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I've been playing through Doom: The Dark Ages and I have mixed feelings about it. The game is good, and fun, but is completely different feeling compared to the last two doom games. Initially they talked about how the game would be slower paced (it's not much slower) and then they changed that to talk about how the theme was "stand and fight" because you have a shield to parry / block with. I really enjoy parrying mechanics but this game's parry system feel loose and sloppy, you can only parry specific attacks / projectiles but you're capable of blocking almost anything up until your shield meter runs out and puts you on cooldown for a few seconds. The timing on the other hand feels very forgiving, which I believe was in part because Doom games can have a substantial amount of stuff on the screen, but it just ends up feeling less tight, and therefore less satisfying than you would want. There are also a few strange design choices that fall completely flat. There are a handful of "mech" levels where you pilot a giant mech and fight massive demons with a limited moveset, including replacing the parry with a "perfect dodge" (also with very forgiving timing) that empowers your counter attacks. These mech levels are... bad. They feel like a very old style campaign mission from a time gone by when you went for spectacle and needed a few missions to be completely different to mix it up. Speaking of which, they do the same thing with the dragon riding missions, which also suck. The dragon controls reasonably well but they throw more directional dodge attacks at you to empower your guns so you can take down various turrets. At least with the dragon riding missions they often include infantry / standard sections in them so the dragon portion feels like a small subsection rather than an entire mission. One section I do appreciate though is how they handle the map / secrets. I managed to 100% (or nearly) almost every mission without too much effort because the map isn't an object you need to pick up, you get it from the start and also it provides full information to you once you reveal sections of the map - including secrets. This makes it easy for people who want to 100% the map to do so without looking up guides - this is by far one of their best changes. I haven't quite finished the game yet, and it's longer than I was expecting, but I"m enjoying myself. There are some cool enemies and interesting takes on some existing enemies from prior games. I also appreciate their take on the weapons and their upgrades, including the ability to pick between 2 different variant upgrades that can provide different playstyles. Overall, I think the game is a solid entry in the modern doom series, but it doesn't quite vibe with me in the same way that Doom Eternal did.

Wonder Man The pitch is terrible: Another MCU show, but this time it's an insider's look at Hollywood (Hollywood loves to make shows about itself and they're nearly always up their own ass). But the show itself is enjoyable - they clearly understood the assignment of not taking themselves too seriously, focusing less on plot and more on interesting characters are smaller scenes. The MCU elements are almost non-existent and there's basically one scene with major CGI. If you enjoyed Ben Kingsley's take on the Mandarin, and the tongue and cheek nature of that character it's worth watching. Soft recommend. The PItt - Season 2 This show is great and everyone who is even slightly interested in the concept should watch it. Season 2 is good, but the "major event" this season seemed far less impactful (understandably) and so the stakes feel lower. I hope they move away from setting the day on holidays or feeling required to have an inciting incident for the show - honestly I'd like to see a "normal" shift with a transition to the night shift crew and potentially a set up for a spinoff / different set of characters (many of them have already been teased / shown). Semi-related: This show is filmed on a single sound stage in Los Angeles - which is clearly the objectively best choice for a show like this. Yes I understand they have one large set which makes some aspects "easier" but it also has allowed them to film longer seasons (13 eps) and have quick turnarounds for each season. I don't think this is the only type of show that could be made this way - and more writers should find concepts that could fit this style of filming because I've seen nothing but high praise not just for the show itself but the fact that they're producing high quality media quickly. I think everyone is burnt out from waiting 2-3 years between seasons (Last of Us, Stranger Things, House of the Dragon, etc.) Daredevil: Born Again - Season 2 Glad this is back, and hoping that since this season didn't suffer from massive re-writes we'll get a more cohesive story. I'm hoping Disney sees how popular this style of show is, and leans into a slightly darker take on some of their other IP. Invincible - Season 4 I'm still enjoying this show, but I'm also starting to lose some patience with it. The animation isn't especially great (barring some major fight sequences) and they seem absolutely set on using famous actors to do voice work, which is clearly where the budget is going. This show has also suffered from major delays between seasons and even had to recast a few characters. Still have to give credit to not only this show but Amazon in general for actively pushing multiple adult animated series. I firmly believe the animation medium is on a fantastic upward trend with Amazon and Netflix (mostly through licensing) are leading the charge. ANIME NONSENSE Jujutsu Kaisen - Season 2 This show continues to push the bounds of animated fight sequences. The plot is absolutely bananas and should be almost ignored. The power systems are absurd shounen nonsense (one character's power is THE SKY, another character's power is conjuring anything he has a receipt for) in all the right ways. This reminds me of Bleach (when bleach was good - hey wait... bleach is back and it's really good...) and suffers from the exact same issues of Bleach, like way too many characters being added simply to justify a new fight for some of the protagonists. And despite all that - this show is fantastic to watch from a visual standpoint, the animation is great, and they're willing to have some more "abstract" styles to convey movement or just spice up the sequences. If you want some fantastic "turn my brain off" animation - this has to be at the top of that this. Frieren - Season 2 This season was far more about the journey, with slice of life sections and a few battle sequences against demons and other monsters. It felt far closer to the first half of the first season and brought back more of the comfy style. I'd say this was a good balance of comfy and cool battle sequences, but ultimately felt like a middle season with no real plot progression other than the party slowly moving more north and into more dangerous parts of the continent. Still highly recommend the show, the animation is truly fantastic (it competes with Jujutsu Kaisen - but is a different style) and if it wasn't for multiple very well regarded shows coming out this year it would probably win anime of the year.

Is This Thing On? I gave this a shot on a whim, and wasn't particularly impressed. It's supposed to be a somewhat introspective look at deteriorating relationships caused by people growing apart as they age and circumstances change. What it felt like was a weird mix of (purposefully) terrible "comedy" bits interspersed with a very surface level set of conversations about handling relationship problems. At one point a side character says he's going to divorce his wife and start a new chapter - several scenes later (time jump of a few months) he says "we talked it out, everything is good now" - what the fuck? A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms This is a great series and it's getting plenty of attention for all the right reasons. Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) is a very large universe with a ton of world building, which allows for some of these spin-offs to not read as obvious cash grabs. This particular spin-off is based on a series of novellas about a simple knight with strong moral character bumping up against the sometimes harsh realities of medieval society. Which is to say, the stories are smaller and self contained with less world shattering events and more traditional "how will Dunc get out of this one" type of plot lines. The smaller scale, already published stories allows for shorter filming and shorter seasons that don't overstay their welcome, while still referencing the larger game of thrones universe for the lore nerds and people that care. It's very similar to the first season of the Mandalorian, with it being set in an existing world but also living it's own simplified life. I felt this season was a great opener with strong acting, an exceptional action sequence, and enough comedy to undercut some of the more serious bits and remind the audience this isn't mainline game of thrones. There's still a bit of George RR Martin's fingerprints of ugliness happening to seemingly good characters, which I think is used much more sparingly and works better because of it. tl;dr - It's a great little series go watch it - strong recommendation Fallout Season 2 While I still think The Last of Us is a slightly better video game adaptation - this stands right up there. Fallout always has a tongue and cheek tone, and the show manages that, while still telling a compelling story that doesn't seem to run roughshod over the existing games. It's not pure fan service, nor is it trying to take itself too seriously, it seems to ride the line between parody and compelling drama. Some of the acting is surprisingly compelling for a show that contains irradiated monster cockroaches. I'd give this a strong recommendation Ponies Cold war era (1970's) spy thriller with a comedic twist. It's very well acted and lighthearted enough that you can breeze through the series. Almost all of the comedy is played completely straight. This reminds me of Slow Horses, with some incompetence being the root cause of things going poorly. Both Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson work well as the main characters, their chemistry is good and the supporting cast help round out the show. I'd give this a soft recommendation if you're in the mood for something lighter. Critical Role Season 4 For what it's worth, this season has hooked me just as well (if not moreso) than season 2 - which is currently being adapted into an animated series. These weird nerds know their stuff and Brendan Lee Mulligan knows how to craft a world that feels scary but bigger than any of the individual players (or their respective groups). The pitch for this season is several groups of rag tag folks come together for a funeral of a character that was executed by powerful nobles with various machinations and schemes they need to discover. The different groups of players will come and go, leaving this feeling like a series of story arcs that all tie back into one another and somehow make a cast of 12+ characters manageable. It feels almost like a traditional A/B/C plotline that might be mixed into an episode or movie, but spread out into longer arcs of several episodes of a single plotline, with a short introduction that references backstories of different character or small moments of other groups. The setting is also somewhat unique: The various races had different shapers/gods that they worshiped until one day their demands grew too much and the Orcs decided to kill their own god - leading to other races following suit. It gives me a Klingon vibe (how they killed their gods) and also brings up weird questions about how magic systems would work in a world where there are no gods to provide divine power. Let alone the ramifications of death if the gods no longer manage various afterlives. /Nerd rant aside - I'm enjoying this and hope it keeps up the pace and quality.

I've been looking into various bluetooth / gps tags available on the android ecosystem. When I last looked ~1 year ago, it was early on in the rollout of android taking things seriously and rolling out their own version of device tracking. I think at this point there's more than a handful of devices that natively support android's "Find my Device Hub" - and so it's a good time to revisit this and see what's available. As I've started to travel with a substantial amount of equipment (mostly scuba) when I fly internationally, I feel like it's a good bit of additional safety. I manage to cram most of the super expensive stuff into a carry-on or personal item but I still think it's worthwhile to have a backup. https://www.android.com/intl/en_uk/learn-find-hub/compatible-devices/ I've heard mostly good things about chipolo, and will probably go with something like that for the next time I need to do some traveling. I doubt I'll be putting this on a key chain (I don't misplace my keys) but I may also give a few to my parents as well to help track luggage when they travel. Sidenote: Some airlines are actively getting passengers to share airtag info with them to help resolve lost luggage. This seems like an easy win for the airline and yet... there are other airlines actively fighting against this (why? cause fuck you that's why). I hope this is an easy rollout to do the same for android based trackers.

Predator Badlands This is a neat popcorn film. It's not some great storyline, nor is the action particularly fantastic, but it's fun and doesn't overstay it's welcome. I believe this director has basically been tapped for the past 3 predator projects: Prey, Killer of Killers and Badlands, and while I haven't watched Prey, they've all been fairly well regarded. I really enjoy some of the combined Alien / Predator universe insofar as there are some cool dystopian themes with mega-corps continuing to being assholes intent on finding resources and technology to exploit - which ultimately leads to terrible consequences. I'm not a massive predator fan, and while these movies are definitely providing some additional context about the Yautja species and their overly warrior based culture - it again doesn't feel like some desperate attempt to fill in all the blanks or provide massive amounts of fan service for the people who have read all the comics and lore. Give it a shot if you're in the mood for a sort of 80's action movie throwback. Wake Up Dead Man: Knives out series This was a decent film, very similar in quality to the last couple of knives out films. Controversially I don't think these films would be something to drive box office sales, but they work perfectly as a sort of "big streaming film" which netflix can hang it's proverbial hat on. I also firmly believe that Rian Johnson does a much better job with films like these than bigger budget scifi epics (I firmly believe this dude fucked up an already terrible sequel trilogy beyond saving). This feels like less of an ensemble cast compared to the previous film, and arguably is better for it. I think this is an easy recommendation for something murder mystery adjacent, a more modern version of Agatha Christie. I still firmly believe the description of Benoit Blanc as "Gay foghorn leghorn" will live in my head rent free until the end of time. Yalla Habibi! This is produced by the Fortnine folks (Canadian motorcycle e-tailer) whom I really like. It's not super high budget but it still manages to be entertaining and have some stakes. It reminds me of Top Gear specials in the best way but without the more outlandish or ridiculous elements. If you're in the mood for a sort of travel blog / motorcycle challenge it's a good film. Death by Lightning Mini-Series about President Garfield, whom I suspect the average person knows next to nothing about. It's certainly played up as a bit more comedic than I was expecting but it's still a fantastic docu-drama about Garfield's rise to power and ultimate end. It also does a great job shedding light on how mid 1800's politics worked (machine politics) and how the early days of the union were shaped by the larger and more powerful states like New York and how that might echo through to today. Matthew McFadden does a fantastic job playing and obsequious loser, he's starting to become an actor that I'll follow and check out projects that might otherwise not be interesting to me. Stranger Things - Season 5 I think I've seen mostly positive but still a bit mixed reception of this. It clearly set streaming records and is driving massive viewership to netflix so it's not as though it wasn't immensely successful. But I again felt like the stakes were pushed too far (gotta save the world again) and the writing was falling into dreadful repeated tropes (let's grab props to explain a plan for the fourth time this episode). I hope some of the "child" actors continue to get work without being type casted because I think the acting was the strongest part of this show - I just wish the writing was a bit better. I know every streaming services loves when there are popular series but how many times are we going to get massive scope creep in stories until every series ends up with a full blown infinity war level of threat and massive bloated cast of characters all coming together with the power of friendship. Please just greenlight more limited series with clearly defined endings. The Mighty Nein This was the series that actually got me into critical role and so my opinions of it are biased. That being said, I felt this was a big step up from the vox machina series, with more fleshed out characters and a bigger and more grounded set of stakes (and less terrible / gross humor). It also feels better because they start off as a low level band of misfits, as opposed to being heroic from the start. Some of their staff have said publicly that if vox machina is the hobbit, this series is their version of lord of the rings, and while that's a bit of an egotistical comparison - I actually agree with them. I'm much more hopeful that this series will be 5+ seasons and feel far more cohesive. They've also been unafraid to make some small and not so small changes to the source material, in an effort to provide a better story with more information to the viewer. I'm really hyped for this show and I can't wait for them to continue this. For all the crap I could complain about from amazon, they've greenlit several high budget adult animated series and I respect that. A Thousand Blows I watched the first season of this a while back and it's just released the second season, they're short 6 episode British style seasons. Overall the show is a weird mix of 1800's Britain, boxing, gangsters, thieving - which is all supposed to be very loosely based on some historical figures. It's an above average period piece, with a few neat ideas but isn't exactly doing much for me. The Night Manager This is Tom Hiddleston's unofficial James Bond audition. It flows like a John Le Carre novel and does a very good job of being a grounded spy thriller story with a British twist. I love this series - I still don't know why they greenlit a second season 10 years after the first, but damn I'm happy about it. The Pitt - Season 2 Still remains the best medical drama, and continues to show that well done shows don't need 3 years between seasons, or gratuitous CGI budgets. Sometimes a simple setting for a sort of weekly procedural is more than enough to get people excited. Please watch this show - it's fantastic. JuJutsu Kaisen We're back with some truly fantastic animation, a convoluted story line with no less than 8 complex rules governing a "culling game" / fight to the death amongst superhuman sorcerers. Turn your brain off and watch some great action. Frieren We're back for arguably one of the most highly rated anime series ever produced (This is the only series to finally beat back the FMA:Brotherhood psychos on my anime list). The new season made the great move to immediately jump back into the slower paced cozy vibe of the earlier first season, as a nice palate cleanser from the mage tournament arc. I can't wait to watch this every week and just enjoy this series. Ikoku Nikki (Journal with Witch) A series about a reclusive author who is suddenly thrust into becoming a caretaker for her 15 year niece when her sister and brother in law die suddenly. This is a subdued drama about relationships, becoming an adult and dealing with trauma individually. I'm not normally a big shoujo fan, but this feels equal parts comforting and grief stricken. It's also one of the most down to earth depictions of day to day life - more so than just about any slice of life show I've seen. The characters feel real, imperfect and endearing. This certainly won't be for everyone but I suspect it will be well regarded among a more limited audience.

The American Revolution (Ken Burns Documentary) This is a very well researched documentary series but due to the substantial lack of visuals to use, it almost feels like a podcast with some occasional animated battle maps. It also does a great job at humanizing George Washington, who ultimately is hailed even by King George III as an exceptional man for willing to give up power repeatedly - but he was also a slave owning racist who didn't want black soldiers in the continental army. He was quite insistent with the British to return any slaves who ran away to the British lines and fought for them or helped them (some of his own slaves ran away from Mount Vernon). Washington was also an infamously horrible tactician, with multiple defeats caused by his ineptitude at reading terrain or positioning troops incorrectly. The documentary does a decent job explaining how the British ultimately lost the war, not due to America's immense strength but rather due to the multiple fronts opened against the French and Spanish and the realization that they couldn't hold all their territory and opted to save more profitable colonies (like the Caribbean, which was ironically even more reliant on slave labor). Even when the war officially ended, the British had their standing military in the US for multiple years as they slowly evacuated - because the American's didn't actually possess a strong enough standing army to kick them out forcibly. I'm also of the opinion that this should have been 12 episodes 1 hour long instead of 6 at 2 hours. It's a weird choice I disagree with. Sidenote: Ken Burns best work is his Vietnam series which I strongly recommend. The Roses Comedy/Drama focused on a relationship as it tries to survive a complete change in power dynamics and earnings, as well as reconcile that love can be messy. Solid acting, quite a bit more humor than I was expecting (mostly dry and cutting barbs) with just enough of a story to hold the entire concept together. It's a decent watch if you're in the mood for it. Anime Bullshit: Chainsaw Man - Reze Arc (Movie) This is a shorter arc in the chainsaw man manga which they decided to do as a movie. It's high production value and still has the gonzo violence and insanity the show is known for but also plays about half the show as a sort of romance interlude. I thought it was really well done and very well adapted. The whole reason why this arc works so well is the slower sections focused on Denji's romantic interests as well as the harsh reality of what countries / governments are willing to do in order to secure powerful weapons (ends justifies the means if you're able to create meta-humans capable of immense destruction right?). It's got just enough commentary and melancholy about the characters combined with a bit of naivete that makes it feel oddly real, considering the setting involves various devils, fiends and humans hunting evil creatures. Even if you're not into the movie this quick animation of Reze dancing is fun and cute (not directly in the movie). My Hero Academia - Final Season This ended with a battle against the two big bads which felt less interesting than it should have. They also had two full episodes of epilogue which while nice enough to see where everyone ends up, also felt stretched and tiresome. I'm glad this show is over because I felt it was starting to overstay it's welcome.

Bunch of trailers from the game awards show.

Even with the "it felt like work" problem, that I mentioned previously, I did try to revisit this. It is rated highly and I see lots of positive posts about it however I ran into a new problem. There is an explicit, orchestrated gang-rape of a minor which, even though it was from the point of view of an antagonist character, just felt entirely unnecessary to include. The book moved on from that but in the back of my head I just kept worrying that the author was going to do something extremely uncomfortable like that again. Ultimately decided to drop it. Working on something new but too early to post about it.

Pluribus I saw part of the first Saw movie but I didn't finish it. Why? It's torture porn and everything else in it feels like just some window dressing. I don't need that in my life. I have not watched Chernobyl because after viewing a few clips it seems to be back to back downer-to-downer-to-downer. Extremely depressing. I don't need that in my life. About halfway through the first episode of Pluribus I had already decided this was not for me but, because of the hype, I wanted to give it a chance and pushed through the first two episodes. I'm done. Not watching anymore. Pluribus is cosmic eldritch horror. Everything else in it feels like just some window dressing. Humanity was completely wiped out and not even with a bang but with a whimper. They never had a chance. There is no ethical dilemma. No moral quandary. Nothing to explore. Not for me. I don't need that in my life.

So, I wasn't holding out much hope, but Sanderson did announce that he's "slowing down" insofar as he's going to have a 2 year gap until his next release. He announced that when he first started writing he had between 12-18 months of editing / rewriting on projects but as he got more popular the publisher basically kept pushing to shorten that. I suspect this resulted in very quick editing passes because "why bother, his books sell well" and that resulted in a really crappy release of a big book. I think the criticism landed hard enough that he's now going to keep that 12-18 months of editing / rewriting moving forward. Which is great news. His next projects are Mistborn Era 3, which has been teased as futuristic / science fantasy. Considering I enjoyed mistborn era 2 way more than era 1, I'm excited for it. I just finished The Fragile Threads of Power - which is a continuation of the Shades of Magic Series. Technically the first series was listed as YA, but don't let that fool you, it was enjoyable and didn't come across that way, in fact the continuation series dropped that description completely. I enjoy the world building in these books, there's a rule based magic system which isn't too rigid and some cool multiverse ideas that don't come across as marvel style, more like portals to similar worlds. It's an easy read, and while the villain / plot for this first novel didn't come across as particularly interesting there's enough setup for future books that I'm certainly interested. I'll start up Mercy of the Gods - by James S. A. Corey (authors behind the expanse series).

Gen V - Season 2 Was slightly better than the first season, but ultimately not all that great. I think they initially pitched this as a spinoff that wouldn't affect the main storyline of The Boys but that's a lie (go figure) and I expect the main character to show up somewhere near the climax of the final season of The Boys. I'm glad this show is ending I feel like they've played out most of the tropes and parodies to their logical end. Slow Horses - Season 5 This felt similar to the first season, but with a slightly different set of characters. Still a fantastic show, with really solid acting and good production values. I believe there are a few more books to adapt and I think the author has said they're working on more. I still strongly recommend the series to anyone, especially if you enjoy the spy / thriller style of films. The Diplomat - Season 3 This show is really well done and acted, but it rides the line of jumping the shark. For plot convenience sake every geopolitical issue seems to be between the US and UK, and the political machinations flip between stupid and overly competent. Overall the show continues to be a fantastic political drama with plenty of flawed characters and ugly social climbing. Black Rabbit Very well produced show that manages to capture that anxiousness of watching characters barely scrape by from one terrible event to another while seemingly throwing just enough light before being dragged back down into a negative reinforcing spiral of despair. I heard Jason Bateman was specifically cast / picked the "loser" character to play against type, and I think he does a great job. I continue to think Jude Law is a fantastic actor who manages to own his scenes and make you root for his character despite the awful shit he does to get by. I also appreciate how they used the deaf actor with some nice details including how some characters try to speak to his interpreter and are met with "talk to him not to me." Task Great mini-series that manages to handle the various reveals and rug pulls while still managing a sense of grounded realism and just a bit of foreshadowing. Also one of the handful of media I've seen where someone is seriously deafened / injured by a nearby gunshot. The acting is fantastic, with nearly every character having a bit of ugliness of shadowy past, but done tastefully and without massive exposition dumps for each sorry story. I strongly recommend the mini-series. Caught Stealing Great little drama / thriller movie directed by Darren Aronofsky. Strong acting from Austin Butler, with a nice storyline that keeps it quick and simple. The movie doesn't overstay it's welcome or try to break any conventions - I doubt much in the film will surprise you but it's executed well. Solid recommendation for this, try to go in blind if possible. The Thursday Murder Club This is a movie with a fantastic cast, mediocre mysteries and probably too big of a budget. My mom has read the books and bluntly said the books are better (surprise surprise.) No idea how this stacks up with the Agatha Christie movies (I've heard mixed things about them) but it you want to see old people try and solve cold (and not so cold) cases this might be of interest to you. Currently Watching: Pluribus The new show by Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) which means of course it's set in New Mexico. Really great modern scifi thriller, with fantastic acting especially from Rhea Seehorn as the main protagonist. I strongly recommend the show and look forward to it weekly. This show is best going in blind - don't bother watching trailers just give the first 2 episodes a try. Death by Lighting Mini-series about everyone's favorite president - Garfield. I checked the first episode and so far it seems like a nice little period piece mini-series about a semi-forgotten piece of american history and the seemingly weirdos that make it up. Anime Bullshit: One Punch Man - Season 3 I've seen powerpoint presentations with better animation than this. The production quality is genuinely garbage and the entire team who worked on it is getting flamed online by fans. I'm clicking through it but even that is tiring and I'm losing my patience. My Hero Academia - Final Season It's good, and they've thrown some decent budget at this, but it's also generic battle shounen so I'm expecting the power of friendship to prevail against the big bad. Good fights so far and it doesn't feel like they're drawing this out (it should end with less than 200 episodes for the whole show). Star Wars Visions - Season 3 This definitely has started to run out of ideas, or the folks working on this season weren't all that excited by it because it felt very weak. There are a couple of episodes that are continuations of previous season episodes and those felt worse creatively, just aping a style and hoping people would be interested.

Peacemaker - Season 2 This show is really good, but I'm also noticing some serious retconning even of the first season, which is awkward. It's also leaning on the multiverse elements which I'm generally not a fan of. But the acting is good, the writing is solid without going full joss whedon, and the story is oddly introspective which I wasn't expecting from anything tied to the DCU. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 3 This season felt weaker and worse than previous seasons. I don't mind the occasional silly episode (lord knows every star trek has that) but I just wasn't impressed by the more story/serious episodes either. Star Trek trying to be binary about good/evil doesn't work super well, and since they can't use the borg they sort of make some new stuff up and try and use the Gorm. It just felt messy and tonally inconsistent. I still think most of the actors are great, and it's just the writing which isn't holding up. Outside of the show, I believe they've said the plan is to "end" this show with kirk becoming captain, but the real question is if they have the balls to try and "reboot" the original series. I'd actually like to see them try, preferably with some better writers backing them up. Gen V - Season 2 The first season was mid, and I'm not especially a fan of the premise but I'm curious about how this might tie into the mainline series so I'll watch along. Not exactly holding out hope for anything fantastic. King and Conqueror This is centered around William the Conqueror's rise to power as he and his Norman army beat the Saxons at the battle of Hastings in 1066, which resulted in the current line of British monarchy. The acting is decent but the writing and action was very middling. They also try to play up a large amount of drama surrounding the various warring states of Europe and regions of the UK, but ultimately records from that time are sparse so this is more historical fantasy than docudrama. The series is probably a 6/10, but I was curious if they were going to tap into that "Last Kingdom" energy (it's similar in setting, ~200 years apart) but I don't think it managed it. SIdenote: No idea why the past few years have had like 3 different shows all around very early history england (Last Kingdom, the anime Vinland Saga), I'm curious if the prospect of writing historical fiction is easier than having to do a full set of worldbuilding. Superman (2025) This movie was so forgettable I've genuinely seen clips on youtube that I have no memory of. I appreciate that they skipped the origin story stuff (mostly) and took it up in media res, but nothing about this film grabbed my attention or interest. I'm honestly more interested in the potential spin off movies, but this didn't exactly inspire confidence in James Gunn's writing/managing the DCU moving forward. Fantastic Four: First Steps Again, I appreciated a quick montage rather than dragging out an origin story that no one really cares about. I dislike that the villain is Galactus, because he's a galactic level threat, and acts more as a force of nature than an actual character. It honestly felt more like a setup to add silver surfer as a recurring side character, which I hope they make use of otherwise this plotline was a giant waste of time. I would have preferred if they used a smaller, more street level villain, instead of skipping straight to "the world will be destroyed if we don't defeat the villain." I know they had to shoehorn in some multiverse stuff (which was oddly teased in a movie before this was released lol) so I'll reserve judgement until I can see a few more moving pieces. At least this film wasn't dreadfully dull, just middling. Anime Stuff: DanDaDan Season 2 - this ended on another major cliffhanger but the show is immensely popular and they've already announced a season 3 so I suspect we'll get more in a year or so. Sono Bisque Doll - [My Dress-Up Darling] - this ended with the classic "will they or won't they" style romantic cliffhanger. I'm sure this will get more seasons based on popularity, check back in a year or so. Yofukashi no Uta - [Call of the Night] - Season 2 - This show did not end on a cliffhanger, but I don't think it has the popularity to get more seasons. I hope I'm proven wrong. Slow Horses is starting up again. I have high hopes. I'm also curious about the mini-series Black Rabbit, so I'll add that to my voluminous watchlist. Anime stuff is a bunch of shounen sequels: One Punch Man Season 3, My Hero Academia final season, and oddly I don't see much else on the anime side that catches my eye. I'll let various youtube reviewers point out if there's anything else worth watching or maybe I'll go back and binge stuff I've seen that has some decent hype around it from prior seasons.

I actually really enjoyed Outer Worlds, and probably my most re-watched episode in Secret Levels because I felt there was several levels deep (probably 3-4x) to understand the various nuances of it but thats just me. LDR my most re-watched was The Secret War. Dune Prophecy was definitely meh, but better than i expected, and not as bad as I feared for a primarily female focused story arc. Side note, no idea there was a Starship Troopers anime. Next up is Predator new anime, which I'll be watching on the 15+ hour plane ride later tonight.

Chief of War This is being hailed as the most authentic Hawaiian production every undertaken and they're clearing aiming for it with everyone speaking Hawaiian and as far as I can tell mostly native actors. It's also a bit of an odd show, since it's based loosely on real events and Jason Momoa isn't even cast as the "main" character. The production value is good and the story line is entertaining enough, I just have a hard time believing this is going to gather a big enough audience to get the multiple seasons needed to tell the complete story. The Gilded Age Downton Abbey: America Edition. It's a period piece set in the late 1870s with fantastic costuming, great sets, decent acting and almost no real plot other than flimsy excuses to balls, operas, and lavish weddings. It's also very romance heavy but of the puritanical variety (I haven't seen a woman so much as flash an ankle - barring one scene). I mostly wanted to see what all the fuss was about and while it's a well produced show, it's not exactly my cup of tea. Duster I saw this as a recommendation from the internet, and it's just very middle of the road. It's so middle of the road is was immediately cancelled after the first season. Sandman - Season 2 Solid season. It's so hard to describe this show but I think they nailed the general vibe and weirdness. The actor that plays Desire is a complete scene stealer. The side story about death was interesting but not as good as the first season's side story (or death-centric episode). My understanding is the series discarded all the side stories to sort of speedrun to the conclusion and while it doesn't feel rushed I wish I could have spent more time in this world. Murderbot They nailed the ending. I'm excited because they've greenlit another season and I hope they manage to make it through the first 4 novellas. I wish they had more confidence in this show and went with longer runtimes for the episodes, maybe they could cram 2 novellas into season 2 if they did that. Star Trek Strange New Worlds - Season 3 It's the only "new-trek" show that's worth a damn. It's not a perfect show but considering how much of TNG or DS9 is crappy episodes, I have to give them credit for being far more good than bad. I'm curious how many more seasons they intend to go for because eventually they have to transition the show to Kirk - and then where do they go? Foundation - Season 3 This show gets better every season. I think they've finally hit their stride and we're seeing some of the events discussed in season 1/2 come to fruition properly which is exciting. I feel like they've also done a decent job pruning some of the terrible actors from the first 2 seasons (*cough* salvor *cough*) and they're also showing some love to a few weird loose ends like Demerzel. I appreciate they've not been afraid to lean into some heavy CGI elements to help amp up some scenes - they clearly are taking advantage of their larger budget. Alien: Earth This nails the vibe and visuals of the Alien(s) films. In fact one of the opening sequences felt less like an homage and more like a duplication of the opening of Alien. But they've made a few story decisions that I absolutely loath - and while it hasn't gone of the rails, I'm very cautious about how that will manifest later in the series. This clearly has a great budget and people who love the original movies making it so I hold out hopes for a strong show. Anime Bullshit: DanDaDan - Season 2 This show manages to hit so many genres so well it's absurd. They're high school slice of life / romance, aliens, spirits, battles / action, music (they got dragonforce's lead singer to dub a concert scene). I mean it's just hard not to be impressed by that, and then the animation does a fantastic job. This was in contention for anime of the year 2024 and could potentially be in contention for anime of the year 2025 depending on what else is out there. Sono Bisque Doll - [My Dress-Up Darling] High school romance with an emphasis on cosplaying. The first season is well done and well animated - but the second season took it to a whole new level. Some of the sequences are so smooth and well done it's distracting. They also animate whole sections of fictional anime to provide context for a cosplay the character is interested in. Super high quality show that won't appeal to everyone. Yofukashi no Uta - [Call of the Night] - Season 2 A very moody / vibes based show. The central premise of enjoying the city at night combined with vampire shenanigans. There's also some introspection regarding what the vampires have given up (the daytime and all it's associated activities.) As well as vampires losing their memories of the time before they were turned, and how precious objects from their human lives can weaken them allowing them to be killed. This is another one of many shows I feel like could have easily been aged up to a college / early 20's adult and would have been a better choice.

The Bear - Season 4 Not as good as season 1 or 2, but better than season 3. It does put an end to the series, which at this point I'm grateful for because I think the writer/creator lost the plot and didn't entirely understand what made the first seasons so good. I still enjoyed the show but I feel I would only recommend the first two season to anyone interested in it. Thunderbolts (2025) Surprisingly good for a modern marvel movie. I think this was a solid lower stakes film that took a bunch of b-list anti-heroes and gave them a purpose moving forward. This movie also puts into stark contrast just how badly they mismanaged black widow as a character. I enjoy Florence Pugh more than Scarlett Johansson but she's also been given more to work with an is a more fleshed out character as opposed to a flat "femme fatale" trope that wasn't ever really interesting. I hope the lesson learned from this film was to keep the stakes smaller (not constantly trying to save the entire world/new york city) and giving smaller characters more to do. My limited understanding is that marvel is having a hard time and it's transitioning to have movies be more standalone, and shows be dedicated to more "street level" heroes. I hope they stick to that plan instead of going full bozo and trying to spin up a bunch of teams of superheroes to fight over various villains of the week. Rick and Morty - Season 8 This feels like more of the same, and while the main voice-actor was forced out due to him being an asshole, the new talent definitely worked to improve and sounds much closer to the original in this season. The stories are still fun and innovative, and I enjoy it for what it is. Titan: The Oceangate Disaster (2025) Fascinating documentary about how fucked this entire project was. Between their test craft failing repeatedly, multiple people (including the owner) talking about how loud the cracking/popping noises were during descent. To firing the entire engineering team (twice) and ignoring sensor readings. The entire thing feels like a slow motion train wreck or a monster movie - we know what's going to happen but goddamn is it somehow worse than we expected. Good Night, and Good Luck (2025) This stage play is about the red scare and the media's response, which in part lead to the downfall of McCarthyism. It's very well produced and well acted, it has several high profile actors not just George Clooney. It also simultaneously feels like a high school art project criticizing the government. The parallels are obvious, and the fact this ran on CNN is even more obvious. Much like the aforementioned high school project, I doubt this will change any minds or do anything more than pander to a certain subset of people.

Managed to survive a more advanced technical dive down in San Diego. The trident missile tower. This was my first trip on the Marissa dive boat and I was really happy with their setup. They kept the boat to 10 tech divers (which was actually fairly full with all that equipment). They also allowed for extended dives, with the first being a 90 minute maximum duration. They also have compressors on board capable of filling air/nitrox and pure O2. They also provided us with plenty of snacks, and even a late lunch on the way back to the harbor. The few things that were new to me was how they handled the mooring buoy for the first dive. Due to the depth they don't drop anchor and instead drop a buoy with line that goes down to the wreck, and drop off groups of divers from a live boat (similar to the oil rigs procedure). The buoy line also had strobes at the bottom to help with navigation and it was where we did our decompression stops. With all that tech equipment it means you need all your gear on you, including fins before walking back to the swim step and jumping in - this process also should be performed quickly so you don't get swept away by the current. I didn't mind the process but it's certainly a tough walk with all your gear and bailout cylinders on you. The exit from the water is on an extra wide open ladder - so you climb it with your fins on, and then the crew helps take off your stage cylinders and then your fins before you climb up onto the boat. The process was straightforward and the crew was excellent. The trip itself was about 1:45 from the harbor, since the wreck is on the US/Mexico border. You could see downtown San Diego, and Tijuana as well as the Coronado Islands from the boat. Ocean conditions seemed rather calm, but became a bit rocky at the surface once we got to the dive sites. Out of the 10 divers, 3 were on open circuit (regular scuba) and 7 were on rebreathers (2 choptimas, 1 revo, 4 JJs). Only one had a DPV/Scooter and a big camera. It was a long but fun day, and I asked the captain to let me know about any additional tech diving trips they arrange since it was such a nice experience. The captain does have two dogs (beagles) that are onboard and aside from a few moments where one was barking constantly they were well behaved.

The Amateur (2025) This is someone who watched mr. robot on a second screen while texting and also thought jason bourne was cool and decided to combine the two but way worse than both. It's not a particularly good movie and honestly while the writing is predictable and bad the acting isn't exactly elevating anything either. Please skip this and watch mr. robot or go back and watch the bourne movies instead. Dept. Q (2025) Keeping with the British tv tradition of taking scandi-noir series/books and adapting them to the various british isles this is a Scottish take on an originally Danish book series about cold cases. It's a solid little show that I recommend if you're in the mood for murder/mystery with a reasonably high production value and the Scottish brogue (good luck without subtitles kuhla). I quite enjoyed this and not just because there's some mildly scuba related stuff in the show. I hope they adapt the other two books that the author wrote because this seems like it had legs and wasn't super high budget. Sidenote: It's hard not to look at Matthew Goode as Ozymandias in Watchmen, but he really does look scruffy and terrible in this. Gundam  GQuuuuux (god help me this is the actual name) This isn't a good gundamn show, please go watch iron blooded orphans or witch from mercury or if you're feeling oldschool go watch 08th ms team. The major conceit is this is a spinoff of a "cannon" gundam timeline which they somehow manage to rope in but the CGI gundam models combined with a weird lackluster story doesn't make it worth anyone's time. Just please watch something else. Tomo=chan wa Ononoko! This is a romance anime that manages to not overstay it's welcome. They keep it to 13 episodes and keep the plot moving with some rather predictable nonsense. It's not the best romance anime I've seen but it certainly isn't the worst. Just keep in mind this won't appeal unless you buy into the central conceit of a tomboy trying to confess to their childhood friend. Looking foward to Season 4 of the Bear, Season 2 of Sandman and Season 3 of the Foundation. Also season 2 of DandaDan.

Nosferatu (2024) I had a hard time trying to decide how to categorize this. Yes it's a dark story but it does not have a lot of what I usually call "horror" these days. The story is not deep and leave you with things to ponder so it's not a "drama". There is also this over-dramatic element to many scenes. I've decided to settle on calling it "horror opera". It was nice to do a bit more "old school" on the vampire stories to make them a bit more monsters of the dark. I found it pretty easy to watch although I probably wouldn't recommend it to most people unless the idea of "horror opera" appeals to you. Sinners (2025) Decided to stick to the vampire theme.... I saw a lot of hype for this movie but I don't think it's warranted. The primary problem is that this is 3½ stories stapled together. You have a gangster prohibition movie, a musician movie, a vampire movie and a small thing at the very end movie. They try to weave it together but it doesn't feel like it fits well. There are some cool moments here and there and a couple of fun ideas but I just couldn't get over the misfit feel of the movie. I guess if it interested someone then sure it is easy to watch but otherwise skip.

I got around to watching it. Can't Stop - Ummm so this was just an animated music video so yeah there was not much to it and the visual style was not particularly interesting. Close Encounters of the Mini Kind - Neat I guess. Spider Rose - Visually pretty but what was even the point of this story? It was not interesting or stimulating. 400 Boys - Visually kind of wild and the story was at least kind of stimulating. Obviously same style as Zima Blue. The Other Large Thing - Meh. Golgotha - Meh. The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur - Premise that has been done 100x and not stimulating visually. How Zeke Got Religion - I liked this. To me this was basically like a Hellboy short. Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners - Meh. For He Can Creep - A little fun but kind of meh. I still want this format to be a thing, multiple shorts with unique visual styles, but this season felt a bit boring overall.

https://www.uu.se/en/news/2025/2025-05-15-the-effect-of-physical-fitness-on-mortality-is-overestimated Please exercise.

Andor Season 2 - Too many good things to say this show is fantastic. Andor is the best piece of star wars media. Cancelled. Ahh yes, unsurprising. On the one hand I get that this show wasn't putting up great numbers and is really expensive to produce on the other hand... they're still making rings of power which is 4-10x more expensive. I'm really not super interested in reading 17 books in this series, so I might go find some sparknotes on this and live with the disappointment at Amazon's mishandling of this show. The Last of Us Season 2 - I have mixed opinions on this. I think this season was a step down from the first in terms of writing and general quality level, with the exception being the scale and set pieces being a large step up (probably due to a larger budget). I also have an odd perspective because I've played the first game but not the second, so most of this content was "new" to me even though they've made some clear changes to the source material. And without wanting to dive into the absolute cesspool of hatred and vitriol I've seen levied at this show, I will say Bella Ramsey is not as strong of a lead as Pedro Pascal. I didn't have any issues with the acting, in fact there were a few stand outs like Dina and Jesse, and some great sequences. Unfortunately there was so very odd writing choices and flat out perplexing choices which I assume are either poorly adapted from the game or something. I also appreciate some of the more grounded elements of the show, forgoing some of the more action focused parts of the games in favor of amping up the feeling of danger and lethality. Supposedly season 2 had a substantial drop in viewership but even then I'm hopeful that season 3 (whenever it releases) will continue the strong quality level and hopefully land this entire storyline. Naughtydog who made the games is obviously finishing up a brand new IP not related to the last of us, and Neil Druckman the lead writer/producer who also works on the show is certainly motivated to potentially work on a last of us 3 game, but I think that would be far enough away that any further continuation of this story is too far away for anyone to get excited. Mobland - Tom Hardy working as a fixer/gangster for Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren (both with fairly awful Irish accents). This show is very average with great cast. It has a cool tone, but moves fairly slow. If you're in the mood of British gangster stuff, it's worth a watch but don't expect to be blown away. Murderbot - I've read all the books/novellas, so I know the plot and the tone. I think the show is trying to hit the snarky tone but it feels muted and some of the awkwardness and comedy feel off. I'm also annoyed that the episodes are so short, it feels like they're not letting the show breath enough. I can't tell based on the pace where they want to finish the first season but I hope they're not trying to cram all three of the first novellas into one season, that would be way too much especially with the ~30min runtimes. I also have a hard time taking Skarsgard seriously as murderbot, my internal image of them is more androgynous leaning slightly feminine (their internal monologue especially) but this is probably due to the author being female and that bleeding through their general writing style. Clarkson's Farm Season 4 - This show is fantastic if you're interested with the general premise of watching Jeremy Clarkson incompetently farm. The cinematography is consistently great, I do wonder how many people from Top Gear / The Grand Tour ended up working on this? Or how they manage to pepper in a few nice bits of B-roll footage that looks like it's out of national geographic. Longwinded rant about general television seasons and strategy Overall, I'm in agreement with 90% of the internet about how these large budget tv series are incredibly frustrating to follow when you have 2+ years between seasons, and this is exacerbated by short season length. If you want a nice counter narrative, slow horses uses 6 episode seasons, but they film 2 back to back and release them at least 1 per year (the first two were released within 6 months of each other). This works for slow horses and keeps people engaged, but if I need to wait 2-3 years between seasons (holy hell when is stranger things finally ending? those "kids" are going to be in their mid twenties) - I quickly can lose interest and frankly need a refresher on what exactly happened in prior seasons. I'm not so naive to be unawares of the pandemic and writers strike absolutely trashing some production schedules, but both of these are no longer an issue and yet, writing on season 3 of last of us isn't even STARTED let alone complete, they're hoping to release season 3 in 2027, and HBO greenlit season 3 before season 2 aired (probably when they saw the final cut of the show). So what the fuck is taking everything so long? Why can't studios greenlight the writing of the next season BEFORE they finish production of the current season? This is especially true of series that are adapting material, you've got a fucking source to reference. If the studio doesn't want to renew the show until they see the numbers at least you can start production shortly after the season finishes rather than having to start from scratch and take even longer. I know for a while Netflix had the strategy of greenlighting 2+ seasons at a time so they could keep production moving - I believe they've moved away from this but I get this feeling that while tv shows are getting closer in quality to movies they're also leaving behind all of the advantages of having a tv show, like longer runtimes, slower pacing, side stories and characters being fleshed out, more frequent release schedules etc. /RANT

This recent season didn't seem as good as prior seasons. Can't Stop - This is literally a shitty red hot chilli peppers music video and I don't like the band, I think i watched all of 15 seconds of this it was so awful. Close Encounters of the Mini Kind - Cool animation style with the emphasis on tilt shift, but very boring premise, at least it didn't overstay it's welcome. Spider Rose - Meh... Decent visuals but the plot and "twist" didn't grab me. 400 Boys - I like this black culture/ british grime inspired design and overall thought this was a good episode. (Same studio that did Zima Blue S1 and Ice S2) The Other Large Thing - Cats want to rule the world, very boring idea with generic animation. Golgotha - Why is this almost entirely live action? The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur - Why in the fuck is Mr Beast in this? How Zeke Got Religion - Cool art style, with a slight variation on the nazi occult stuff, good episode. Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners - Basically a series of animated one liner jokes, not even that funny. For He Can Creep - Cats vs Satan, at least this premise was moderately unique.

Updated the firmware I was way behind so this was good. Apparently you are supposed to do it 2-3 times. Formatted the SDcard Apparently you are supposed to do this like once a month anyways. Used the cig lighter power adapter. Power through the GPS mount. Power direct to camera. Long story short, I have been isolating components one by one and it's working ok now but I believe the issue might be the rear view camera. A little more testing but it's getting close.

I would have almost certainly purchased that had it came out about 8 months sooner. I almost bought a UDM Pro / SE but I really wanted it to fit in my small structured wiring cabinet. That being said I love my my Minisforum MS01 thats amazing for a home lab. I have a 10 gbe connection to my PC, 10 gbe to my fiber WAN, and 10 gbe to my switch, and a spare 10 gbe available for another device as needed. My network is probably set for the next 10-20+ years.

Conclave (2024) - Disclaimer, I actually watched this before the pope died. Not long before he died but still before. When I decided to watch this I was going into it with the wish to see something a bit more just "plain" drama. No explosions, guns, zombies, body horror, etc. I wanted "plain" drama and I got "plain" drama. I liked it. I was in the right mood for it. It's a bit predictable in some sections but every character has their part to play and they do it pretty well. There are some visual moments in the movie that I appreciated too. Pace was never too slow or too fast to bother me or make me bored because it matches the mood of the characters. After watching I went online to read some reviews like I usually do....... oh boy I was not prepared. This movie was apparently controversial among some groups. Firstly a good number of people said it was "anti-Catholic". I'm going to assume many of those people saying that did not actually watch the movie. The movie is awfully sympathetic to the catholic church and those who lead it. Do people really believe there are no "factions" or arguments among the cardinals? Secondly this movie is apparently considered "woke trash" by some groups. I don't even know what the definition "woke" is so I'm not going to even try to address this. If someone thinks this movie is pushing an agenda then I think they are just being too sensitive and actually need to pay attention to some of the details in the movie.