2023 Entertainment Report

 

I started recording my thoughts on games, shows and movies I watched this year on my Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/joshforeman  I thought I might as well put a repository of these here.  I started it in August, but I also record what I watch and play on my daily log, so at the end I’ll add rapid fire thoughts on all of them.

Entertainment report 8/13/23

I watched the whole season of Twisted Metal, a show based on a car combat game from the turn of the century.  It's super dumb, very silly, incredibly gory, and... I guess pretty fun.  I enjoyed it.  Couldn't recommend it generally, but if the stuff I mentioned doesn't sound bad to you, maybe check it out! 

Entertainment report 8/20/23

I watched through Season 3 of I Think You Should Leave.  Here's my advice.  I think you should leave half way through the season.  Ok, if you like aggressively off-putting humor about aggressively off-putting people -which I do- I think you'll like this show.  Like all sketch comedy it's hit or miss, but the ratio for this show is pretty high.  I'd put it up there with Key and Peele.  Season 2 was incredibly strong with some iconic scenes that have stuck with me.  Season 3 starts pretty strong, but peters out about halfway through, sort of regurgitating samey setups, and a truly baffling final sketch that felt like it was maybe the worst?  

Entertainment report 9/3/23

We binged the latest season of What We Do In The Shadows.  This may be in my top 10 fave shows.  'nuff said. 

We also just started the latest episode of Reservation Dogs. I was really surprised they kept the show going because the end of last season felt very conclusive. But I'm happy to follow along anyway.  Still full of spirit and humor. 

Entertainment report 9/10/23

Lower Decks season 3 is starting strong, really loving it.  

What We Do In The Shadows Season... 5?  Whatever it is, is winding down and it's a bit more hit and miss, but the characters still really carry it and consistently make me smile. 

I've said many times that I don't like anime, but I keep figuring that maybe a live action adaptation will click for me.  So I gave One Piece a shot.  I love the visuals, setting, and some of the wacky world building is fun.  I like the unique main character.  But overall, it's just still... too anime for me.  I may try to watch another episode to see if I can acquire the taste, but I doubt it. 

Entertainment Report 9/17/23

The Morning Show: Season 3.  I've only seen two episodes. Too early to tell if it'll be as good as the first 2 season.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I've bounced off this shows at least twice in the past.  I never hated it, but also didn't love it.  But I'm finding that I've got a lot of time while I'm building levels for work were I can have background stuff on, and so I'm giving it another shot.  I think it's growing on me. I got to season 2 and boy did this show NEED Danny Devito. 

Ahsoka: I'm liking this!  It's around the same level as post S1 Mandalorian as far as Star Wars shows go.  Kind of a bummer for every SW show that Andor exists, because they all pale in comparison, but I still enjoy spending mindless time in the SW universe so I don't complain when a show is merely fun. 

Entertainment Report 9/24/23
John Wick 4: Mostly as fun as the others. I did feel like almost every action set piece was cool, but went on about 25% too long.  Heather really likes the other ones, but found this one boring.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Watched the first episode. It grabbed me just barely enough to kinda watch the next ep.

No One Will Save You: A new movie on Hulu. If you liked Signs, but wished the movie started when the aliens show up, this one's for you.  Pretty great acting and directing and editing to keep the tension up so long.

Entertainment report 10/1/23

I finally pulled it off. After 15 years of wishing I could do it, but never being able to, I finally did nothing all day but play a videogame. (Baulder's Gate)  It was really nice. I think the secret was feeling crappy on Friday after a flu/covid shot, which lulled me into buying a slower paced game, and I got into that night. Then yesterday I just kinda rolled right back into it.  I doubt it will happen again for another 15 years, but I have no regrets.  Anyway, fun game.  I recommend it to D&D fans or turned based tactic/strat games.

Invasion, Season 2: Two episodes in and it is NOT grabbing me the way the first season did.  But I'll stick with it a little longer. 

The Legend of Vox Machina: I said I'd try another ep or two to give it a fair shot, and I did, and despite having a lot of elements that appeal to me, the fact that 90% of the humor falls flat for me just ruins the whole experience.  So I gave up.

The Witcher, Season 3: I don't have really high expectations, so I'm enjoying this.  The plot just seems to get more and more convoluted and confusing, I've honestly given up trying to follow it.  I'll just watch the pretty pictures and enjoy when the gross monsters pop out. 

Entertainment Report 10/8/23

Bram Stoker's Dracula - This 1992 classic directed by Coppola was not as good as I remembered it.  I've listened to the soundtrack so much over the years that I think I had superimposed that quality over the whole film.  I correctly remembered that it is very beautifully shot, and I assumed that because it was directly by the same guy who did The Godfather it would be really well constructed.  But I think there were some baffling directing/editing choices that really put me off.  But the biggest sin is that they cast Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder as a British people.  They did NOT pull it off.  Gary Oldman was amazing as Dracula, but several of the editing choices that bothered me undercut this.  And Anthony Hopkin's VanHelsing was much more interesting than I remembered.  Though to be honest, my most vivid memory of the movie was walking out halfway through from sheer disgust when I saw it in the theater. (slight spoiler: there's a part where dracula is in half wolf form doing an unspeakable act to a woman that he enchanted)  In the 3 decades since, I've seen so much worse that I'm desensitized to that sort of thing I guess.  :/

Entertainment Report 10/15/23

Cobweb: A horror movie that is better than most, but does that thing at the end where it gets so over the top it loses me.  I don't mind over the top IF the premise is that supernatural stuff is in play.  But this was not that premise. Still, very good cinematography, acting and editing. 

Strange Planet: An animated cartoon based on the web comic with the blue aliens where 90% of the jokes are calling mundane things by technically-accurate names. (Yes, this is exactly like the 90s Saturday Night Live turned movie: Coneheads)  Teeth = mouth stones, cat = vibrating creature, alcohol = mild poison. I generally enjoy the comic.  This show isn't quite do'n it for me as much... so far.   I saw Dan Harmon was involved (Community, Rick & Morty) so I'm giving it extra time due to how much I like his other work.

Entertainment Report 10/22/23

Scream: A classic in the horror genre that I've never seen.  It was pretty great! I can see why they made sequels.  I'm not a fan of slasher movies, but this has enough mystery genre mashed in to make it fun, and the twist was great! 

The Fall Of The House of Usher: I'm only one episode in, but since it's done by the guy (and a huge team as well) who did one of my favorite shows of all time -Midnight Mass- I have a good feeling about this one.  Strong start. 

The Righteous Gemstones, S3: Also only one or two eps in on this. So far not as strong as previous seasons, but also not bad.  My biggest gripe with this show is that it's satire of the religious tradition I raised in and around, and I think it gets one thing majorly wrong.  I guess I can't be sure, since I don't know any pastors/families of huge mega churches, but I've known a lot of evangelical pastors of medium sized churches and their families. And while their private lives never live up to what they put on display I've also never seen them be as completely cynically two-faced as the characters on this show are.  The people I've known don't cuss or drink or use drugs, etc. They are two-faced in a much more nuanced way, and always always find ways to justify their hypocrisy with bible verses and historical precedence.  Something the Gemstones gang almost never does, which feels like a huge missed opportunity. 

Entertainment report 11/5/23

The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)

I know I already complained too much about a dumb comedy, (Namely that the hypocrisy of the characters is not hidden or sublimated that way it is with megachurch evangelicals in real life so it misses a lot of opportunities to say something more subtle, profound or true than "look at these absolute hypocrites") but now that I've wrapped the season I have something else to say.  Almost every character on the show is playing the classic 'fool'.  That is: a character who makes bad choices and does bad things as an example of what NOT to do. (In the vein of Succession, Breaking Bad, etc.) The writing is very clear on this. And for the most part, the consequences of their evil deeds and bad choices fall on those around them, not themselves.  And that's a fine artistic choice to make.  HOWEVER... the last 5 minutes of the last episode (which feels like it might be intended as a series finale) completely undercut what the rest of the show was 'saying'.  It treats the characters in a heartwarming, "Aw, look at them all getting along and having a good time" complete with the ghost of the mother of the family (usually presented as the only one who had any integrity or legitimate faith) looking on and smiling. I understand why this thing happens.  The writers fall in love with the characters and cast, and the cast obviously likes to be celebrated and loves their characters because everyone's spent so much time with them.  So normal human empathy compels everyone involved with the show to drive to a heartwarming conclusion.  But that is NOT what the structure of the rest of the show demands.  So I guess you could say that it was a bold choice to leave the viewer to interrogate their own sense of fondness for these terrible people.  But it really feels more like an accident than an intentional choice.

The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)

I'm one episode from the end and I'm disappointed.  It's a really well done show. It just not as good as his last one, which is probably in my top 10 of all time: Midnight Mass.  That's to be expected, not everyone is going to love every flavor a creator puts out there.

Quick Change:

A Bill Murray, Geena Davis and Randy Quaid 1990 dark comedy movie I had never heard of.  No idea why it was on my watch list, but my son picked it for movie night so we watched it. And it's pretty great!  Bill Murray is of course Bill Murray. There a scene that, even though it's a comedy, is about as intense as Uncut Gems.  The opening scene features Murray as a clown robbing a bank and his delivery is utterly delightful. 

Entertainment Report 11/12/23

Scavenger's Reign - HBO
This is a really cool animated scifi show with the best and most detailed creative ecosystem that I can think of.  Reminds me a lot of Wayne Barlowe's book called Expedition.  I love everything I've seen so far except for the psychic creature.  Everything else in the show feels so grounded, and I'm always disappointed with grounded scifi throws psychic powers in the mix. But whatever.  Still really enjoying the show 3 episodes in.

The Morning Show - Apple
Just finished the season.  It was great. I don't think they'll ever match S1, but a season even half as good is still better than a lot of what's out there. 

LOKI - Disney
We watched a recap of S1, then started 2, then decided we still wanted to watch 1 again.  This show is a real gem. I'm apathetic to the setting and plot, (alternate dimensions and time travel both take all the stakes out of a story for me.) but the chemistry and banter of the characters does all the heavy lifting.

The Fall Of The House Of Usher - Netflix
Ok, so now that I've finished it I feel it has improved in my book.  The final episode brings it all together and states it thesis more clearly.  You know what they say: subtlety is for cowards.  Or maybe they say that I'm so dumb I need a piece of art to spell itself out so I can understand and appreciate it. I'm not going to state the thesis, but I found it resonate and powerful. 

Entertainment Report 11/26/23

Fired On Mars - HBO

An animated show I heard had some Bojack Horseman vibes. Watched two eps and I think it may be growing on me. It's got some Corporate, Better off Ted, and The Office mixed in there too, but I'm still not quite caring about the characters yet. Will watch more and get back to you.

The Wheel Of Time S2 - Amazon

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying this show. I remember almost nothing about the first 4 books in the series I read as a teen, so I have no real preconceptions going into it. Some of the characters are great and I'm feeling like I want to spend time with them, and some are very much not that. One of the main characters is acting very cold hearted, rude, dismissive and obnoxious to everyone around her which is not fun to watch and makes me nervous about how much of that we have in our upcoming book.  There's a perfectly good reason for her to be the way she is, but it's still really unpleasant to witness it.  Anyway, I'm enjoying the world building, costumes, sets (some of the best) and also the unique music. They are pushing the boundaries of what traditional fantasy film can get away with without turning into pure cheese. (Like going synthwave or using modern pop, both of which absolutely kill my immersion in the world and lower my enjoyment about 27 points) But I really like this take. There's some western and folk twang here and there, some more-modern sounding percussion, but never to the point that it sounds like a 5 piece rock kit or techno. But they keep it organic enough to 'fit', I think.
Oh, one other complaint: while I think their interior sets are some of the best I've seen, they do a big no-no of having two different cities on opposite ends of the continent share a lot of visual motifs, making it really hard to clock where we are at a glance.  On the plus side Amazon has starting doing a VERY cool feature, which is where if you pause the show it has the names of the actors/characters, but the new addition is a MAP!!!!  It says WHERE they are, and shows a little star on the map, and you can click on that for more info on the location. This kind of easily accessed meta-data is really exciting to me.  I hope this becomes the norm for all genre fiction where it's appropriate. 

Raising Arizona - 1987 Movie starring Nicolas Cage & Holly Hunter, directed by the Coen Brothers 

For some reason I'd never seen this.  What a delightful romp.  Very cartoony and over the top but somehow still emotionally grounded.  Highly recommended. 

Entertainment Report 12/3/23

The Whitehouse Plumbers - HBO

Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux play Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The show is generally a comedy, but apparently the exaggerations were slight since the actual story is very wacky to begin with.  It did make me google several things in disbelief and see that yeah, that was real.  Anyway, great performances. Nice, tight 5 episode miniseries. I also listened to some of the companion podcast, but it was too light on the history for my taste. 

Fired On Mars - HBO

The animated comedy about a loser graphic designer on a mars colony ended up going in some interesting directions after the first couple episodes, actually taking advantage of the scifi premise. (At first it seemed like it was all going to political office drama) I didn't love it, but it was a fine background show.  I could see a season 2 being stronger. 

Entertainment Report 12/10/23

Upload Season 3 - Amazon

This satirical dark techno dystopian comedy deals with a lot of interesting topics in some ways I enjoy, and others I don't.  It's rarely Laugh Out Loud funny to me, and the scifi topics are addressed better in other shows/movies/books. But it's got enough going on that it keeps me coming back. If you're interested to check it out, be warned there's some intense gore moments that could put a lot of people off I imagine. (I'm totally desensitized to it, which you'd have to be to find the humor that's intended with it) 

How To: With John Wilson - HBO

Since my report is thin this week I'll pad it out with a recommendation. Honestly I think almost anyone would find this show fascinating.  It's really hard to describe. It's part documentary, part travel blog, part social commentary and full to the brim with subtle visual puns. It's all brought together with John Wilson's delightfully quirky, demure and awkward personality.  Highly recommended! 

Entertainment Report 12/17/23

Leave the World Behind - Netflix

This 2+ hour long suspense movie is an odd bird. Like a flamingo. Flamingos are really odd birds. Have you ever really examined one? Their faces bend the wrong way, their joints look too wobbly to support them, and they have really creepy eyes.  All this can be said of this movie. (mostly) It's about a family that rents a vacation home on Long Island, then bad stuff happens in the world and the owners of the house show up and they have to sort out how to deal with each other and the apparent end of civilization.  Fine premise.  But the thing that kept distracting me was how very VERY Shyamalan the movie is.  Everything from the premise to the camera angles, pacing, and having a series of random 'unsettling' mysterious things happening. Like the Happening. But not that bad. And listen, as someone who has seen all of Shyamalan's work, even though I recognize how very very very flawed it all is, I can appreciate the brave artistic choice of sacrificing everything else in a movie on the altar of Theme and Vibe.  What bothered me about about Leave The World Behind was that if felt like the director / co-writer, Sam Esmail, was trying to out-Shyamalan Shyamalan.  And why would anyone want to do that? Shyamalan is enough Shyamalan. We don't need more of that! That niche market is TAPPED. That said, I still enjoyed it, but would not recommend it to anyone unless I knew they also subject themselves to the pain that is Shyamalan. I will say that I actually quite liked the ending, though I'm sure a lot of folx will not. 

Squid Game: The Challenge: the Live Action Reality Show: Not the Scripted Show: The Game: but Not Exactly Like The Game In the Show That This Show Is Named After - Netflix

Ok, so first of all, the show that this gameshow is based on had a very very deliberate theme and political point to make. It's also Netflix's biggest show ever. And this Gameshow absolutely perfectly exemplifies the negation of the point the original Show was making. That irony and disrespect for the art should not be discounted. I was morbidly curious about this, and because one of the games we are producing at work is based on Squid Game I figured I should be in-the-know. I haven't watched these kinds of """"reality"""""-challenge-based-game-shows for 15 years or so. I remember liking elements of them, specifically the game design parts. And usually the natural environments the ones I watched were placed in.  (Survivor, Naked And Afraid, The Great Race) Now, watching this I'm remembering why I stopped watching. The interpersonal stuff is so gross. So much fakeness, leaning into to trying to be archetypes, and the hit-you-over-the-head dramatic pauses, music stings and zooms just make me feel like someone's playing peek-a-boo with me. If you want a fun video about the show that I 90% agree with, here ya go. (Spoilers) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9CDEa5drA

Upload S3 - Prime

Ok, we are mostly through the season I have to update my report from last week.  The shows really growing on me. Actually getting me to lol here and there, and care about the characters. Good job Upload! 

Entertainment Report 12/31/23

For All Mankind S4 - Apple

It’s an alternate history about the space race if it never ended and it’s pretty good. 

Asteroid City

Wes Anderson’s latest movie is also his least accessible, most layered and most dense, imo. It has almost nothing going on while simultaneously having too much going on. It’s got the usual Anderson dark whimsy, and the clipped dialogue and brilliantly saturated color palette left me a bit breathless. I think I’d have to watch it again before deciding where it resides in my Anderson rating scale.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3

GotG are probably the only thing I still enjoy in the marvel movie franchise. (Loki is good on TV) This 3rd movie is probably the weakest, but it was still a lot of fun. Manages some really heart wrenching pain and joy. A lot of great set pieces and visuals, as well as fun dialogue.  We also watched the GotG Christmas special and between these two I’m really hankering for a spinoff series with Mantis and Drax.

65 - Netflix

A movie about an alien Adam Driver who crashes on earth 65 million years ago on the same day the dinosaur killing asteroid is about to hit. He’s gotta get a little girl survivor to the escape pod that’s on a mountain and oh my goodness there are dinosaurs he’s gotta kill to get there and then he gets there and then they leave. Incredibly straight forward movie. It’s like the premise was all they had and they decided that was enough. 

 

The Lord Of The Rings trilogy

It’s been about a decade since I’ve seen these movies. Since they are my favorite piece of any media ever I purposefully restrict my exposure to them to try to preserve the magic as long as possible. I’m happy to say that they still hold up. In fact, my biggest complaint about them is the very long ending to the final movie. In my memory the part after the climax lasted about 45 minutes. Given the extended edition length of about 4 hours per movie, that’s not actually too much out of proportion. But on this viewing it didn’t seem so long. After it was over I went back and timed it, and it’s actually ‘only’ 20 minutes. Anyway, still the greatest films ever made, and probably the greatest that ever will be made. Shame. It’d be cool to see something that incredible again.  That’s probably another reason I have them quarantined in my brain.  Just so I’m not always disappointed by literally everything else that pales in comparison. 

The Curse - Showtime

Nathan Fielder is one of the most unique voices in TV in recent years. He simply does not make standard stuff. His breakout hit, Nathan For You, is a semi-mockumentary where he gives various small businesses terrible advice, then goes about the plan with methodical, stoic precision. The juxtaposition between the insane ideas and his dead serious implementation was a really unique comedy flavor I’d never experienced before. 

His next show, The Rehearsal, has one of the most bonkers premises ever. In this one, he offers to help people plan for difficult conversations by allowing them to rehearse the conversation in a staged version of it with actors.  Again, he goes completely overboard, recreating life sized sets of real locations, building complex if/then scripts in real time while working with the people he’s trying to help. And that’s just how the show starts. Within a few episodes it starts to go into a weird sideways meta that I can’t even describe. It simply needs to be witnessed. 

And the thing is, just describing the concept and mechanics and logistics of these shows cannot prepare you for the personality that is Nathan Fielder. I’ve watched dozens of hours of him in these shows and I cannot nail it down. Is he just kind of an awkward nerd?  Is he autistic?  Is he purposefully acting in ways to make those around him uncomfortable? Is he actually deeply empathetic? Is he a sociopath? Does he have a heart of gold under that stony expression?  I’ve asked myself all these things and more. Normally, if I’m asking this many conflicting questions about a character I think that’s the result of bad writing, acting, etc.  I don’t get that vibe from him though. There’s a consistently burning sincerity that shows through in all of these moments that I can’t really articulate. 

Ok, so now to talk about his new show, The Curse. (Full disclosure I’m on Ep 8 out of I-don’t-know-how-many) This breaks from his previous two shows in that it’s completely scripted. But sticks with the theme of reality TV by being about a married couple who is trying to launch an HGTV kind of show about building environmentally friendly homes in the poor town of Espanola, New Mexico.  I’ve never seen Nathan truly Acting acting, if you know what I mean, but I’ve been blown away that he’s holding his own along with Emma Stone who is also absolutely killing it. One of the many themes going on here is the white-guilt-liberal-do-gooder trying to white-savior a community. But the couple is well versed in the concepts and vocabulary of the Woke, so a primary driver of the comedy is watching them contort their language and actions to facilitate both their self perceptions and their goals of fixing a poor community, the way THEY think it should be done. These characters absolutely drip with desperation. The viewer is invited to both pity and loathe them as the characters pity and loathe those they are trying ‘help’. 

But I’m getting caught up in the weeds here. What I really want to talk about is the unique flavor. Let’s talk about Cringe. The first time I remember this flavor of comedy being a core feature was The Office. (I’m sure there were plenty of antecedents, that’s just the one that I think broke Cringe into the mainstream) Cringe is like spicy food, I think.  It’s not for everyone.  And some people can only handle one or two stars of spicy/cringe.  I think Nathan Fielder is working on inventing the Ghost Pepper of Cringe comedy.  Oh wait, I just looked it up.  I guess the hottest pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper. Anyway, my point is that he’s a true innovator in comedy, pushing the boundaries in the same way Andy Kaufman did in the 70s and Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim did in the aughts.  Like them, this flavor of comedy strays into anti-humor territory, but unlike those others, it’s not predicated on the Lol-So-Random flavor. Instead, Fielder’s work is very deliberate, and flows logically from established premises. But it is so so very painful. It burns. He makes me put my hands over my face in the same way a person terrified of a horror movie would. I physically recoil from what I’m witnessing, often subconsciously trying to push the scene away. I think this physiological response that has crossover with horror could be the key to his unique voice. To be clear, his work is NOT horror. But it is often horrific. It presents a danger that is much more real than ghosts or monsters. It’s glimpses of utter humiliation, alienation, ostracization, inept pandering, and the subsequent self-loathing. I think most humans have had these experiences to some extent. And seeing them pushed to the maximum (but in a somehow grounded way) is very unsettling. A lot of humans have a sort of bug, where the response to this stimuli is laughter. So you have the one-two punch of extreme discomfort followed by a flushing rush of adrenaline-inducing laughter. A heady mix. I hate it but I love it. Mostly I respect the creativity and drive to create something new. 

Everything else:

Letterkenny Season … something? the latest one I think.  

This show feels pretty comfortable but stagnant. The charm of the characters are all there, but also don’t seem to have anything new to say or do, so we end up with a lot of retreads. If you like the show, this is good comfort food for ya.

The Great North

Really delightful animated show in the style of Bob’s Burgers. Part of a fairly recent move in ‘wholesome’ or ‘cozy’ entertainment. The characters all love each other and usually act in the best interest of the others, but their strong quirks and miscommunication acts as the driving force for the conflict and plots.  I love it. 

House of the Dragon - HBO

After such a depressing let down that the final couple seasons of Game of Thrones were I didn’t have high hope for a spin-off, especially since they decided to go Hard Mode and also make that spin-off a prequel! But They did great.  The show still has that GoT hardness, cruelty and edge to it, but I think is moderated by the lack of need to wear those attributes as a badge. It doesn’t have a torture, rape or incest scene every episode.  Some of the characters are allowed to have sincere positive relationships, and the politics are slightly less byzantine than GoT.  I really liked it. 

Jack Ryan - Amazon?

I… barely remember this.  ‘Modern day international espionage and geopolitics driving a rogue agent to do the right thing despite the corruption of their organization’ is not my favorite genre. They all blur together to me. My rating: Meh.

Willow - Disney (I think I heard they nuked this though!)

This show actively made me sad.  I still unapologetically love the movie.  I really hoped they’d keep that tone and general vibe. Instead they made a CW teen drama with pop music and dumb characters that are puppeted around by the nonsensical plot.  One thing I DID like a lot was the expanding of the world. Got to travel through more biomes and cities and such, got to see a few new creatures. But it was hard for me to care when everything is stylistically being directed towards teen drama. :( 

Avenue 5 - HBO

The last couple years have seen a rise of the high concept scifi live-action comedy. There’s this, Upload, and Space Force that I’m aware of. And they all share a similar weakness for me, personally. They do what BAD scifi does, which is use the high concept as hook, but then hang stupid stuff on it that doesn’t actually have much to say about it. In these comedy takes, the characters are pushed to buffoonery characters when the writers want you to laugh, but then need to lurch into competent smart characters when the writers want the plot to progress in a sane way. It’s this inconsistency that makes me not care about the characters because they keep ‘telling’ me they aren’t real.  I still watch these shows just because I’ll watch almost anything in scifi/fantasy TV with high production levels. They’ll get a laugh or two out of me every once in a while. But ultimately, the tension between a grounded high concept premise and linear plot with the silliness of the characters just doesn’t work for me.  There’s a reason that most of the best comedies are procedurals. The characters are office workers, government bureaucrats, or late night TV stars. It keeps the stakes from becoming so large that the characters must abandon their posts as caricatures in order to suddenly snap into a role that can rise to the occasion. That’s my theory at least.

The Last of Us - HBO

Holy Moly what an incredible show this was.  And what a surprise that we got not just a good videogame adaptation.  But one of the best prestige shows of the year from it!  

His Dark Materials (the final season) - HBO

This is one of those shows that has super great production values, great actors, cool world, etc. but for whatever reason just feels … fine? It’s fails to become as great as the sum of its parts.  Can’t put my finger on why, and it’s been too long since I saw it to speculate.

Vampire Survivors - Videogame

Such a silly little game, but with a somehow powerful hook.  Great video about it’s making here. https://youtu.be/XQVdR8mJrds?si=OJCKt7Vw7rvirzQm

The Witcher Blood Origin - Netflix

I can barely remember this. I think it was a one-off short season prequel to the Witcher show. It probably had monsters or something. 

The Menu 

This movie about a super exclusive restaurant turns into a super tense thriller/horror story, complete with a ‘final girl’.  I absolutely adored this movie. So much of what makes it great is the unexpected turns it takes so I won’t say any more.

Mooncrash

A very silly movie

Uncharted

This is a movie based on the game and I guess I saw it. It’s in my log. I have literally no memories of it.

Ad Astra

Another movie that I heard was really unique and great. I don’t remember much about it. 

Fleishman Is In Trouble - Hulu

A drama about a rich New York couple with a mystery, great acting and an interesting conclusion. It was good.

Servant -the final season

“From” M. Night Shyamalan, this horror/thriller tv series starts with a typical mystery box and then, as usual, gets very silly. There are some legitimately well done moments. But the connective tissue is so silly and/or stylized that I don’t think it holds together at all. 

Shrinking - Apple

A delightful semi-heavy comedy with Harrison Ford putting in his best work in decades. Great characters, great performances and a lot of heart. Highly recommend. 

Paper Girls - Amazon

A fun scifi-time-travel action drama with coming-of-age elements. It definitely felt like an attempt to capture the lighting-in-a-bottle of Stranger Things, set in the late 80’s with four girls on bikes and strange things happening around town.  It doesn’t quite reach the levels that S1 of Stranger Things did, but it’s still really good.  

The Mandalorian S3 - Disney

I’m less interested in the specifics of this show and more interested in the new ecosystem Disney is building with the franchise.  The first season of this show was so promising. It wasn’t all about member berries, didn’t have the Force in any significant way, and had an edge to it that felt really refreshing. By S3 most of these elements have been worn away, and my enthusiasm has followed that trajectory.

Children Of Memory - Scifi Novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The 3rd book in a trilogy Really interesting exploration of a society integrating different forms of thinking, sapience and community. The trilogy is challenging in that it leaves a lot to the imagination and you better be really familiar with all the scifi tropes being utilized. I love the exploration of different theoretical ways to think and be. And while the background story is pretty grim, the books follow a loose association of characters that end up building an ultimately positive community around a shared goal of exploration. In that sense it’s very Star Trek. But the focus on different kinds of sentience/sapience is what really sets it apart. 

Hello Tomorrow - Apple

This show is a lot more interesting than it is entertaining to me. It’s a retro-future world, straight out of the backstory of the Fallout Games, but not officially connected in any way.  It follows the gray character of a door to door salesman who’s selling tickets to the moon. You find out early on that it’s all a scam. This is another show that I feel like I should have liked more than I did.  I can’t point at any particular element that felt off.

Ted Lasso S3 - Apple

It was fine. More of the same lovable goofballs. Falls in that ‘cozy’ genre I mentioned earlier. 

Haiku The Robot -Steam

An indie metroidvania game that adds virtually nothing to the genre. Everything it does has been done better elsewhere. It’s solid, competent, and technically stable. It just doesn’t bring anything interesting to the table. That being said, I still played it all the way through. 

Dead Cells - Steam

One of the best Rogue-Lites.  I had played it a lot several years ago.  There was an expansion that came out and so I got back into it for a couple months this year. Still amazing. 

Mythic Quest S3 - Apple

Here’s another show I really want to like more than I do. It’s a comedy about game development on an MMO.  Something I did for 15 years.  How can I not love this?  I can’t say.  Again, it’s definitely not bad. In fact, I’d say it’s good.  Just not great. 

Gideon Falls - Graphic Novel

Since I’ve started writing a graphic novel I figured I should get to know the medium. I have a friend who works at a comic shop and is into the more high-brow stuff so he shipped me some stuff.  This is one of several I read, along with Sandman Something Is Killing The Children and Department of Truth.  I’m not going to review them here.  Just want to have it on the record that I’m reading them.

Mosquito Coast S2 - Apple

This show based on the 80’s movie based on the book has a pretty interesting premise. This is another one where it’s just good enough to keep me watching, but not enough for me to love it.

Piranesi - Novel by Susanna Clarke

I’m not sure what genre this is. It’s sort of a psychological mystery with light thriller elements but in a fantastical setting.  I don’t want to say more, because the discovery is a big part of the draw. But it’s beautifully written and evocative. I’m guessing this is what people mean when they call a genre work “literary”.   

Yellowjackets - Showtime

One of those stories that cuts back and forth between characters as adults and teens. In this story the teens were a highschool sports team that crashed in the canadian wilderness and had to survive in unspeakable ways. The adult parts show how they were affected by the trauma.  Really well acted, captivating, gross, artistic and creepy. If you can handle gross and scary and traumatic I recommend it. 

Kevin Can F**k Himself - AMC

A fantastic premise here: It’s a sitcom and a prestige drama, but not blended at all. The show simply cuts to different styles depending on whose story is being told.  The husband is a typical shlubby, stupid sitcom husband, and the wife (Annie Murphy from Schitt’s Creek) is portrayed with all the production cliches of premier drama TV like Better Caul Saul, Ozark, etc.) So when Kevin is in the room, up to typical moronic sitcom antic the house is overly-lighted, there’s canned laughs, etc.  When he leaves the lighting gets really dim, just natural lighting from windows, the camera angles get dramatic, etc. The show gets pretty thematically dark as it progresses. Super great premise. I was unsatisfied with how well they ran with it, but it's still very watchable and worth the time for anyone interested in the art of the medium of television. 

Piccard S3 - Paramount

This season was a lot more fun than the previous two. I liked things about all the seasons, but I have to admit the first two are pretty terrible. The third isn’t good, but by comparison it felt great!

Jury Duty - Amazon

Another great concept hook. It’s set up like a reality TV show, but everyone on it is an actor except for one person, who thinks it’s a typical reality TV show.  Hijinks ensue. I highly recommend it. 

Carnival Row - Amazon

Ok, I feel like I need a name for this category of shows that I should love by all rights. That I can’t point at any significant flaws. But that ultimately just come off as ‘fine’. It actually makes me very sad, given how much time, money, artistry and talent goes into these shows. And they just sort of fade into the background. Maybe because there’s simply so much stuff out there, and I’ve experienced so many things that strike me so perfectly, that something that’s calibrated just slightly differently pales in comparison. In other words: I’m spoiled. We all are. Is that good or bad? I honestly don’t know. 

Succession - HBO

A show that manages to make you feel pity for people who have almost everything the world has to offer. Everything except love that comes from sincere relationships. It’s a classic tragedy, told as a modern day cultural/political satire.  Super well done. I don’t usually like this genre or setting, but the quality of the story, acting and such pulled me in. 

Prehistoric Planet - Apple

A nature series where they use CG to bring dinosaurs to life with every theory paleontologists have come up with for how dinosaurs maybe possibly behaved. It’s fun. I wish they were more clear about how theoretical the ideas being presented were.

Silo - Apple

Another Fallout inspired show.  This one hit a lot better for me.  It’s about people in the future living in an underground bunker that’s a hundred or so stories deep.  Their history has been hidden from them and a murder mystery kicks off the events. I recommend this one to fans of genre fiction. 

The Great S3 - Hulu

“A genre-bending, anti-historical ride through 18th-century Russia following the wildly comedic rise of Catherine the Nothing to Catherine the Great.”

Very raunchy, very funny, and a lot of heart.  This show might be in my top 10 of the decade. 

The Bear S2 - Hulu

Must See TV. Super intense show about a little restaurant struggling to survive with compelling characters, breathless pacing and a unique style. Season 2 stretches out to capture a wider range of emotions and vibes, but still proves it’s got teeth when it needs them. 

Star Trek Strange New Worlds S2 - Paramount 

Star Trek has never been my favorite franchise, but I think I’ve seen at least 90% of all the ST ever made. THIS Star Trek is some of my favorite. There’s deep philosophical stuff, and a few episodes that are so wacky it’s hard to hold them in the same headspace. But ST has always been all over the place like this, and I’m loving it. 

Barry - HBO

How would have thought that a show about a psychopathic hitman who decides he wants to be an actor, played by a Saturday Night Live comedian who doesn’t act funny would be such an incredible show?

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

They made a D&D movie right! That’s cool! Very silly, but consciously so, it captures well the goofball nature of actually playing the game.

Tar

A movie about a really awful woman who is a composer. The plot is whatever. This is really just an acting portfolio for Cate Blanchett. And it’s worth watching for that alone.

3,000 Years of Longing

Speaking of movies that are acting portfolios for incredible actresses, Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are amazing in this movie. What happens when a Djinn appears to a scholar or narrative who knows all the pitfalls of wishes? Weirdness, that’s what. I like the bold choices made in the movie, but did not ultimately love the movie. 

Avatar: Way of Water

What a bizarre franchise. I don’t know anyone who cares about it, but it makes massive amounts of money, got a whole section of a themepark, has multiple sequels in development.  I don’t get it.  But what I really appreciate is how the franchise is building the tech that I’ll someday use to make my own movies and shows at budget 1/1000th the size. I also really appreciate the attention paid to the worldbuilding. 

The Banshees of Inisherin 

What if Napoleon Dynamite, but super dark, takes place in 1920s Ireland and was all adults? This is what, and I love it. 

Piranesi

A fantastical mystery box style novel with a really unique voice, by Susanna Clarke. What makes this book great is the slow unravelling of the central mystery, so I don't want to say anything about it except that you should read it.