Under-the-radar Netflix show ‘one of the best of the year'
Has it ever been harder to be a middle-aged woman? Seriously — it's tough out there.
We've got young children to raise, and elderly parents to care for. Add in a bit of perimenopausal rage and honestly — it's a s..t show.
And I get it — had I been born a couple of hundred years earlier, there'd be every chance I'd not have made it this far. And had I survived to the ripe old age of 47, I'd be considered positively ancient, hurtling towards the grave. Or being dunked in a village pond, or burned at the stake — or all of the above.
So yeah, I guess in relative terms, it's not so bad. But it certainly feels like hard graft as I navigate life in The Sandwich Generation; that group of us born in the mid-to-late 70s and early 80s, stuck raising kids and caring for ageing boomer parents.
Maybe that's why I identified so much with this great under-the-radar series. Pernille, or Pørni, as it's known in its country of origin, is a Norwegian comedy/drama all about a woman my age going through it. It originally aired on SBS, but Netflix picked it up and commissioned two more series, and honestly, it's one of the best things I've seen this year.
Actor turned writer/director Henriette Steenstrup stars as the eponymous Pørni (pronounced Pernille), a recently divorced social worker raising two teenage girls. She's dealing with the grief of her recently deceased sister while also caring for her sister's son and elderly father, who recently came out as gay. To say her life is a hot mess would be an understatement. And yet, she approaches it all with so much positivity and relatability and grace, that it's literally impossible not to fall in love with this superb series. While you can watch it dubbed in English, I urge you to check out the original-language version — there's something lovely about listening to the lilting Norwegian, a language I mostly associated with grizzly Scandi Noir dramas.
This is beautiful, heartwarming television that shot right to my heart. Women of a certain age: you'll feel SEEN. The Bear Season four is coming to Disney Plus. Credit: Supplied
I don't get why so many people had such beef with season three of The Bear. Sure, it didn't have the urgency of those brilliant first two seasons, but in my mind, it was an essential building block for a story reaching crescendo with season four.
The clock is ticking — literally in the trailer, which shows a clock counting down the money the team has left before Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) shuts their doors for good — and it's make or break for Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his crew.
Seasons three and four were shot back-to-back, and this picks up immediately where we left things, with that review, and Sydney's (Ayo Edebiri) possible departure hanging over their heads. Can't wait to see where it takes us. Stranded on Honeymoon Island starts this Monday on Seven Credit: Supplied.
Your next favourite guilty pleasure is here! This 'MAFS-meets-Survivor' dating series sees newlywed strangers dumped on a deserted island in nothing but their wedding attire — what a concept. This crackers show will have you hooked. Carrie, that you? The Gilded Age returns to Paramount Plus. Credit: Supplied
Before she was having existential crises over pina coladas at The White Lotus, Carrie Coon was trussed up in a bodice and bustle in this historical series from Downton Abbey creator, Julian Fellowes. It returns this week for its anticipated third season. Consistently enjoyable. The third and final season of Squid Game is headed to Netflix. And you KNOW it's not going to be smooth sailing for Player 456. Credit: No Ju-han/Netflix
It's one of the biggest shows in the world, with an audience in the hundreds of millions. So get ready for literally everyone you know to be talking about the third series of this Korean classic, which wraps up for good. Get ready for one heck of a showdown between Gi-hun (Player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae) and Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) — can't wait.
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West Australian
5 hours ago
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Screen Queen TV Reviews: Pernille, Stranded On Honeymoon Island, The Bear, Squid Game S3 & The Gilded Age
Has it ever been harder to be a middle-aged woman? Seriously — it's tough out there. We've got young children to raise, and elderly parents to care for. Add in a bit of perimenopausal rage and honestly — it's a s..t show. And I get it — had I been born a couple of hundred years earlier, there'd be every chance I'd not have made it this far. And had I survived to the ripe old age of 47, I'd be considered positively ancient, hurtling towards the grave. Or being dunked in a village pond, or burned at the stake — or all of the above. So yeah, I guess in relative terms, it's not so bad. But it certainly feels like hard graft as I navigate life in The Sandwich Generation; that group of us born in the mid-to-late 70s and early 80s, stuck raising kids and caring for ageing boomer parents. Maybe that's why I identified so much with this great under-the-radar series. Pernille, or Pørni, as it's known in its country of origin, is a Norwegian comedy/drama all about a woman my age going through it. It originally aired on SBS, but Netflix picked it up and commissioned two more series, and honestly, it's one of the best things I've seen this year. Actor turned writer/director Henriette Steenstrup stars as the eponymous Pørni (pronounced Pernille), a recently divorced social worker raising two teenage girls. She's dealing with the grief of her recently deceased sister while also caring for her sister's son and elderly father, who recently came out as gay. To say her life is a hot mess would be an understatement. And yet, she approaches it all with so much positivity and relatability and grace, that it's literally impossible not to fall in love with this superb series. While you can watch it dubbed in English, I urge you to check out the original-language version — there's something lovely about listening to the lilting Norwegian, a language I mostly associated with grizzly Scandi Noir dramas. This is beautiful, heartwarming television that shot right to my heart. Women of a certain age: you'll feel SEEN. I don't get why so many people had such beef with season three of The Bear. Sure, it didn't have the urgency of those brilliant first two seasons, but in my mind, it was an essential building block for a story reaching crescendo with season four. The clock is ticking — literally in the trailer, which shows a clock counting down the money the team has left before Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) shuts their doors for good — and it's make or break for Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his crew. Seasons three and four were shot back-to-back, and this picks up immediately where we left things, with that review, and Sydney's (Ayo Edebiri) possible departure hanging over their heads. Can't wait to see where it takes us. Your next favourite guilty pleasure is here! This 'MAFS-meets-Survivor' dating series sees newlywed strangers dumped on a deserted island in nothing but their wedding attire — what a concept. This crackers show will have you hooked. Before she was having existential crises over pina coladas at The White Lotus, Carrie Coon was trussed up in a bodice and bustle in this historical series from Downton Abbey creator, Julian Fellowes. It returns this week for its anticipated third season. Consistently enjoyable. It's one of the biggest shows in the world, with an audience in the hundreds of millions. So get ready for literally everyone you know to be talking about the third series of this Korean classic, which wraps up for good. Get ready for one heck of a showdown between Gi-hun (Player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae) and Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) — can't wait.
Perth Now
5 hours ago
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Under-the-radar Netflix show ‘one of the best of the year'
Has it ever been harder to be a middle-aged woman? Seriously — it's tough out there. We've got young children to raise, and elderly parents to care for. Add in a bit of perimenopausal rage and honestly — it's a s..t show. And I get it — had I been born a couple of hundred years earlier, there'd be every chance I'd not have made it this far. And had I survived to the ripe old age of 47, I'd be considered positively ancient, hurtling towards the grave. Or being dunked in a village pond, or burned at the stake — or all of the above. So yeah, I guess in relative terms, it's not so bad. But it certainly feels like hard graft as I navigate life in The Sandwich Generation; that group of us born in the mid-to-late 70s and early 80s, stuck raising kids and caring for ageing boomer parents. Maybe that's why I identified so much with this great under-the-radar series. Pernille, or Pørni, as it's known in its country of origin, is a Norwegian comedy/drama all about a woman my age going through it. It originally aired on SBS, but Netflix picked it up and commissioned two more series, and honestly, it's one of the best things I've seen this year. Actor turned writer/director Henriette Steenstrup stars as the eponymous Pørni (pronounced Pernille), a recently divorced social worker raising two teenage girls. She's dealing with the grief of her recently deceased sister while also caring for her sister's son and elderly father, who recently came out as gay. To say her life is a hot mess would be an understatement. And yet, she approaches it all with so much positivity and relatability and grace, that it's literally impossible not to fall in love with this superb series. While you can watch it dubbed in English, I urge you to check out the original-language version — there's something lovely about listening to the lilting Norwegian, a language I mostly associated with grizzly Scandi Noir dramas. This is beautiful, heartwarming television that shot right to my heart. Women of a certain age: you'll feel SEEN. The Bear Season four is coming to Disney Plus. Credit: Supplied I don't get why so many people had such beef with season three of The Bear. Sure, it didn't have the urgency of those brilliant first two seasons, but in my mind, it was an essential building block for a story reaching crescendo with season four. The clock is ticking — literally in the trailer, which shows a clock counting down the money the team has left before Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) shuts their doors for good — and it's make or break for Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his crew. Seasons three and four were shot back-to-back, and this picks up immediately where we left things, with that review, and Sydney's (Ayo Edebiri) possible departure hanging over their heads. Can't wait to see where it takes us. Stranded on Honeymoon Island starts this Monday on Seven Credit: Supplied. Your next favourite guilty pleasure is here! This 'MAFS-meets-Survivor' dating series sees newlywed strangers dumped on a deserted island in nothing but their wedding attire — what a concept. This crackers show will have you hooked. Carrie, that you? The Gilded Age returns to Paramount Plus. Credit: Supplied Before she was having existential crises over pina coladas at The White Lotus, Carrie Coon was trussed up in a bodice and bustle in this historical series from Downton Abbey creator, Julian Fellowes. It returns this week for its anticipated third season. Consistently enjoyable. The third and final season of Squid Game is headed to Netflix. And you KNOW it's not going to be smooth sailing for Player 456. Credit: No Ju-han/Netflix It's one of the biggest shows in the world, with an audience in the hundreds of millions. So get ready for literally everyone you know to be talking about the third series of this Korean classic, which wraps up for good. Get ready for one heck of a showdown between Gi-hun (Player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae) and Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) — can't wait.
The Age
a day ago
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Lifting the mask: Squid Game's villain Front Man reveals (almost) all
There's a superb moment in the third and (ostensibly) final season of Squid Game when our hero Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), aka player 456, comes face to face with masked villain the Front Man. As the person in charge of the sadistic, bloody and fight-to-the-death competition removes his mask, Gi-hun realises he is in fact Oh Young-il, player 001 in season two, a man Gi-hun had thought of as a colleague, a co-conspirator and a fellow rebel – until the awful moment he realised he was actually just a traitor. Gi-hun is, understandably, furious. And not for the first time, the mild-mannered former autoworker finds himself with a knife in hand, and the opportunity to wreak vengeance. But is it in his nature to do so? For the Front Man, the question is both academic and inconsequential. 'Go ahead,' he taunts Gi-hun. 'If you kill me, it will make no difference. Someone else will take my place.' And in that line, we have creator Hwang Dong-hyuk's central and deeply pessimistic thesis: it's the system that's the problem, more than any individual. It is brutal, self-perpetuating, and essentially unbeatable. And as the final series of six episodes drops, we finally get to see how Netflix's massive breakout hit from Korea will end. 'Even though it's taken to the very extreme and it's portrayed in a very dramatic way, I believe Squid Game is a metaphor for the current society we live in, a condensed version of society,' Lee Byung-hun, the respected Korean actor who plays the Front Man, says through a translator. 'I think through that scene and through the overarching theme, we just wanted to raise the issue of unfairness and the other challenges that need to be addressed in the current society. 'Of course, the show is packed with a lot of entertainment and excitement. There's never a slow moment, and you're glued to the screen from start to finish because of all the intensity,' he continues. 'But at the end of the day, I think the series is trying to tackle the theme of loss of humanity. To what extent can people lose their humanity, what's the lowest point we can reach, and how do we find momentum to create a better world? I think this series creates room for us to have that conversation.' For Lee, the role offered a unique set of challenges. For starters, he's not playing one character, but three – Front Man, Oh Young-il and Hwang In-ho, the older brother of policeman Hwang Jun-ho, who was shot by the Front Man at the end of season one (but not, it transpired, fatally). Loading For another, a good chunk of his time on screen is spent with a mask over his face. And that, he admits, presented some issues. 'As an actor, you're really used to expressing your emotions through your facial expressions, your gaze and dialogue. But here my emotions had to be hidden. At first, it was a little frustrating, but as we went along, I found that acting behind a mask was also strangely fascinating because it had the viewers guessing what his expressions would be behind that mask. And as the viewers find out more and more about the Front Man, they get even more intrigued about which face or which emotions he might be having behind that mask. So I thought there was a weird charm to that.' Oh Young-il, player 001, reveals his backstory to Gi-hun in season two. He had a wife with a life-threatening medical condition, and she was pregnant and determined to go through with the birth even if it killed her. He borrowed money for treatment, but it wasn't enough. Eventually, he took a loan from a 'vendor'. When that was discovered by his employer, the loan was seen as a bribe, and he was sacked from the job to which he had devoted his life. 'These games,' he tells Gi-hun, 'were my last hope.' Is any of it true? 'Everything he's saying in that scene is a fact, except for one thing,' Lee says. 'The wife and their child passed away years ago. But aside from that, everything that he's saying is genuine, authentic Hwang In-ho.' Playing those scenes meant performing a subtle dance between the 'true' Hwang (who, like his brother, had been a policeman) and the invented Oh (whose name subtly echoes that of the old man creator of the game, Oh Il-nam, who wore 001 in the show's first season). As his brother discovered in the files hidden in the island complex's storage facility in season one, Hwang In-ho was the winner of the 2015 edition of the games (blink and you might have missed it). Now, in season three, we get a flashback to In-ho's time as a genuine player – and it offers some insight into his state of mind in the present day. 'When he first joined the game as a player, Hwang In-ho could have had some shred of compassion or hope left in humanity,' says Lee. 'But I believe the current Hwang In-ho is closest to the Front Man, who has zero hope in humanity and the world, a true pessimist.' When he enters the game as Oh Young-il, he tries to assume the persona of 'the most average person'. Lee concedes he had trouble envisaging how someone so bereft of faith in humanity could reconnect with that, until writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk encouraged him to loosen up, to allow Young-il to be seduced by the pleasure of playing the games. Loading 'It added an eccentric, even a creepy, eerie, touch,' Lee says. 'I guess it all started off as an act. Take the pentathlon, for instance – I bet he started off acting and performing those emotions, but at a certain moment in time he got really immersed in those games, and once he was in the moment, he started feeling fear, joy and relief for real. Once he was in the moment, those emotions that he felt when he was actually a player in the game back in the day were really brought back.' What about his relationship with Gi-hun? Does he actually care about him, in a positive or a negative way? After all, he does spare him at the end of season two, though you could read that as an act of cruelty rather than mercy. What is really going on here? 'I think Gi-hun's success or failure or even death doesn't really matter much to the Front Man,' he says. He sees some element of himself in Gi-hun perhaps – of the self he once was – and 'he wants to break Gi-hun's spirit. 'You just wait and see, you're gonna make the same decision as me.' So he just wants to observe Gi-hun from his side, to see what happens.' Is there, though, a part of him that maybe hopes Gi-hun doesn't go down the same path, as a demonstration that not everyone is corruptible? 'As I was playing the Front Man throughout season three, that was what I had in mind,' Lee admits. 'I believe there were a lot of mixed emotions in his mind, like envy or jealousy … because he is a little ashamed about how he compromised and gave up at a certain point, but Gi-hun manages to hold on to his hope and humanity very persistently. Loading 'So even though the Front Man wants to break Gi-hun, I do believe there is a little shred of compassion left in him that still believes in human beings and just hopes that Gi-hun is right. So I believe one part of the Front Man is at least rooting for him. So I tried to express that, slightly.' Assuming Gi-hun survives to the end, do you think he would go into the game a third time, perhaps as player 001? Do you think he would choose survival at all cost? Do you think he might even take on the role of the Front Man himself? 'This is not a spoiler, this is just me speaking as a viewer,' says Lee. 'If I were given a choice between Gi-hun just participating in the game once again as a player with a different number and Gi-hun becoming the Front Man of the game, I think the latter option would be much more fascinating to watch.'
