My April and May 2024 Media Diet
Since the last time I posted I injured myself, got better, had family visit, bought a camera, started learning how to actually use the camera and completely overhauled how I used my home server. Now I’m trying to figure out the best workflow for processing the photos I take. Maybe a few of those photos will make an appearance on this blog! Who knows.
🍿 Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. I weirdly (ha) loved this movie?! Give it a shot. Radcliff clearly loved the role and the format was not what I expected.
📺 3 Body Problem. The Three Body Problem book series is some of the best Sci-Fi I have ever read. The show (mostly) delivered and I’m looking forward to season two. I am unreasonably bothered by the name change to “3 Body Problem” though. It seems unnecessary.
📺 The Gentlemen. Great show. Much better than the movie. Guy Richie always delivers a good time.
📺 Fallout. This was… good? I can’t believe it was good but it was. The characters were actually compelling and the wacky settings and situations felt like all the best parts of a video game.
🍿 Terrifier. Been wanting to watch this for a while now and I’m not sure it was worth it. I liked Art The Clown but this movie might have been a bit too grotesque for my tastes.
🍿 Your Name. Incredible, amazing, will watch again. Do yourself a favor and watch this right now if you haven’t already seen it. (👍🏻)
🕹️ Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I love metroidvanias and have been looking forward to this game for a while. I’ll admit that I turned down the difficulty to “easy” after getting my ass kicked one too many times on “normal”. Sometimes, you just want to win a game without pounding your head against the wall.
🍿 Late Night with the Devil. Interesting concept that was not executed particularly well. I wish they would have stuck to the “found footage” angle and not intercut cinematic scenes throughout the film.
📺 Shogun. I really looked forward to this show each week. I’m pretty torn about how I feel knowing that there will be more seasons since the story came to a pretty satisfying conclusion. (👍🏻)
🍿 Monkey Man. Entertaining but ultimately forgettable John Wick-ian beat-em-up movie.
🍿 Challengers. The soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross brought me to the theater and it did not disappoint. Don’t skip this movie. (👍🏻)
📺 Dorohedoro. Wacky anime with a very interesting setting. The story did not exactly click for me but the environment and animation had me coming back each episode.
🍿 The Fall Guy. Fun, irreverent, popcorn movie that I only learned was an homage to an ‘80s television show after the credits.
📺 Blood of Zeus. Started season two and realized I didn’t remember a single thing about season 1. I rewatched it all but I’m not sure I’ll remember any by the time season three comes around.
📺 X-men ‘97. Watch this show for the theme song alone (and the great writing and animation).
🍿 Suzume. Not as good as Your Name, but the animation was extremely good. Watch this if you love great animation.
🕹️ Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Taking this one really, really slowly. I’m enjoying the story and gameplay quite a bit, even if the non-combat portion of the game is mostly fetch quests.
🕹️ Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Not sure why I avoided this game. The release of the second game finally convinced me to play it and I’m glad I did. Short, puzzle heavy, and narrative driven; this is exactly my kind of game. Really looking forward to playing the second one. (👍🏻)
🍿 Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2. Absolute classics. I enjoy them every time I watch. Volume 1 is definitely the stronger of the two but that final dialogue sequence in the second one is gripping.
🍿 Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. A worthy sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time. George Miller was smart to not make a Fury Road 2 and try to live up to the action sequence(s?) that the first one did so well. (👍🏻)
🍿 Night Swim. Not sure what I was expecting here. Mediocre at best. Don’t watch the haunted pool movie.
📖 Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson. This is an expanded story for a character that was shown in only one chapter of the previous tentpole book. I’m not sure it was very memorable in the long run but I’m looking forward to seeing more of this character in the series going forward.
📖 Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. This one took me a while to get into but Sanderson did it again for me. It’s fun starting to see the character Hoid pop up around in other books. It feels like just the right amount of connected tissue to support a shared universe for these stories. My year of Sanderson continues… (👍🏻).