Hi, friends. TGIF, am I right? This week was a doozy.
The temperature here in Boston was 8 degrees today, so you know what that means - streaming weather.
Before we dive into this week's picks, here are a few things to look forward to:
- Friday, February 5 - The New York Times has produced a documentary called Framing Britney Spears, which explores her current life under the conservatorship of her father and the #FreeBritney movement. This will air on FX and FX on Hulu.
- Friday, February 12 - The third and final installment of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before movie franchise hits Netflix. This is the perfect primer ahead of Valentine's Day.
- Wednesday, February 17 - This is a big day. The Real Housewives of New Jersey return to Bravo and Good Trouble comes back to Freeform. I have missed both of these shows terribly!
- Wednesday, February 24 - I follow Scott Porter on Instagram (Jason Street from Friday Night Lights and George Tucker from Hart of Dixie) and he shared that a new show he's in is coming to Netflix next month called Ginny & Georgia. It seems like a Gilmore Girls-type story of a young mom and her teenage daughter.
Now onto this week's picks. Today's list is a bit short because I spent the majority of the past week watching all three seasons of Harlots on Hulu. If you loved Bridgerton and need more British / period shows, I highly recommend it.
1. Blown Away (Netflix) - My mom and I watched season one of Blown Away when it first debuted, back in the summer of 2019. We were all alone in a rental house on Cape Cod (at the last-minute my dad couldn't come and my sister was too pregnant to fly), so in the evenings we entertained ourselves with this timed, glass-blowing competition.
While this may be the most niche show on Netflix, it's also one of the best. Glass blowing is extremely challenging (the heat of the fire alone) and watching these artists come up with stunning creations in just a few hours will actually blow you away.
I thought this season's contestants had a wide range of styles, which made every round more interesting. Season two has 10 episodes and each one is about 25 minutes long.
2. The American President (Netflix or Amazon) - I used to own this movie on DVD and I watched it many times in college. If you aren't familiar, Michael Douglas plays the President of the United States and Annette Bening plays a lobbyist he falls in love with.
Tensions arise when the American people aren't sure they want their President to have a girlfriend. Facing re-election, the President is forced to choose - will he take a stand for his relationship or buckle under the pressure?
In addition to Douglas and Bening, the supporting cast in this movie is incredible - Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Joshua Malina and Richard Dreyfuss.
If you want to keep the Inauguration good vibes rolling, queue this one up!
3. Tortilla Soup (Netflix) - A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had re-watched Julie & Julia when I just needed a comfort watch. In that same vein, this past week I re-watched Tortilla Soup, which stars Hector Elizondo as a father of three daughters. Elizondo plays Martin, a chef who has lost his sense of taste.
His daughters - Carmen, Leticia and Maribel - each have their own drama. Carmen wants to become a chef but feels she doesn't have her father's support; Leticia is a teacher who falls for the school's new baseball coach; and Maribel wants to abandon the idea of going to college in order to find herself.
Regardless of their squabbles, each week they gather around Martin's dining room table for dinner. The food always looks incredible and when the credits rolled, for the first time I noticed that all the recipes featured in the movie were created by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken from Border Grill in Los Angeles.
If you've exhausted all the options on Food Network, try this to mix it up.
There you have it! This week's recommendations. I'll be back next Friday with a fresh round.
*Images courtesy of Unsplash, Architectural Digest, The Ace Black Movie Blog and Where Traveler.
