Ok gang, it’s been a while since our last Whatcha Watching? and we've put some good ones under our belt lately so let’s rip on our reviews of what we’ve been watching these chilly Winter evenings. And you'll notice a common thread of evil weaved through these bloody captivating watches!
If you’ve been around you know how this goes, Matt and I both star rate and review the three series we’ve been watching (in robes).
FAKE - Paramount
This drama-thriller series is about journalist, Birdie Bell, who hopes she’s finally met her ideal man on a dating app. Inspired by the 2019 book with the same name by Stephanie Wood, as the series unfolds, it becomes harder and harder to believe that Joe Burt is the successful business same he paints himself to be.
Lucy 8.5/10 - I mean who doesn’t love Asher Keddie?! She’s just the best Aussie actor going around. This series is terrifying and not in the horror kinda way, but rather the nightmare of falling for the wrong person online. The characters are people we all know; the difficult mother (def not mine, love you mum), the supportive yet protective best friends, the skeptical and direct colleague. Birdie Bell reminds us how we can go against our inner knowing, our intuition, because it’s easier than facing the truth. It explores how as humans can be manipulated and gaslit by the lies of others. I honestly know I would be the most gullible and worst online dater, so watching Fake made me even more thankful for Matt van der Riet.
Matt 5/10 (WARNING SPOILERS) - Yep, Asher goes alright. David Wenham who plays Joe Burt, was a full creep. It's a solid production with a good cast of supporting actors but the series is as slow as Joe Biden having a thought. Birdie was frustrating because this dude is seriously red flag city and she's a journalist, yet did zero investigation on this muppet despite multiple warnings. Quite a few plot holes. If Joe Burt was played by Clooney you'd understand why she'd get love drunk, but David Wenham has trained off significantly since he was in 300, looks like an old boot. And why the hell did Joe scam Birdie but not take her money? What were his motives? This started well but went for 4 episodes too long. The ending was a fizzer.
THE MAN WITH 1000 KIDS - Netflix
Jonathan Meijer, a Dutch sperm donor and You-Tuber (what a combo), is discovered of abusing sperm donation laws and defrauding vulnerable families in the Netherlands and around the world with nobody really knowing how many children he has fathered. This doco explores his escapades and the families he has fathered.
Lucy 7.5/10 - Again the depths of mistrust is the core theme in this documentary that follows a sperm donor who literally has an unaccounted number of children he has fathered through sperm donation. The deception, motivation and delusion of Jonathon is as terrifying as the lack of international regulation in this industry. But there's a feel good element, which I adore, because despite the heartache of so many families he tricked, there's a triumph of the people. A reminder that love wins. Love always wins, even in the most bizarre of circumstances. Watching docos on themes I know nothing about like sperm donation, is also a great perspective expander.
Matt 5/10 - This was bizarre, and kinda engaging because of a weird morbid curiosity that drags you in. The protagonist Jonathan (aka Temu Brad Pitt) is a complete narcissistic flog trying to leave a genetic master race legacy in the world, but not for financial gain, just because he's a sicko. A serial sperm donor. I do question some of the parents just ordering swimmers from the internet without doing heaps of research. They just enjoyed his mane of blonde hair and his blue eyes. Again, it went for too long. It provides a strong argument for chemical castration.
BAD SURGEON- Netflix
A true story told primarily by his former fiancée, this series follows the career of Dr. Paolo Macchiarini who is world famous for his revolutionary stem cell-infused windpipe transplants, until his fall from grace. It follows the story of the irony of his patients who continue to keep dying, while his status as a leading and innovative surgeon continues to rise.
Lucy 10/10 - Of our three series this is by far the most disturbing and addictive. Again we see the power of manipulation and the ability of charisma to blindside common sense. Dr. Paolo has everyone under his spell, professionally and personally. And had I have been in need of a new windpipe I would have 1000% trusted Paolo to perform surgery on me. And again had it not been for Matt, I’d probably have online and real life dated him too. Watching the accounts of human beings who were in such vulnerable situations and trusted their lives, loved ones and hearts (and windpipes) with a man who believes he is GOD is a train wreck you can’t look away from. My heart breaks for the families impacted by him and also for the women he tricked. The real life version of old mate in FAKE, but a million times worse.
Matt 8.5/10 - Now this fu*ker needs to be shot. Also why the hell does my wife go from getting a tracheotomy to dating this guy in her review? Paolo Macchiarini seriously thinks he's a god and had so many "experts" drinking the kool aid too. So here's the thing... How can one guy (and a gullible team at the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden) get away with putting some plastic pipes from Bunnings into multiple peoples' throats without some serious scrutiny? This was an engaging doco and shows how people will believe in something so much when they are so sick. I seriously feel for the families impacted by this clown. This is a cautionary tale of a philandering serial killer with an MD.