psionotic

[psionotic]

[psionotic]

My Favorite Culture 2024

Another year, another reminder that it is art that makes life worth living. Here are a few (dozen) of my favorite things.

—Film—

I saw over 40 films this year, most of them for the first time. My favorites were:

I Saw the TV Glow: The best movie of the year is a queer, Lynch-ian, love letter to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and ‘90’s adolescent television. I can’t say that I enjoyed this movie—it’s consistently horrifying and has one of the most depressingly downbeat endings I’ve ever seen—but I’ve thought about it constantly for months afterwards. A real accomplishment.

Anatomy of a Fall: Not a perfect film—a couple of unlikely late twists bruise the peach—but a fascinating exploration of how language, nationality, and gender inform our personal and legal relationships and battles. An all-time performance by Sandra Hüller.

Inside Out 2: Who has two hemispheres and was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder (twice) and ADHD this year? This guy, who loves the hell out of these movies.

Dune part 2: This adaptation is more willing than previous ones to take the novel’s critique of fundamentalism seriously, and—I think bravely, for a big studio picture—to make everyone’s favorite boy-changeling into a monster, all while demanding audiences pay double price for the double bill. Villeneuve is in a class with Bong Joon-ho among my favorite working directors.

I also enjoyed: Love Lies Bleeding, Wicked part I, The Green Knight, A Quiet Place: Day One, Lady Bird, Will & Harper, Mad Max: Furiosa, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Baby Driver, Deadpool & Wolverine, Catherine Called Birdy.

Classics I watched for the first time include The Raid, Looper, Gravity, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Starship Troopers, Suspiria, Possession (WHY HAD I NEVER HEARD OF THIS INCREDIBLE FUCKED UP THING!), Blow Out, Die Hard, Michael Clayton, Baby Driver, the recent-ish Planet of the Apes trilogy, Her, Prisoners (Villeneuve again).

—Books—

This was the year that I discovered sad/funny audiobooks performed by their author, which I love because they do the voices and pronounce the foreign words correctly. Am I becoming one of those sad nonfiction dads? There are no Civil War or WWII books here, so looks like I’m safe for now.

The Anthropocene Reviewed: The internet’s favorite co-dad reviews everything. Thought provoking and hilarious (audiobook read by author).

I’m Glad My Mom Died: This is very funny and very sad and very angering and very funny and very sad (audiobook read by author).

The Measure: A delicious high-concept premise—one night every adult in the world receives a box with a string inside, indicating exactly how much life they have left. The world is subsequently transformed in both wonderful and worrisome ways. I don’t think this is a great book, but it hit at the right time for me: I turned 50 this year, and have been thinking a lot about how much time I have left, how much time my loved ones have, and what to do with however much string we have remaining. I’ve also been thinking about how our world can be made more nurturing and less rapacious, and the election and recent assassination of an insurance CEO (as well as the subsequent cheering) suggest that many other people want the old liberal order to end (again, for better and for worse), a theme that is explored in some (not always satisfactory!) ways in this novel. Serendipity Spoiler!: this book includes a scene where a reactionary presidential candidate is nearly-assassinated, a scene that I read—coincidentally or kismet-ically—the very same day that a reactionary presidential candidate was nearly assassinated. Books, man.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: A cosmos-crossing story of revenge and reconciliation written by Tom King and gorgeously illustrated by Bilquis Evely. Too big and bold for the cinema.

I also enjoyed Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music, ADHD 2.0, Hello Molly! A Memoir, A Study in Drowning (my first go at ‘romantasy’), Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood.

Classics I read for the first time include The Eyre Affair, Hearts in Atlantis, Children of Men, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Dispossessed, The Martian Chronicles, Foundation, Driven to Distraction, Guitar Zero, Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead, Born a Crime, Between the World and Me, The Sirens of Titan, Stories of Your Life and Others.

—Games—

This wasn’t a great year for AAA studios, one where the industry faced a series of brutal layoffs and cancellations. It was, however, an excellent year for indies. My favorite plays:

Balatro: A poker-themed puzzler perfect for 5 minutes on the bus or 5 hours while the rest of your life slips amiably away. A great game for those who don’t play games, now available on phones.

Tactical Breach Wizards: A grid-based tactics/puzzle game, with really delightful characters and a timely story about repression and revolution. Surprisingly touching.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree: The expansion to the best game of 2022. I’ll play it again and again, and there’s a new multiplayer spinoff thing-y to look forward to in 2025. FromSoftware’s conquering of the world was really the best thing that could have happened to everyone, and by everyone I mean me.

Silent Hill 2 (2024): I never played a Silent Hill game until this year, but bloody hell I get it now, I do. This thing scared the pants, shirt, and increasingly-worn beanie off me; and yet the ending (that I got, I’ve heard there are several?) was surprisingly touching.

I also enjoyed Neon White, Helldivers 2, Brotato, No Man’s Sky, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Fallout 76, Lies of P, Another Crab’s Treasure, Rise of the Ronin.

—Music—

This is the year that I became both Bey- and Tay- pilled, I guess? (Though you’d never know it by my Wrapped-Thingy, which is dominated by the one album my neurodivergent son demands we listen to on every car ride.) Anyway, my favorite albums of the year were:

The Cure: Songs of a Lost World. 16-years-in-the making, the new Cure record is devastatingly somber and downbeat. The easy compare-and-critique is that it's another run at the glory days of Disintegration. But the instrumentation (crunchier guitar tones, softly struck piano keys instead of sustained synths) here is very different, and while lyrically Disintegration is angst-y and depressive, the new record is much more ruminative—it’s an elegy, not a Munch scream. Songs of a Lost World is an old man’s record, and I mean this in the best possible way.

Lin-Manuel Miranda & Eisa Davis: Warriors. Miranda will always be mostly known for the second thing he ever did, and so he could have been excused for sitting on his millions and churning out Disney songs for the rest of his life. Instead he decided to stealth drop a… gender-flipped musical theater (for ears) adaptation of a 70’s cult-classic youth-gangs-will-take-over-the-world exploitation film? It’s a big swing, and it really connects: every song is great, there is a delightful mix of musical styles as our heroes cross the five boroughs, and Miranda and Davis somehow coaxed Lauryn Hill out of retirement for “Can You Dig It?”, a standout. Kim Dracula’s glam-y take on the villain is delightfully unhinged and the featured love song “A Light or Somethin’” is really lovely. I could go on and on but I have a bus to catch.

Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter: Ignore the debate over whether or not this is ‘really’ a country album: that’s a trap that she has set for the skeptical. However you classify it, this thing kills. I’d never listened to a whole Beyoncé album previous to this (I was one of those heretics who preferred Destiny’s Child to the solo offerings, don’t shoot me!), but Cowboy Carter came out in March and I’m STILL listening to it (I started it up again this morning before coming to write this!). A celebration of the Black contributors to and creators of country music, and a really strong collection of genre-exemplifying and -subverting songs.

I also enjoyed St. Vincent: Born Screaming, Kim Deal: Nobody Loves You More, Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department, Chappel Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Original Soundtrack: Wicked part I, Original Soundtrack: I Saw the TV Glow.

Bonus! Favorite musical moments: Taking my daughter to her first show (Melanie Martinez in Oakland), and a summer roadtrip that included three tween girls in the backseat scream-singing the entire Chappel Roan album. The kids are all right.

—Television—

Fallout: The best way to describe this show is to quote Jack Black, staggeringly out of context: “It’s just so funny and violent, and the soundtrack kicks fucking ass”. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy were able to take what makes the games great—their satire of American capitalism and exceptionalism, their environmental storytelling—and added what the games don’t do well—interesting, relatable characters. They were clearly given an enormous, expensive sandbox to just go nuts with. And they did. I’ve watched it twice, and will be revisiting it again before the second season drops. Of course, the same creative team started strong with Westworld, like this a gonzo sci-fi western with literary pretensions, but they kinda lost their way after the first season there. If this happens with Fallout I will ghoul-ify them both, but in the meantime, I for one welcome our new Ella Purnell (also in Arcane and Yellowjackets) overlord.

Blue Eye Samurai: There is a lot of very good animation for adults being produced right now. This show has some of the best fight scenes around, but also is able to tell a very human story about empire, (not-) belonging, justice vs/and revenge. It’s also a visual feast.

True Detective: Night Country: This was better than the first season--incredible cast, claustrophobic atmosphere, featuring a case that starts small and personal but comes to stand in for larger forces both economic and (possibly) supernatural. I find myself in the strange position of, after many years of this not being the case, wanting more TD.

Agatha All Along: Is this a Marvel spinoff show, or a hallucinatory musical romp about gay witches? Oh, both, excellent. Kathryn Hahn is an American treasure. So is Aubrey Plaza. They play snippy ex-lovers. That’s all you gotta know.

Delicious in Dungeon: What if anime Dungeons & Dragons but the party includes a chef who cooks all of the monsters they kill? And—in some ways like last year’s under-seen Scavenger’s Reign—it includes ruminations on ecology and our place in the natural order? Then this show, basically. Also, for an offering whose premise sounds like a Saturday Night Live sketch, it gets surprisingly dark.

SHOGUN: The quintessential Dad Book gets a cross-cultural adaptation so good, it manages to make translation thrilling television.

The Beyoncé Bowl: Forget the Super Bowl halftime or the Oscars or sporting events or Trump sleep-farting his way through the debate, this was the best live TV event of the year. Luckily it’s on Netflix so you can watch it even if you missed the game it instantly eclipsed, and then (if you’re anything like me) you’ll immediately restart it and watch it again and then probably a third time and then….

Interview with the Vampire: I'm gonna say it. This show is better than the books. Don't throw me into a pit with a sun hole overhead.

I also enjoyed Resident Alien, Taylor Tomlinson: Have it All, Rachel Bloom: Death Let Me Do My Show, St. Denis Medical, Cabinet of Curiosities, Make Some Noise, probably other stuff I’m forgetting: there’s a lot of TV out there!

—Streaming—

New-to-me YT channels that I devoured this year include Jenny Nicholson (whose 4-hour opus on the aborted Star Wars hotel dominated the culture for a month), The Elephant Graveyard (a series of hate letters to the worst in stand-up, with memorable videos on the new Joe Rogan special and Jerry Seinfeld’s atom-thin skin), How to ADHD (which is what it says on the tin, winningly hosted by former child almost-star Jessica McCabe), and Bobby Fingers (who makes disturbingly lifelike dioramas of the world’s most horrible people and then buries them, all while pleasantly swearing in a thick Irish Brogue).

[psionotic]

MY TOP 5 ADHD MOMENTS

Since I'm now, at 49 years old, in the process of getting a diagnosis, I thought I'd share a few of my greatest hits. Enjoy!

That time I forgot to fill my son's Mac & Cheese cup with water, starting a fire in the microwave and filling it with smoke and a smell that persisted for months.

That time I was cooking dinner and cracked an egg directly into the garbage.

That time I took my son's medication after 'awaking' to find a pill in my hand and assuming therefore it must be mine. (I don't take meds).

That time I stepped out of the car with my wife's SB drink and promptly threw it in the garbage, safely retaining the trash I had meant to throw away in my other hand.*

Those hundreds of times I hurt people I cared about by not listening to them while nodding in acquiescence, or didn't get back to them or follow through on engagements, or abandoned them to chase after the next shiny toy, relationship, or really anything else that crossed my (brain's) path.

*I've always though that Miss Prism's line from The Importance of Being Earnest--"In a moment of mental abstraction, for which I never can forgive myself, I deposited the manuscript in the basinette, and placed the baby in the hand-bag"--is less unlikely than it sounds.

[psionotic]

My Favorite Culture 2023

It's New Year's Eve, so time again for my annual post to this platform! Here are the things I experienced for the first time in 2023 though of course not all of them are from 2023.

—Books—

Tell Me I’m Worthless. There’s something rotten in the haunted house of Albion, and it’s British fascism and increasingly normalized transphobia.

Station Eleven. The world ended, but a small troupe of survivors travel the wasteland, performing Shakespeare and making music.

Friday Black. A collection of science fiction stories that nibble at our social and racial conscience. “Through the Flash” has become one of my favorite short stories.

Klara and the Sun. Another Ishiguro novel narrated by an insightful, sensitive outsider? Check. Sad robots and sick kids? Ow my heart.

Piranesi. A stately, somber fantasy about truth, memory, and identity (re-)formation.

I also enjoyed: Kaiju Preservation Society, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

Classics I read for the first time: The Scarlet Letter, Billy Budd, Bartleby the Scrivener, Clotel, Little Women, The Awakening, Immortality, Assassin’s Apprentice, Man’s Search for Meaning, The Witching Hour, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Remains of the Day, Between Two Fires, The Leftovers

I was mixed on: Fairy Tale, You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife

I was bummed out by: California

—Movies—

Godzilla Minus One. Yes, the best movie I saw this year is about a giant nuclear-powered monster. It’s also about found family, redemption, and reckoning with a nation’s trauma—and shame.

Barbie. The anti-Fight Club; an all-singing, all-dancing Jewel of the World.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Come for the visual and auditory wonderlands, stay for the kinds of character stakes that more literary films can only genuflect towards.

Nimona. An adorable sci-fantasy queer allegory anchored by the punk rock snarl of Chloë Grace Moretz.

The Menu. The world’s most feted, reclusive chef (Ralph Fiennes @ maximum menace) throws an invitation-only dinner for some jagoff 1%-ers. Things get weird and then very, very bloody. Also Anya Taylor-Joy is in this and she’s maybe my favorite working actress..?

I also enjoyed: Polite Society, I Tonya, Elemental, The Marvels, No One Will Save You, Two Distant Strangers, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Classics I saw for the first time: The Haunting (1963), In the Mouth of Madness, Escape from New York, The Warriors, Lady Snowblood, Stalker, Sicario, Hanna, Insidious, Devil’s Pass, Edge of Tomorrow

I was mixed on: Creator, Last Night in Soho [though AT-J does her best!], The Invitation

I was bummed out by: Totally Killer

—TV—

Reservation Dogs. Succeeded Atlanta and Derry Girls as the best show about loveable weirdoes living in fraught circumstances. Now all three are over and I don’t know what to do, except say, “Love you bitches.”

Poker Face. Natasha Lyonne in a Rian Johnson-channeling Knives Out-by-way-of-Columbo joint with fun mysteries, a delicious visual sense, and delightful guest stars playing against type.

Scavengers Reign. Spacefarers separated during an emergency land on an alien world. An alien alien world with a complex, baffling ecosystem. Each is transformed by their experience. Alternatingly beautiful, horrifying, and profound.

Cunk on Earth. In this very British documentary series about the rise (?) of civilization, comedian Diane Morgan (as Philomena Cunk) asks some of the smartest historians and critics some of the dumbest questions imaginable. We’ve watched this maybe ten times this year, and it just keeps getting funnier every single one. Best line: “…they’d probably have a stroke, wouldn’t they?”

I also enjoyed: Silo, Fall of the House of Usher, The Last of Us, Harley Quinn, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, What We Do in the Shadows, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Castlevania: Nocturne, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, Last Week Tonight, Taylor Tomlinson’s Quarter-Life Crisis and Look at You, Game Changer

I was mixed on: Star Wars: Ahsoka. Apparently the only nu-SW I can really enjoy is Andor and The Last Jedi…? Sad, this is.

—YT—

Folding Ideas. The best video essay channel covered the Metaverse, BlizzCon, and the GameStop stonks phenomenon this year.

Hbomberguy. The best video essay channel put out only a single video this year, the nearly four hour “Plagiarism and You(Tube)” which broke the internet and ended at least two careers.

Jacob Geller. The best video essay channel put out a half dozen videos this year, covering horror games, “Art in the Pre-Apocalypse”, the non-evolution of execution methods, and more.

Double Fine PsychOdyssey. A 32-part making-of documentary, following an indie game developer trying to build the at-long-last sequel to their most iconic game. During the seven years of development they face personality conflicts, staffing issues, artistic disagreements, the implosion of their publisher, angry fanboys, COVID, near-bankruptcy, a buy-out attempt, and a thousand other obstacles. If you’re interested in game development this is a must, but it’s also highly recommended to anyone involved with or fascinated by making collaborative art under capitalism (theater, film, etc).

—Games—

Baldur’s Gate 3. This was an incredible year for games, but nothing tops Larian Studios’ masterpiece. As good a simulation of an excellent D&D campaign as is possible in the medium, they’ve done just about everything right: deep character creation, memorable side characters and relationships, decisions with consequences that really matter, epic story moments, and satisfying tactical combat through some clever simplifications to the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition ruleset. People will be talking about (and re-playing) this for a long, long time.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The follow-up to one of the most creative and joyful open-world games ever made is even better than its predecessor, with a more heartfelt story and an unsurpassed physics and building system.

Alan Wake 2. Remedy’s Stephen King-meets-Twin Peaks classic got its loooong-awaited sequel. One half survival horror, one half hallucinogenic crazy train, all disturbing surreal goodness.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns. A little X-COM, a little Fire Emblem: Three Houses, marrying satisfying card- and turn-based tactical combat with some lovely character work. I never always knew I wanted to go stargazing with Illyana Rasputin, or watch movies with Nico Minoru, and this year I did both of these. (I also went fishing with Blade and joined a book club with Wolverine, so…).

I also enjoyed: Remnant 2, Dead Cells, Marvel Snap, Dead Space (2023), Resident Evil 4 (2023), Spiritfarer, Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart, Super Mario Wonder, Mario Kart 8 (booster courses)

Classics I played for the first time: Psychonauts, Portal 2, Rayman Legends

I was bummed out by: Diablo 4 [congrats to my once-favorite developer for earning this spot two years in a row!]

—Albums—

boygenius: The Record. Supergroup of queer indie-rock darlings put out their first LP and it’s top-to-bottom majesty. “Leonard Cohen” and “Not Strong Enough” might be my favorites now, but “True Blue” was my song o’ the summer and I must have spun it up a hundred times.

Mountain Goats: Jenny from Thebes. The first concert I’ve seen post-COVID was the Sacramento leg of the Goats’ recent tour. “Fresh Tattoo”, “Clean Slate”, and “Great Pirates” are highlights.

Susanne Sundfør: Blómi. I think I prefer the more europop-centric installments in Sundfør’s arty europop oeuvre (Ten Love Songs is still my fave), but there are some lovely songs here in art-music land, including the title track and “fare thee well” .

I was mixed on: Janelle Monáe: The Age of Pleasure, Paramore: This is Why.

—Podcasts—

If Books Could Kill. Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri vivisect nonfiction bestsellers about politics, dating, manifesting, getting rich (quick!), and weight loss. Remember kids: Gladwell is a hack.

Just King Things. Two cultural critics who loved Stephen King as teens take up the Roland-ian task of reading and discussing every King book, once a month, for as long as it takes (the current schedule goes through 2028, but Uncle Steve is still pumpin’ ‘em out, so could be a while).

Triple Click. Kirk, Maddy, and Jason’s weekly non-cynical discussions of games and pop culture is my mood-enhancer. They’re gamers, but not Gamers, you understand.

I also listen to: You’re Wrong About, Hard Feelings with Jennette McCurdy, WTF with Marc Maron, The Besties/The Resties, Strong Songs

[psionotic]

Fun-draiser

Good afternoon, My youngest is having surgery to repair their highly scoliosis-ed back. If you want to support the coolest kid in all of creation, you can do so at the link below: https://gofund.me/1c48e97c Thanks..!

-psi

[psionotic]

My favorite culture, 2022

I haven’t posted to this thing in years, and I’m not even sure if I have any followers left. But in any case, here are some of my favorite new (or new to me) things in what was probably the most difficult year of my adult life...? -Paper-

Mexican Gothic (2021). Sure, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel is basically a postcolonial mélange of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Jane Eyre, and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, with a little dash of Lovecraft, but it absorbed and upset and disturbed me throughout.

The Priory of the Orange Tree (2020). A queer retelling of “St. George and the Dragon” within a mix of eastern and western fantasy, Samantha Shannon’s novel is full of delightful characters and magical hijinks.

The Three-Body Problem (2016). I mostly hated Cixin Liu’s Cultural Revolution-inspired anti-Contact while I was reading it. The characters are awful, both in their limited development and in their naked, selfish cruelty. The narrator is detached, looking down upon us from some distant star, without a care for those characters or for humanity generally. It is so profoundly cynical and pessimistic, at one point I almost threw it across the room. But then I kept reading and made it all the way to the end, frustrated and horrified all the while, and… I haven’t been able to shake this book since I’ve finished it. It’s burrowed its way into my psyche and won’t wend its way back out. Read/avoid at all costs.

I also enjoyed: The Windup Girl (2009), Gideon the Ninth (2020), Winter Tide (2018)

I was bummed out by: The Testaments (2019)

-Funny Pages-

Runaways volumes 1 – 5 (2018-). I put off reading this for years, because I’m so attached to BKV’s original run, and those that have followed in his footsteps have tripped over their imprint. But YA author Rainbow Rowell proved me wrong, letting me fall in love with these characters all over again.

Something is Killing the Children volumes 1 & 2 (2020-). Tynion and Dell’edera’s gothic monster slaying comic is a little X-Files, a bit Buffy, a smidge Sabrina, and basically a whole lot of the things I like.

Vision volumes 1 & 2 (2016). I read Tom King’s sad, wonderful run of Mister Miracle last year. This series (a partial inspiration for WandaVision) centers on the titular robot’s attempt to build himself a wife, two children, and a dog—the perfect American family. Things quickly go very very wrong in some ways that of course involve superhero shenanigans, but just as in MM and WV, the story zeroes in on the smaller tragedies of its misfit toys/wanna-be-real-boys inability to ever belong. 

-Movers-

Nope. Jordan Peele’s horror films become more diffuse in their themes and criticisms with each new installment, and many were apparently disappointed by Nope, but it really worked for me. Alien invasion story? Fable about our relationship to nature? A commentary on what we sacrifice to glut the slavering maw of spectacle? In any case, the film’s elusiveness is perhaps its great strength, and I went on thinking about it for months after seeing it.

Werewolf By Night. A direct-to-Disney Plus Marvel holiday short, featuring a character called The Man-Thing would not seem to promise much, but composer Michael Giacchino’s love letter to classic Universal monster movies is so focused, so economical, so un-tethered and therefore un-burdened by the MCU juggernaut (not Juggernaut) that I was just completely taken by it. Elsa, Jack, and Ted forever.

The Northman. Robert Eggers’ third film does everything his first two do, albeit on a larger scale: A particular/peculiar view of the past through the eyes of rejects and outsiders? Check. Long close-ups of actors staring intensely into the camera? Check. The presence of Anna Taylor-Joy and/or Willem Dafoe? Double check. It’s of course very possible that in a few years Eggers will descend into self-parody and become widely belittled for his repeating concerns and stylisms, but I for one am on board ‘til the longship sinks. (Also, I’d just like to point out that Taylor-Joy is an immortal mystical being, and all of her ‘characters’ are just different guises she takes throughout history. Do the research and follow the signs, you know this to be true.)

Glass Onion. Rian Johnson can’t miss. The Last Jedi was easily the best modern Star Wars movie (duel me). Knives Out was a titanic hit, beloved by audiences and critics. Follow-up Glass Onion is just as tight and fun, and it heavily features Janelle Monae, which is obviously a double-plus. It’s also quite timely, with characters resembling some of our time’s most obnoxious and narcissistic Main Characters.

I also enjoyed: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, Prey, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, It Follows (2015) I was bummed out by: Thor: Love and Thunder  

-Telefusion-

Andor. It’s hard to sell anything Star Wars to those who aren’t already there. Long-time fans largely aren’t to be trusted, and I say this as one of them. For the already initiated/indoctrinated, the current wealth of SW content would seem to be everything we’ve ever wanted. No doubt that it is for some, but for me, at least, for every worthwhile product (The Last Jedi, The Mandalorian’s first season), we have been given a Book of Boba Fett or The Bad Batch or—force help us—The Rise of Skywalker. The problem with Star Wars is its caretakers have become increasingly terrified of doing anything new or interesting lest the fanboys strike back. As a result, so much of what is produced is nostalgia porn and easter-egg bait, endless fodder for YouTube channels churning out videos like “37 things you missed in Obi-Wan!”, and the effect of most of it is just to continually remind us of better movies made 40 years ago, to which all new content eternally apes and refers back to. It’s just terminally up its own tauntaun. Not Andor, though. Showrunner and head writer Tony Gilroy doesn’t like Star Wars. And this is evident watching the show—a show with no space wizards, no muppets, no Skywalkers or Solos or really anything that reminds the viewer of what’s come before. The villains in Andor are bureaucrats and pencil pushers simply upholding a system that benefits them; the heroes are not chosen ones from a Joseph Campbell diatribe, but ordinary people just trying to live their lives under creeping authoritarianism. There is some action—a heist and a prison break are highlights—but mostly it’s a political thriller, with a writer’s room built from veterans of Michael Clayton, The Americans, and House of Cards. Andor is brutal and bloody and timely and occasionally even hopeful. It is, as Lisa Simpson once said, “what I believe in now.”

Severance. Part corporate conspiracy thriller, part allegory on the meaningless of modern work and the cheap mythology of the great man entrepreneur, completely riveting. The finale simultaneously spools out four separate cliffhangers, making for the most anxious hour of TV I saw all year.

The Sandman. But isn’t this just a pretty-faithful live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s classic and probably superior comic? I mean, yeah, that’s it, that’s the show, and honestly it’s all I ever wanted.

Interview with the Vampire. AMC’s adaptation is both exceedingly faithful and revisionist, and if that sounds paradoxical, well, as the great man said, “Very well then I contradict myself”. The core of Rice’s story remains untouched, while the concerns have been expanded to illumine American racial and sexual politics, life under the pandemic, and more. And that cast is incredible.

Players. This mockumentary by the creators of American Vandal explores professional eSports, following a team of League of Legends players over the course of one turbulent season. It’s a sports story, and a satire, and a character piece, and beyond all expectation the most heartwarming thing I watched all year.

I also enjoyed: Ghosts, What We Do in the Shadows, Our Flag Means Death, Wednesday, Stranger Things 4, She-Hulk, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Ms. Marvel, Lego Masters, How to Change Your Mind, Heartstopper, Murderville, Moon Knight, Star Wars: Visions, Light and Magic, Nailed It!, Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time, House of the Dragon, Get Up

I need to catch up on: Atlanta, Reservation Dogs, Derry Girls, Station Eleven

I was bummed out by: Obi-Wan 

-Pixel-o-Games-

Elden Ring. I played FROM Software’s newest opus three separate times this year, about 300 hours. I’m not sure that it’s my favorite of their games (that’s still Bloodborne), but you could make a real argument that it’s their best.

Fortnite: Zero Build. For about three months I played Fortnite. A lot of Fornite. I never thought I’d be one of those people who plays Fortnite. But I was, all summer. The new-ish no build mode means that even newb-plebs like me can occasionally win. Still the best monetization model of any free-to-play game: I spent $10 and played for about 100 hours.

Marvel Snap! A collectible card game for those who are bad at collectible card games. That means me. I’m bad at collectible card games. But the fast matches, equalizing random battlefields, and generous card distribution and monetization (I have spent a total of $2.99 over about 75 hours) makes this thing addictive as hell. Speaking of, I just got Magik, the greatest comic book character of all time.

I also enjoyed God of War: Ragnarok, V Rising, Vampire Survivors, Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose, Stray, The Past Within, Dicey Dungeons (2019)

I was bummed out by: Diablo: Immortal and its rapacious monetization

-Sounds-

Susanne Sundfør – Ten Love Songs (2015). I just discovered Sundfør this year, and this album dominated my drive time over the summer and fall. Hard to classify--arty Europop, maybe? But she switches genres so frequently, often within tracks, that all schemas fail. Those songs, though.

Phoebe Bridgers – So Much Wine. Leave it to Bridgers to put out the most depressing Christmas album ever made. A nice follow-up to her 2021 album Punisher, already a modern classic. 

Andor - Original Soundtrack. Nicholas Britell scores small prestige films (Moonlight), and big prestige shows (Succession), and his compositions for Andor work in party by taking as wide of a diversion from John Williams as possible. Instead Britell relies on moody synths and itchy atonal noise, punctuated by really striking percussion sections.  

-Cast Pods- 

You’re Wrong About. Even with Michael Hobbes’ recent departure, this is still the best debunker/trivia/nuance podcast around. Sarah Marshall is a national treasure, which is something that I’m certainly right about.

Triple Click. Talking vidya games with Jason, Maddy, and Kirk is still the highlight of my week. 

WTF with Marc Maron. This is one of the oldest big podcasts, but I only recently started listening. Maron’s interviewing style is divisive—he often interrupts, mostly to speculate or spool out an anecdote—and he’s certainly not for everyone, but the old man’s really grown on me. I mostly tune in to the shows where I like the guest. And my god, what guests! Just this fall I’ve listened to his interviews with Neil Gaiman, Patton Oswalt, Clea Duvall, Elvis Mitchell, Rian Johnson, Tony Gilroy, and Quinta Brunson.

I also enjoyed: Strong Songs, The Besties, Get Played, Video Palace (2018) 

-Tube You’ers- 

VaatiVidya. This is a channel specializing in FROM Software games’ lore and secrets. I’m obsessed with them, obviously, but also the host has the most charming, mellifluous British voice. 

Folding Ideas. Dan Olson’s video essays on politics and culture always get me thinking, and the breadth of the subject matter he covers is staggering. His video on crypto and NFTs, and his one on modern conspiracy theories, are musts.

Girlfriend Reviews. He’s a dork and a video editor. She’s a backseat gamer and performer. Together they mock video games and games culture. Much hilarity ensues. 

I also enjoyed: YongYea, Digital Foundry, Nerdwriter1, Pitch Meeting, PBS Storied, Zullie the Witch, Weird Rules, Alanah Pierce, PeruseProject, Ellie Dashwood, Second Thought, Emmalition, LegalEagle, Jim Sterling, Game Maker’s Toolkit, Penguin0

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My 3ish Favorite Things, 2019 edition

Reads (excludes copious re-reads, otherwise We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Northanger Abbey and Watchmen and etc., would appear here every year)

Bui: The Best We Could Do (2018)

Gillen & Hans: DIE volume 1

Pullman: The Secret Commonwealth

Also enjoyed: American Vampire volumes 1-4, Mister Miracle, The Essex Serpent (2017), Emma (1815), Amulet volumes 1-8, Horimiya volume 1 (2012), The Unincorporated Man (2009), The Wizard’s Tale (1999), Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (2010)

Disappointed: My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017), Misborn (2006)

Plays

Control

Hollow Knight (2018)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

I didn’t play enough of: Resident Evil 2, Celeste (2018), Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017)

Also enjoyed: Borderlands 3, Dark Souls Remastered (2018), Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (2015), Dark Souls 3 (2016), Dauntless, Prey (2017), Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018), Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (2017)

Disappointed: Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition (2017)

 Boxes (I… watch a lot of TV, I guess? Enough that a top 3 was impossible)

Derry Girls

Doom Patrol

Fleabag

The Good Place

Veep

Watchmen

What We Do in the Shadows

Also enjoyed: Castle Rock, Russian Doll, Good Omens, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Mandalorian, Big Mouth, The Murder of Laci Peterson, Stranger Things 3, The Expanse, I’m Sorry, She-Ra (or is it Sea-Ra?), The Dragon Prince, The Magicians, His Dark Materials, Stumptown, The Boys, Star Trek: Discovery, Nightline: “The Dropout”, Daredevil (2018), The Terror (2018)

Disappointed: iZombie, Game of Thrones, The Terror: Infamy

 Screens (I… need to go to the movies more!)

Avengers: Endgame

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

Us

Also enjoyed: Midsommar, I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Captain Marvel, John Wick 3, Spiderman: Far from Home, Detective Pikachu, IT 2, The Gift: Johnny Cash

Still need to see: The Lighthouse, Knives Out, Parasite, The Irishman, Ready or Not, Mystify, CATS (apparently!)

Disappointed: Star Wars 9

 Sounds (AKA thanks Jeremiah!)

The Mountain Goats: In League with Dragons. “Maximum respect for the warriors / Who choose to fall down on their spears.”

Pixies: Beneath the Eyrie. “I’m not proud / But I know that I’m sane / Like a grouse / Who’s resigned to the blade”

Purple Mountains: Purple Mountains. “And the end of all wanting / Is all I’ve been wanting”

Also enjoyed: Beck: Hyperspace, Goransson: The Mandalorian, Reznor & Ross: Watchmen

Disappointed: In myself, for falling yet further by the aural wayside.

 Special Category: Best Blog Killed by Clueless Venture Capitalists

Deadspin (2005-2019)

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My long strange thoughts on the trippy Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is little like most previous incarnations of the franchise. If the Roddenberry shows were optimistic verging on Utopian, Nu2 Trek’s worldview—despite its characters Starfleet-ian platitudes—is largely pessimistic. The two main plots from the first season are about brutal wars: the Federation war with the Klingon, and a kind of civil or revolutionary war that I can’t describe without getting excessively spoiler-y. This is a bitter, angry universe, full of sad, damaged people. In this way, it’s a lot like a lot of other things on TV now: let’s call it peak bleak television.

[warning: generalized spoilers beneath the cut]

Somewhat paradoxically, however, it is constantly reminding us of its very different predecessors. Discovery luxuriates in fan-service-y nostalgia-porn: the first 15 episodes include multiple appearances by Spock’s parents Sarek and Amanda as well as third-rate charlatan Harvey Mudd (played by The Office’s Rainn Wilson, in some admittedly perfect casting). It includes bountiful references to Christopher Pike, Orion Slave Girls (and, er, Sketch Boys?), the mirror universe, Kahless The Unforgettable, and Romulan Ale. The final shot of the last episode features the TOS Enterprise easing majestically onto the Discovery’s viewscreen, as if to shout “Look! It’s the ship from the show that you could be (re-)watching right now!”. These rare, uplifting, orchestra-swelling moments mostly serve to make the gulf between what the show feels like to actually watch, and what it wants us to be nostalgic for, supernova-sized.

Another consequence of the depressing, serialized story Discovery tells is that we no longer have an issue of the week, a hallmark of the Roddenberry era shows. Those episodes, where the crew would confront racism, or climate change, or heterosexism, or cloning and abortion, or hippies, were part of the show’s 1960s & 1990s utopian DNA: they argue that our problems—though vast—were essentially solvable. For its first several episodes, it looks like Discovery has no discernible politics whatsoever. Gradually, however, it becomes evident that both of the show’s wars feature xenophobic empires hellbent on destroying all that is other. By the time a significant character ends a speech with a call to “Make the Empire glorious again!” we all kind of recognize where and when we are. While the allusion and criticism is somewhat obvious, it is to the show’s credit that it isn’t just the ‘villains’ making these pronouncements. Even the most well-conceived and intentioned republics and fleets will get demagogue-y, given the right conditions, Discovery seems to be saying.

Which treks. What disturbs is the show’s solution: utopian idealism, better education, and morality won’t stop fascists, we have to annihilate them. Both of the war plots are resolved by the deployment of bigger bombs—one exploded and surfed, T. J. Kong style; the other held over an entire civilization’s head as a threat. Fifty years after Star Trek, we are further away than ever from solving our problems peacefully, it seems. “To war...” Lorca Simpson might well suggest, “the cause of—and solution to—all of life’s problems.”

I was constantly infuriated with this show: it’s cynicism, its character’s terrible decisions, it’s more than usually bad pseudo-science (at least previous Trek shows tried to pretend there was some basis for their last-second miracle machines), and so on. But… I was also constantly infatuated with this show. Mostly because its characters and cast are all so great. Specialist Burnham and Commander Saru are fantastic, complicated leads. Georgiou is my spacemom, Lorca is a crafty jerk, and Tilly—my gods, how I love Cadet Tilly—turn all of the terribleness into some very comfy viewing.

And that’s the thing. What I realized this morning, sleep-deprived at 3am is that I loved this show, not despite its frequent stupidity, but because of it. Star Trek: Discovery had to be serialized, because that’s where television is going, probably to our detriment, and CBS was never going to allow the flagship of their new streaming service to tell skippable, disconnected stories. Serialized television is appointment viewing, which means it is also soap opera. Here are some plot points, that I am not making up, from the first season of Star Trek: Discovery: evil twins, characters returning from the dead, previously unknown foster-siblings, lovers replaced by surgically & psionically altered dopplegangers, and of course creepy uncles seducing their wards. This show is trashy AF. It is not Breaking Bad, it is StarDates of our Lives.

And I’m really looking forward to season two.

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The Wild Hunt Volume 1 is on ComiXology!

The Wild Hunt Vol. 1: Falling Awake

Written by: Shaun Gilroy Art by: Dima Derzhavin Price: $9.99

Monsters are real. They lurk in the dark, but there’s an ancient force that even they fear. She works at the local coffee shop.

Buy now on comiXology!

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Brie Larson as Captain Marvel on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. (x)

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"Oh, dear," sighed her mother, "it's that awful piece of trash about the swordsman lover, isn't it? My friends were mad for that book when we were young."

"It's not trash," her daughter said. "It is full of great and noble truths of the heart. And swordfights."

--from Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

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Jordan’s Favorite Things of 2015

You didn’t ask for it. You didn’t want it. You don’t even care that it’s here. But here it is, so you might as well read it: It’s Jordan’s Favorite Things of 2015!

So, I thought it would be fun to do a Top One list from a bunch of different mediums and then add a brief paragraph (or two, or three) explaining why they are the Top One Thing of their respective mediums. So here we go!

Game: Undertale by Toby Fox

Every year, I replay Bastion by Supergiant Games, and then semi-jokingly declare it the best game of that year. Because it’s the best game that mankind has ever created. This year, however, I didn’t even feel compelled to make that joke (though I did replay Bastion on PS4 and get all the trophies. Still the best!) because Undertale is So. Damn. Wonderful.

I feel like if you care about video games in any serious way, you at least kind of know what Undertale is. You’ve certainly HEARD of it, but maybe you know nothing about it. That’s because Undertale is that most frustrating of things to recommend; the kind of thing that must be experienced relatively blind to truly experience. But here’s what I can say: Undertale is a JRPG that gets rid of all the annoying bullshit that plagues the genre. No grinding, an interesting combat system, and it’s only like 5 hours for a single playthrough (though you will do at least two, trust me).

But what truly sets Undertale apart is its writing, music, and commitment to subtle player choice that really matters (we’re talking player choice so subtle that you might not even realized you made a choice until you beat the game or read the wiki). The characters and world are so memorable that you honestly feel like the characters in this world are your friends by the time it’s done, and I know how hokey and stupid that sounds, but it’s true. If you have a heart, Undertale will touch it.

The game is $10. Play it.

Honorable Mention: Tales from the Borderlands, Ori and the Blind Forest, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows.

Book: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Uh, this is sort of a default entry because I can’t think of another novel I read this year that was actually published in 2015 (the English Major Curse, I suppose). I’m working my way through Welcome To Night Vale right now, but that one probably wouldn’t even take the spot anyway because I have a fondness for YA fiction and I think Rainbow Rowell might be our greatest living YA writer.

The concept of Carry On is extremely hard to pitch to a stranger. In Fangril, one of Rowell’s previous works, the protagonist Cath writes a lengthy fanfiction about the conclusion to Simon Snow, a Harry Potter knockoff. Carry On is that fanfiction, the eighth book to a fantasy series that doesn’t exist, and one in which two former enemies, Simon and Baz (a vampire) realize that they are both gay and in love.

The book is extremely fun, funny, and endearing. It uses the reader’s presumed familiarity with Harry Potter to draw them into this similar, but very different, world. Yes there’s a British school for wizards, yes there’s a chosen one, yes there’s a wise and mysterious headmaster, but Rowell makes these characters her own, and uses shifting character POV to tell a truly engaging story on top of the aforementioned romance between bitter enemies-turned-boyfriends.

Honorable Mention: N/A

Movie: Max Max: Fury Road and Inside Out

Gasp! A tie!

Mad Max: Fury Road is an two-hour chase through a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with only a few brief minutes of respite. With minimal dialogue and maximal visual storytelling, director George Miller tells a simple-but-compelling story filled with laconic-but-detailed characters. I’m the kind of guy who usually nods off during lengthy action scenes, but the film is an utter thrill-ride, but one with enough brains, heart, and character to captivate any audience. I just saw it for the fourth time yesterday, and it continues to be incredible.

But in addition to being fun, Fury Road is important. While the characters of the film find hope in a desolate wasteland of warlords and violence, we in the real world see a bit of hope in the desolate wasteland of misogyny and poor representation in media. Fury Road is a feminist film through and through, a film about female captives breaking their chains own chains and escaping their male oppressors (with a little help from Max). It’s progressive without being in your face about it, and what a lovely day it will be when the rest of cinema follows suit.

Inside Out is a very different film, though no less important. It’s a Pixar film, and I think it might be their greatest yet (and I am a big Pixar fan). The film follows Riley, a preteen girl who moves from Minnesota to San Francisco and is greeted by a crippling bout of depression when she gets there. The story is told both inside her brain - as depicted by her emotions Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust working to restore happiness to Riley’s memories - and externally, as Riley finds it difficult to communicate with her family and finds despair in the simplest things, such as disappointing pizza. It’s a film about growing up as much as it is about depression, and more importantly, it’s about empathy, the most important of human traits. I’ve only seen it once, and I’m embarrassingly coming up with little more to say, but you should absolutely see Inside Out, one of the funniest, saddest, and most human pieces of media I’ve experienced this year.

Honorable Mention: Age of Ultron, Ex Machina, and Creed, 

Comic Book: Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson

I feel like anybody who knows me would be pretty surprised if this wasn’t the comic I chose. I love Kamala Khan (the titular Ms. Marvel) so much that I wrote a 20 page research paper about her earlier this year, so I’m going to use this space to briefly touch on why that is (technically she just finished her second year as a character but I’ll just be talking about her in general).

Kamla Khan is a 16 year old Pakistani-American, Muslim, and nerd who writes fan-fiction about The Avengers and plays MMOs in her free time. She’s also a shape-changing superhero who fights crime, both on the streets of New Jersey and (as of this November) alongside the likes of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America in the All-New, All-Different Avengers.

In a lot of ways, Kamala Khan is the successor to Peter Parker (so is Miles Morales, I assume, but I don’t read his comic). A nerdy, relatable teenage superhero for the new generation. In Ms. Marvel, the punching of villains is a fun part of her comic, sure, but it’s not why you’re there. In every arc, G. Willow Wilson tackles some vital aspect of our current society, from internalized racism (Kamala’s first arc is about overcoming her instinct to shapeshift into the white, blonde, blue-eyed Carol Danvers as she fights crime), to gentrification.

But perhaps what makes Kamala important more than anything else is the way she uses empathy and compassion as a tool with which to perform heroics. In her most standout moment, Kamala discovers that a number of missing teenagers have actually been brainwashed into believing that their generation is hopeless and that the only way to find self-worth is to give up their lives as fuel source to resolve the energy crisis. Before she goes to beat up the villain who did the brainwashing, Kamala asks the kids about their interests, and tells them how they can benefit the future and make something of herself, telling them that giving up on their generation is to give up on the future of humanity.

Kamala Khan stands as a symbol of why superheroes can be really important. They show us the best that humanity can be, and Ms. Marvel does this in a way that is relevant, progressive, and thoroughly enjoyable. If you’re even casually interested in comics, absolutely give this one a read.

Honorable Mention: Sandman: Overture, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour (Color Edition), Hawkeye.

TV Series: Jessica Jones

I could say a lot about Jessica Jones, but I would just be echoing Devin Faraci of Birth.Movies.Death because he nailed it, and this post is already pretty long. If you need to know why Jessica Jones is amazing, go read the last two paragraphs of his review (or all of it, but there are spoilers so maybe don’t). Short version: It’s a superhero show about dealing with trauma and facing its source, and the harrowing process thereof. It’s an almost perfect show, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Album: Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats

I am the least qualified person to talk about music, but John Darnielle is one of the most poetic lyricists of all time and this band, quite frankly, rules. It’s a folk album about wrestling on the surface but it’s also about parenthood and death and searching for justice and meaning through fiction. At the very least, you ought to check out “The Legend of Chavo Guerrero.”

Anyways, this actually the second best album of the year because the actual best goes to…

OVERALL BEST THING: Hamilton: An American Musical

Before November of this year, I had only encountered one piece of media that so perfectly clicks with all my interests and philosophies that it transcends genre and medium and becomes not just my favorite movie or comic or game or whatever but my Actual Favorite Thing, a piece of media that feels like a reflection of my soul and what I care about and what I love. That one thing was Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley.

Well, now there are two.

Hamilton is a musical written by and starring Lin Manuel-Miranda about the life of early America told through the story of underrepresented Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. It’s one of those things that I saw so many people love so much that I snobbishly assumed that it couldn’t actually be that good. But one morning in November, I decided to buy the album on iTunes and give it a listen, because I love early America and I love musicals. I have scarcely listened to anything else since. 

The musical is a blend of hip hop and more traditional musical theater stylings, and every minute of it is wondrous. Cabinet meetings are settled via rap battle, the recurring musical and lyrical motifs are incredible (and sometimes heartbreaking), and the number of ways it rhymes the phrase “Arron Burr, sir” is one of the great achievements of the English language.

And although the story is about America in the 18th century, it is very much told by the America of the 21st. There is hardly a white actor in the show (I think Jonathan Groff, who plays King George III might be the only one? I don’t actually know), but it doesn’t call any attention to this fact. There’s a certain reclaiming of history in this, I think, reminding us that yes, the Founding Fathers were white, but the country isn’t, and never has been, built entirely by white dudes, and things like the other characters’ obsession with Alexander’s status as an immigrant seem to be reminders that we as a nation been holding the same prejudices and having the same conversations for more than 200 years now. In other words, it’s a historical work, but an extremely relevant one, as all great historical works are.

Hamilton is so much fun, the music is good, and if you love yourself, you will go check it out on Spotify or something (and then buy it on iTunes because it super, super deserves it).

Honorable Mention: Luna, my three-month-old Corgi. 

[psionotic]

New Trio

[psionotic]

My Favorite Culture 2015

Happy new year! Because no one demanded it, here are my favorite cultural artifacts from the previous year. You’ll notice that there are no books on it, which is embarrassing, but I suppose my defense is that while I did read a lot of books this year, all were at least a year old. So there.

Because I can’t really bring myself to rate or rank things anymore, all are listed alphabetically. 

Funnybooks

Lazarus: A kind of near-er future Dune, Lazarus is about land-use, politics, and personhood in a post-global warming America in which great merchant houses–families–have supplanted corporations. Thoughtful and exceedingly well-researched.

Rat Queens. A mercenary troupe made up of four very different women that eat, drink, slay, and, er, lay their way across the realm. Funny and violent and sexy and full of heart, it’s basically what you would get if Tolkien wrote Tank Girl.

Saga. The best book about parenting takes place mostly in a living tree spaceship.

Sandman: Overture. Gaiman revisits his opus, this time with art by the J.H. Williams III. Dream’s inaction at the dawn of time has led to the madness of a star, threatening all existence (naturally). He teams up with his cat self to put things right.

She-Hulk. Jennifer Walters, titular She-Hulk, is a superhero at night, hotshot lawyer during the day. In this recent (and sadly, gone too soon!) run, the focus is more on legal carnage, as we are presented with a number of excellent cases: in one, Walters represents the widow of a not-so-supervillain suing Tony Stark for patent infringement; in another she assists Doctor Doom’s son as he attempts to obtain political asylum; in a third she defends Captain America when he is sued for negligent death. A nice bonus for Marvel TV fans: Jen tries one case against Matt Murdock AKA Daredevil, and her field investigator is (a hilarious) Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat AKA Trish Walker from Jessica Jones.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Did you know that Doreen Green, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, can talk to—and has the proportional strength of—squirrels? And that she was a charter member of the now-defunct Great Lakes Avengers? And was Jessica Jones and Luke Cage’s nanny for a while? And beat up Thanos one time? Well, this time she kinda beats up planet-eating Galactus, and starts flirting with a guy whose secret identity may or may not be the Chipmunk Hunk. Well, now you do know all the things and you should read this book because it is delightful.

I also liked: Lumberjanes, Strange Fruit, Wytches.

I’m wayyy behind on but also love: Bitch Planet, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel.

Talkies

Ex Machina. Three characters—a computer genius, an artificial human, and a naïve programmer engage in a deadly game of infracat and ultramouse through a series of philosophical convos about consciousness, epistemology, and love and sex.

Inside Out. I’ve seen this about seven times, and I’ve cried multiple times, every time, for a total of 24/24 cries—the only rating that matters. Also, did you notice how great the score to this movie is? I mean, it’s really really listenable.

Mad Max: Fury Road. A beautiful, angry howl against environmental degradation and patriarchal authoritarianism which is also the most consistently entertaining film I’ve seen in years. While most of the tropes of the post-apocalyptic scarcity dystopia are familiar, the reworking—and destruction—of the ‘second Eden’ myth so common in these stories is refreshing, if depressing.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Yes, many of the scenes and situations are familiar, but that’s kind of the point? Disney, Abrams and co. save our most enduring franchise not by reinventing, but by reassuring us that yes, they (and we) know what a Star Wars film should look, sound, and most importantly feel like. And there are so so many feels in this film. Rey and Finn and Poe are whom the Force is with now.

I also liked: Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Crimson Peak, Going Clear, The Death of Superman Lives

Radiation King

iZombie: NOT ENOUGH OF YOU ARE WATCHING THIS. I mean, it has zombies which everyone is bored of: for good reason! But it’s so fun and funny, and features fancy foods made of fuzzy brainz, OK? And you liked Veronica Mars, right? It’s basically that. But with Zombies, as i mentioned, um, before.

Jessica Jones. A claustrophobic noir, a story about the love between sisters, full of well-conceived characters, and a sharp diagnosis of gender politics in the early 21st.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: a well-made adaptation of one of my favorite modern novels, about two frival magicians who must team up to stop Napoleon, a cruel fairy king, and the end of the world (if they don’t cause it first).

Master of None: Aziz Ansari’s new show is, like his previous show, so earnest. ‘O! Saddest of hipsters!’, you might faux-lament. And that’s fair, perhaps, but this dramedy really worked for me: it’s heartfelt without being cloying or sentimental, and political without ever simplifying or condescending. Plus it looks fantastic—like a 70s art film.

Orphan Black: Clone Club 4 Life, bring on the post-human insanity April Nth.

Parks & Recreation. Good bye, Leslie and co., and thank you.

Veep: The only show about backstabbing Washington politicos that matters, because unlike that other show, it’s brave enough to admit that most of them/us are kind of petty, and often stupid. The addition this season of Hugh Laurie as President (!) Kyle’s too-beloved foil was welcome indeed.

I also liked: Agent Carter, Agents of Shield, Arrow, Bob’s Burgers, Daredevil, Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones (sometimes, I guess), The Goldbergs, The Hotwives of ______, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Missed/Looking forward to: Fargo, Mr. Robot, The Expanse, The Man in the High Castle

 Sprites ‘n’ Polygons

Bloodborne. Set in a gothic fantasy Victoriana, filled with werewolves and eldritch beasts and pale yellow moons, the minimalist story—about a corruption of the blood rituals that the game’s culture is built around—is only barely suggested. This is a game in which nothing is given away for free. It is punishingly difficult—I think the first monster in the game killed me five times: my hunter died 613 times total over many dozens of hours (I kept track of my misery/progress via a white board). As cruel as it is, it never feels unfair: mastery builds slowly, and each lesson and maneuver the player learns becomes the foundation for further iteration. Two hours in I was ready to quit, but I’m so glad that I persevered. Beating a particularly difficult boss (they are almost all particularly difficult) provided more joy than I’ve felt playing a game since I was 12. And actually finishing the game felt like a significant personal accomplishment—like getting a graduate degree or climbing Kilimanjaro. By the by, it’s also the subject of my favorite piece of games writing this year.

Rocket League. In the future, the only sport of consequence is Rocket League—essentially soccer played with monster trucks and street racers, with drivers knocking a half-ton exploding ball around an enormous enclosed arena. The premise is ridiculous, but the mechanics are sooo good, and the online community so not-toxic, this small multiplayer-only game became a surprise hit and my favorite time-killer.

Tales from the Borderlands. The reverse of Bloodborne, Tales is all dialogue and humor; featuring well-drawn, sympathetic characters; has no real mechanics; and is a lot like choose-your-own-adventuring through a cell-shaded comic book. Like all of Telltale’s games, your choices matter as you alternately play resourceful but down-on-her-luck con-artist Fiona, and ambitious but increasingly-principled corporate-climber Rhys. Full of great twists, and set in the same wacky space wasteland as Gearbox’s popular Borderlands series, this has all of the charm, ultraviolence, and amazing music you demand. Plus poop jokes, because.

I also liked: Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (which I watched, but haven’t played), Disney Infinity 3.0, Wolfenstein: The New Order (I think this came out late last year but whatevs it’s surprisingly good so there).

Missed/Looking forward to: Rise of the Tomb Raider (damn you console exclusivity!)

[psionotic]

The best

Same, Fiona

[psionotic]

“The room to which we can’t return: The Woman in Black as Reproductive Fable”

 Below is a quasi-Freudian reading of The Woman in Black, meant here as a kind of model of the things I’m trying to have my students do in their upper division Humanities 3000: Haunted class essays. This particular reading assumes a Freudian model, as discussed in the two essays the class read, “The Fetish” and “The Uncanny”:

  There is a room at the top of Eel Marsh House that has a lock but no key. Strange sounds are sometimes heard within. Arthur Kipps describes them as a series of bumps, rhythmic: “bump bump. bump bump. bump bump” (93).

 Rhythmic. Tidal. And of course, the tidal nature of the occurrences at Eel House are well established. There is, in these marsh tides, a curious mixture of fertility and annihilation.

All ingresses and egresses, all openings and entrances, are governed by the tides themselves, as the waters of the estuary swell and recede. Dangerous tides, that swallow up dogs and ponies and wee little Victorian children.

 Arthur is afraid of these happenings, of course. But not just afraid. There is more than a whiff of desire present in our hero, who describes these rhythmic bumps as “a familiar sort of sound and yet one I still could not exactly place, a sound that seemed to belong to my past, to waken old, half-forgotten memories and associations deep within me, a sound that, in any other place, would not have made me afraid but would, I thought, have been curiously comforting, friendly” (93).

 This desire is inscribed within a “maddeningly familiar bump that tantalized me because I could not identify it” (99). But only for this? Tantalus was, we might recall, a denizen of the underworld (perhaps the unconscious). He is doomed to reach for grapes that always elude him, and water that always recedes before him.

 When the room at the end of the hall is opened, it turns out to be a child’s nursery. The bump bump is the sound of a rocking chair that sways, ceaselessly at first, before slowly coming to the gentlest of stops. Consider, if you will, Arthur’s extraordinary description of its effect:

 The sound that I had been hearing was the sound that meant comfort and safety, peace and reassurance, the regular, rhythmical sound at the end of the day, that lulled me asleep and into my dreams, the sound that meant that one of the two people in the world to whom I was closest and whom I most loved was nearby. And so, as I stood there in that dark passageway, listening, the sound began to exert the same effect upon me now until I felt hypnotized by it into a state of drowsiness and rest; my fears and the tensions in my body they had aroused began to slip away, I was breathing slowly and more deeply and felt a warmth creeping into my limbs. I felt that nothing could come near to harm or afright me, but I had a protector and guardian close at hand (100).

 The desire to return is crushing, and this scene is accompanied (in the original text) by the picture, which is (mimetically) Arthur and his guide entering that room; but representationally, can be seen as the entrance into mystery, into darkness, or into the womb (if we want to go full-frontal Freudian) [Note, see the John Lawrence illo on 101, reproduced above].

 Here disgust and horror are intermixed completely with desire—a nostalgia for childhood sensations and currents, certainly. But something else too: after all, various “tensions in [Arthur’s] body” had been “aroused” just as surely as his “fears” have been (100). For Freud, the male desire to return to the womb, is both a nostalgic and sexual craving: to return to that first place of safety is both a longing to regress into infancy, and a desire to propagate it. But in this novel, this nursery-womb where childhood is made and kept safe, becomes instead the locale of trauma—a broken circuit of reproduction—that Arthur longs to repair. The woman in black’s grief becomes—is, in a very real way—his grief, his inability to mend the wound: . A few years later, having left Eel Marsh House, he hurries into marriage, and completes the circuit, joining with his wife Stella to conceive Joseph Arthur Samuel Kipps—Joseph meaning ‘increase’ in Hebrew, Arthur meaning ‘man,’ here, a new baby boy, much like the one that the woman in black was forced to give up.

 But the ghost of Jenney Humfrye does not appreciate his efforts. Her tragedy is, partially, that she conceived out of wedlock and so cannot conceive again. This was true before she wasted and died, and is, obviously more true now that she exists as an unmarried, bodiless spirit. Jennet Humfrye’s child cannot be replaced by herself, nor can her sorrow be assuaged by the birth of other children. Arthur’s successful return to the nursery-womb, its result, and indeed the happiness of all other parents she considers an affront. Having had the chain of her own reproduction cruelly snapped, she takes it upon herself to crush the baby of Arthur, her almost-suitor. And so the novel ends, not with the repair of the loss through reproduction, but with the reproduction of loss in the form of another dead boy.

[psionotic]

Reason #24601 why photoshop should be taken away from me