Schmigadoon - I finally caught up with Season 1, which was a fun pastiche of Rogers & Hammerstein-style musicals with modern people inserted into the action. Last night I watched the first episode of the new season (which is a few weeks into airing) which was set in Schmicago, with a completely different set of musicals being referenced. I will see if I enjoy season 2 as much.
Up next - the Polish netflix show “Sexify” has dropped a second season without me noticing until now, so I must check it out.
Spurred by a chat on Friday night games about Space movies, I could not stop myself and watched Starship Troopers again last Saturday night. Loved it. And the effects have aged really well.
Tonight I am likely watching The Last Starfighter due to said chat.
My wife surprised me on Saturday and took me out to see Return of the Jedi in the theater. For the first time ever, I noticed Han has blood on his fingers after checking on Leia when she gets shot at the bunker.
I look forward to it. I loved the first one but was a bit disappointed by the second, probably because I was comparing it to the first.
I’ve caught up on Marvel films currently on Disney+ in the UK:
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I’m generally not a fan of horror films. Overall I thought it was reasonably enjoyable but not particularly special. It definitely had some cool moments but I would have liked to see more interactions between Doctor Strange and America Chavez.
Thor: Love and Thunder. A film of three parts. The first felt like it was trying to capture the humour of Thor: Ragnarok, without quite landing for me. Then the section in Olympus, sorry “Omnipotence City” I thought was utter garbage. The Greek gods are so rich for stories and, I would have thought, humour that I’m baffled that that was the best they could come up with. However, I really enjoyed everything after that and thought the villain of the film was more interesting than most.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I thought this was superb, almost certainly my favourite Marvel film since the first Black Panther. They didn’t let the death of Chadwick Boseman overshadow the film but it was bookended by two moving tributes to him.
Next up will be Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which I think releases to Disney+ in a couple of weeks.
I watched the latest mini series for Bridgerton “Queen Charlotte” which is not from any of the books I’ve read but a side story. And while I enjoyed the first season, the 2nd one was just more of the same and didn’t grab me the same way so I was not desperately waiting for “more Bridgerton” and had to be told by friend that there was indeed more of it… But these 6 episodes were really good. The backstory of Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury (and to an extent Violet Bridgerton) was far better than I expected… a few tears may have been shed.
Well, that and “I wonder how many people watching this have any idea why the Royal Oven Mitt is (a) a part of this ceremony, and (b) a thing which even exists?!”
(I presume that by this point somebody will have mocked up Charlie doing the Michael Jackson single-glove crotch-grab…)
Started and finished The Queen’s Gambit last week. It was… good. Not great, it has its issues (very male-gaze-y, for one thing), but I enjoyed it, and I’m a firm supporter of anything that puts games as a central issue in the public’s eye.
I still dislike Chess strongly (I used to be a competitive player back up until midway through high school… won a bunch of regional championships and one provincial one), but it’s neat to see the show as an example of people who are naturally gifted and don’t quite grasp that they are naturally gifted.
Anyway. Neat show. Glad they made it, glad I watched it.
Next on the list is to try and watch all three seasons of Picard… apparently Season 3 is worth slogging through Season 2 for.
Anyone who has seen them can confirm if I’ve missed anything important.
Season 1
Picard teamed up with some people, including a woman called Rafi, and seven of nine. Picard died protecting a planet of Data like androids. He was resurrected as an Android
I only saw the start of series 1, but that Romulan was BADASS and HOT and played by Orla Brady who was incredible in pulp kungfu nonsense show Into the Badlands.
