Dread

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is good, but it really is more of the same. However, Paddy Considine is my favourite actor, so there's that.

30 for 30: Nature Boy: so I guess I watch this every year now. It's a powerful piece of documentary work. The whole thing with his son is brutal. Just heart-rending. Thor: Love and Thunder: loud, colorful (until it isn't) and beautifully shot. Stupid and fun. Best Marvel villain by a huge margin. I don't get the backlash, but this is top tier MCU. The Omen: franchise reckoning coming The Little Things: an ok little downer of a crime movie. The direction is workmanlike and mostly unflashy, but Rami Malek and Denzel are amazing in it. Features: 76 Shorts: 8 Documentaries: 12 Rewatches: 1

That's fucking infuriating.

The Patient (on FX...Disney+ in Canada) is really fucking good. Interesting thriller in 20 minute chunks. She-Hulk is probably the most refreshing of the Marvel shows. There's only three things I don't like, but they are kind of hard to get over. Titania is a "superpowered influencer" *eyeroll.* The length of the show doesn't engender character work (it does in The Patient). There's very little room for anything other than quips. Finally, the CGI is embarrassingly awful.

I have had the same issue last year. I ended the conversation with "this is all fine and good, but I am going to need an acknowledgement that I am not at fault here." People at the board office don't like me very much. Haha!

Finished The Orville a while ago and it might be my new favourite Star Trek. I caught up on Stargirl, which, besides the teen drama stuff, is excellent. It gets superheroics on a level that few films and TV shows do. The fight choreography is great and Luke Wilson rules. Season 3 is off to a good start. I guess I also started and finished The Sandman since the last post in here and it left me a little cold. Some really solid episodes, but doesn't hang together as a story for me very well. Not dissimilar to the comics. I recently finished season 1 of Doom Patrol and it's fucking wild. Really big weird swings that I dig.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster: I still say this is Oscar-worthy. Been meaning to watch it again for a long time. Came across it on Netflix (the DVD is currently 7 feet away from where I'm sitting) and watched it. It's scary real at times. Too raw. Really entertaining. Metallica: This Monster Lives: fun fact: Netflix has SKOM as a series with 2 episodes. The first episode is the feature-length doc and episode 2 is a twenty-five minute short film ten years after SKOM on the eve of the release of Through the Never (which I should probably watch at some point. Prey: hoping to chat about this on the podcast at some point, but I really enjoyed this. Features: 73 Shorts: 8 Documentaries: 11 Rewatches: 1

Men: review forthcoming Trainwreck: Woodstock '99: I'm counting this as a doc, because these three part docs are really just long feature length films broken up into three for Netflix. This was good. About as good as the other one I watched (an HBO one I think?). The promoter is so fucking punchable. Features: 72 Shorts: 7 Documentaries: 10 Rewatches: 1

Oof

Bio-Dome: it was Stacy's turn to pick for movie night and because she couldn't find Encino Man she chose this. So, needless to say, the engagement is over. Features: 71 Shorts: 7 Documentaries: 9 Rewatches: 1

I watched all of SHORT TREKS and STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS. Watched the first episode of ORVILLE tonight. INVENTING ANNA is finished too. Great.

I finished my rewatch of Star Trek Deep Space Nine yesterday. It is, overall, excellent, and my favourite Trek by far. I will say that I could have used one more episode in the final season. The last 9 or 10 episodes are all one unfolding story (moreso than the whole 7 seasons are), and if felt rushed in the final episode. Jumped back into Inventing Anna. The two female leads in this are just excellent. Stacy and I are halfway through season 2 of Made For Love and it's solid. I watched all of season 3 of Love Death Robots in one sitting yesterday as well. Great.

Crimes of the Future: review forthcoming The Black Phone: review done already, just forgot to update. Nope: I'll talk a bit about it in this week's episode. This Is GWAR: review forthcoming Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III: The Advent: my oldest usually hangs out in his room, but he asked me to watch this anime with him (and also very patiently listened as he explained what happened in the first two movies every time something reminded him of it. Haha! Not an ideal viewing. But I really enjoyed the hybrid 2D and 3D animation in it. Features: 70 Shorts: 7 Documentaries: 9 Rewatches: 1

Top Gun: Maverick: holy shit. I have obvious problems with this movie. It's pro-military propaganda to the nth degree. It's a bullshit coward move to introduce this mission without telling us what country they're going to. Make one up! But, really, this movie fucking ruled. It was a script completely devoid of boredom. All the relationships were well portrayed, the dialogue was fun and the stakes were high. This will be on the list of my favourite movies of the year. I would have laughed at that prospect a year ago, Features: 66 Shorts: 7 Documentaries: 8 Rewatches: 1

Black Glasses/Diabolik/The Game: reviews forthcoming Revenge of the Sith: hilarious how bad the dialogue is delivered in these movies. The Image Revolution: seems to be a movie I come back to every year. I believe it's the only one I've ever kickstarted that has that distinction. Features: 65 Shorts: 7 Documentaries: 8 Rewatches: 1

The Punisher #16: end to a definitive run on the character. Perfect throughout. Vengeance of Vampirella #1: Sniegoski picks up where he left off 25 years ago or so and it's...ok. Batman Universe #4: dumb fun Black Adam Year of the Villain #1: awful Black Hammer/Justice League Hammer of Justice! #4: this is pretty middle of the road. Black Panther And the Agents of Wakanda #2: I'm out. This is awful. Butcher Queen #1: not for me Captain America #15: This entire run by Coates is pretty ho-hum. A couple great memo nets, but a lot of mediocrity in-between. Crazy #1: awful Cult Classic Creature Feature #1: also not good Death Defying Devil #3: not sure where the fuck this is headed. Interested. Doctor Doom #1: What a brilliant first issue for a Doom series. Loved it. Fearless #4: like the entire series, only the first story is worth reading, and in this issue, not even that. Jessica Farm vols 1 and 2: Josh Simmons has quickly become my favourite living cartoonist. I just wish more of his stuff was in print.These books are an experiment in nihilistic creepiness (like everything he does). Vol 1 was drawn one page per month between January 2000 and December 2007. Vol 2 was January 2008-December 2015. Volume 3 is on its way in 2024. haha! Good shit. Fine Print vol 1: this is the newest Stjepan Sejic book that also deals a lot with sex, but this time it's succubi and angels and not BDSM. Pulp: a graphic novel about an old cowboy who writes semiautobiographical pulp stories about his youthful exploits for a living. This is another Brubaker/Phillips joint in case the description didn't clue you in. Daredevil Epic Collection Last Rites: this is the end of the Nocenti run and the beginning of Chichester's. Neither are very great. It does have the fun Punisher issue versus Tombstone and Taskmaster and the Last Rites storyline which is pretty great. But, damn near 400 pages of Lee Weeks art makes it worth the read. Captain America Epic Collection Captain America Lives Again: this collects the beginning of the silver age run. It actually starts with the Strange Tales (I think?) story where Human Torch meets a guy in a Captain America costume to see if the readers wanted a Cap return. The next appearances was Avengers 4. It starts off on the Tales to Astonish stuff in the modern day, but it is ROUGH. Then Lee and Kirby figure it out and take him back to WW2 with Bucky to establish some action and adventure. They manage to eventually introduce some villains here. Batroc and MODOK are the ones with lasting power. They reintroduce Red Skull of course as well. Once the WW2 recap stuff gets done and he's in the modern day with those 10 page stories, it starts to hit hard. Good stuff. Avengers Epic Collection This Beachhead Earth: it isn't popular but I don't enjoy this run. I don't enjoy this lineup. I also don't like Black Panther as an Avenger. His issues were the best of this collection. That should say enough. Eternals Omnibus: this collects the entire Kirby series, the What If? backups, the Gillis miniseries and a bunch of one shots. The Kirby stuff is wild. Admittedly, it's a project of his I haven't really resonated with personally, though I'm a huge fan of the ideas at play. Even still, no one other than Kirby can do Eternals to any positive effect. Avengers/Dr. Strange: Rise of the Darkhold: This is basically a compendium of all of the appearances of the Darkhold before the Midnight Sons run of the 90s. It has its ups and downs. Many of the issues are Avengers issues that are of varying quality but they're better than the Dr. Strange issues which are pretty rough. The Journey Into Mystery or Marvel Chillers stuff or whatever the titles were are the best part of the collection. Avengers/X-Men Bloodties: been meaning to reread this for years. What a weird time for both teams . The X-Men were coming to the end of their unstoppable popularity and the Avengers can't seem to get off the ground in the 90s. As such, it's very uneven. Some good, more bad though. Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sin Complete Collection: the art in this book was never good. The writing has its moments. Also, kind of the last time that a book like this will ever get made. In the 90s Marvel went all in on their horror properties, but for one to not even feature one of those main characters (Ghost Rider, Morris, Blade, Blaze, Strange) to last so long is crazy. Dr. Strange Into the Dark Dimension: this early 80s stuff is mostly forgettable. Great artwork from Paul Smith, reminding me of Simonson at the time. Doomwar: this reads like a Jeph Loeb miniseries, in that it doesn't make much sense and seems to exist solely to feature a bunch of high profile guest stars. In this case, Black Panther, FF and the X-Men. Times were weird. Issues: 262 Trades: 5 Omnibus: 14 Graphic Novel: 6

Superman Funeral For a Friend: This is the whole omnibus collecting this post-Superman's Dead event. Some of it is pretty heartfelt and they do a pretty good job depicting the kind of mourning that might happen if someone like Superman were to die. I do have a feeling though that perhaps they didn't really know just how long they were supposed to keep this going. I mean, the Return of the Supermen happens right after this, so there must have been some coordinated effort across all these monthly titles and one shots. Some of it just feels very clipped. Strange Skies over East Berlin #1: not really my thing. Issues: 249 Trades: 2 Omnibus: 8 Graphic Novel: 2

Ok, the latest Strange New Worlds was my least favourite, but I always hate these Robin Hood Men In Tights Star Trek episodes.

For @Pan-Dub 6:40 is when the impressions start.

That's where I sytarted my rewatch years ago, but I don't think it's on Canada's Netflix anymore. It's on Crave up here along with all the ST stuff, HBO and Showtime stuff.

I haven't really watched ST since I couldn't get through an episode of Voyager. Big fan of DS9 and my dad and I watched TOS and TNG together. I haven't been "into" Trek for a while, though. Not particularly a fan of the movies and never bothered with the new ones. But I much prefer my Star to be Trek than Wars. It's a smarter and more engaging universe for me. Once I'm caught up, I'm going to rewatch DS9. Edit: Oh yeah, I guess I watched a chunk of Enterprise (season 1 and part of 2 maybe?) but wasn't super into it. Hence, forgetting it existed until just now.

I'm on season 3 of Star Trek Discovery now. Digging it immensely.

Everything #2: This series is hanging on a thread for me Grendel Devil's Odyssey #1: I'm not vibing with this. House of X #6: This was the best issue of this event so far. Legion of Super-Heroes Millennium #2: this was awful. Lois Lane #4: the best issue of this series so far. Murder Falcon #7: kind of beautiful. Old Man Quill #10: still good Savage Avengers #6: this series fucking rules. Issues: 248 Trades: 2 Omnibus: 7 Graphic Novel: 2

After catching up on ST:SNW I watched The Cage (the original pilot of ST). And while it's got some great ideas (definitely of the Twilight Zone variety) you can REALLY see why they went back to the drawing board with the cast before going to series.

Barry season finale sure felt like a series finale.