My Netflix Binges Of Fall

VAMPIRE ACADEMY

Abbie's Reel Review Rating: 3.75 Out Of 5 Stars

I have a serious confession to make. I came across a fight sequence between Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov (movie names) that convinced me to watch another vampire movie. Secondly, Christian Ozera is being played by Dominic Sherwood who is playing the YA warrior icon Jace Wayland in Shadowhunters (2016). I had to watch his acting as Netflix proudly announced Vampire Academy.

Will I read the books? Maybe! Because I admire Dimitri's warrior-god character and Rose's power woman stance in the movie. I would love to read that in detail. The chemistry between them is great! But then I am evaluating if I can invest my time in another vampire series. The movie was a good watch but not as enchanting as Twilight was. Seriously!

At first when I started watching, the academy felt like a parody of Hogwarts! There was high school drama and vampire mixed into that formula. Also, I felt everything was being rushed and I had to absorb more in that little screen time. The best parts of the movie were definitely the fight sequences between Rose and Dimitri and when she was trying to overthrow him and failed miserably.

The villain was NOT evil for me at all. It was not at all a powerful vampire movie.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN
Abbie's Reel Review Rating: 4.5 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror

"American Horror Story: Coven tells the secret history of witches and witchcraft in America. Over 300 years have passed since the turbulent days of the Salem witch trials and those who managed to escape are now facing extinction. Mysterious attacks have been escalating against their kind and young girls are being sent away to a special school in New Orleans to learn how to protect themselves. Wrapped up in the turmoil is new arrival, Zoe (Taissa Farmiga), who is harboring a terrifying secret of her own. Alarmed by the recent aggression, Fiona (Jessica Lange), the long-absent Supreme, sweeps back into town determined to protect the Coven and hell bent on decimating anyone who gets in her way."

Witchcraft is one of my favorite supernatural themes, after vampire of course. When I saw Madame Delphine LaLaurie inflict gore torture on black slaves in her torture chamber, I had second thoughts about Coven. I have seen the previous two seasons and they did not work for me at all because of being seriously depressing and very disturbing. Coven; however, turned out to be better. It is maybe because it is more about female power play than a psycho male killer. Witchcraft is a pretty interesting theme as compared to the devious gore nonsense from Asylum. Jessica Lange is doing an out of the world amazing job at playing Fiona Goode, the Supreme of the Coven of Salem witches. She was so powerful as Sister Jude in Asylum as well. Coven brings out the beauty of her age more perfectly. My favorite witch is Misty Day (Lily Rabe) because she is just a perfect cross between gypsy and rock star. She is a major Stevie Nicks fan. Her funny ways keep me entertained amidst the dark, dark theme. There is considerable gore in this season but for some reason it is not as pathetic and nauseating as in the Asylum.

There are multiple stories of multiple characters running parallel to each other. The Salem witch coven is in enmity with African voodoo witch coven. Fiona Goode verses Marie. There are students at the witch institution with various power specialties. None of them come of as powerful to me as Fiona Goode. Fiona wishes to slay them all because certainly one of them is the next Supreme (her successor) and as her power's develop, Fiona falls weaker. She is terminally ill with cancer and is close to being perished. 

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST SEASON 1 (2012)
Abbie's Reel Review Rating: 5 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Science fiction, Suspense, Police Procedural, Romance

"Catherine Chandler witnesses her mother being shot the same night she is saved from her mother's murderers by a supposed beast. Nine years later, now working as a detective for the NYPD, a case leads her to discover that Vincent Keller, an ex-soldier believed to have been killed in action during military service, is actually alive. As Catherine gets to know him, she starts finding out more about her mother's murder and about who (and what) Vincent really is."

There is a new crime being solved in almost every episode. Each time I find myself watching some new thrilling story. The main saga continues to unravel parallel to it all. It took almost the entire season for Vincent and Catherine to actually declare themselves a couple. So the wait for romance fans is definitely longer than Twilight movies! HAHA! But this is not gooey romantic folks, this is sci-fi, crime thriller, practical romantic. Both Vincent and Catherine are being vigilantes and looking after each others' backs. I watched very little of the show this Fall. Vincent, Catherine, and J.T. devised a successful plan to dodge the special task force and they all ended up believing that the murderer they are looking for died in a suicide blast at the chemical factory. Vincent, J.T., and Catherine take to fleeing through the underground sewer system. Their flawless getaway fails when Tess discovers Vincent running away and shoots him in the gut because he's started mutating to his wild self out of rage. I have really liked the show so far! 

HEMLOCK GROVE - SEASON 1 (2013)

Abbie's Reel Review Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Horror thriller TV series (Netflix original)

"The series is set in the town of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania. The town is a mixture of extreme wealth and poverty, as the closing of the town's steel mill many years earlier caused many to lose their jobs. The town's main sources of employment are now the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and Hemlock Acres Hospital. Heading the Institute - which is rumored to conduct sinister experiments on a daily basis - is the imposing Olivia Godfrey, while Hemlock Acres' lead psychiatrist is Olivia's dead husband's brother, Dr. Norman Godfrey.
In season one opens, the town's rumor mill turns even more twisted, as two teenage girls are brutally killed and their bodies left for unsuspecting people to find the next day. Peter Rumancek a 17-year-old roma boy, is suspected of the crimes by some of the townsfolk; he is also rumored to be a werewolf. While secretly he is a werewolf, he is not the killer, and, along with the heir to the Godfrey estate, the troubled Roman Godfrey, he sets out to solve the mystery."

I am not a werewolf person so I kept putting off this show until I decided why not give it a try. There are gruesome murders happening and there is the mystery as to who is doing them. There is another supernatural breed called Upir that is on the loose. They eat skin! Get that! So there is more nasty stuff besides the werewolf. Olivia's son Roman is discovering the truth about him being an Upir. He learns about Dr. Pryce at Godfrey Institute who is up to no good creating Frankensteins or something in his lab. There is a lot going on and I am fine with watching it so far.