Malaphax

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.

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.

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.

Daredevil: Born Again - This was really solid. It felt like marvel made for adults and wasn't afraid to shy away from the more brutal elements of characters like Punisher and Fisk. Someone pointed out that the middle episodes felt like they were filmed originally and kept before they did the major rewrites and reshoots which is why the first and last few episodes feel different in both tone and production level. I also don't entirely understand just how bad their production was because I seem to recall their original plan was 18 episodes and so I expected a sort of mid-season finale with episode 9 and then a quick turnaround on the next set of episodes, but their recent announcement of the next season being in March 2026 tells me they either had to completely scrap the rest of the episodes or they're going back and doing major reshoots. Well if they can keep the tone and general quality level of this season I'm fine with that. This is probably the best thing marvel has put out in a while. Again I want to thank whoever managed to convince Disney to basically admit the Netflix daredevil series was cannon - I hope Disney and Netflix come to some agreement and allow those seasons to be seen on both platforms as a type of cross marketing but I sincerely doubt that will happen. The Pitt - This ended well enough, they've already green-lit another season so I'm happy for them. Considering the hype this show had I wish them all the best and hope the next season is just as good. Wheel of Time Season 3 - They finally hit their stride and managed a fairly decent season finale. I feel like nearly everything this season was stepped up: costuming, acting, sets, action sequences basically this felt like the show finally hitting critical mass. My only concern is if Amazon is getting enough engagement to continue this show because I know they paid a shitload of money for the rights and it's an expensive production, so I hope they have enough of an audience to keep this thing moving - they certainly have like another 10 books to cover... Anime Stuff: Lazarus - This show is made by (and clearly inspired by) cowboy bebop's creators, it even has the jazzy style music of cowboy bebop. So far the first few episodes are alright, it feels a little too much like it's relying on character tropes from cowboy bebop, with a strange and parkour/gymnastic main character, a femme-fatale type and some others. I hope this doesn't feel like reheated leftovers and manages to carve out it's own niche. Sidenote: The release for this show is mega trash, dubs seem ok, but subtitles and original japanese audio are all over the place not to mention weird issues with quality and other stuff. I don't understand how people fuck up this hard on a show and not providing fans with good options for japanese audio + subtitles OR dubs.

Not my tempo. I got the idea, I didn't mind some of the body horror but I feel like the last act completely shifted into absurdist nonsense. Orb: On the Movement of the Earth - I saw plenty of recommendations for this, which I was very uncertain of, but I gave it a shot. It's a strong anime, clearly seinen/adult focused with the majority of the show being about pursuit of knowledge, people's convictions, the dangers of over zealousness, the potential boons and harms of technology, commentary on religion - oh and aristotle, plato and socrates are quoted unironically just about every episode. If this sounds like an "up it's own ass" type of show... well that's partially true - it's saved by fairly good writing and a plot that links several shorter stories together. But I'm going to paste the description here because, yea it's not exactly doing much for the appeal of the show: As an aside, this show does depict some fairly graphic methods of medieval torture so, just be warned. Wheel of Time Season 3 - This season has been absolutely fantastic, but every single season so far has had atrocious season finales, so watch this show somehow manage to grab defeat from the jaws of victory and crash the ending... again. I have zero interest in the books but I do think the show has absolutely hit it's stride, and I'm hopeful it keeps going because it's a well produced high budget fantasy show that isn't from George RR Martin (I'm just kinda sick of his shit). Common Side Effects - This show was solid, far better than I expected. The first episode is literally on youtube for free if you want a taste of the general vibe. It's made by the same people as scavengers reign which should give you a slight barometer on the weirdness but I feel like this was a little more mass market focused.

The Brutalist - It's a 3.5 hour movie that mostly tries to tell the story of a Hungarian Jewish architect and his brutalist architecture partially inspired by his time serving in a concentration camp. So it's super cheery and fun. It's definitely a good film but falls into the oscar-bait category. I was a bit disappointed how little they really get into the architecture part of his life and instead focus on the dramatic elements. Nosferatu - I'm not a fan of horror, and this just skirts the line between suspense and horror for me. It's a more slavic / traditional take on the vampire genre, which I appreciated. The cast definitely nail their roles, with a fair bit of purposeful overacting/melodrama. American Primeval - Nice little western mini-series that touches on some lesser known stories about how the mormons had a rather violent and bloody past when they settled their new area of salt lake city. It's mostly a "found family" story with a few people coming together to overcome a perilous journey. Worth watching if the premise is at all interesting to you. The Pitt - This is a fantastic medical series, I believe the creator is the guy behind ER, but this isn't about weird over the top drama between the medical staff this is much more of a very realistic medical procedural. I've seen a few videos from doctors claiming this is one of the most accurate depictions of emergency medicine ever put to film. It's also a damn good series, I really appreciate that each episode is 1 hour of their shift, and they have a decent sized cast able to keep things interesting. Strong recommendation. Daredevil: Born Again - I'm thrilled that Disney basically was forced to keep the cast from the Netflix show, and damn but they're making it work. I'm still concerned that the writing might not be there, especially since this series went through a total re-write at one point. So far it seems in line with the Netflix show in tone and writing quality. I hope it doesn't fall off. The White Lotus - I've seen so many recommendations for this show, but so far it's been far less impressive than I'd like considering it's ratings. I'll still finish at least season 1 but I'm not sure I feel interested enough to carry it forward. Anime Bullshit: The Apothecary Diaries - A very highly rated show about an apothecary that solves mysteries set in a fictional Chinese empire / palace. It's not my usual taste, but ti's actually quite good. The second season is currently airing and tends to rank in the top 3 every week. It's a bit of a mystery of the week / palace intrigue type of show with a female lead. It also manages to make the female lead multi-dimensional without relying on too many YA tropes I've seen applied to women characters. I've heard this show is basically an anime version of some Korean/Chinese historical dramas but I feel like that's a bit of an oversimplification.

Wind and Truth - I finished this, and have mixed to negative feelings about it. Sanderson has never been great at prose, but there's some real serious inconsistency across parts of the book. Modern language mixed in that feels jarring. The humor is almost entirely bad. And yet, there are whole sections of the book that I really enjoyed. It's frustrating because I feel like some of his other books were better written and better edited and yet this is supposed to be a semi-capstone of this series. There are some lines so full of cringe I almost groaned out load. I hope the criticism reaches Sanderson, and he either finds a new editor or slows down, because this wasn't a great showing. I know supposedly he won't touch this series again for several years while he works on other projects, maybe he can take the time to reflect and improve. I personally felt like you could see his improvement across his books, but this was a big step backwards. Moving on to the next book in the Sun Eater series.

Castlevania Nocturne Season 2 - This was a nice step up across the board. The animation is better, the writing was good and it felt like a more "completed" season compared to season 1, which was obviously a set up for a larger arc. I hope they continue this series either with a direct sequel or just more random Belmont / vampire hunting stuff. I also hope that Powerhouse Animation finds other cool projects to work on, they're clearly doing a great job. Anime Bullshit: Sakamoto Days - This was supposedly a fantastic action manga, but the animation is uninspired and boring. The quality is low and there are much better action anime out there which clearly had bigger budgets. Dropped after 3 episodes, don't bother. Potential Shows to watch: American Primeval - Western with a decent word of mouth and reviews. The Pitt - ER/Medical drama but I've heard it's high quality and not a soap opera.

Just got back from Socorro (Revillagigedo Islands) off the coast of Cabo San Lucas - it was a great trip with some very solid diving. I'll write up a more detailed bit later (maybe) but for now... This was the easiest bit of travel I've had for a vacation in quite some time, quick 2ish hour direct flight. However the actual journey to the diving destinations involved a full 24 hours of sailing to get to the islands themselves. To make matters more interesting, the weather was not super great the first few days resulting in some rather rough seas. I didn't struggle with seasickness but some people certainly were. The boat is massive, holding 17 cabins for guests (32 guests) and more for crew (~12) and is one of the largest boats I've been on barring the catalina express ferries. This also meant that getting people to the dive site involved 4 groups of 8 divers + 1 guide getting loaded into small inflatable zodiac style boats. This was made even more interesting with the rough waves on the surface, but everyone seemed to make it just fine. The first two days of diving were challenging, with day 1 being extreme currents, and day 2 have very rough surface conditions and some decent surge. Day 3 and 4 were more modest conditions and day 5 was somewhere in the middle with an up/down surge combined with strong currents leading to some interesting diving. Most people go to Socorro to see "big stuff" namely the pacific mantas, which have a wingspan of 6m or 18' and are very curious and friendly. It seemed like every single dive we saw mantas and they were indeed very impressive. We also saw a few pods of dolphins underwater, which was unique as I've almost exclusively seen them on the surface. Sharks were plentiful, we had a few sightings of a swarm of hammerheads, but mostly there was a variety of galapagos sharks, dusky sharks, white-tip, black-tip and silver-tip sharks. The big question was if we would see whalesharks, which we did on the last day, one juvenile of about 9m or 27' long and I spotted a larger one at a deeper position but too far away to get much detail. All in all the diving was challenging and very rewarding, there's a reason why this has become a bucket-list dive trip for many people. I was the only person with a rebreather (expected) and mostly tried to make life as easy as possible for the crew, but I'm not entirely sure. I definitely was the last person in my group out of the water every dive, with most of my dives averaging 50 minutes. I only had one mechanical issue, which was unpleasant, but happened on the last dive of the day and so wasn't super consequential considering what happened. I stole some peoples photos and videos (they had a computer for sharing set up) and I'll probably work on integrating those into my eventual video I put together.