Love it or Hate It!!!

If this, then that.

With an endless list of movies and tv shows at our fingertips these days it seems like we’d have no problem finding something entertaining. However the opposite may be true. We are bombarded with so many choices we don’t know what to watch despite every app laying out a list of what we should put on our queue next.

Television and movies are truly a personal experience. We sit Inside our homes and snuggle in for a show, having made time in our hectic day for that moment. We watch alone, or with that special someone. “Pause it. Go back! what happened, and what’d I miss?” echo through every home like a classic rerun.

The choices of what people watch can be a representation of who they are, or who they wished they could be. These fantasies weave themselves into the tapestry of our being.

To suggest what someone should watch next should never be done casually. It’s important to know the person you’re talking to.

The alignment of a show and viewer should be looked at as a match maker would a potential couple. The viewers interest should be known and understood. If the potential viewer likes something, it shouldn’t be assumed that they like it for the same reasons you do. The same is said for the dislikes. In some cases our dislikes are far more telling than our likes. It’s more easily defined than our likes. Let’s face it, hate is a strong emotion, even when it comes to a show.

For the purpose of this article, two very different shows and one movie will be presented for viewer consideration.

The first is a ONCE UPON A TIME it originally aired on ABC, and now resides on Netflix.

The plot is a twisted tale on the classic Disney fairytales. Apparently all the characters from every tale we’ve ever heard are from the same kingdom and their lives intertwine deeply. Through a series of magical events the whole enchanted Kingdom find themselves dropped into our world and time in a secluded area of Maine. The storylines are deep and thought provoking, and the show is definitely a lot more adult than the ones we’re used to.

The story does a great job of weaving their past into the current adventures they’re living. The show has some amazing female leads. You’ll love them, hate them, lust over them, and ultimately cheer them on. The whole ensemble bring ONCE UPON A TIME not only into your living room but right into your heart.

The show has evil queens, sword fights, epic love, unrequited love, pirates, magic, and breathtaking moments.

If you hate a show that takes forever to get around to a conclusion, then this one is definitely for you. By the end of the season the big issue is always brought to a clean close and the suspense for next season has been set. This show’s message is hope, and that everyone is Redeemable. We are all multilayered and in the end self love is crucial.

Maybe magic and fairytales aren’t your thing, and you want a gritty real life saga? Give Yellowstone a try. The show is on the Paramount network. It focuses on a family and their ranch called YELLOWSTONE. Owning and operating a massive cattle ranch is the easy part for the Patriarch of the Dutton family. Being the head of his family may prove to be the biggest challenge. His children are intelligent, skilled and live by their fathers kick Butt and take names example. The Dutton men run this ranch, and it seems they also run the state too. Don’t worry about it being a Chauvinistic boys club, the women can and do hold their own! No ones hands are clean when it comes to this family.

The ranch is next door to the reservation that Native Peoples live on, that brings its own interesting twist into the show. The people and their living situations are depicted in a fairly accurate and respectful way. It’s nice to see an overwhelmingly underrepresented group of people on screen.

If you don’t like a show that is raw, violent and graphic, this ones not for you. While It isn’t for the faint of heart Yellowstone does provided touching tender moments, and beautiful love stories.

This show definitely blurs the lines of right and wrong. I highly recommend making this show part of your girls night, go team Rip.. you’ll thank me later.

The two television shows aren’t for the whole family so the movie suggestion will be. SECONDHAND LIONS may be the most underrated film you’ll ever see. It definitely doesn’t get the fanfare it deserves. Secondhand lions follows a young boy for a summer. He’d been left by his mother with two eccentric old uncles in an attempt to find where they kept their large amounts of money. What the boy ends up finding is far more valuable. He learns what it is to be a man, how to fight for what’s right, how to love purely, and what the weight of loss is. The lives that his uncles have lived seemed to be ripped from the pages of an adventure novel. Everyone will enjoy this movie. On a production nerd level something interesting about this movie is the way it’s filmed. It’s shot in chronological order. You can literally see the young boy change as he matured over the filming of this movie. His voice even reflects the man his character is turning into right before your eyes. This is storytelling at its best.

In conclusion, no one will like everything that is suggested to be watched but isn’t it grand that we live in a world with so many options. We’re lucky to be able to loose ourselves in TV and movies even if it’s just for a moment. We can literally put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and get a view of the world we’d otherwise never have. It holds a mirror up to our ugly truths and shows us that we’re more alike than we could ever be different. Our shows have the ability to add humanity to evil queens, justice to an unjust world, and makes us believe in the possibly of true love.