Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Silicon Valley, S5:
The fifth season of this show is only 8 episodes long. It's pleasant enough and exactly what you'd expect if you've watched it before. That said, it's probably about time to wrap this series up.

Final Grade: B

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie:
This movie tells the tale of a main character from Breaking Bad in the hours after the series finale. I was surprised to find it to be a story worth telling, not just an obligatory regroup of actors and favourite scenes for fan service. The movie's filled with Vince Gilligan's usual visual flairs but moves fast enough to avoid those extended artsy Breaking Bad scenes that I often pushed through at 1.5x speed. The mood is also kept pretty light with liberal use of characters like Badger and Skinny Pete. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B+

i'm sorry, Season One:
It feels like this type of show -- funny adults having crass, funny conversations about nothing -- is popping up all over the place these days. This one is particularly well-done. Not much happens in terms of an overarching plot, but in this case, that's just fine. The show shallowly bounces from joke to joke with longer-setup jokes built up in the background across the season. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B+

Bard's Tale IV:
I grew up playing the original Bard's Tale so I really wanted to like this latest iteration. It has an old-school charm held back by a clunky combat system and erratic frame rate issues. I did get about 9 hours into the story, but was really turned off by the way the game kept adding and removing members of your party (and their inventory) in order to sustain the story. Just let me build my party of 4 anonymous heroes from the beginning and I'd be happy bungling about in this game world.

Final Grade: C+