La Dolce Villa

Father (Eric) is a restaurant consultant so wrapped up in his work he doesn't have time for his daughter (Olivia), who is off in Europe finding herself. Both are still grieving the loss of mom. When Olivia plans to buy a 1Euro house in Italy, Eric makes the trip to stop the craziness. Of course, they find the perfect place in the perfect town with a nice, single, cute mayor and buy the house. Completely predictable romantic comedy with completely contrived plot tension... and yet enjoyable. Very "hallmark hall of fame - saturday afternoon TV" vibe. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Shakespeare and Hathaway (serial)

4 Seasons

British comedy/drama built around a private detective pair. Hathaway is former police and guy with the experience in detecting. He has friends in the force, but his credibility is variable. Shakespeare is one of his first cases and her natural talent for observation and detecting leads to a partnership. The series is light hearted and British cheesy. Reminds me in tone of Death in Paradise. The titular reference plays out throughout the series with a wannabe actor as an office admin regularly providing references to the Bard. This has been a great series to watch over the past year - episodes on occasion when something light was needed. 

4 stars (out of 5)

High Potential (serial)

Season 1

A super high IQ single mom who is barely holding it together with her 3 kids is perpetually broke. She helps LAPD detectives solve a murder case after seeing the evidence photos at her night job cleaning the office. Then she becomes an indispenible consultant. The modern Monk.

3 stars (out of 5)

Girl Haunts Boy

Cole moves to a new house only to find his room is haunted. This is added to the reality of his existing experience of being haunted by the memory of his recently passed dad. Fortunately, the newest haunting is a good looking girl from 1920s New York who he is able to befriend and work out some of his angst. Oh, and he gets to try to figure out how to release her from ghost-dom. Lightweight, feel good rom-com that at least doesn't fall for the 'Girl gets boy in the end' trope.

3 stars (out of 5)

Almost Pregnant

I primarily watched this because of the starring role of a former student of mine. First, it is a good romantic comedy. Amy Schumer makes one, little, bad decision to try on a pregnancy bump and suddenly it is a lie she can't take back. The resulting interactions and relationships are really good and she doesn't want to lose them. Alas, she must. The humor and interactions are not brilliant or hilarious, but instead this is a sweet comedy. And as such, must end up 'happily ever after'. Second, I will comment on watching someone you know (or once knew) acting in film like this is strange. I still see the kid sitting in the back row of my Physics class laughing with her friends. So it was hard to see the character for the actor. But by the end, I bought it, which  I will attribute more to good acting than my own ability to see deeply into characterization. Well done Bri. 

4 stars (out of 5)

XO Kitty (serial)

Season 1 & Season 2

Based on the character Kitty in All the Boys I've Loved Before, and set 8ish years later. Kitty is accepted to go to school abroad to the same school her late mother attended in Korea. She goes to learn as much as she can about her family history. She gains friends, and makes dramatic discoveries. She basically manifests everything that she hoped to happen into being - although the outcomes were not always exactly how she envisioned them. Clearly a YA teen drama (of which I am of course the target audience), but really a pretty well done story telling and sustained freshness. Season 2 could have easily dropped into trite derivative drivel, but instead the storyline was massaged to take you just a bit deeper in exploring and thinking about your own family history. Some of the secondary characters were too stereotypically 2-dimensional, but I suppose someone had to be flat in order for others to feel bright. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Shotgun Wedding

JLo and Josh Duhamel are getting married. Madly in love, but an unlikely pairing based on family history, they choose to initiate a destination wedding in the Philippines (it is cheaper than Bali). Pirates invade the wedding and demand ransom from JLo's rich father. I guess what follows could be considered slapstick action. No real action skills or choreography is exhibited, but the wedding party is successfully taking out armed pirates. A couple of twists (well foreshadowed, so maybe just slight bends in the plot line) help things out a bit. Late night fun

3 stars (out of 5)