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TV & Film Worth Staying In For in 2021

TV & Film Worth Staying In For in 2021

Age Space has teamed up with award winning online magazine Annabel & Grace to bring you a monthly series of lifestyle articles specifically targeting the over 50โ€™s.

Weโ€™re very excited to be working with these two ladies as they are experienced life jugglers and honorary members of our โ€˜Bad Daughtersโ€™ club. Positivity is their mantra and they certainly know how to enjoy later life. Not letting May’s miserable weather bring them down, they indulged in a bit of sofa culture to bring us 13 of their must-see TV series and films.

annabel grace tv

The sun is finally shining but last month was a complete wash out which gave us ample opportunity to ย write this article about the best TV series and films for June. We appreciate social diaries are getting busy with al fresco dining and socialising with friends we haven’t seen for a long time. However, if you fancy a little down time there is lots of great TV on offer. Here are some of the programmes Grace and I are watching or have saved on our favourites. Weโ€™ve tried to include a broad range to cater for everyone’s tastes, so grab your snack of choice, the remote and pop your feet up!

Devils | Sky Atlantic

My husband and I have loved this series. He loved it because it was all about millionaire bankers during various financial crises. In contrast, I was more focused on Patrick Dempsey, one of the leads, whom I loved as ‘McDreamy’ in Grey’s Anatomy – a series I stopped watching after he died (so shallow, I know).

In this, he plays a nasty banker – well, we all love to hate bankers, so it was never going to be a role that we could get behind.

This fast-paced, ruthless tale anchors itself in real-life headlineย stories, from the Argentine crisis and the recessions in Ireland and Greece to the Strauss-Kahn scandal, building fromย dramaย to thriller as it paints an ominously topical picture of the power wielded by the world’s top financiers. By the way season 2 is being filmed in Rome now.

Watch the Devils trailer below:

Halston | Netflix

Halston is a limited series starring Ewan McGregor as the iconic fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, known by the single name Halston. There are a lot of sex scenes, painting a similar realistic and egotistical picture of that era as the acclaimed Channel 4 series โ€˜Itโ€™s a Sinโ€™. However, Halston is much more glamorous and the fashion side of the programme is fun to watch.

Watch the Halston trailer below:

Drive to Survive | Netflix

Grace is hooked on this, and before watching it, she had no interest in Formula 1 racing. This is a behind the scene’s documentary series that is as nail-biting as any of the races.

The intrigue, back-stabbing, emotion, and danger are all in this series, and it adds another dimension to this fascinating sport. Race-defining events happen out of sight, on the other side of the circuit!

Watch the Drive to Survive trailer below:ย 

The Underground Railroad | Amazon Prime

I read the book some time ago. While anything to do with slavery does not sit comfortably with us, this is a beautifully crafted story based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead has been handled sensitively and turned into a captivating series by Academy Award winning Director Barry Jenkins.

The real underground railroad, the historical 19th-Century network of people and safe houses that helped slaves escape, becomes a literal, physical train line carrying people to safety. The main character, Cora, makes several stops on the railroad’s route as she runs from enslavement on a Georgia plantation, pursued obsessively by a slavecatcher named Ridgeway.

Watch The Underground Railroad trailer below:

Domina | Sky Atlantic

An epic family saga that takes us back to ancient Rome, this Sky drama by Fortitude writer Simon Burke brings to life the power politics that dominated the era by telling the real-life story of Livia Drusilla (Kasia Smutniak), the wife and advisor to the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar.

Charting the first Empressโ€™ extraordinary rise to power, it begins with young Liviaโ€™s world crumbling following the assassination of Julius Caesar. In the years that follow, Livia must traverse her way through a brutal society to seek revenge, secure power for her sons and eventually become Rome’s most influential woman. An international cast includes Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) as Liviaโ€™s father Livius, and Colette Tchantcho (The Witcher) as Antigone, Liviaโ€™s best friend, ex-slave and closest ally.

Watch the Domina trailer below:

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The Woman in the Window | Netflix

Agoraphobic Dr Anna Fox, played by the fantastic Amy Adams, witnesses something she shouldn’t while keeping tabs on the family that live over the way from her โ€“ and realises they may not be the picture-perfect group that she had once assumed.

Our reviewer says she found this quite disturbing and quickly drew her curtains whilst watching it.

Watch The Woman in the Window trailer below:ย 

Ice Cold Murders | More4

This series has already picked up 7 awards and after just two episodes Iโ€™m gripped. It is sub-titled, but as the original language is Italian and so expressive, you get it before reading the sub-titles. Each episode is its own story revolving around rule breaking, womanising Detective, Rocco Schiavone who has been exiled to a seemingly sleepy touristy alpine town.

This series is less about the individual cases and more about the characters involved. The script is funny, warm and there aren’t too many scenes that you have to watch through your fingers. I highly recommend it.

Watch the Ice Cold Murders trailer below:

Inside Your Honor | Sky

This US adaptation of the Israeli series Kvodo is based in New Orleans and follows Judge Michael Desiato (Bryan Cranston, who as always is brilliant) as he uncovers dark truths about himself and his capacity for compromise and corruption under pressure.ย It may not be Breaking Bad, but it definitely is tense viewing. Please don’t give up after the first two episodes as I did because I found the storyline very distressing.

Watch the inside Your Honor trailer below:

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The Mare of Easttown | Sky Atlantic

I love Kate Winslet, who stars in this series as Mare, a detective investigating a series of murders in a small town nearย Philadelphia. Chameleon Kate, plays an unglamorous single mum, juggling life after her sonโ€™s suicide, divorce and a custody battle with heroin-addicted daughter-in-law. The community are pressurising her to solve the disappearance and murders of young girls and at home sheโ€™s battling life with a teenage daughter, toddler grandson and sharp-tongued mother played by the wonderful Jean Smart.

My husband and I thought this one of the best series of the month, and we are still watching it as a new episode comes out each week. Kate is absolutely outstanding. There are so many theories being voiced on social media about โ€˜who dunnitโ€™ and so it will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final curtain.

Watch The Mare of Easttown trailer below:ย 

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Motherland | BBC2

One of our favourite comedies and great viewing for everyone โ€“ you donโ€™t have to be a mum! Iโ€™m sure thereโ€™s a few grandparents out there who will relate to the childcare dramas and rescues.

Series 3 kicks off with Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin fresh from Line of Duty) ostracised by the other mums when she is accused of triggering a wave of head lice at school.ย If you have had children, you will be able to relate to the school gates scenario – priceless.

Binge worthy TV at its best and if itโ€™s still raining, we suggest you work your way through series 1 to 3 over a weekend.

Watch the Motherland trailer below:ย 

The Stranger | Netflix

This series has all the tension and intrigue of Line of Duty. The Strangerย tells the intriguing story of a woman who parachutes into peopleโ€™s lives, drops bombshells and then disappears as quickly as she arrived. For example, Adam (played by Richard Armitage) is minding his own business at his sonโ€™s football match when The Stranger says hello. She tells him his wife faked her most recent pregnancy (and subsequent miscarriage). She then dashes off before he can work out what on earth is going on. Unsurprisingly his life is thrown into a spin, and he canโ€™t work out who to trust.

But why does this woman want to stir trouble? And how does she find out these closely guarded secrets? With an exceptional cast including Jennifer Saunders, Siobhan Finneran and Dervla Kirwan, the mysteries will keep you guessing right up to the very end.

Watch The Stranger trailer below:ย 

Prodigal Son season 2 | Fox, Hulu

Malcolm Bright is one of the best criminal psychologists around and uses his twisted genius to help the NYPD solve crimes. However, he has a dark past.

His father is the infamous serial killer known as “The Surgeon” and as a child, Malcolm helped the police put him behind bars. After a copycat serial killer uses his father’s methods, Malcolm is forced to re-establish contact with his father to help the police solve the case. His unique ability to see things from the killer’s perspective, causes him to live in a perpetual state of fear that he will one day succumb to the same sociopath tendencies as his father.

Watch the Prodigal Son season 2 trailer below:

The Kominsky Method | Netflix

Third and final season of this comedy-drama starring Michael Douglas as ageing-actor-turned-acting-coach Sandy. This final chapter finds Sandy dealing with the trials of ageing without his long-term friend Norman (Alan Arkin) and in charge of managing Norman’s estate. Things get even more complicated when Sandyโ€™s ex-wife Roz (Kathleen Turner) turns up in Los Angeles. Special guest stars Morgan Freeman and Barry Levinson drop in to play fictionalised versions of themselves.

Watch The Kominsky Method trailer below:ย 

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