Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from
SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. You've watched anything good lately? Let's talk about it.
I just finished binge-watching reruns of my favorite series. And now I'm looking for an
indie feelgood show or maybe some kind of crime docuseries, do you have any recommendations?
If I said this to you, would you go, oh no. Well, never fear because today I'm going to
help you speak about movies and TV shows naturally in English. You're going to learn some important
questions that you can ask about movies and TV shows, some common vocabulary. You'll also see a
little sample conversation and you will have the chance at the end of this lesson to speak with
me about your favorite movies and TV shows. So prepare yourself, take a deep breath and let's get
started with some of the most common questions. But before we do that, like always I have created
a free PDF worksheet for today's lesson. You will get all of the questions, vocabulary, sample
sentences, and at the bottom of the worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so
that you never forget what you've learned. You can download that free PDF worksheet
with the link in the description. All right, are you ready for some of the most common questions
that you can ask and you might get asked about movies and TV shows? Let's do it. The first
common question that you can ask about movies and TV shows is, you've been watching anything
good lately? What's happening at the beginning of this question. Is there a question word?
Have you been watching anything good lately? No, in casual daily conversations,
sometimes we start questions with just you, you feeling okay? You doing anything fun this weekend?
You've been watching anything good lately? So you can start this question with just you. A
similar variation of this question is whatcha been watching, whatcha been watching? The full version
of this question is what have you been watching? But what have you been becomes whatcha been,
whatcha because you sometimes changes to cha. There are a lot of reductions for the word you
in spoken fast English. So you can say, whatcha been watching, whatcha been watching?
And someone might say, oh I haven't really been watching anything lately. I've been too busy.
Whatcha been watching? Another common question is, have you been watching? And you can add a
TV show that's really popular at the moment. So for example, the TV show, Stranger Things is very
popular right now. So you might ask, have you been watching Stranger Things? And you're hoping that
they'll say yes so that you can chit-chat about what's going on. I have a little secret. I hardly
ever watch movies or TV shows. So this lesson is very out of my element. It is not my strong suit,
but I know that a lot of people love movies and TV shows. So this is for you, not for me.
If you're like me and you don't watch much, you might ask this question, is that the one with?
And then you can insert anything that you know about that TV show or movie. So you might say,
is that the one with Tom Cruise and the fighter jets? Oh, Top Gun. Yeah, that's that movie.
Is that the one with, it could be a person. Is that the one with Tom Cruise? It could be some
element of the show. Is that the one with fighter jets? Is that the one with the really scary story?
Whatever it is, it's anything that you know about it. And you're trying to connect with someone.
If you don't know anything about the show or the movie that someone is asking about,
you can ask what's the premise? What's the premise? This word premise simply means
what's the story about? And it's a common word that we use to talk about the storyline.
So if someone asks you, what's the premise of your favorite TV show, would you be able to explain it
quickly? You might say, oh, well, there's this guy, and he goes over to another
country and he finds some kind of mystery. And it's all about him trying to solve it.
You need to be able to explain your favorite TV show or movie in this succinct way.
When someone asks you, oh, I haven't heard of that, what's the premise?
Now you can practice. Our final common question about movies and TV shows is, when is the new
coming out? When's the new Toy Story coming out? Here, you're asking, when will it be released? And
that's what this phrasal verb to come out means, when we're talking about movies and TV shows,
when will the new Toy Story be released? When will the new Toy Story movie come out?
Beautiful question to ask. Now let's talk about some common expressions and phrases that you can
use to talk about movies and TV shows. Indie, indie usually means that it is an independently
made film. It's not from Hollywood, it's not from a big producer. It's just an independently made
film. Maybe it's something about your city or something smaller, but it can be really touching
as well. So you might say, Captain Fantastic is one of my favorite indie films of all time.
Feel-good. It's a feel-good movie. This is pretty self-explanatory, right?
It doesn't make you feel stressed, it doesn't make you feel worried. Instead it makes you feel good.
So you might say, my favorite feel-good movie of all time is The Princess Bride, coming of
age. It's a coming of age movie, or it's a coming of age series. Can you imagine what this means?
Someone who is a teenager or maybe like a 12 year old, 14 year old, 17 year old
is becoming an adult. So it's the story of them becoming older and more responsible, moving from
childhood to adulthood. So you might say, one of the most classic American coming of age movies
is Stand By Me, a docuseries or you could say it's a documentary, but a docuseries is
several in a series. And a documentary is usually just one. But you might say I watched a really
interesting docuseries on the fall of the Roman Empire, it was fantastic. This is the kind of
thing I love to watch. To binge watch or to binge. Originally this expression means that you drank
too much alcohol. They binged, and now they're feeling really sick. So they drank too much
alcohol. But in the age of movie streaming, and TV show streaming, especially starting with Netflix,
this term has been turned into watching series after series, after series, after series
at one time. So maybe you don't sleep all night because you binge watched your favorite TV show.
You might say, I can't believe it. I just binged the entire series of
The Great British Baking Show. It was great. And I watched it all night. Oops,
to be really into something. This just means you love it. You're very interested in it,
but a cool way to say it is, I'm really into something. So you could say, I'm really into
murder mysteries these days. Do you have any recommendations? This is definitely not true for
me. Those types of things freak me out and scare me too much. I'd rather watch something feel-good.
A movie buff or a film buff. You could say my friend is a movie buff, but really for me,
I'd rather read the book, talking about books. This expression is something I often say, the book
was better. Have you ever watched something after you read the book and you were so excited and then
you felt just disappointed. You might say, you know what? The Harry Potter movies weren't bad,
but the books were better. A series finale or a season finale. Did you see the season finale last
night? I can't believe how it ended. This is the final episode of a long series. Usually these are
highly awaited and people are anticipating it. And hopefully you are not disappointed by the ending.
Dubbed or subtitles. I'd rather watch a foreign film with subtitles than listen to it
dubbed. I'm curious, what's the case in your country? When there is a news report or a TV show
in English, for example, do they show subtitles in your native language or do they dub the voices,
when you dub the voices, it means that someone is speaking over top of the original voice
and you can't hear it. In my mind this is such a shame because you really don't get a
chance to listen to the original language. And if you're trying to learn English,
that is a big bummer. You want to be able to hear English. And if you see the subtitles in
your native language, that's okay. But if someone dubs the voice, then you can't hear the original
language at all. I'm curious. So what's it like in your country? Let me know in the comments.
This next phrase is one that my friends say to me a lot. I can't believe you haven't seen
The Godfather. It's a great movie. Well, I haven't seen many movies.
That is a little secret. That's not a secret anymore.
I have seen some movies. For example, I have seen The Shawshank Redemption, which is amazing.
So if you have not seen The Shawshank Redemption, then I might say to you, I can't believe you
haven't seen The Shawshank Redemption. That is a great movie, highly recommend.
If you watch a movie or TV show and you just don't like it, you're not into it. You might say the,
ruined it for me. The acting ruined it for me. It was just so awful. The storyline ruined it
for me. The premise ruined it for me, or maybe the last episode just ruined it for me. I can't
believe that the season finale was that, it just ruined the whole series for me. Maybe you don't
like something because it was hard to follow. It was hard to follow. When I watched the movie
Inception, it was hard to follow. I just didn't get it. Maybe my brain is not at that level.
It was hard to follow. This means it was difficult to figure out what was going on,
and you can even use this expression for anything really that's difficult to understand. So let's
imagine that you are sitting in a university lecture and the professor is speaking in
English and it's just too fast. You might say, oh man, his English was hard to follow,
or that lecture was hard to follow. You just couldn't understand all of the directions that
he was taking, it was hard to follow. Our final expression. I don't want to end on a bad note,
is a positive one. Let's say you loved the TV show or movie. You might say I was on the edge of my
seat the whole time. And you can imagine what this is like, if you're on the edge of your seat, oh,
I can't wait, I want to see what's happening. And your body might be a little bit tense. You
might be excited. You might be a little fearful to figure out what's going on, but you are on
the edge of your seat because whoever wrote this story had it perfectly laid out so that
you were excited to figure out what's going to happen. I was on the edge of my seat, wonderful.
All right, now that we've talked about the most common questions and common phrases to talk about
movies and TV shows. Now I would like to show you a sample conversation between my husband,
Dan and I, where we talk about movies and TV shows and use some of the expressions and questions that
you just learned. I want you to listen carefully because after this, it will be your turn. We are
going to have a conversation about movies and TV shows. So let's watch this conversation with
Dan and then be prepared. It's going to be your turn. Hey Dan, you watched anything good lately?
Dan: Oh, hey Vanessa.
Yeah. I just started a new show. I like it so much. I binged the whole first season last night.
Vanessa: Oh, it must be good. What's it about?
Dan: Oh, it's kind of a coming of age
sci-fi adventure story about friends who discover aliens in their neighborhood.
Vanessa: Oh, I think I've heard of that show. Is that the
one with the girl that has superpowers? Dan:
Yeah. That's the one. I can't believe you haven't seen it yet.
Vanessa: Yeah. I read
the book and I think the show would just ruin it for me. The book's always better, right?
Dan: Well, that's true. But I was on
the edge of my seat the whole time. Vanessa:
Oh, well you want to borrow the book? Dan:
Yeah. I'd love to. See you around. Vanessa:
See you later. All right, now it's your turn. Let's imagine that we work in the same office
together and we're walking around during our break time. I'm going to ask you a question
and we're going to have a little casual chit-chat conversation about movies and TV shows. This is an
extremely common casual conversation topic. So I want you to reply to me. If you need to pause this
video and go back and repeat this section, please do that. It is a great chance to speak out loud,
low pressure, no one needs to listen to you unless you want them to. And you can practice speaking
out loud and use what you've just learned. Are you ready? All right, let's go on our break at the
office. Hey, I'm thinking about watching a movie this weekend. Do you have any recommendations?
Oh, what kind of movie is that? Oh, what's the premise.
That sounds great. Thanks the recommendation. I'm not much of a movie buff, so I always like
hearing what other people recommend. Well, thanks so much. See you later. All right, how did you do?
I hope that you could gain some confidence to speak about movies and TV shows today. And I want
to know in the comments, tell me your favorite movie or TV show in English. Let me know what
it is and we can get some recommendations from each other as well, especially me,
maybe I need some recommendations because I don't know what I'm doing with movies and TV shows.
Well, thank you so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday
for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free
PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson and never
forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker. Don't forget to
subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday, bye.