always something of a mixed bag. Gone Girls is one that caught my attention because of its name similar to a book that I love Gone Girl which made me want to see what its about. The documentary centered around the disappearance of a young girl which eventually led to finding the multiple bodies in an area that was suspected to be connected. While the documentary spent a lot of time unearthing all the other connected murders and who could be involved, it circles back to its start and addresses the cold case at hand which still has a lot of unanswered questions and suspicions.

Gone Girls is a pretty decent look at this case which focuses on the unfortunate women who are forgotten because of their profession that has distanced them from their own families. There’s been a few documentaries on Netflix that does go into that angle. I don’t really want to go deep into this since its well worth a watch especially on how the case unfurls.

Sisters Who Make Waves 乘风2025 (Season 6, 2025)

Sister Who Make Waves is a show that invites successful female figures from all walks of life who are 30 and above to break out of their comfort zones to create memorable performances while being in competition to stay in the show based on audience voting.

While I haven’t watched the first few seasons, the last season introduced an international element that I thought really made me want to keep going. I usually watch these things based on the celebrities that I like to watch and the same goes for this season as they included veteran Hong Kong actress Cecilia Yip and Sheren Tang but also have younger faces like comedy duo Zhang Xiao Wan and Guan Yue as well as a few familiar faces from TV series in recent years like ex-Rocket Girl 101 Wu Xuan Yi. I think I’m the minority but I actually wanted to see this for a less popular choice, Jiang Yi Qiao, a talented singer songwriter that I think doesn’t get enough credit.

For what its worth, the show actually managed to put together a really interesting group that had a lot of space for growth. There was no doubt that Cecilia Boey’s group would be a highlight with her great girl group skills. This group also having some fun surprises but all the groups unlocked a lot of potential from celebrities that haven’t been in the public eye as much due to family or whatever other reason.

In a world where girl groups and boy groups are all the rage, this show (and the male version Call Me By Fire) highlights the attractiveness of being 30 and over which maybe its my age right now but I appreciate what this whole show represents.

I’m The Surprise 我是隐藏款 (Season 1, 2025)

Thirty innovative “designer toy” creators bring their original IPs to the show, teaming up with six celebrities to form three studios. Through a series of themed creations, they closely collaborate and continually challenge themselves in creativity and design. Using painting as their artistic language, they witness the “72 transformations of IP,” infusing these trendy emerging IPs with vibrant artistic value. This journey also brings domestic “hidden gem” original IPs and talented designers into the spotlight. – MyDramaList

As blind boxes have become a rather permanent wave in the younger community, I’m A Surprise strives to highlight Chinese designers with their original IPs which different degrees of popularity. They focus on three pairs of celebrities who start the show putting their allocated show’s currency to invest in different designs to build their teams and then set them on various challenges and after its main challenge, having to eliminate their own team to start the next phase of challenges to eventually find the top one based on audience vote from both live, the “big bosses” (the group of collectibles experts) and online voting.

The whole show is a refreshing take on new material. Its one of the things that have given Youku a facelift recently the last few years as it starts to build these trendy shows. However, unlike other shows like dating or whatnot, collectibles are incredibly subjective to all kinds of preferences from the style to the color to the purpose to its emotional value and having the actual designers sell the toys along with different celebrity teams with their own different level of popularity plus normally some skewed “professional” opinion, its hard to not feel like sometimes things don’t quite go the way it should go.

Not to mention some of these designs have had incredible following online so its not weird that the competition while supposed to be locked into secrecy, still get leaked through their various live streaming promotions. Whether its fair or not, in the end, truly depends on an individual’s view. For myself, who is quite an oddball when it comes to collectibles, actually liked a lot of the lesser loved properties. Although to be fair, the designer team that won did deserve it since their design did prove to be very adaptable to all the themes.

With that said, it was a pretty fun show overall. I do hope to see a second season but maybe with a few added rules to keep it more balanced and fair on the entire process for each of the teams whether its budgets or other elements.

Clarkson’s Farm (Season 1-4)

I honestly never thought I’d sit around watching Jeremy Clarkson run a farm. I liked Top Gear and Grand Tour and watched it every once in a while especially for the Top Gear specials but to actually be watching four seasons of Clarkson’s Farm was unexpected but my husband’s love of this and the few times I’ve watched it gave me the push to check out and see why he liked it so much.

To say the least, it was a surprisingly an enlightening experience. Every season has a different endeavor and added a different twist because of the challenges and it would seem since he’s started the Diddly Squat Farm there’s been mostly challenges because of both inexperience, natural and environment extremities and the town council being a hurdle in itself. The first season had a fun and basic one like wilding which I personally enjoyed since I’m kind of in a similar task for my garden so its on a smaller level. Its just a quick example of how some of it is rather educational or maybe just partially learning as Clarkson’s Farm makes their own mistakes but also as he learns about the various aspects of farming.

Watching a farming show like this does have its purpose to spread some great knowledge about the importance and difficulties in this crucial industry in a more entertaining way. I was also skeptical when I started but it has been a pretty fun time between the silly decisions and the banter.

Reality TV Roundup – March & April 2025

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Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Season 7, 2025)

Drivers, managers and team owners live life in the fast lane – both on and off the track – during each cutthroat season of Formula 1 racing. – Netflix

In the last two years, I’ve been getting into watching Formula 1 with my husband and because of that, this year was the first year that I sat down for most of the Drive to Survive season since I actually watched the entire race season the previous year so had a better idea of what was going on. Not to mention, Season 6 was a whole lot of each team complaining about how they were impacted by Max Verstappen winning every race for the most part so there wasn’t a whole lot to write about.

Despite that, Season 7 felt like the 2024 Formula 1 season had so much random stuff going on that they ended up putting together a few elements linked together in one episode. I think the most insightful was probably the Daniel Ricciardo exit and who was replacing Red Bull’s second seat and the Carlos Sainz’s choice for his next contract which were two events that lasted a good part of the season and its good to see a little more on the mindset behind this.

Of course, all this means nothing to anyone not actually into the sport but Formula 1 has become quite a big thing at our house. Its been a while since we’ve followed something with such commitment especially since this is the F1 season I’m looking forward to when half the grid is full of rookies. Anyways, getting ahead of myself with the Drive to Survive Season 7 but I think its a decent roundup even though it feels a little less fun to watch than last season.

Perfect Match: A Trip to Friendship (五福临门团综·友福同享, 2025)

In this feel-good variety show, actors from “Perfect Match” must complete a series of games and challenges while staying in an ancient Chinese town. – Netflix

As a spinoff variety show as a farewell to filming wrap-up for Perfect Match (which I’m guessing was filmed during the series was being filmed since some of the cast weren’t there and seemed like they were filming the rest of the series), for fans of the series like myself, its a really fun show to just watch the cast get involved in fun games in a big environment.

It matches for this series both in setting and the feel-good element since the series itself is meant to be a family and romance comedy series and its probably been one of the series that I’ve had the most fun watching as in literal fun laughs and not just invested in some dark reveal. Much like the series, the variety show puts them back into their own personalities but still paired up with their series partners which makes it all the more fun to watch.

Honestly, there isn’t too much to say about this variety show, its a quick six episode show and it still revolves out some people in their three day trip. The vibes here in the cast feel really genuine and built like family. I personally enjoy shows like this that take the characters out of the real cast but helps to promote the show while having fun. Its a nifty way to do things even if a lot of shows don’t do it. Although seemingly Netflix has been really into that kind of stuff since they did it with the Light The Night cast for two spin-off variety shows as well. Its a decent concept and pretty fun overall.

Of course, here’s me telling you that while I’ve had a hard time finding time to talk about TV series, Perfect Match is a really fantastic show to watch plus its not too long compared to other Chinese series. I highly recommend it.

Reality TV Roundup – June 2023

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Barbecue Showdown (Season 2, 2023)

Cast: Michelle Buteau, Kevin Bludso, Melissa Cookston

Food competition that follows the country’s best backyard smokers and competitive barbecuers as they compete for the title of American Barbecue Champion. – IMDB

Season 2 of The American Barbecue Showdown is just Barbecue Showdown and now hosted by Michelle Buteau replacing the first season’s Rutledge Wood. With Michelle Buteau’s charismatic voice over in The Circle for so many seasons, she is a great choice for Barbecue Showdown as she brings a lot of fun to the competition in conversation.

Seeing as the first season launched in 2020, its been quite a while since its popped up with a second season. The competition itself is pretty similar in concept to the the first season (Review). Its been a long time since the previous season so its a vague memory of the grounds itself. According to the second season, the outside pit which actually is a main focus this time around has been upgraded and it brings along its own challenges. This time around, the most fun challenges definitely go to those in the DIY element to see how the pitmasters understand the concept of the pit and the fire especially when they given certain items to use as their “pits”. That episode was probably one of the best ones since its all about creativity.

Netflix has been churning out all kinds of cooking competitions in the past few years, some with quirky twists and some are more traditional like barbecue and finding the next best pitmaster from both more experienced to new faces in the world. I love barbecue but I don’t know much about pitmasters so this is a whole new world of discovery and possibly because of that, it makes it all the more fun to watch and kind of educational as well.

Catching Killers (Season 3, 2023)

The investigators behind infamous serial killer cases reveal the harrowing, chilling details of their extraordinary efforts in this true crime series. – IMDB

I haven’t really talked about this docuseries before, mostly because reviewing documentaries in general aren’t exactly my forte. However, with the constant addition of Netflix crime docuseries which are relatively well-executed, its also become a constant in our watchlist. Catching Killers Season 1 and 2 has spanned over some impressive cases outlining how law enforcement came about hunting down the killers. To be fair, I’m actually really into watching shows like this where it praises the process of how they are caught more than the focus on the killers themselves. Its a good angle.

Season 3 is actually a pretty interesting one to talk about. It has four episodes covering four different killers spanning from the 1990s to the early 2000s. I’ve heard of probably one or two of these cases in passing but never truly researched the details as I was still in my teens when most of these cases were happening so not quite as aware as now. With that said, Season 3 should probably not be called Catching Killers as the process of their investigation to find the killer is pretty informative but most of these four cases actually the killer was caught by chance or just fed up of being on the run, which is an interesting turn of events for the most part but also makes the literal title of this series feel a little ironic.

While all the four cases are intriguing to watch, this time also focuses on killers that are pretty much on the move from The Railroad Killer to the DC Sniper. However, its the first time they have looked at bombers and this time they look at The Olympic Park Bomber which is probably one that is most known plus it also involves someone that is targeting law enforcement at the same time, making it all the more threatening.

Overall, Catching Killers is a decent docuseries. Each season has 4 episodes that focus on the hunt for mostly serial killers. Since I’m not situated in the US, some of these cases aren’t familiar to me so it also has an informative element.

TV Binge: Unsolved Mysteries (Season 1, 2020)

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Unsolved Mysteries (Season 1, 2020)

unsolved mysteries

Immersive, character-driven stories are rooted in the experiences of ordinary people who have lived the unthinkable. Families, detectives and journalists hope viewers hold the clues to solving these mysteries. – IMDB

Some revivals are incredibly welcome! Unsolved Mysteries is definitely one of those. Netflix has picked up a true gem with this one. Whether people are watching this because of nostalgia of the original show and looking forward to see what they do now or just finding out about it with this show because its on Netflix, anyone who enjoys this type of cold case will be intrigued by all the six cases presented in Season 1.

There’s a good variety in its case selections. There is an international case, a more familiar mystery like UFO and then a few different intriguing cases of missing people whether its the situation or the suspect. The setup of each one goes into detail from the witnesses to the family and friends involved. Each case is pieced together in the form of a timeline after a general introduction of the case at hand which feels thorough investigation and research has been done. There’s a lot of re-evaluation from the current information, knowledge, deduction at the time. Whether its missing pieces of the puzzle to figure out what actually happened  to missing key pieces of evidence that could lead to the suspected killers, each unsolved mystery has its own element of suspense. Its one thing to watch thrillers, suspense and mystery in a movie but Unsolved Mysteries brings up the fact of all these real life mysteries that hasn’t been solved which is a rather chilling feeling.

I don’t want to put any spoilers here so I’m going to avoid going into too much detail. While all the cases have incredible discussion value and for some, its initiated its reopening of cases and a lot of tips sent in online as well as forums where people are sharing their theories and investigations online which is a great way of motivating the general public to join into this. Its a very Zodiac sort of deal where sometimes the people outside of the case might have their own views and understandings. Whether the cases eventually get cracked or not, its definitely brought a few of these into a different light. When talking about specific cases, the one that was interesting to watch but not exactly a lot of further discussion value (for myself) would be the Berkshires UFO episode. The one that definitely got me the most was the first one, Mystery on the Rooftop for its cryptic evidence and the sheer amount of unanswered questions. The international case, The House of Terror has its value and shows the power of Netflix, diving into the international content and expanding its areas of investigation. Other than these ones, its seriously a lot of mind-boggling cases that stirs up a lot of deeper thinking of its possibilities that make Unsolved Mysteries so intriguing.

There’s so much to love about the revival of Unsolved Mysteries. Its executed well and Netflix has the international streaming platform and reach that can expand the possibilities and variety of cold case to investigate. I’m definitely looking forward to another season.

 

TV Binge: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (Season 1, 2019)

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Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (Season 1, 2019)

breakfast lunch and dinner

Host: David Chang

Guests: Seth Rogen, Chrissy Teigen, Lena Waithe, Kate McKinnon

Chang accompanied by a different celebrity guest exploring a single city, its culture and its cuisine. As the pair travels through each city, they will also uncover new and surprising things about themselves. – IMDB

Hosted by David Chang, Breakfast Lunch & Dinner is a new Netflix docuseries, much like Ugly Delicious, exploring food and culture. The structure of this series is different in this 4-episode series. Each episode sees David Chang going to one city accompanied by one celebrity  that may or may not be from the area to explore the food offered there. In some places, its about authenticity and in others, its about reflecting the place itself. The episodes span over Vancouver, Los Angeles, Morocco and Phnom Penh where the pair will go for a day out in the city eating the different meals throughout the day and talking about the city, the culture and of course, the cuisine which eventually goes to talking about their own lifestyle and more.

Four episode seasons are always a quick binge. It almost feels like this one should have been paired up with Ugly Delicious Season 2’s four episodes to create a full season. However, there is nothing to complain about. This new structure is very refreshing. To a certain extent, this one is more lighthearted to watch. Its less about those societal issues that are often linked in Ugly Delicious but takes a more entertaining level as they talk about the celebrities career and living in the city or other more casual friends hangout topics. It does touch on the societal topics every once in a while but overall, its a rather fun discussion most of the time to see the dynamic of David Chang and his guest celebrity and each one of them brings something new to the table.

Its really hard to expand too much on this show since it is not only short but also with a rather straightforward concept. Breakfast Lunch & Dinner is a pretty fun show. It would definitely be nice to see where they can take this and what other guests will join David Chang as he explores a city in one day and all the food that he tries (especially since I have some foodie friends that I’ve travelled with where our trips are like that as well). Its a nice snapshot of a city experience and in some ways, its almost like a casual hangout or interview that gives space to discuss a wide range of topics. There’s a lot to love about this show and is much more focused on one place and culture and cuisine that gives its a lot of substance as well. Its a different approach to a food docuseries and while I like both this structure and Ugly Delicious’ structure, it would be nice to see this one have more episodes if they manage to get a Season 2.

If you haven’t seen the reviews for Ugly Delicious, you can find it below:

Season 1
Season 2

What’s Up 2020: Week 16

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Welcome to Week 16 of 2020! Self-isolation has been going on for a month or so. Its been quite an experience. I can’t say that I’ve been able to do a whole lot of things different from usual since work has been quite busy and its all about getting through April. Week 16 was a lot of wanting to do something but not being able to because of work overtime or home things.

READING

Undead Ultra

Currently reading: Undead Ultra

Still reading Undead Ultra and I can tell you that I’ve moved forward very very little. The time to read wasn’t quite as much as I’d like but I am aiming to finish the book soon. Its not a particularly long novel but I just need to sit down to do it.

PLAYING

doors awakening

  • Doors: Awakening

Currently playing: Concrete Genie, Happy Color, Bounce That Bird, Color Spots

I’ve been working on a lot of Game Warp stuff lately. Concrete Genie is our upcoming game of the month so its one that I’ve been playing through in preparation for the next recording. As for the other games, Doors: Awakening is a game very similar to other puzzle games published from Snapbreak and its part of the Google Play Indie Games Festival Finalists along with Bounce That Bird and Color Spots and a whole bunch of free games that I’ve been playing through for a little capsule reviews, something like a Mobile Game Roundup.

WATCHING

The Farewell

  • The Game (1997)
  • The Farewell (2019)
  • Black Mountain Side (2014)
  • Berlin Syndrome (2017)

I have a ton of movie reviews lined up to write so all of these are currently in line to be written. This week’s highlight goes to The Farewell which I finally got around to seeing thanks to a cheap rental. Its a great film. The story and characters and whatnot all make for a great watch. Other movies in here are for Movies and Tea recording (you can guess which one yourself). Black Mountain Side is a movie on Shudder which I personally don’t recommend but apparently some people on Letterboxd seem to like it more than I did. While on the other hand, Berlin Syndrome ended up being surprisingly decent and Teresa Palmer acts in her own Australian accent instead of playing an American so that was quite a surprise as well.

BINGING

breakfast lunch and dinner

  • Find Yourself (rewatch 2020)
  • Too Hot to Handle (Season 1, 2020) Review
  • Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (Season 1, 2019)

Currently binging: Me to Us, The Singer 2020, The Love Equations, J-Style Trip, Youth With You 2, The Untamed

As usual, with a lot of work, TV is the most abundant thing since I like binge-watching on my spare time the most. Plus, TV means a lot of times that I can multitask and that was exactly what I needed. After some though, I decided to watch Too Hot to Handle and it was something that fit into my current mindset so I even finished up a review so you can read my thoughts there. I did a rewatch for Find Yourself which I’m working on a review right now and then wrapped up Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner which was a decent structure as a documentary series. While I like the Ugly Delicious style of docuseries, I like this one a lot too.

Currently binging is really not that different. The Singer 2020 is about to end as they wrap up the semi-finals and head into the finals in the coming week. J-Style Trip is my filler show since it only has one episode a week and it blends well with Me To Us that updates one episode a week on the weekend. I’m enjoying everything that I’m binging right now actually and its just a matter of choosing which I want to watch and which to watch over the course of the following week although my weekend mornings are watching the premieres on Youtube for The Love Equations so I binge those 4 episodes released over the weekend a lot. That series is so fun. On the other hand, I finally started The Untamed which was a HUGE deal last year and I can see why as I binged 10 episodes in one day and if I kept this pace, it’ll be done in no time, even at 50 episodes total. Lots of great TV to watch and catch up with!

That’s it for this What’s Up!
What have you been reading/watching/binging/playing?

TV Binge: Ugly Delicious (Season 2, 2020)

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Check out the TV binge for the first season HERE.

Ugly Delicious (Season 2, 2020)

ugly delicious

With only half the length of the first season, Ugly Delicious is a quick binge to say the least. That being said, it still lives up to what it has built in its first season, bringing food and culture and views together. Its a bit more of a personal journey as David Chang sets out in the first episode looking at kids menu in anticipation of his child. Its a good look at exploring the kids menu at schools around the world and finding the balance of being a chef and family. In the following three episodes, David Chang and friends reunite to look at curry, steak and the turning meat.

While each of these episodes have a lot to offer and to learn, the best episode would be the steak episode which has amazing structure as it divides its discussion into a four course meal and having this central discussion on the different doneness of steaks and why (or why not) its a big deal to ask for a well-done steak. It leads to how steaks are done from fine dining to chain restaurants to little restaurant concepts as well as the different types of steaks including some that I’ve never heard about. Its quite the eye-opening episode especially as it uses this to go into politics, society, etc.

As usual, David Chang is really a great host for this. The guests he invites on each of these episodes or friends that go to the different locations to explore the food all have their own rapport and knowledge that it adds a lot to the series itself. However, carrying forward from the previous season, David Choe has to be one of the most hilarious additions to the friends. A little odd and does a lot of unexpected things but its why it makes it so entertaining. That being said, there are some fantastic travels here as they head to different locations as well like Mumbai and Instanbul just for starters.

Four episodes might seem like something of a short season and it definitely is, but each of these episodes do pack their own punch. Each having their own journey, whether its a journey to understand a cuisine better (Curry) or its a look at the different variations and how people view how certain foods are cooked and its impact on society itself and even expanding to feminism (steak) and finally how immigrants and people moving from one place to the next has brought over their food culture to a new place and the variety that its given (turning meat). Ugly Delicious is much more than just a food docuseries but rather one of the things I like the most about the show is how it manages to tie some societal elements using food as the bridge to talk about these issues.

TV Binge: Ugly Delicious (Season 1, 2018)

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Ugly Delicious (Season 1, 2018)

Ugly Delicious

Cast: David Chang, Peter Meehan, Aziz Ansari, David Choe, Jonathan  Gold

Chef David Chang travels around the world tasting food from different cultures. – IMDB

Ugly Delicious is an eight episode documentary series that follows David Chang and company as he explores a different type of food and hunts down for the best ones while at the same time, using the different views and approaches to make food to look at the narrow or open mindedness and the cultural prejudices and views that are linked with it. It pulls in a social commentary about how different societal themes like politics and such can also be pulled into the various discussions.

Ugly Delicious requires its audience to have an open mind because a lot of this refers to food brought over by immigrants and how its changed as its traversed the world into different cultures, challenging sometimes what you might think of certain things one way but how they may be viewed a completely different way. Its not only seeing great food that is a draw but also the depth that the series brings.  It manages to talk about the origins of that sort of food and the meaning behind it and then look at how different countries have their own interpretations.

Over the eight episodes, they take the audience through pizza, tacos, homecooking, shrimp & crawfish, BBQ, Fried Chicken, Fried Rice and finally a battle of the stuffed pasta vs. dumplings. There’s much to learn throughout the series while seeing some wonderful takes on food. That was the initial draw for me before I started it but to be honest, the whole history and origins and the extension of how food in America and how its viewed by the world actually became something that make it a very thought-provoking experience. Its not in whether you agree or not but sometimes to see a certain way of how food can bring together the world to understand each other better and see other cultures through a different way. For that, I love a lot of the episodes: BBQ had one of the most hilarious bits while the first and final episode made me think a lot about the similarities and seeing things in a different way while obviously, the dive into Fried Rice and Chinese cuisine as well as the homecooking one hit home a little more for myself and I connected with that a lot whereas some of the most creative episodes went to Fried Chicken but turned around to see the value of traditional cooking versus the more modern twists on Shrimp and Crawfish and BBQ.

Ugly Delicious is a thought-provoking docuseries that is done very well. A lot of it has to do with the food and culture that they dive into and the guests invited there. While David Chang might seem a little pretentious in some thoughts, I really liked how in his own ways, he managed to keep things very honest and still show his passion for different cuisines. Its going to be great to see what they do in Season 2, (which has been confirmed but no date announced yet).