Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Sharp Objects:
This HBO limited miniseries is a great adaptation of the original book by Gillian Flynn. It captures the brooding, memory-heavy feel of the main character perfectly. It's pretty much a downer all the way through though. The show leaves the ending much more ambiguous than the book, which wrapped everything up tightly.

Final Grade: B

The Player's Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise by David Kushner:
While I enjoyed Masters of Doom by Kushner, I got bored quickly with Jacked. This new release tells the tale of the ever-escalating feud between the founder of match.com and the purveyor of sex.com in the late nineties and early aughts. This would be an awesome long-form article in The Atlantic, but struggles as a book. The high points of the story are interesting, but there's not quite enough tale to fit the length of the book, and the final third is desperately padded with repetitive language and reminders of earlier events.

Final Grade: C+

Santa Clarita Diet, Season Two:
Season Two improves upon Season One in all regards, with fun guest stars and a tangle of subplots that all come together in the end. The "constant edge of doom" feeling gets a little tiresome but the dialogue are performances are fun. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B+

Kirkland Signature Soft & Chewy Granola Bars:
I switched to these Costco chocolate chip granola bars because the Quaker bars I had eaten since the 7th grade only came in bulk packs with 50% chocolate chip and 50% peanut butter. Reaching into that mystery box had a 50% chance of disappointing me (still a lower chance than watching a random episode of LOST, Season Three). The Kirkland bars taste great and somehow "fresher" than the Quaker bars but suffer from two flaws -- (1) the bars are so sticky that it's nearly impossible to extract from the wrapper without the bar falling apart and (2) they're so small that you need two to feel satisfied, so you spend more time dealing with sticky wrappers than eating and your fingers end up sticky as well.

Final Grade: B-