About the rating system

I've stolenbased my rating system on the old Melody Maker rating system, circa the early nineties. They had two awards, Recommended and Bloody Essential.

This means a film or show has something a little bit special about it. Usually just because it's really good. But occasionally it may be due to something else, such as a spark of originality, having something to say or being worthy of wider attention.

This is for my absolute favourites. Films and shows that really leave a mark and stay with me. If I'm still thinking about it days later, still feeling the emotions of it, then the star gets some flames behind it.

If something doesn't get a gold star, that doesn't mean I think it's rubbish, it just means I'm not super enthusiastic about recommending it to people. It may very well be right up your street though

About this website

This website came about because of my dissatisfaction with the ephemeral nature of digital media. Whilst I wouldn't go back to the old days of physical media, there was a pleasure in building a library of VHS tapes or DVD's. A nice bookcase of stuff you could curate and peruse at your leisure.

So, in absence of that, I thought I'd try collecting my thoughts in a blog.

Yes, I know, only about twenty years after it would have been fashionable.

How this website

This website is made using the wonderful software kiki and is self-hosted on a Synology NAS.

I've written more about the software running this website in the kiki section.

How to follow this website

If you want to contact me then you can reach me on Mastodon. I try to post updates there but I do keep forgetting. And feel free to recommend anything for me to try. I'm always on the lookout for new stuff to watch. My address is @kickingk@social.lol.

I recommend subscribing to the RSS feed. Click the RSS logo to add it to your feed reader.

If you don't use an RSS reader then you really, really should. If you use a Mac/iPhone then I recommend using NetNewsWire which is free and very good. Unread is the absolute Gold Standard and doesn't cost that much. And I've been using Newsblur for well over a decade now. It's for people who love RSS readers and use it for everything.

For best results, use Newsblur with NetNewsWire or Unread. But any one on their own will work well.

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