Remarkably bright

I always feel a little embarrassed when I tell people that I don’t watch television.

It makes me sound like a snob, but the reason has nothing to do with taking the higher ground.

When I moved into my apartment there were issues connecting the TV aerial and I couldn’t be bothered getting someone to fix it.

For a while, when the kids fancied watching something, I would leech off their dad’s Netflix. But Netflix eventually tightened the rules and I was locked out.

At that point I was disconnected from TV on a few levels. By the time I got home from work, cooked dinner and tapped away on my blog and Drinks Digest, there wasn’t much time for channel surfing.

Then a show on Disney+ piqued my interest – I totally forget which one – and I discovered my TV was so basic it didn’t allow for streaming the channel.

The youngest convinced me to buy a converter thingie from the Good Guys and I happily watched whatever series it was and moved on to “Welcome to Wrexham” … then Jimmy Kimmel got cancelled (briefly) by Disney+ for upsetting Trump, so I cancelled Disney+ in protest and my TV went back to being decorative rather than functional.

There are a few shows I’ve been sad to miss, like the latest season of Bridgerton, but mainly I’m too busy typing to notice the lack of TV.

That was until snippets from a Netflix movie called Remarkably Bright Creatures popped up in my Facebook feed …

My mum and sister watched the movie together for Mother’s Day and loved it, so when I was given access to my sister’s TV – and her Netflix – for the night I decided to give it a whirl.

What a weird, sweet, lovely movie it is!

It was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, which was already on my bucket list, but has now gone to the top of it. The scenery is stunning!

The storyline is based on a novel by Shelby Van Pelt and it’s about a lonely widow (played by Sally Field) who becomes friends with an octopus in the aquarium she cleans each night after the visitors have left.

Oh and she meets and becomes friends with a troubled young man played by Lewis Pullman … who happens to be actor Bill Pullman’s son. He is so sweet, I am bedazzled by him.

At the beginning and end of the film there are scenes in the open ocean, which were actually filmed off the coast of Vancouver Island. So beautiful!

The movie explores loneliness, grief, the ways people find connection after devastating loss and where they want to spend their final days. It’s a little whimsical, but it was perfect for my mood and I recommend giving it a whirl.

Have a good weekend. I will spend a chunk of mine on duty at the NSW Police headquarters for Vivid Sydney. Wish me luck!

Song of the day: Radiohead “I can’t”