I haven't watched a minute of Game of Thrones and just decided on a whim to start House of the Dragon a few weeks ago. I'm caught up now and I'm genuinely enjoying it. I'll probably wait until this season is over and then start picking my way through the original show.
Worth a watch: Susan Polis Schutz’s new documentary film focuses on six organizations who are bringing people together whose ideas and opinions differ, but who are united in their desire to find a common bond. The film asks pertinent questions about diversity and community and seeks answers on what it takes to bridge the issues and ideas that divide us all. Bridging Divides: Sharing Heartbeats | PBS
Spring 2024 Anime Reviews Kaiju No. 8 ~ Studio: Production I.G. Kafka Hibino (not subtle) cleans up destroyed kaiju corpses having mostly given up on his dream of being on the defense force that does the destroying until a kaiju jumps into his body giving him the ability to turn into a super-powerful kaiju himself. The big new action anime of the season, and it was solid. There isn't anything ground-breaking, but it was a nice mix of action, comedy, and story. 8/10 Train to the End of the World ~ Studio: EMT Squared After a Japanese company rushes to release 7G technology, the world turns into a surrealist dreamscape/nightmare. Four girls drive a train across the new wasteland in search of their friend who left before the world changed. This was the surprise of the season for me. It was enjoyable because it was so weird. Basically, each train station they stop at on their journey has undergone a completely different apocalypse, but it's mostly a goofy take on all of it. It doesn't really stick the ending, but was an enjoyable journey. 8/10 Bartender: Glass of God ~ Studio: Liber Ryu Sasakura is a bartender who uses his observation skills to make the perfect drink for each customer who comes into his out-of-the way bar. He's being recruited heavily to be the bartender for a VIP bar within a bar at a fancy new hotel. The case-of-the-week where we learn the backstory of a random customer and the drink that will make them feel better is pretty good. The on-going story of the aggressive pursuit to get Ryu to bartend at a hotel is less good. The mythologizing of the role of bartenders and alcohol are eye-rolling. 6/10 Spice and Wolf (2024) ~ Studio: Passione A medieval travelling merchant meets a girl who is actually a fox-god, and she travels across the country with him helping him in his business dealings. A remake of what it sounds like was a renowned anime which seems to be entirely dependent on your desire to watch a fox girl flirt with the most boring man on earth. There's a second-half running through summer season, so I'll probably keep watching since I've made it this far, but I'm not sure why this was highly anticipated. 5/10 Others: Watched the first two seasons of KonoSuba to get to the 3rd which came out this spring. It's a pretty funny parody of isekai, but the joke is definitely wearing a bit thin. Big project has been watching One Piece with my son. Got through 230 or so episodes so far, which is only about a 1/5 of the series. I've been binging the manga, which is a much better way to consume the material, but the anime still has its charm. I know Netflix has launched a remake of the anime with Studio WIT, which I'm guessing will be much easier to get through.
Evil remains a wonderfully quirky show carried by a fantastically charming lead trio and I'm going to be miss it if this is truly its final season. Just seven more episodes now.
I'm watching Bugs Bunny & Friends on MeTV Toons and they just showed "Horton Hatches the Egg," a short from 1942 that was the first Dr. Seuss book to be animated.
Finished off season 1 of The Recruit. Still making my way through Netflix shows I didn't get around to the last couple of years and this one was markedly better than The Diplomat. Really nicely paced spy thriller with a decent cast and some fun twists. Not great, but I'll definitely check out season 2.
Kleo: Season 1 - 2022 This was really quirky and fun. I still don't get certain sensibilities in German TV but almost all of it worked for me in this one. Kleo is a former Stasi assassin who is setup on a job and imprisoned for a couple of years only to be released shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She goes on a revenge tour, finding and killing everyone she can who was involved in imprisoning her, while trying to find a mysterious briefcase that may hold the secret of why it was done. The story takes here all over East and West Berlin, Chile, and elsewhere while introducing an unwitting partner and a goofy housemate whose side story is pure nonsense comedy that isn't too distracting from the show. The end credits set up a couple of potentially interesting plot points for season 2 which debuts next Thursday, 7/25.
The Boys Season 4 was still enjoyable to me but also felt like a show that was losing steam for the first time. It is probably not bad that there is only one season left.
Watching the first two episodes of the new season of Cobra Kai, it's amazing that this thing has gotten to six seasons. They are also starting to run into the Stranger Things problem where all of the kids are now starting to be too old to portray high schoolers. At least some of them. Something so built upon pure nostalgia and otherwise a wispy thin foundation probably should have ended after one or two seasons.
As predictable as it was, I enjoyed all 5 episodes. The only real problem is the actress playing Sam has made literally no effort to get in shape and make it believable that she would be able to win a fight of any kind. They're literally dressing her to hide her girth in several scenes and I was more athletic hobbling out of the hospital after knee surgery.
Mary Mouser is actually one of the few of the older 'kids' who can still just about pass for a HS student. Of course it's not something they can do a lot about, first season is now six years ago and most of these actors had already graduated from HS even back then.
Maybe the most ridiculous part of it is who writes the show. One of them did write the first Hot Tub Time Machine film, but the only things it seems like they all worked on prior to Cobra Kai are the second Harold & Kumar film and the fourth American Pie film. How are those the correct choices for writing one of the most endearing, enjoyable nostalgia bomb that is somehow deservedly persevering?
USA is picking up the 4th season of Syfy show Resident Alien. First 3 seasons are streaming on Netflix. It's a fun show and Alan Tudyk is excellent as the estranged alien dealing with human emotions.
Yup, a very fun ensemble. Not just Tudyk and Sarah Tomko in the lead roles, but also Alice Wetterland (D'Arcy: my favorite character), Corey Reynolds (consistently hilarious as the Sheriff) and Meredith Garretson (Kate/the Mayor's wife).
Yes, all five characters are really great. As are the "secondary" characters (the Mayor's son and his friend, the deputy sheriff, etc.) The Sheriff is just so weird. How could D'arcy (the "a" is not capitalized. They made a big deal about it one episode) not be one's favorite character? She's great.
Presumed Innocent: Season 1 - Apple TV+ I think this was intended to be a limited series but the viewership is so high that Apple couldn't justify not coming back with at least 1 more season. While it's the most watched show the service has had, likely due to Gyllenhaal as the lead, it's a notch below the best. Still, very good and I didn't see the twist coming until the moment it happened. It's based on a novel which does have a sequel, so that's likely going to be the source material.
Another great episode of Evil. Katja Herbers' facial expression at the end of the episode was perfect. Can't believe there are only four episodes left now.
Half the show should just be close ups of Katja Herber's facial expressions. The other half would be Asif Mandvi looking bemused. I have not started the last season yet. I will binge watch it at some point soon.
Seen first half of the ten episode first season of Batman: Caped Crusader. It's great. Reminiscent of Batman: TAS, yet different enough to not feel like a retreat or a straight up homage. Love the voice cast, including Batman Hamish Linklater, even though you still kind of expect to hear Kevin Conroy in any animated Batman show. R.I.P.
Solid first season for Batman: Caped Crusader. Not perfect, but interesting and not afraid to take the occasional big swing creatively.