review

On the 14th of January, Netflix released Ricky Gervais’ much anticipated third season of After Life. With the first two seasons of After Life becoming extremely popular among Netflix users, does season three live up to the hype surrounding its release? Featuring six new episodes, After Life continues to explore Ricky Gervais’ Tony Johnson as he […]

Following many cancelled projects and considerable delays, Kanye West’s latest record Donda finally released in August. With a deluxe edition of the album just out, does Donda match up to the previous highs of Kanye West’s discography? Named in memory of Kanye West’s mother Dr Donda West, Donda as an album explores many different aspects of Kanye’s personal […]

Adele, the queen of heartbreak, has left us taken aback with her first album since 2015. And I think this one is a little bit different to the rest.  Her previous work has always given us a heartfelt anthem known up and down the nation, but 30 gave us something unexpected. It tells the story […]

Whenever Sam Fender is about to step on stage at a hometown show, the chants of “Toon, Toon, Black and White Army” get progressively louder. It’s almost enough to drown out the soft beginning of Mark Knopfler’s Local Hero – the Geordie anthem played before every Newcastle match at St. James’ Park. But the chants never […]

In the world of television, HBO is without question one of the most respected companies. While they are best known for their drama productions, many people overlook the wealth of comedy content the company has to offer. Silicon Valley is arguably one of the best pieces of comedy offered by them. Silicon Valley focuses on the […]

For Netflix, Squid Game has perhaps proven to be one of the best original series they have ever commissioned. While many people wouldn’t have expected a Korean drama to reach these global highs, the show has proven that it deserves to be one of Netflix’s biggest hits. The story of Squid Game focuses on a group […]

Sally Rooney has had a stratospheric rise to fame and success after the publication of her first two novels, Conversations with Friends and (of course) Normal People. Both novels have received widespread critical acclaim, with the latter cementing Rooney as perhaps the frontrunner of millennial literature. Beautiful World, Where Are You only serves to compound this reputation. This novel, […]

Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, and many more star in the fifth episode of Marvel’s What If? series. This week’s instalment follows the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. The opening of this episode consists of Bruce Banner crash landing from space via a transportation method known as the Bifröst. Linking to 2018’s […]

Netflix’s new retro slasher trilogy Fear Street follows the teens of Shadyside through their attempt to reverse its doomed path, all while finding themselves in the bloody centre of it. Based on R. L. Stine’s Fear Street book series, the trilogy deals with familiar horror motifs of witchcraft, gory murders, horrors at campsites and nods […]

If missing the point was a competition then 2016’s Suicide Squad would be the champion at something for once. In what, by design, should be a violent yet darkly comedic bloodbath of Z-list supervillains, we get a humiliating experience for everyone involved. Luckily, James Gunn is a filmmaker who specialises in zany pieces about oddball […]

I often find it hard to get excited about new films these days. With many filmmakers having an interest in recycling and reusing past ideas and concepts, repackaging them as best they can, it’s hard to get into a film without a sense of Déjà vu. So when Palm Springs was announced, it was hard […]

Disney’s 2021 release of Cruella explores the backstory of 101 Dalmatians’ infamous villain Cruella De Vil.  The plot The story begins in Estella’s childhood, where the death of her mother acts as a catalyst for a journey of danger, revenge and betrayal. The character develops from the role of a rebellious preteen, all the way to […]

Marina’s recently released fifth studio album continues to carefully craft her unique aesthetic and explores her growth not only as an artist, but as a woman. With a more mature take on her traditional eclectic electro-pop, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is an intoxicating mix of emotionally charged bops and ballads. The titular track […]

The story of It’s a Sin follows the lives of Colin, Ritchie and Roscoe who have left their homes for a new start in 1981 London. It was here where they found life to be promising and full of optimism – a world away from their previous lives ‘back home’.  Everything seems to be going […]

I’ve always watched the British version of The Office and have absolutely loved it. Stephen Merchant was able to bring a completely different medium of comedy to our screens and it’s never really been matched. However, the new BBC mockumentary sitcom This Country came highly recommended to me by my mother and Rotten Tomatoes, and […]

3.7/5 Newcastle is famous for its exuberant nightlife and the best places to drink in the country. And it’s no wonder – there are a whole host of great places to have a tipple in NCL. Jalou, a bar just down from Newcastle Central Station and right next door to the Royal Station Hotel, is […]

When you think of blue light glasses, you think of the huge, chunky, yellow-lens glasses which look like they’re straight out of a scientist’s cupboard! Well, you aren’t wrong in thinking that to a certain extent. Just like most technologies, everything has improved drastically since their first creation. It is the same for blue light […]

3.5/5 When it comes to organising a holiday, or a lengthy stay away, you need reliability and transparency when booking your accommodation. It’s not always the case that you get this when booking online, though with the website Booking.com, you can be guaranteed both of these… most of the time. I was planning a month-long […]

You might be thinking: how are a pair of headphones worth £159? Well, trust me, I thought the same. However, I soon realised these headphones – Apple‘s AirPods – are magical. First of all, the box AirPods come in is compact and can fit anywhere, whether it’s in your bag, or even your pocket. Secondly, […]

Netflix and Channel 4 series, the award-winning Black Mirror, opens its second series looking at an aspect of life that is so frightening, yet inevitable: death. Be Right Back, which is episode one of the new series, tells the story of Martha and Ash, a couple who move into a new cottage. The next day, […]

5/5 Here at b**p we love a good Netflix series (or two, in this case), and so when we finally sat down to watch Stranger Things, we were totally obsessed. Set in the ’80s in the fictional American town of Hawkins, Stranger Things follows the storyline of Will Byers’ mysterious disappearance. The young boy completely […]

5/5 This spring Netflix has been doing wonders for subscribers, first of all in the form of comedian Ricky Gervais’ After Life, a series about love, loss and life itself. After Life is true British comedy at its finest, with lots of the C-word, fat, bald, middle-aged men, and an all-star British comedian line-up. Ricky […]

5/5 The historical city of Durham is the perfect place for a day-trip in the North East. And if you’re heading there with friends or loved ones, Durham’s Riverview Kitchen is just the place to be if you want breakfast, brunch, lunch or a sweet treat and a cup of tea. Situated right on the […]

4/5 The Brexit process has caused an absolute storm in Parliament and across the whole country. But what’s it like being right at the heart of all the drama? BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg shows exactly what it’s like throughout her new feature programme The Brexit Storm: Laura Kuenssberg’s Inside Story. Tracking through the past […]

5/5 It’s not often that big media outlets like Netflix manage to create a realistic TV show about what it’s like to be a young person in the modern world. Think 13 Reasons Why and think about how awful a portrayal of suicide and young people it gave to its millions of viewers. However, the […]

If there’s any film that supports my idea of abolishing food in the cinema, it’s this one. A Quiet Place is the latest joint from US Office alumni John Krasinski. It’s a horror film where the premise is that the majority of the film is completely silent. Krasinski and Emily Blunt play the parents of […]

Get Out was very much the surprise hit of 2017. Director Jordan Peele plucked himself out of comedy world and threw himself headlong into the horror genre with dizzying success. Not only that, the film is now nominated for Best Picture, director and actor at the Academy awards; in a series of commendations that have […]

Who would have predicted Harry Styles would be in your dad’s favourite movie of the year? It’s weird to think that Dunkirk is Christopher Nolan’s first Oscar nomination for directing. Ever since his landing craft touched down in Roswell and he began producing human movies, he’s been fantastic. He’s even kept to genre sci-fi films […]