CRAFT BEETLE

Mr. Robot

Watching...

A Good Girl's Guide To Murder

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder was a great mini series that showed Myers was just as good as a lead actress. It was nice to see a story set in a more rural side of the UK and to have such a diverse cast used so well. As usual, I won't spoil the plot, but I can confirm it is a good story well realized.

House of the Dragon

After the sour taste of the last few seasons of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon has brought back a cautious love for the show. As always the acting, story, and production are unmatched. The winding ever complicating political machinations and occasional bursts of violence keep me glued to the screen.

Future Boy Conan

What a beautiful show and what attention to detail. I couldn't tear my eyes off the screen as I watched the 4K remake dub. The animations and cinematic angles repeatedly caught be my surprise. This show was first aired in the late 70s so it's easy to see the layers of paper and the animation techniques. And yet as is often the case with new art forms, the lack of other works to copy creates an environment where the artists are forced to pull from the real world for inspiration.

Station Eleven

I remember damage. The story benefits greatly from the out-of-other telling and the comic book anchor. I'm glad I randomly stumbled upon this series. I can't say much about it other than it's somehow so real because of it's oddness.

Delicious in Dungeon

It's so cute, and I have never wanted to learn to cook so much. The consistent upbeat energy, the wonderfully sweet characters, the creative writing. Even death is just a bit of a nuisance. My favorite is Chilchuck of course: clever and grumpy. I'm really looking forward to season 2!

Serial Experiment Lain

At first I didn't understand it. Then I finished it and before I realized what I was doing I had a rat's nest of cables and multiple terminals open to various devices. Something about Lain makes me want to build a makeshift server around my bed and also flood my house. Weird.

Better Call Saul

Probably the most notable thing about this show, other than being a miraculously good spin off of an amazing show, is the emotional range displayed. Saul is at time funny and goofy and at other times thrilling and miserable, and often they are layered. Saul responds to his misery with mockery. Who knew lawyering could be so fun? I guess it's only so fun when you consider the law a game, a puzzle, a nut to crack.

The Vince Staples Show

You can imagine my mild surprise when I saw this show on Netflix. I assumed it was a documentary style "here's how I live" kind of show, but what I found was more akin to Atlanta. Not as serious or well written, but funny and charismatic enough to be worth a watch. My favorite part is the bank robbery, the of that scene is to die for.

Generation Kill

Well if you wanted to see a tiny slice of American war crimes and the reason why the world (justifiably) hates the US, here it is. I watched this show amazed at how brazenly the soldiers committed these crimes. Most interest are the rational soldiers, like Ice Man, who did not intentionally kill civilians but nonetheless willingly participate in the invasion of a foreign country and remained in a military that killed civilians so frequently and coldly. How one justifies that to themselves, I'm not sure. Especially the medic, did they think that all medicine is good? Do American military medics think that saving the lives of child killers is a good thing? Maybe they honestly do. The most chilling part of the show if the end, when you realize that it's not "based" on real events, it IS real events. There is an interview online with the real soldiers in the show, and one of them even played himself in the show. Incredible.

Avatar: The Last Air Bender (Live Action)

I loved it and I don't care what anyone says. I nearly cried every 5 minutes of the first 3 episodes. I don't know why, maybe it was the resolution to the long held trauma of the movie, maybe it was the void left behind by the show, or the sour taste of sequel. Either way I loved this show and it's depiction of the characters and story.

Blue Eye Samurai

The art style is perfect, the characters are great, the action is fun, the story is interesting. I don't think I have ever seen a Samurai film/show that so clearly discusses the Dutch and what they got up to. That may just be me though, I haven't seen everything related to the this time period. This was a great watch and I can't wait for it to come back for season two.

Succession

A viper pit. A very complex and interconnected viper pit. A pit of flawed and interdependent vipers. What makes Succession work is that none of the characters can achieve their aims by themselves and none can trust each other to help them. There are no allies and enemies, no morality and ideology, only power. In this way it is very similar to statecraft, and one could argue what states and modern companies are very similar. It's no wonder then that cyberpunk has megacorps as governments in the hyper-capitalist near future.

The Wire

If you ever wanted to understand police culture, at least in the north east in that the early 2000s, this is the show for you. The writer spent years with these same police departments as a reporter, so when he writes his characters they come of as incredibly real. This is not an overtly copaganda show (though one could argue that in the same way that all war films are pro-war, all cop shows are pro-cop). Each season has a theme and explores different facets of police, politics, gangs culture, and poverty. I recommended it to anyone who will listen.

Paper Girls

I had no idea they had made this show until I stumbled upon it on Amazon Prime. I had read the comic one summer many years back and absolutely loved it. Watching this show was so sweet, then I looked for the second season and found out the show had been canceled. What an absolute tragedy. I don't think I will ever recover. Anyway, I recommend the comic!

The Witcher

The first season was confusing, the second season was kind of forgettable. Maybe this show is more enjoyable if you have read all the books, or at the very least played Witcher 3. I came in to the show having culturally osmosed much of the games but that was not enough I guess. Henry Cavill was great of course, and the Toss a Coin to Your Witcher song is a banger, as for the rest... eh.

The Diplomat

An American diplomat in the UK. What a boring sounding concept, then I watched it and found that I really like these kinds of "Important people in suits talk about stuff" shows and movies. I later started following UK, EU, and world politics much more closely and find it even funnier now that the UK prime minister is impotently awaiting American permission to blow something up, anything.

Over the Garden Wall

A cute little show about death. Neato! It's kinda weird and kinda good and kinda cute and very worth the watch. Be good to your siblings.

The Last of Us

One of my favorite video games of all time is made into a TV show, and they nail it? I must be dreaming. They killed the casting. The adaptation was on point. Fortunately the game was already film like and the story was the main draw, but that did guarantee that it would be a good adaptation? No. But they pulled it off anyway. This show earns its title.

Wednesday

I didn't think I would like this show so much. I don't like horror theme, I didn't watch the originals, and yet it was fun watch. The story isn't anything super deep, it's essentially a high school drama. It's mainly Wednesday's cold, creepy personal, contrasted with her roommate that really carried the show.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

I watched Edgerunners while I was still refusing to engage with the game so I didn't have the full context but it is a prequel and I did know enough about the game and setting to fully understand it. That being said, I did not like the show. I found the pacing, editing, and sound were really off and just didn't work for me. I really enjoyed some of Studio Trigger's other works such as BNA: Brand New Animal and Delicious in Dungeon. Something about the writing for this one just wasn't it. Having now completely finished Cyberpunk and the DLC I still stand by my opinion that the show just isn't very good.

Arcane

I cried so much. I still cannot even think of, let alone watch, the Powder breakdown scene without sobbing. A beautiful show with highly real characters that shove their whole arm in your chest and squeeze your heart. And to think I randomly found out about this show from the JID music video, and even then I didn't realize it was a show promo for weeks. Incredible!

BNA: Brand New Animal

BNA was my first encounter with Studio Trigger and they did really good. Of course there is the weird analogy of real race and fantasy race, that is usually a shallow comparison. That aside, this was a fun show, not mind blowing but fun show.