8 best tv series about women

Блог Listen to your broccoli Сериал Большая маленькая ложь

Is there such a thing as tv series for women? In general, I do not like ‘for women’ stuff, but I did not manage to brand this list differently. These are good tv series for women and about women that I watched recently and recommend.

Big Little Lies

Two seasons about women, relationships, the psychology of living together. The starring cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep who joined in Season 2.

It is based on the book by Liane Moriarty, an Australia writer, that has quite a short biography in Wikipedia. The story in the book unfolds in Sydney, which of course was moved to the US in the show.

I like everything about this tv series. I cannot put my eyes off the opening song and video even. The actresses are so natural, that you easily believe they are friends in life (and maybe they are?).

Reasons to watch: I was about to say in order to see that the rich also cry. But the movie attracted me by its imperfect beauty of people. However, in reality, it was filmed to spotlight home violence issues.

The Affair

Блог Listen to your broccoli Сериал Любовники

Long interesting experiment (five seasons). First, they caught my attention by depicting the same situations twice. First through the eyes of one character and then another. Literally, showing the events several times. The events are the same but perceptions, emotions and conversations are different. In the beginning, it felt exciting, then annoying. As if there is no reality at all and people see completely different things. Then even creators of the series forgot about their idea and continued to develop a story. The story went on and on and I could not keep the story in my head anymore. And I could not drop it either. These strange people became so familiar and close to me, so I really wanted to know how it will all end. Now I know.

Reasons to watch: no positive characters, no clarity. Only danger and tension. If you like such stuff, watch it.

Unbelievable

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It is difficult to recommend this show. It is about rape. It can come across as boring and slow. And after watching it I read that it is based on the completely true story (so I do not expect the second season). And then you start to perceive everything differently and it feels like everyone should be watching this almost documentary story.

Reasons to watch: detective stories are always captivating and if it is a true detective story, it is even more like that. 

Fleabag

Блог Listen to your broccoli Сериал Дрянь

I would really be sorry if someone watches the first episode and does not continue. I have almost dropped it after the first episode because it felt too comic. It is easy to make the conclusion that it will be too superfluous. However, I continued and got caught in it because the actress is so engaging. She has this trick of all the time talking to the audience as if we are there in her reality. Also, it was eye-opening to see the British way of communicating (actually of not communicating). Very clumsy warmness. Relationship of two sisters.

Reasons to watch: Loneliness and relationships in the British style, British humor, very light and very tragic and a very special actress. I came to know that the show is based on the one actor theatre play. I would be happy to watch it one day. 

This is us

Блог Listen to your broccoli Сериал Это мы

The series is positioned a real life of an ordinary family which is not very ordinary. Full of not perfect people. It is filled with a lot of flashbacks. We follow a couple of parents that got a triplet and try to bring the up and survive the parenting journey.

Reasons to watch: see how family values look like without a smug.

Morning Show

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After Big Little Lies I would be eager to watch any tv series with Reese Witherspoon. This one is about a morning news show on tv. I do not even know how important is tv for people? Is it still important and influential? At least in this series, they do show it is important. Several years ago I watched Newsroom and I really liked it. Though I can imagine it is not for everyone. It is made of fast-talking and political philosophy. I expected something similar from the Morning Show, something critical and political, but it appeared to be more simple.

Reasons to watch: it is very trendy, and liked by many. 

The Crown

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The number of movies and series about the British Royal family is endless. They will continue to film them and others will continue to watch it. However, the challenge is still there, how to make a movie about the Queen who is there and is going to watch the show about herself? The actors have a great resemblance to the prototypes. Well, she is watching it herself and I recommend you watch it.

Reasons to watch: watch it in order to feel happy that you are not a member of the royal family and you are not responsible for the nation, and that you have freedom. And also watch five scenes that will sparkle your interest. 

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel

Listen to your broccoli Сериал Удивительная Миссис Мейзел

Amazing story about a female stand-up comedian. A story of a happy housewife who entered the career of professional comic, right into the completely male world in the fifties.

Reasons to watch: Everyone has its own reasons: dresses, interior designs, family drama, love story, but for me, it is all about public speaking and friendship of such different people (read here for more).

Have fun watching and share your recommendations! 

 

5 movie dresses you will never forget

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We see clothes of our movie heroes just for some seconds sometimes. And because of that, I am always surprised by stories of movie costume managers about how much time they spend choosing the right clothes for a movie.  And I always ask myself – was all that time spent worth it? Did anyone notice that this hue of the blue color symbolized the complicated inner world of the character? To be honest I really doubt this.

However, sometimes the dresses from the movies become a symbol not only of the movie itself but of some important life lesson. This is my list of five dresses. Do you have one?

 

 Brown polka dot dress from Pretty Woman

Usually, other dresses from this movie end up in different top movie lists, but for me, it is this one. 

  • Symbol of the transformation of the female lead. For the first time, she looks like she belongs to this world (though she does not feel like this).

Screenshot from Pretty Woman. The polka dot dress. 

 

 

Dress from Dirty Dancing

Фильм, который снимался как проходной, стал вдруг культовым. Фильм, про не зря проведенные летние каникулы? Про то, как ты не умеешь что-то и вдруг вырастаешь над собой? И становишься кем-то другим? И можешь то, что не могу совсем недавно?

The movie that was shot as low budget something that would be forgotten very soon finally became iconic.

  • Symbol of a dream to beautifully moving in a beautiful dress. 
  • Life lesson: even boring vacation with your parents can become a life experience.
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Screenshot from Dirty Dancing. Final scene. 

 

Green dress from Atonement

This dress the female lead puts on for dinner after a hot summer day. 

  • Symbol of the fragility of the current moment. 
  • Life lesson: What you think is a problem becomes appears to be trivial later after you face real problems. Therefore enjoy life, have sex in an amazing green dress in the library if you have an opportunity.
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Screenshot from Atonement. 

 

Wedding dress from the Sex in the city 

Sometimes I think that it was chosen to make thousands of people wonder why it was chosen. It is wrinkled even.

Symbol of what the heroine achieved in her relationship. Which are a wrinkled dress and a bird in her hair?  

Life lesson: if you are planning to go somewhere in a huge wrinkled dress and a bird in the hair, maybe you should not go?

Блог Listen to your broccoli 5 платьев Секс в большом городе

Screenshot from the Sex in the City. 

Green dress from Gone with the Wind 

This dress is a symbol of everything you could think of:

  • Symbol of revival, of creating something from nothing, invention, and imagination
  • Life lesson: apparently you cannot come to a man to ask for money in an ugly dress.
Блог Listen to your broccoli 5 платьев Унесенные ветром

Screenshot from Gone with the Wind. 

I would love to hear about your favorite dresses and life lessons.

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Blog listen to your broccoli Dirty Dancing

Take the Lead. Would you like to be portrayed by Antonio Banderas in a movie?

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I am terribly fond of movies about dancing and everything around dancing. I am also terribly fond of movies based on real stories. Sometimes I think they should only film those. I still plan to publish a list of my favorite movies inspired by real life.

Take the lead starring Antonio Banderas is a movie based on a real story of Pierre Dulaine who organized a ballroom dancing course for children from the US ‘black’ schools. Thousands of unprivileged children that got a chance to see another side of life, learned to communicate, got attention. His program covered 400 000 participants in 31 cities around the globe.

Beginning

The movie is focused on the beginning of this path. Pierre saw a teenager who was crashing a car in the street. Ater that Pierre found the school, met the headmaster and offered to give a course on ballroom dancing at this school. I was thinking a lot about this scene. So you see a teenager who is destroying someone’s property in the street, what would this encourage you to do? To call the police? To be afraid? To be annoyed? To decide to change the area of living? Would you just pass by, complain about teenagers or would you create a program for these troubled children?

So apparently the reaction could be coming to a black school and teaching ballroom dancing to aggressive teenagers.

Initially, Banderas did not want to take the part, as he thought that this is just a movie about dancing. But then he met real-life Pierre Dulaine and decided to participate in the movie.

 Most interesting scenes from ‘Take the Lead’

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  • The first visit of Pierre to the school and his conversation with the headmaster. Interesting dialogue and humor and sadness and a very good set of actors.
  • All dancing scenes and especially the one where Pierre invited an experienced female dancer to show how dance can look like (the main photo of this post).
  • Cameo (tradition to film a real person to which the movie is dedicated in a secondary role). The real-life Pierre is playing the role of one of the judges. I think that’s him in the screenshot below.

Фильм Держи ритм Блог Listen to your broccoli

Most interesting facts from the life of Pierre Dulain

Реальный Пьер Дюлэйн пошел дальше — создал курсы танцев в Яффе, Израиле, где заставил арабских и еврейских детей танцевать вместе и назвал эту программу «танец с врагом».

В своем ТЕД выступлении Пьер говорит про то, как танец может изменить жизнь. Он предлагает выйти из зала под руку с партнером (escort position) и дома включить музыку и танцевать вместе, а потом посмотреть, как изменятся ваши отношения.

И одно из его доказательств — «представляете, как танец может изменить вашу жизнь, меня вот в кино сыграл Антонио Бандерас».  

The real-life Pierre Dulaine took the next step. He founded ballroom dancing course in Jaffe, Israel where he encouraged Arab and Jewish children to dance together and called this program ‘Dancing with an Enemy’.

In his TED speech, Pierre is talking about how dance can change your life. He offers to leave the room in the escort position with your partner, to come home, to put music on and dance together and then just watch how your relationship changes.

One of his proofs of the life-changing power of dancing is that finally thanks to ballroom dancing he was portrayed in the movie by Antonio Banderas himself.

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P.S. You are welcome to read other posts about cinema and series following the tags. 

Take the lead Blog Listen to your broccoli
Take the lead Blog Listen to your broccoli

The Crown. 5 best scenes that impressed me

The Crown Blog Listen to your broccoli

Can you imagine this – sitting in front of the tv and watch a tv series about yourself? Looking at the actress playing you and think – do they really think I look like her? What about watching a moment in the episode where ‘you’ find a photo of another woman in your husbands stiff and knowing that half of the country is seeing this (and maybe even half of the world in the end)? And there is this one person in the world who is doing it – Elizabeth II, the queen, is watching a tv series about herself ‘The Crown’.

And I am also watching what an interesting life she had. Her father, the king, was one of the two brothers who was not supposed to be a king (there is another movie based on his story ‘King’s Speech’).  She, the queen, is one of the two sisters who did not want to be a center of attention and who got more attention and spotlight than any other person in the world.

Blog-listen-to-your-broccoli-the-crown-03

Margeret, Elizabeth’s sister, as portrayed by Vanessa Kirby (taken from взято из elitedaily.com).

Most memorable scenes

This tv series has a lot of memorable moments, but we often remember not more prominent things but something that resonates with our own feelings and thoughts. My mind more than once came back to the following scenes:

  • When the father of Elizabeth dies and within one moment she becomes a queen and the next moment her sister has to make a curtsy in front of her, everyone is moving around like in a well-known dance of traditions and customs and she is watching them, lost, and thinking ‘How do they all know what to do?’ I recall myself in a similar situation when joining a new company or moving to a new country when I thought I am not up to the bar. But having the whole world watching you during these moments?

 

  • A scene when Elizabeth says ‘sorry’ to her husband for the fact that she became queen so quickly and abruptly. This will change their lives forever and their relationship will become a state matter. A whole bunch of advisors will be discussing and deciding what they should do, which events join and how to spend time together. I was thinking how difficult this must be – put your private life in a box, that is left after all ceremonial events, duties and social life. Even to have an argument in private you have to wait till the evening and maybe even longer.

 

  • A moment when the queen needs to have a  prick in her cheek so that she can still continue smiling after days of touring around different countries with an official visit. Her presence is so meaningful and important that even driving in a car and waving to people has an important meaning.

 

  • During the first season, she has to decide whether she should allow her sister to marry a divorced man whom she loves. The moment of informing Margaret, her sister is very prominent. What kind of job is it to have a duty to decide whom your sister should marry or not marry?

 

  • A scene when the queen chooses a dress for the day when she meets Jackie Kennedy. The queen has to sparkle and compete in elegance and beauty. The type and color of her dress are of state importance.

Scenes with children and especially Charles were mostly upsetting. I even remembered footage of a real queen coming back from some months of official visits. She is arriving by train and her mother and 4-year-old Charles are waiting to greet her. The two women greet each other, talk, kiss and Charles is somewhere down there waiting for his turn to finally get some minimal attention. It seems she learned to sacrifice a lot in order to portray a perfect queen. It becomes more clear why she could not understand other family members who were trying to make decisions based on feelings.

Watching experience

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From  “thethrillist“: Claire Foy performing Elizabeth II and Jodi Balfour as Jackie Kennedy and then the real photo of the event. 

Apparently, this is the second most expensive Netflix series. Funny enough it was described as a series that consists of endless dialogues in overdecorated rooms. But I think money was spent wisely:)

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Looking at some example photos of how it was and how it was filmed the creators did invest in the credibility of the movie. They did a good job of finding a balance in ‘this is a movie about the queen’ and ‘people should not be bored with glamour story’.

Someone might consider the tv series too calm, and it is so, it is very British. A raised brow depending on the curve of it at that moment can mean a lot of different things – anger, astonishment, contempt. And yes, in any critical situation they do drink tea.

Marvellous Mrs Maisel. Worth Watching?

 

Why to watch? because of clothing? interiors’ design? improving English? interest in stand-up comedy? Yes, you can watch tv series ‘Marvelous Mrs Maisel’ because of any of these reasons, but I will remember it because of friendship story of two main characters.

Midge, the main start of the story, is left alone by her husband because of the affair with a secretory and she starts a new life. What type of life? She does not know, but at a certain point she is on stage with a microphone. One time and then another time, and one more. The club manager Susie, who notices how natural Midge while performing (she is not even performing, she is just drunk) and persuades her to start a stand-up career. Susie becomes then Midge’s manager and producer (whatever that means in the 5o’s).

Blog-listen-to-your-broccoli-marvelous-mrs-maisel

Susie saw Midge for the first time on stage

Their relationship grows. They search different strange places to get a chance to perform, they celebrate failures, they sleep in one room while touring. They look like they should never have met and talked to each other (so different they are). They are dressed up in such a way that one of them should be somewhere else, not where they are. And still their conversations is the most interesting thing for me in this series – the way the talk about relationship, stand-up, husbands, children. They acquire their own rituals, favourite table in the bistro, their own motto.

Morning after Midge’s  performance in Concord (the biggest recreational hotel in Catskills area).

There are other reasons to watch it of course:

Why to watch?

  • because of atmosphere of 50’s of the last century. This is like Mad Men, but with characters that you actually like.
  • because of interest in stand-up comedy, its history and development. One of the characters in the movie is Lenny Bruce (role is delivered by Luke Kirby) who is a real and famous stand-up comedian of that time. His speeches in the movie are based on real speeches (you can compare a song by Lenny in Episode 10 of Season 2 with the original or watch his performance on tv)
  • in order to see how to progress in men’s world and in men’s profession and to stay firm when you are told you’d better be a singer if you are a woman, when you are denied payment for your performance, when people assume you will be worse than any male comedian just because you are a woman.
  • in order to see a creation of Gilmore Girls producers. Yes, Gilmore Girls where we were getting used to speed talking, learned to decode interesting allusions and metaphors and hoped that the mother and the daughter will be friends forever.

Watching Experience

  • If you are not aware what the movie is about, you might assume based on the first episode that it is about love and affairs, but then it turns out to be about finding your path.
  • If you watch it, you have watch it in English, but probably you will have to do it with subtitles (if you are not a native speaker of course). The actors are talking very fast and in order to understand all jokes and references you might even need to google some stuff. Just in order to understand what The Borscht Belt means and why performance in Concord is such a big deal.

I will be waiting for Season 3 and will be wondering about all these magic of performing on stage like Marvelous Mrs Maisel and if you are still doubting whether to watch or not, this is the Season 2 trailor.