Our Summer Holiday Viewing Diary

Sounds Good!

Well, it’s back to work today – the holiday over! Some of you will have a lot longer, some won’t have had holiday, some won’t be returning to work, so it’s always a funny time in January with people in different ‘spaces’ if not literally in different places…

We watched a LOT of telly. And loads of movies. It was hot, and we got out and about and shot some basketball, we visited friends, had friends visit us, hosted BBQs, went up north for a bit, did lots of reading, and a bunch of swimming. So, we didn’t just sit on our asses.

But. We did sit on our butts quite a lot too actually…

I wake early in the heat. And I was watching movies at 5 and 6am. I stayed up late sometimes too. We watched movies and TV shows as a family and I ploughed along on my own too, seemingly in my quest to, erm, see everything!

Boxing Day movies are a thing in our house as I mentioned.

And you might remember, in that newsletter I previewed a few things we wanted to see…

So, I then told you about House of Gucci (which I loved!) We also made it to West Side Story, as a family. Oscar was a bit bored by it – but lasted. And liked some of it. Truth be told, I felt the same way. Great dancing, great choreography, all looked great – the music was sublime (I do love a bit of West Side Story, one of my favourite/tolerable musicals) but the truth is I just don’t really dig that format all that much. People bursting into song to tell everyone their feelings, spraying the wall with far too much paint. But it’s definitely a big-screen experience. And I’m glad I saw it in the right place.

Quite a treat to make it to the movies three times in one summer holiday (Sing 2, House of Gucci, West Side Story).

The big order of business we had, on New Year’s Day, was to watch season four of Cobra Kai. We did it. The whole thing. In three sittings. A few episodes, then a walk. A few episodes, then a break. A few final episodes with some pizza. A perfect lazy New Year’s Day.

And one of my favourite seasons of the show. I had thought once Netflix picked it up it was all downhill, but I rewatched season three last month and was a little harsh in my initial assessment – it helps having the ten-year-old newly on board with all things Karate I guess.

Later that night, we rewatched The Castle for the first time in years. So quotable – still. And so much heart.

Rewatching – revisiting. It’s a big thing for me. Seeing if film stack up, and often introducing Oscar to some of my favourites too of course.

We watched/rewatched a bunch. Speaking of quotable, Cable Guy is every bit the gem I always considered it.

More recently we family-rewatched Paddington and of course we’re all looking forward to another romp through Paddington 2 now (the better movie).

We double-featured Netflix end-of-year hits, Don’t Look Up and Death to 2021 which made for quite sobering viewing as a one-two punch.

We finished off all of Schitt’s Creek – which we were late to the party with and struggling to connect with for all of season one and most of season two. Then it happened. We were bit. The charm of the Roses was all about us and all over us and we watched seasons three through six with so many laughs and nearly some tears. We watched. And we watched. So good. Such a great – and probably timeless – show. We watched the ‘after-party’ doco that shows just how close they all became on set and documents the lead-up to the final season.

We loved Schitt’s Creek. It has left a hole.

But TV fills the whole, and sometimes the soul.

So we jammed in The Tourist and Stay Close since we love a bit of a crime-thriller. These are popcorn-ish, snacky and fine. (The former on TVNZ on Demand, the latter on Netflix).

I largely gave horror films a break – for once. But not for long. I’m off to the Scream reboot this week. And can’t wait! (And I say I gave them a break, but in the spirit of reboots I caught up with the new Candyman, which has a fabulous mood about it even if it doesn’t quite stick the landing).

There were more films than that, and more shows too – I’m lucky to have Aro Video nearly on my doorstep, so I was picking up DVDs to add to the streaming service options.

The big one for me actually was finally watching Being There. How had I never seen this film? I had read about it, seen bits of it, heard so much about it. I finally watched it very early one morning. And it was every bit as good as every fan has ever said. That was probably my summer hit!

But I can’t quite remember everything we watched, there was certainly a whole lot more, which is starting to seem a bit gross I guess…

I do list all films on my Letterboxd page.

Also, as I said at the top, the holiday is over. For me, anyway. Can’t just sit here listing films and TV shows. Time to go back to work…

So, what was your Summer Holiday Viewing Diary like? What do you get through for the first time, or for an umpteenth rewatch? Or does summer holiday mean no viewing at all for you?