I’m on Season 5 Episode 10-or-so now… and Season 5 started pretty strong, but then took a hard left into “Home Alone” nonsense pretty quickly. I just saw that there is another Jedi Youngling episode coming up and I wanted to scream.
I don’t care about the kids! Anakin is going to kill them all in, like, a month if the droids don’t shoot them first! I don’t care about the kids!
I just want to see warships slugging it out. There have been a few really cool spaceship battles (the cloaking-torpedo episode was great! I love submarine episodes!), but not nearly enough.
But, as I think somebody else said: It’s Star Wars. And I love Star Wars.
A couple of years ago I was chatting to a colleague at work, and I mentioned that my partner and I were going to a fancy-dress party that weekend.
“Who are you going as?” he asked.
“The Avengers” I said.
His face lit up. “Cool!” he said. “Which ones?”
“Steed and Emma Peel” I replied.
He looked thoughtful for a moment, and said “Oh, I don’t know those ones.”
We then looked at one another wordlessly for several seconds, as this was one of the more perplexing moments of my life, and I had no idea how to respond.
(In the end we figured out the source of the confusion : )
My weekly friend group is watching GBBO. We watched the three seasons of the (frankly, superior) Great Canadian Bake Off… mostly the first two season are spectacular due to the hosts (Dan Levy and Julia Chan, who are apparently friends IRL and have great on-screen chemistry).
We started with Season 4 of GBBO, and Paul (the host) is a little too… bitey… for a generally positive show. But we are enjoying it thus far. It’s just nice seeing people being nice to each other (there’s a scene where the two hosts, Sue “and the other one who isn’t Sue and therefore who cares”, are helping one baker lift his pastry off a tin and a bunch of the other contestants are watching in open-mouthed horror/concern that was really touching).
Seeing someone not knowing them instantly as “Mel and Sue” is a very odd experience, as they’ve rarely appeared separately in the 20+ years they’ve been appearing on British TV.
I lost interest in the show when they left. I like Sandi Toksvig a lot, but I don’t give a shit about any of the other hosts.
We’ve got a family WhatsApp group for GBBO and while I’m not deeply attached to the show, its quite a relaxing experience whatsapping your opinions while watching.
I have been loving Lovecraft Country on HBO Max. While I do enjoy Lovecraftian horror, it’s centering the story around black protagonists in the '50s that makes the story fresh and interesting.
Lately we have been watching Lovecraft Country (which is good, but God does HBO love their sex scenes), Utopia on Prime, which is a bit crazy, but food and intriguing enough to keep on with, and the old animated series, Gargoyles, which is quite good and surprisingly dark at times for a show primarily aimed at kids.
After a couple of episodes a night of Cobra Kai first series, it has become one of my favourite guilty pleasures on TV this year. I watched the Season 1 finale last night, and… binged on another 4 episodes of Season 2. I had not been up late to watch TV for quite a while (went to bed at 23.30) but it felt great.
Mind you, that alarm clock this morning was a bit of a struggle, I even snoozed it for 5 extra mins.
In my slow journey through the limited selection of Amazon Prime Japan videos, trying to find anything that isn’t awful, I came across Hanna, and it seems… OK? Probably helps that I never heard of the film, and I have soft spot for low-fi British-style writing and direction.
