KJ

Only Murders in the Building, Season 2: Through most of the first season of this show, I had no idea how they were going to make a second season work, but the turn in the final episode set it up so well that I wasn't particularly worried. And they did, indeed, manage to capture the magic twice, with wonderful chemistry among the actors and a plot that kept me guessing until almost the very end. And we're getting a third season; once again, they presented a fantastic twist in the last episode, and I'm now officially willing to go wherever this show takes me.

She Hulk: Attorney at Law, Episodes 1-2: It's nice to get a pure comedy out of the MCU. Early Wandavision had some comedic aspects, as did Hawkeye, but the former showed its underlying darkness early on, and the latter was more of an action-comedy (like the Ant Man movies). Tatiana Maslany is clearly having a lot of fun in the role, and I'm excited to see where the story goes.

Lightyear: I didn't have many expectations for this, so I found it a fun watch. I do have questions, though, about positioning it as movie beloved by six-year-olds in 1995 that was designed to sell a ton of toys to children. The time travel aspects are a bit confusing, and I don't know how a young child would relate to the set-up, with the idea that the life of the world is passing by Buzz as he focuses on his mission, a clear metaphor for letting yourself become too consumed by your work. It's also interesting to reconsider the world-building of Toy Story's setting as a culture where a kids' movie can have a background same-sex relationship and an out lesbian character (when Alisha tells Buzz she's getting married, he asks "what's her name?" without missing a beat) and no one treats it as remarkable. (Note that, in our world, this wasn't even really possible in 2022, much less 1995, given that even a movie as mild as this got homophobic backlash).

The Adam Project: Time-travel movie made for Netflix starring Ryan Reynolds, a kid doing a brilliant Ryan Reynolds impersonation, and a bunch of other great actors who are varying levels of underused (Catherine Keener, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldana, and Mark Ruffalo). Reviews were mixed, and they were earned, but for the most part I enjoyed it. I suspect opinions depend a great deal on whether you find Reynolds charming or irritating; typically, I find myself more on the charmed side of the spectrum (see: my enthusiastic love of Free Guy), so naturally I enjoyed both the humor and the pathos he brought to the role.

Bridgerton, Season 2: I think I liked this better than the first season, for a few reasons: I found Kate a more appealing heroine than Daphne, all the sex was consensual, and the smoldering between Kate and Anthony was epic. fans self The actors had fantastic chemistry and could give a master class in longing looks. I still wouldn't call it "good", but it's fun to watch, especially with a group (I don't think I'd bother if I weren't watching it with friends).

Better Call Saul, Season 6, Eps 1-3: One of my most anticipated watches of 2022, and off to a fine start. However, I think I could have benefited from a 10 minute recap, because so much happened in Season 5 and it was awhile ago. T and I found this one, which was really helpful. ( Spoilers for Episode Three )

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: I'm not very good at platform games, but they're fun to play, and Ratchet & Clank is my favorite ongoing series right now: enjoyable gameplay (when it's not over-relying on arena fighting), creative level design, and an adorable friendship between the two title characters. Rivet, a new character, is played by Jennifer Hale, which I would have never guessed in a million years, and of course she's excellent. Hard to say how far in we are, maybe a quarter to a third? So far so good.

I suspect one reason I got inconsistent at posting this series is because I lose track of which shows and games in progress I have and haven't posted about. I have a preference for posting about things I've finished completely, but since I'm not going to finish a show or game every week, that means sometimes skipping completely and so not building a habit. Therefore, one of my plans for this year is to say a little bit about everything that's in progress each week, so that I have a reason to keep working on it. So have a snapshot of my media consumption for the last week of 2021.

The Great British Baking Show: We're on what Netflix calls Collection 8, which I think is season 11 of original Bake-Off -- the first season with Matt. I adored Prue immediately, I enjoyed Sandi, and I've become very fond of Noel, but I have a feeling that Matt is unlikely to grow on me, and of course I miss Mel and Sue, which I have a feeling everyone does. We've seen the first three episodes, and at one point Peter -- the young'in of the group -- mentions that Bake-off has been around for more than half his life, and Paul's reaction is very relatable.

The Next Thing You Eat: Celebrity chef David Chang's most recent television project, on the future of food and the restaurant industry. We've watched five out of six episodes so I'll hold my thoughts until we're done.

Hades: We've played through the main storyline and are probably working toward the epilogue, although we may give up on it as requiring too much grinding. This will definitely get a longer write-up once we've finished (or given up).

Derry Girls, Episode 1: We watched this last night; not much to say yet, but it's charming and funny so far. Michelle is a terrible person and somehow I still find her kind of hilarious.

The Twilight Saga: So, okay. ( This got long )

Arcane: We ended up taking a bit of an accidental break from this one; we finally finished it up this weekend. I was very impressed -- great story, wonderful characters and relationships, beautiful animation and production design, excellent writing that highlighted strong foreshadowing and continuous character growth. Very excited to hear that there will be a second season, and not just because of the way it ended. The connections to the video game world seem to be mostly via characters and setting, not so much plot, which I think partly explains why it works so well. I think it's safe to say this show will be on my best of 2021 list.

The Matrix: Resurrections: Pretty solid return to this universe. Some of the most effective meta-commentary I've ever seen in a movie. I think it did a good job of revisiting the previous story and setting while doing something fairly different with it. I doubt it's very comprehensible to anyone who hasn't seen the other movies (yes, including Reloaded and Revolutions -- if your enjoyment of The Matrix requires pretending that the rest of the trilogy doesn't exist, maybe skip this one). Lana Wachowski has made no secret of the fact that she brought back Neo and Trinity as part of the process of grieving the death of her parents; good on her for making the movie that she wanted to make and that felt true to her. I won't say it's an amazing film, but I definitely enjoyed it and like where it left the universe and the characters.

F9: The latest movie in the Fast and Furious saga, which is one of T's favorite series. I started watching with the sixth one, and I find them entertaining, if fairly ridiculous in the way of most big budget action movies that revolve around set pieces; since I enjoy superhero movies, I feel that I have no room to complain. One thing I do appreciate about the Fast series is how racially diverse the cast is, and how the female characters have nearly as much action and agency as the male ones -- heroes, villains, and morally dubious actors alike. Letty does everything Dom does, and they don't even make her do it in high heels and/or backwards. I do wonder how much longer they can keep raising the stakes on these, though. Sometimes I think about going back and watching the old ones. Anyone have thoughts on whether it's worth it?

It's been some time since I've written an entry just about an MCU property, hasn't it? Maybe since I posted weekly reaction shots to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Most of my MCU reviews are finding their way into Monday Media instead, which is fine, but I feel like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings wants to stand alone. Not necessarily because it was so amazing that I don't want to bury my thoughts in the Monday Media post -- although I did enjoy it, quite a lot -- but because this was probably my most anticipated Marvel movie of the year, and I want to give it a little extra room to breathe.

When SCL10R first came out, I was really irritated that this, of all Disney's big movies, is the first one they didn't make available right away on streaming to Disney+ subscribers. It was the first such movie I would have actually paid extra for, but I didn't have the opportunity. Although no one said this, I'm sure it was due to ScarJo's lawsuit, which, fair enough -- she had a legit complaint and I'm glad it seems like it was settled in her favor -- and I suspect they wanted to avoid any further potential breaches of contract with big-name actors. Still, I was bummed, and actually thought about seeing the movie in theaters, but it was early September, Delta was still peaking in the SF Bay area, and it just didn't feel like a good idea. (Depending on case counts, Spider-Man: No Way Home might be my first movie theater experience since I saw Little Women in January 2020 because 1. I'm pretty excited for it and 2. the contract situation with Disney and Sony suggests that it might be a long, long time before it comes to streaming.) Fortunately, it sounds like it did pretty well in theaters -- at least I haven't heard that it was a box office disappointment -- but imagine how much better it would have done in the before times?

Anyway. So we watched it on Friday, the first day it was available, and I'm very happy to have done so. ( Cutting for length, spoilers. )

The Mandalorian, Season 1: The catching up on Disney+ content continues! I don't know that I've ever seen a more brilliant performance via voice acting and body language alone than Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian. You never see his face, and yet you almost always know what he's thinking, what he's feeling, what he's going through. I'm very impressed. The bond he's developed with the Child is both adorable and heartwarming. It's interesting, though. ( Spoilers, I guess? )

L.A. Story: T and I were talking about something a few weeks ago that brought this movie to mind, and the idea struck us to watch it again. He looked for it on streaming, it wasn't there; I was certain that I owned it on DVD, but turned out I was wrong. So, we bought it. And last night we finally got around to watching it. I've long thought of it as one of my favorite movies -- a great "city-as-character" piece and a fun romantic comedy -- but I hadn't seen it in many years, so I wondered how it would hold up. And I'd say it held up pretty well! The funny bits were still funny, the romance was still sweet (although there are some borderline consent moments between Harris and Sara, of the "grabbing and kissing" variety), and the city was still a main character: Los Angeles as a city of dreams and dreamers. Definitely worth a rewatch. Would I recommend it to someone who'd never seen it, as opposed to viewing it through a lens of nostalgia? That's harder to say, given how very nostalgic I am for this movie. But if you like romantic comedies and don't mind unexplained mystical elements, I'd say give it a try.

Watchmen (2009 movie): I saw this back when it first came out, but T had never seen it nor read the comic, and I thought it would be helpful for him to have the backstory in mind before we start finally watching the TV series (we've now seen the first two episodes, which I'll write about later). I had forgotten how faithful this adaptation was to the original, except for a significant difference in the final plot twist. I think it's easy to underestimate just how big a deal the comic was when it first came out, just how influential it was; now, of course, and even in 2009, this sort of superhero deconstruction is very familiar to us. I will say this: when I first read the comic (in the early '00s, I think), I didn't really buy Adrian's theory ( Do we really care about 35-year-old spoilers? I guess we do. )

To All The Boys I've Loved Before: Another rewatch, this one to discuss at our weekly TV night with friends. T and I had both seen this one before, but it had been awhile and we decided to refresh our memory. Sex and dating and drama in high school was fraught enough before the mobile internet, so I can't even imagine how much having a video camera with you everywhere you go, and the existence of social media, complicates things. Anyway, the movie was still cute and heartwarming on a rewatch, although the final confrontation between Lara Jean and Jen felt less satisfying than I remembered. Also, why didn't Lara Jean ask Peter about the scrunchie earlier? One of those weird plot holes that you don't notice the first time around. I'd forgotten how long it takes for the truth about how the letters got out to be revealed. I also found myself wondering: is there ever a fake dating story where they don't end up real dating by the end? Nothing against fake dating, it's a trope I enjoy (and have written!), but I'd be curious to get recs for stories where the reversal is pulled off well.

Batwoman, S2 premiere: I totally missed that Batwoman was back until I got an alert about the new episode from the CW app on my iPad this morning. (Of the other new and returning CW DCU shows, The Flash and Superman & Lois have their premieres in late February; the rest are being held until later in the spring or summer.) Ryan Wilder is promising as the new Batwoman, and I enjoy Mary and Luke as a team. But I'm still tired of Alice as the antagonist ( cutting for episode spoilers. )

And so this series makes a triumphant (maybe) return, after nearly a year away.

Agents of SHIELD, Season 7: This wrapped up many months ago, but we only got around to watching it recently. I found Season 6 a little disjointed and overly complex, and jarring in how it seems to have decoupled from the timeline of the movies, and T seemed even less interested in getting back into it, especially after the Season 7 premiere, which I liked well enough but he didn't find inspiring. But we finally picked it back up again a couple of weeks ago, and once we got to the third episode, the plot picked up some steam and we got more invested. ( Does anyone care about AoS spoilers? Well, I'll cut anyway. )

I enjoyed the finale, and I'll probably rewatch the whole series again someday to see how it all hangs together (rewatching the first two seasons was certainly rewarding).

Outlander, Seasons 1-2: I actually watched the first half of Season 1 shortly after it aired, but since it wasn't on any of my streaming services then (I bought those episodes on iTunes to watch on a plane trip/vacation), I didn't watch the rest, and to be honest I wasn't sure I even wanted to see the scenes of rape and torture that I knew were coming -- I've read the first four books in the series many times, so I'm familiar with all the beats. But seeing that the first three seasons were on Netflix, I decided to give it a shot. It's reasonably good, although there are SO MANY changes from the books, and not all of them are effective -- there are moments and lines and a few entire set pieces that I kept waiting for and missed. And although I understand why they took some scenes away from other characters and gave them to Jack Randall (presumably to give Tobias Menzes more to do -- and to be fair he is quite brilliant in the role, possibly the best-cast of all the main characters, as both Jack and Frank), more Jack Randall is not why I read these stories. Overall, I wouldn't say it's a bad adaptation, but it's not quite what I wanted, either.

Recipe for Seduction: This is the 15-minute Lifetime/KFC "movie" featuring Mario Lopez as Colonel Sanders, wearing possibly the worst fake mustache of all time. I watched it on a Discord stream with some friends, laughing and mocking the entire time, which is the only way to watch it. Otherwise, if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the whole thing, and there's no need to seek out the rest.

What is this? A Monday Media Musings? Why yes, so it is. I keep saying I'm going to start this habit again, and that's never going to happen if I don't write one. I haven't done one of these since March, so I'm not even going to pretend to catch up; instead, I'll just write about the last week or so, and try to pick up from here.

Palm Springs: As many of you know, I'm a real sucker for a time loop movie, so there was never any chance that I wasn't going to watch this. And I quite enjoyed it. ( Some spoilers. )

I've heard a few people suggest that story about living the exact same day over and over is the perfect metaphor for life during this pandemic, and I totally agree. Obviously that's not something that the makers of Palm Springs set out to do, but it works on that level anyway. If you like time loop stories, stories about relationships, and stories about women who open the door for an immature guy to grow up but require him to walk through it under his own power, I recommend it.

Ford v. Ferrari: A sports movie docudrama about Ford's efforts to build a car that could beat Ferrari at Le Mons, a 24-hour stock car racing event in France. Although this movie reviewed very well, because I don't know or care much about cars I didn't really expect it to be my kind of movie. But in many ways it's about the relationships, and good performances by Matt Damon and Christian Bale kept me engaged. And, like Apollo 13, it managed to be one of those films about a historical event that feels suspenseful. In this case I didn't already know the history, but I figured no one would have bothered to make the movie if Ford hadn't won the race. Still, I really found myself wondering at times how it was going to come out, and there were a few real surprises. ( Cut for a spoilery content note. )

The Babysitter's Club: I was just a little too old for these books when they started coming out; I was 13 in 1986, and had already moved on to Sweet Valley High and other books about teenagers. So I wasn't familiar with them, and despite hearing positive buzz wasn't particularly inclined to watch. But then T expressed an interest, and after watching the first episodes on his own talked me and some other friends into giving them a try. After the first three episodes, our friends decided it wasn't for them, but T asked to keep going, and I'm happy to do so. As I mentioned, I never read the originals, but whoever updated them to the modern day did a good job of taking plots and characters from the mid-80s and bringing them into the present. I also really appreciate the diversity -- one of the girls who was white in the books is now mixed race, and I understand an upcoming fifth club member was rewritten from white to Latina. The for-now four friends all have distinct styles and personalities, but you can believe they are all friends and will soon become a close-knit groups. Each episode so far has focused on a different club member, with them narrating their own story, which is a nice way to keep each story fresh. I'm glad T convinced me to watch it, and I look forward to seeing whatever is next.

Arrowverse update: Winn returns! Also, oh BRAINY my HEART i can't TAKE IT ( Supergirl and Batgirl thoughts )

The Arrow series finale gets its own paragraph ( and its own spoiler cut tag )

The Good Place series finale: This deserves its own post, which I swear I will write soon. Beautiful, satisfying, I wonder how much of it was planned form the beginning.

Little Women (2019): I've probably read the book dozens of times, but I've actually never seen any of the other film adaptations, not even the one with Winona Ryder as Jo. I enjoyed this version very well -- for the most part I found it very faithful to the book, and the changed chronology was effective, especially in how it highlighted the way the March sisters grew and changed, and the ways in which they didn't. Stellar, stellar cast (although I always have a hard time taking Timothee Chalamet seriously as an adult), I loved the meta narrative of the framing device and especially the ending, and Greta Gerwig was, indeed, robbed.

Superbowl LIV: I've talked in this space before about my sports fandom history -- I grew up watching the big three pro sports with my dad, but the only interest I maintained on my own was baseball. Of the three, I'm typically the least interested in professional gridiron football, mostly because the NFL is without question the most evil of all the pro sports organizations. And yet, the Superbowl remains a significant cultural event, T has always been interested in the commercials, and the 49ers were playing this year, so we ended up watching, more or less, although we fast forwarded through significant chunks of the game, all the preshow and halftime commentary, and a good chunk of the halftime show. As Superbowl games go, it was one of the more interesting ones -- although it became more of an exercise in "let's see how Kansas City manages to come back and win this", because we had the outcome spoiled by an Apple News alert on T's iPad near the end of the third quarter. Not a bad crop of commercials -- naturally I enjoyed the Chris Evans appearance; other favorites included the Wal-Mart one with all the spaceships and Cobie Smulders's Toyota ad -- although many were dull, jingoistic, borderline offensive, and the NFL's big "fuck you" to Colin Kaepernick was pretty enraging. Anyway, it was a relatively entertaining way to spend an evening, and now I can go back to not particularly caring about football for another year.