September felt like a really long month that just wouldn’t end. Of course, I was excited for the month because September is when I kickstart my autumn festivities but of course, life got ahold of things.
The start of the month was great as I went in with great expectations and started to get ready to reset myself and set intentions to reintroduce routines that I’ve been desperately missing in my life. Unfortunately, the second half of the month took a swift downhill trend. I’ve just been feeling so anxious and unmotivated to do things. It’s been an extremely sluggish past few weeks and my month came to a nice conclusion with a hurricane that tore through my state. Please read that “nice conclusion” part of that sentence with heavy sarcasm.
I’m personally excited for October because I’m desperate for a fresh start.
I ended up watching and reading a ton of stuff this month so let’s talk about them.
What I Watched
I watched a total of 12 movies and TV shows.
I watched 4 TV shows and 8 movies. I’m not that big of a movie person so going back and counting how many movies I managed to watch the past few weeks was eye opening lol.
Let’s start with the TV shows.
The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11
This was such an interesting show. I really love Clark Gregg as an actor and I loved his acting in this show. I watch a ton of documentaries and docuseries so I always love it when they surprise me in the way they’re edited. This newly released Netflix documentary movie did manage to surprise me because they produced their documentary by blending the traditional interview style with some embedded scenes acted out by an actor, in this case, Clark Gregg. I thought it added great dimension to the movie.
Last Breath: One Man’s Impossible Fight For Survival
This was a really interesting documentary. This documentary is about this deep sea saturation diver who ends up getting into a freak accident on the bottom of the ocean and getting separated from his partner and the lifeline that hooks him up to his boat. I never knew what saturation divers are so it was interesting to learn about this career as well as the technology and devices that help them carry out their job.
Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer
You all, this docuseries took me out. By this point, I was already feeling slumpy but this docuseries dragged me into a very dark headspace. I watch a ton of true crime stuff so things don’t really affect me or scare me but I’ve finally found my limit and it’s this docuseries, more specifically cannibals. It’s extremely graphic and they show very badly blurred out but real, dead bodies and decapitated heads. They also interview the serial killer and his eyes, my gosh, are soulless. I honestly was creeped out and it was after this series that I started watching movies because I desperately needed a break from crime stuff.
Ice Age Scrat Tales
When I went home to visit my family for a weekend getaway, my dad and I ended up watching this series on Disney Plus. It’s extremely short and very cute. There’s not much to say about this show lol other than if you love Scrat, you’re going to love this show. And if you don’t love Scrat, watch this show because you’re gonna love Scrat.
Sins of Our Mother
This is very interesting and I’m only one episode in so I can’t speak much on it. All I know is that it’s about this woman who’s part of the LDS community taking things way too far and building a relationship with this man who’s survived a near death experience and came out thinking he’s God or something like that. It’s funny how I found this show after I finished the Villains duology by V. E Schwab. If you know, you know lol.
Dahmer
I’m not done with this show yet but I feel like I’ve gotten far enough to say that I’ve never watched a true crime series/docuseries as slow as this one. I can see why it’s getting rave reviews because the acting is off the charts but my gosh it’s horribly dark. I don’t understand how this is a ten episode show. Every episode is extremely slow and every moment is dragged out in a horrific way. It’s ripe with tension. Whenever I finish this show, I’ll draft up a review with more details on it. The one thing I will say about this show besides reiterating my warning that it’s incredibly dark and hard to watch is that I saw this article saying that this show focuses on how Dahmer’s actions affected the people around him. I’m on episode 4 right now and I strongly disagree with that statement. So far it’s been a character study on his evolution into what the world knows him as and not about the people around him whether that be his family or victims.
Now onto the movies.
I kicked off the month of September by popping on Twilight. September starts the rainy weather down in Florida and it sets the perfect mood for imagining that you’re in the Pacific Northwest with a vampire boyfriend and the Muse orchestrating a soundtrack for everything you do.
After watching Twilight, I realized that hey, movies are cool and I should watch some more and that’s when I had my space kick.
I watched Hidden Figures and Apollo 13. Words cannot describe how much I loved Hidden Figures. As a woman of color in a science field, it was amazing to see these three black women kick ass and take names in NASA. Taraji said this line in the movie that went something like, “They (NASA) don’t hire us because we wear skirts, they hire us because we wear glasses” and honestly, I screamed and clapped at my TV when she said that because YES, YES, YES. I’ve definitely seen Apollo 13 before but watching it again, especially after Hidden Figures, I had a great appreciation for what we humans have learned and how as Mark Watney from “The Martian” would say, “science the shit” out of things.
Unfortunately, my movie stint ended briefly and I ended up watching that Indian serial killer series that brought my mood right back down to the ground so I knew I needed to find myself a couple of movies to lose myself into. Which is why, I started my Lord of the Rings journey.
I watched the movies in passing on cable TV but never watched them from start to finish. I really appreciated the themes of the movie as well as the lovely crew of characters. I’m not going to lie, by the end of the trilogy, I was really hoping that Frodo would just trip and fall out of the script. Sorry not sorry.
I don’t know if you know but Florida and other countries such as Cuba got railed by Hurricane Ian so having watched The Perfect Storm earlier this month, it added a whole new appreciation and terrifying awe for how destructive and powerful the ocean can be. This was an older movie with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and others who get caught in the middle of the ocean and get swept into terrifying ocean waves and storms as a hurricane bears down on the sea.
If you can, please donate or participate in other ways to aid those who have been affected by Hurricane Ian. It truly was a vicious storm and it was big enough of that it had the entire state of Florida feeling its affects so imagine how it must have been for smaller island countries like Cuba.
What I’ve Read
I read a total of 6 books this month.
The biggest thing that came out of this month is that I started and finished a series and gotten back into middle grade books.
Vicious and Vengeful are two books that I’ll never forget reading. Vicious read like an action movie and an origin story but Vengeful was a work of art. It’s part of the same series but it’s more somber in tone and dense in meaning and purpose. I don’t know if it’s because Vengeful was the second book in the series and I was more in tune to pick up things but V. E Schwab’s writing was amazing in it. The only other V. E Schwab books I’ve read is the first book in her middle grade series so I know now that I need to fix that and start reading more of her books because I’m obsessed with her writing. This series is definitely a new favorite of mine.
I’ve got to say that my favorite book this month is The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. I read this book when I needed it the most. If you’re looking for a hug in a book, this is it. It’s got the most wholesome children, loving parents, and a cozy community who all love and know each other. This book follows a group of siblings finding out that they’re being forced out of their beloved apartment in Brooklyn by their grumpy landlord who lives upstairs. They make it their mission to save their home and win over their landlord into letting them stay. I laughed, I cried, and I melted (or at least my heart did) while reading this book. I highly recommend it if you’re in need of a pick me up.
From what I’ve read and seen, it’s been a pretty dark month lol. I’ve watched some pretty heavy docuseries and movies and while I loved “Vengeful”, I’m not going to pretend that it wasn’t dark and cold in tone as well. Hopefully I read and watch more lighthearted things in October.
What have you read and watched in September?