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Hotel done, and it’s fabulous.

Now I’m gonna skip Roanoke (for now at least) and move onto AHS Apocalypse which completes a loose trilogy of Coven, Hotel and Itself. Oh, and Murder House. So four series converging.

This is a weird one to watch on its own, and episodically. But when you know what came before and how it all interacts it’s a really solid story.

Caught up on Gachiakuta over the weekend. I'm not sure the story is anything special, but the inner city hip hop styling definitely creates a unique cast with a lot of style. It's very My Hero Academia tier in terms of Shonen storytelling but definitely some good comfort slop.

I ended up bingeing Nine bodies in a Mexican Morgue

Small plane travelling from Guatemala to Houston crashes in the Mexican Biosphere - in other words the middle of nowhere, in the jungle.

It's like Agatha Christie meets Lost, and is one of those "is this really terrible, or actually really genius?" shows that is so bad it's amazing!

This is being shown on BBC and the whole series is available on iPlayer if you want to binge it.

I only started it because I liked the title and because it's based on an Anthony Horowitz book, so I looked up the trailer and thought "wow, that looks bad" so wanted to see how bad.

But weirdly, it really hooked me from the get go..... So, you will either love it or hate it, but I loved it!

 Overread wrote:
To be fair in Columbo you don't actually have all that many actors around. When you step back almost all interactions are the two - Columbo and the Criminal - everyone else is a side character at best.

Murder She Wrote could be a little more deep in that sometimes you had a few potentials.

Plus the murderer is always a dastardly richer/upper class guy that working man Columbo brings down

I just finished a binge watching of the Venture Brothers. I feel like I skipped a few episodes which is true because I skipped season 1. I'll get around to that at some point.

Some of the animation in season 5 and 6 is way too good and that really bothered me. The writing is fairly consistent all the way though. .
I'm a little sad it's over. I believe they have said there wont be any more Venture Brothers, which I can see why but I'd like a little more.

Season 1 was definitely still finding its feet as its own show, leaning much more towards the Johnny Quest parody the show started as compared to what it grew into, but is enjoyable enough.

In terms of overarching story points that are somewhat important later, there's the season finale, and the trial of The Monarch, which sets up the characters for the beginning of season 2. And then in other episodes you some trivial details that became relevant later on, in typical Venture Bros. fashion, like Pete and Billy buying the shrink ray at yard sale. Other than that you also have the first appearances throughout the season of characters who will become recurring members of the cast.

Am I just being a grumpy git (who admittedly doesn’t watch much broadcast tv), or are tv themes not what they used to be?

Been watching The Equalizer, Murder She Wrote and A-Team recently, and their themes are really cool, and evocative of the show’s tone.

The only modern one which jumps immediately to mind is Game of Thrones.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Am I just being a grumpy git (who admittedly doesn’t watch much broadcast tv), or are tv themes not what they used to be?

Been watching The Equalizer, Murder She Wrote and A-Team recently, and their themes are really cool, and evocative of the show’s tone.

The only modern one which jumps immediately to mind is Game of Thrones.

Watch anime. They've had the best OPs for years.

For everything else, its largely a result of the move to streaming. The point of these things is to get people's attention like the attract screens in arcades. Either let them know the show is starting or pull people in that left the TV on after the last show ended. For streaming this really isn't necessary as you've already gotten someone to click on your show so you don't need something to get their attention or let them know its starting.

I will leave Strong Bad’s short thesis on the matter of theme songs for your delectation and perusal

 LunarSol wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Am I just being a grumpy git (who admittedly doesn’t watch much broadcast tv), or are tv themes not what they used to be?

Been watching The Equalizer, Murder She Wrote and A-Team recently, and their themes are really cool, and evocative of the show’s tone.

The only modern one which jumps immediately to mind is Game of Thrones.

Watch anime. They've had the best OPs for years.

For everything else, its largely a result of the move to streaming. The point of these things is to get people's attention like the attract screens in arcades. Either let them know the show is starting or pull people in that left the TV on after the last show ended. For streaming this really isn't necessary as you've already gotten someone to click on your show so you don't need something to get their attention or let them know its starting.

Yeah, anime often has great themes.

Dandadan, for example, has had back to back bangers for its first two seasons.

Still working through my Netflix Marvel rewatch, with some small detours... Watched the first couple of episodes of Gen V season 2 and it's a bit dull. Not sure if I'll finish it, which is rare for me, but there's just nothing in there to make it worth the time, so far.

Also rediscovered Legion, as per this post -
Seasons 2 and 3 were not as awesome as season 1, but it was still a fun watch. Very glad I went back to it.

And, of course, Alien Earth, which was the best Alien thing since Aliens, aside from the season finale.


On the Netflix shows... up to Iron Fist season2, which is definitely a show that happened. Less annoying than season 1, and marginally less boring than the second seasons of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Punisher Season 1 was just as fantastic as the first time around - only irritation is the design choice to get rid of the vest at the start of the first episode and only bring it back right at the end.

Did get a surprise when I got to the last episode of JJ S2 and Disney+ wanted to play the 'next' episode. I had legitimately forgotten there was a season 3... on thinking back, I'm fairly sure that Netflix had announced they were cancelling all of the shows before JJ S3 and Punisher S2 were released, and so I just never bothered watching them. So at least I get to finish off this marathon with something 'new'!

Twisted Metal

Stars Anthony Mackie as our hero, John Doe. Based on a PS2 game, apparently.

Falls somewhere between Evil Dead 2, Mad Max and Walking Dead, very heavy on the silliness.

I’m loving it.

That is an excellent show. Second season is pretty great too.

I’m seriously enjoying its willingness to just be silly.

There is a plot. There is depth. The writing, acting, staging and direction are all well above par. But everyone seems to embrace the silliness.

Don’t get me wrong. It is presented as a comedy. But it’s one thing to try to be funny, and quite another to actually be funny - especially when you’ve included actual drama in the mix.

I mean, all post apocalyptic type stuff has its Silly. Mad Max, brilliant as the series of films has been is still, Y’know, Silly.

That Twisted Metal fully embraces that, runs with it, but still has some actual proper acting and skill and effort? That’s rare!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m seriously enjoying its willingness to just be silly.

There is a plot. There is depth. The writing, acting, staging and direction are all well above par. But everyone seems to embrace the silliness.

Don’t get me wrong. It is presented as a comedy. But it’s one thing to try to be funny, and quite another to actually be funny - especially when you’ve included actual drama in the mix.

I mean, all post apocalyptic type stuff has its Silly. Mad Max, brilliant as the series of films has been is still, Y’know, Silly.

That Twisted Metal fully embraces that, runs with it, but still has some actual proper acting and skill and effort? That’s rare!

And it doesn't try to add seriousness where it doesn't belong (ie Five Nights at Freddie's or Borderlands).

On a whim I watched an episode of the first season of House and when it went to the intro and played Massive Attack's Teardrop the subtitles said [New Age Music] and I found that very unpleasant.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Twisted Metal

Stars Anthony Mackie as our hero, John Doe. Based on a PS2 game, apparently.

Falls somewhere between Evil Dead 2, Mad Max and Walking Dead, very heavy on the silliness.

I’m loving it.

Twisted Metal was a game from the first year of the original Playstation. It's one of the franchises that really established the console and had a slew of copycats in the mid 90s. Black on the PS2 was fantastic, but kind of ended up being more of a swan song for a genre that had fallen by the wayside. It's heyday was definitely the original trilogy.

Binged through Creature Commandos the other night. Really great follow up to The Suicide Squad. Kind of watched it as I realized I really need to watch Peacemaker and this felt like a solid appetizer. Definitely a great little series well worth watching.

That’s Peacemaker season 2 done.

Had a long diatribe written up, but I’ll just sum it up as a 4/10 imo.

Signed up to Historyhit.

Mostly because I love a well researched history documentary.

Also…Dr Suzanna Lipscomb. Way, way, waaaaaaay out of my league on every conceivable level. But a man can dream!

HBO’s Task

Mark Ruffalo stars opposite Tom Pelphrey in a limited series about a stickup gang robbing drug stash houses and the Taskforce set up to bring them down. Pretty damn tense and well acted, with enough twists to keep every episode fresh. I think the final episode airs tonight.

8/10.

Edit: There is one more episode, according to wikipedia. Pretty awesome miniseries. A nice, mature story thats serving as a nice cleanse after the assblast that was Peacemaker S2.

I still play Twisted Metal 2 to this day. My wife and I love it.

I have been meaning to watch the show, but in our era of Streaming I am not going to go out of my way to find it.