#anyway. columbo button

[girlwiththegreenhat]

columbo button

columbo button

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Columbo (TV) - Got interested in the second hand lore I've heard and finally decided to watch the show. I do already see why it was such a phenomenon, Columbo himself is instantly likable in his fake haplessness and annoying relentlessness, and the reverse mystery of seeing the murderer desperately try to cover their tacks from the detective is a neat twist on the genre that produces some high tension. The length of the episodes as well as their stand-alone quality means I'll likely be watching this occasionally rather than binging it, but its definitely a fun time.

- Pluto (Anime) - Very Interesting so far, though I'll save any thoughts until I'm farther along.

- Bridgerton (TV) - I was interested in the news of potential lesbians, as skeptical as it is that it will happen. Anyway I suggested this to my sister as a watch, honestly I'm not enjoying the first season that much, I like the outfits and a couple side characters but mostly the drama is very manufactured and the characters unlikable with the most first world of first world issues. I understand that the high class setting is part of the charm, and in a series with more likable characters this kind of stuff wouldn't bother me, but as it is the constant miscommunication and spiteful actions towards eachother is more annoying than anything else. Still I hear the other seasons are better so we'll see.

- Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime) - Hot off of OP, my sister and I thought we might as well jump into the more recent Big shounen darling. So far I would say JJK is a mixed bag though it leans more towards the positive. For the good stuff obviously the animation is top tier, the plot, while pretty standard, has enough intrigue to keep you interested episode by episode, and I surprisingly like a lot of the character interactions, they can be pretty fun and charming. I'd say the characters kind of vary between being likable but general archetypes and just unique enough to make them more than an archetype, like Fushiguro being a bit too much of intentionally funny loser to be just the angsty strict rival type or Maki being too self-aware of how her off-comments affect others to be the cool aloof girl. For the negatives I do like the protagonist though he at least at this point doesn't have anything super interesting going for him, kind of just a likable plucky hero who's nice to people. More importantly the battle system is kind of a mess, mostly in execution rather than by design. Having curse demons be the enemy and people utilizing person specific abilities is fine and all, but more often than not the abilities are overly complex and are only explained by the people fighting each-other info-dumping the specifics of how their technique works to the person they are fighting, which is pretty silly and really slows down the pacing. They try to justify this by claiming that "explaining your ability to the person it's affecting makes it work better" but come on, that's a total cop out, I'd rather receive no explanation than that one. I can't help but think there's better ways to integrate the techniques into the story, either by having the teachers do individual tests on the students to explain their abilities, or cutting to other uses, or just trusting your audience to understand what they are seeing. All that being said this is still pretty fun, I'm enjoying it.

- Community (TV) - I like the quick witted writing. Not enjoying the weird Annie/Jeff stuff. Maybe just keep the camera on Troy, Abed, and Shirley actually.

- The Witch of Mercury (Anime) - Cool that they started a company as the politics of keeping up a business is to me a more interesting story than robot battles, though despite the general charm of the characters there's still not a big hook keeping me invested. I enjoy it when I'm watching, but am in no hurry to click the next button. Still I'm only in the first half, so lets see where it takes me.

- Paper Mario: TTYD (Video Game) - Release of a classic, one of the best and most charming Mario games. Been slow playing it as I've been getting more into Genshin lately, but it's good to have it again.

- One Piece (Anime/TV) - Yup.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - This will probably be here the whole year, let's be real.

Listening To: Hope by Akano, Tounges & Teeth and Metaphor by The Crane Wives, HateKiller by WON, Dream Girl Evil by Florence + The Machine, The Red Means I Love You by Madds Buckley, Promiseland by MIKA, Waiting For Love by Avicii, Bonjour Au Revoir by Joyce Jonathan, You're In Love by Betty Who, Most Girls by Hailee Steinfeld, Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA, Song of the Dead by Kana-Boon.

[procyonloser]

Adam stepped out of the bathroom, brushing himself off, and making sure his pants were buttoned. The guy behind him pushed past, moving to the sink to wash his hands. Adam just gave him the briefest of a nod before heading out and back into the bar. He'd had his fun, avoided thinking for a bit, and it was time to go home.

He'd barely flicked a cigarette and gotten across the parking lot before he realized he was being followed. Adam rolled his eyes as he walked down the street, before ducking into a thin alley between storefronts. They caught up, looking momentarily confused as to where he'd gone, until Adam waved at them.

"There a reason you're following me, officers?" Adam asked; undercover cops were the most obvious people on the fucking planet. Especially these dorks.

"We just wanted to ask if you wanted to talk about Lucifer Morningstar." The guy asked, with a bit of an accent Adam couldn't place, east coast though, for sure.

"Not particularly. I don't know anything about the guy apart from the fact he's rich enough to hire me as a private tutor for his daughter. Beyond that, not my problem." Adam said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You'd best bark up a different tree."

"Of course, sir. Have a good night. Oh, but, I do have one question." The woman said, taking a step back. "You used to be a Merc, weren't you? How'd you end up a preschool teacher?"

"I was not a Merc; I probably killed less people than your department does in a year, Columbo." Adam said with venom.

"You were a hired gun, no matter how you paint it." She said with a hint of a smile, ignoring the jab. "Anyway, I suppose we'll see more of eachother going forward. Goodnight."

"I hope he chokes on your dick," Adam said, shooting a glare at the two as they walked off.

"Oh, I do." The guy shot back over his shoulder, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and popping them on.

Adam drove to Lucifer's manor, which wasn't positioned on the edge of town, or hidden somewhere away from prying eyes. It was in a large wealthy neighborhood along with some actors and high profile lawyers. The guards let Adam in with little fanfare, even if it was after hours.

Lucifer himself opened the front door, looking curious to see Adam there so late, probably smelling like booze and burnt tobacco.

"Charlie asleep?" Adam asked, walking in, shrugging off his jacket.

"Sleep over, actually. Her room is full of small children who all hate me." Lucifer said with mild amusement. "What's wrong?"

"Cops followed me, asked me about you." Adam said, accusitorily. "I don't fucking like that. Are you under investigation?"

Lucifer tilted his head, "I'm always under investigation, it goes along with being me. You'll be fine, I trust you know how to talk to them.I don't expect you'd say anything that would upset Charlie."

It was a subtle threat, but it was there none the less.

"No, I just don't want them following me - I have a fucking life, you know? And I'm barely fucking healed from the last time some fuckers followed me." Adam glowered, using his height to his advantage over Lucifer.

Lucifer just looked at him, expression slowly becoming colder as he reached up to press s thumb hard into the side of Adam's neck. "You have a bruise."

"... Not from them," Adam said, voice dropping some. Lucifer made a noise of understanding in the back of his throat, before grabbing a fistful of Adam's hair and pulling him down for a violent kiss.

It was just supposed to be a short term job, something to just get him solvent again. He didn't actually want to stay for more than a couple months - Adam didn't even like children.

And yet, at the end of the day, he had about five children clinging to his legs as he dragged them across the daycare floor. They did some mix of crying, sobbing, laughing, just wanting to stay a few minutes longer in the facility before their parents picked them up.

Charlie sat on his shoulders, frequently talking about how her dad couldn't hold her up so high like Adam could, which always brought Adam great joy.

"Okay, easy goes it, there you are, I've got you." Lucifer said as he was passed as squirming blond toddler. "Daddy is here, Charlie! Aren't you happy?"

Charlie puffed out her cheeks, teary eyed, which in turn made Lucifer's face fall.

"So much for Daddy." Adam said, hands on his hips, amusement spun through his voice. He never really liked the short weirdo, it didn't help that he'd married Adam's childhood sweetheart.

Lucifer shot him an icy look, his demeanor instantly shifting. "I'll show you why I'm called that, if you'd like."

It was Adam's turn to feel his smile falter and fall. It wasn't so much because it was seductive - though it did kind of turn him on; moreso, it was because he knew Lucifer was the head of what he was fairly certain was the mob.

[lieutenant-columbro]

I could just see it in a modern reboot, where a murder happens in a big video game company. Columbo has only played, like, arcades, pinball of course, and the ye olde home consoles. Let's say the ZX Spectrum for kicks. Of course he's blown away by how good games look now - but isn't too fond of how people get hurt making them. It was the motive for the murder after all - one day of crunch too many, an employee killed their manager. Bit of a dilemma for a union man like Columbo.

"gee whiz, sir, did you say ya worked at a video game company? boy, my wife, she just loves those things; why i bet she's even played some of your games! me, i could never get tha hang of it. too many buttons ta press, ya know? i always preferred some good old fashioned pinball. anyway, i had an uncle, maybe you'd know about him, sir. see, he got ta work for one a them video game companies...nintendo, that was it! boy, the stories he used ta tell, now those were somethin' really special..."

[andhumanslovedstories]

There’ll be a murder scene that’s in a setting that functions about the same as an enormous billboard that says “Welcome to Los Angeles,” and then into the blinding bright California sunlight steps Columbo who is wearing both a suit jacket and a raincoat—a raincoat by the way, what a useful garment to be the only thing you wear in the famously rainy and overcast home of the stars, fellas every time he’s just in the white button up base layer, the enormous pit stains tell me this man is fighting for his life out here. Anyway this sweaty motherfucker is like “who’s the victim,” and then some white guy in a suit comes bada binging over like “eyyyyyy I’m walkin here it’s Judith Miller, 42 year old, bludgeoned to death.”

Why does every single cop on Columbo have such a New York accent. I was reading about how, when they were first considering casting Peter Falk, there was a question of “Peter Falk sounds so New York, is that gonna be weird in Los Angeles,” and then the creators were like, “wait. I’m a person from New York who is now in LA.” So Columbo must of moved to LA, cool and I will incorporate this into mental blueprints I’m building of this lil guy. But then also every other police officer in Los Angeles also did that? They all got fuckin drafted from the same neighborhood.