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1. Friday, March 24, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       That Was Now  by Just Jack: Just Jack's latest album is a fun outing with a little more energy than the last couple. The song,  Genome  is the catchiest, and the "Last Song" outstays its welcome with too much sameness.   Final Grade :  B     Top Gun: Maverick  (PG-13): As we started this movie, I was telling Rebecca how the original Top Gun was a disappointment because they didn't let Tom Cruise run anywhere. Thankfully, this is resolved in the sequel, as there's exactly one scene involving tons of running. The movie itself was fine -- there's a logical progression to the ...
2. Friday, March 17, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Top Gun  (PG): Would you believe that neither Rebecca or I had never seen this movie before? We figured that we should probably watch this before watching the new one and were generally underwhelmed. The action scenes are uniformly unnecessary and hard to follow and all of the characters are fairly interchangeable. At least the director got his money's worth out of reusing the song, "Danger Zone", in four different scenes.   Final Grade :  C-     Bruises  by Dia: I bought this album hoping for more light pop songs like  Isabella , but this is a more introspective "blanket ...
3. Friday, March 10, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Abbott Elementary, Season One : Taking the  Office  formula to a public school in Philadelphia, this sitcom is fairly shallow but has pleasant, quirky characters to enjoy time with. Principal Coleman steals the show, while the former child star of  Everybody Hates Chris  spends most of the season doing his patented eyes-bugging-out routine before getting more complex near the end. On Hulu.   Final Grade :  B-     Chronologic  by Caravan Palace: This electro-swing album has a lot of interesting timbres and colors. I bought it mainly for the first song,  Mirac...
4. Friday, February 24, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       The Sandman: A Dream of A Thousand Cats / Calliope : Marked as "Episode 11" in Season One of The Sandman (which I graded with an  A ), this is a set of two anthology stories that take place in the same universe as the main plot line. Both are fresh and fun, even if they don't push the main story forward. On Netflix.   Final Grade :  B+     Banshees of Inisherin  (R): This movie tells of two friends on a remote Irish island and the fallout that occurs when one wakes up and decides he doesn't want to be friends anymore. The muted premise is buoyed by dry (sometimes black...
5. Friday, February 03, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       That 90s Show : This sequel series to the original (which went on for way too many seasons) hits the sweet spot between nostalgia and being able to stand on its own. Occasional cameos are nice, but the new characters are pleasant enough too. It's nice that this show is exactly what you'd expect -- no unnecessary modernization or obligatory edginess.   Final Grade :  B     The Sandman, Season One : I'm not familiar with the comics or graphic novels so I went into this show blind and was very impressed. The show balances a lot of different tones successfully and is very visually c...
6. Friday, January 27, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       1899, Season One : I really liked  Dark  but this follow-up show is a miss. It starts out intriguingly like a multi-language  LOST  but then sputters through endless reaction shots with few reveals. The plot is glacial, the puzzling nature of things is too cerebral, and every character is a cipher with no reason to care about them. I'm not surprised it was cancelled after this season. On Netflix.   Final Grade :  C-     Best of Standup 2022 : Rebecca and I like to use these pu pu platters of comedy to find full-length specials to watch. Apparently the best of sta...
7. Friday, January 20, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Fleishman is in Trouble : This limited series covers the dissolution of a marriage and the immediate fallout that follows. It's slick and well-produced, but your enjoyment of it will be directly influenced by how long you can tolerate all of the unpleasant main characters. Jesse Eisenberg is as annoying as he is in every other role, which shows how great of an actor he is when playing annoying characters. Once the final credits rolled, the whole series felt like a prequel -- I would have enjoyed watching the characters develop and grow instead of just watching them all fall apart. On Hulu.   Final Grade :  C+&nbs...
8. Friday, January 06, 2023:
   Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       The Peripheral, Season One : This sci-fi show is about a brother and sister in the near future, asked to beta-test a new VR headset and embroiled in a conspiracy spanning time and space. The exposition-to-action ratio is low (sometimes a little TOO low) and it's pretty easy to follow from start-to-finish if you don't think too hard. I enjoyed the show but the finale really made this whole season feel like a prequel to the real meaty story. I wish it had been a little faster paced. Still, it was much better than Westworld. On Amazon Video.   Final Grade :  B     Breeders, Season One :&nbs...
9. Friday, December 16, 2022:
   Top Reviews of 2022  Here are the experiences I gave the highest ratings to in 2022. I hope you discover something new!    Television Shows       Only Murders in the Building, Season One and Two  (A+, B+) (Hulu)    Reservation Dogs, Season One and Two  (A, B+) (Hulu)    As We See It, Season One  (A-) (Amazon Video)    Inside Number 9, Season One  (A-) (Amazon Video)    The Outlaws, Season One and Two  (B+, A-) (Amazon Video)    Money Heist, Season Five, Part Two  (B+) (Netflix)    Silicon Valley, Season Six  (B+) (Amazon Video)    Dave, Season One  (B+) ...
10. Friday, December 02, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Bear, Season One : This dramedy about a local restaurant trying to turn into something better has a lot of shouting and tension balanced out by great relationships and breezy food porn. On Hulu.   Final Grade :  B     Jungle, Season One : In this show, people make bad choices in a mildly futuristic London and convey their emotions by rapping. It's weird enough to work so we gave it a shot. Unfortunately, all of the rapping is in the trap genre so every "monologue" starts sounding the same pretty quickly. The story takes a very weird turn after episode three and then never recovers...
11. Friday, November 11, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Mario Kart Live  (Switch): This (too expensive) Augmented Reality game allows you to set up a Mario Kart course with a physical car in your house and then play it on your Switch. The novelty value is very high although the replayability seems pretty low. Maia loves setting up courses and then introducing other hazards (like Ian the Giant standing in the way) and the AR works pretty smoothly. It's fun seeing Mario driving around your living room (and it works on both floor and carpet). However, after you've done it a few times, there's not much more you can do. There are only 4 gates for each course so you're essentially constrained to a ci...
12. Friday, October 21, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Reservation Dogs, Season Two : The second season of this show is still very pleasant, but a little more "slice of life" rather than continuous plot. There's a nice wrap-up at the end which could serve as either a series or season finale. On Hulu.   Final Grade :  B+     Everybody Hates Chris, Season One : This show is ancient now, but it's perfect for when you're looking for a classic traditional sitcom to cleanse your palette of edgy, modern stuff. The narration by Chris Rock really doesn't add much -- his little punchlines that were great in stand-up comedy feel very sanitized a...
13. Friday, October 14, 2022:
    First Impressions: Overwatch 2   Overwatch  was my favourite game for over 2 years, and a rarity in my gaming library as a competitive game that I could actually hold my own in (at least in the plebeian Unranked bracket). I finally stopped playing in May 2018 (with my account at level 1201 and over 1200 hours played) because the variability of real-time match lengths didn't work well with Maia's nap schedules, and I couldn't carve out enough time to practice enough and maintain my desired skill level.   It's from this nostalgic background that I decided I had to try  Overwatch 2  at least once, in spite of the downward spiral that Blizzard's reputation has been in for many years, the departure of the well-liked game director, and the...
14. Friday, October 07, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power  (first episode): I have no skin in the RING for whether this show succeeds (I'm not a big LotR fan at all, either the books or the movies) but I thought it was interesting that it had been review-bombed so heavily that Amazon actually hid all reviews from their site. I gave the first episode a shot and was pretty bored throughout. The dialogue, plots, and characters felt exceptionally generic. There should be a dRINGking game for all of the cliched touches. The lush, orchestral score behind every single scene was completely distracting and unnecessary. Introducing a new fantasy show or world is really tri...
15. Friday, September 09, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Will of the People  by Muse: It's hard to believe that these guys have been making music for over 20 years now. Their 9th studio album is a lot of fun -- it sounds as if they took the most effective styles and sounds (more hard rock and less EDM) and reused them to make brand new songs. The result feels a little like a fake Greatest Hits album.  You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween  is an example of the bombastic sound with over-the-top lyrics that I enjoy.   Final Grade :  B+     Brooklyn 99, Season Eight : The bulk of this final season feels like a misfire. Written aft...
16. Friday, September 02, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       a lighter shade of blue  by Christina Perri: Christina Perri's newest album sounds like a remix of the most inoffensive parts of her previous albums. I've listened to it multiple times but none of it gets stuck in my head.   Final Grade :  C+     Motorheart  by The Darkness: Not as good as  Last of Our Kind  or  Easter is Cancelled , but full of pleasant glam rock anthems. Justin Hawkins' falsetto is as strong as it was 15 years ago.   Final Grade :  B-     Brooklyn 99, Season Seven : This season feels a lit...
17. Friday, August 19, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Brooklyn 99, Season Six : The sixth season feels a little tired, but offers a continued stream of occasional belly laughs. On Hulu.   Final Grade :  B-     What We Do In the Shadows, Season One : This mockumentary about vampires (based on the  the movie of the same name ) is a lot of fun and starts out quite promisingly. It doesn't totally maintain the same energy throughout (and there's not much in the way of character development) but it's a harmless, fun show to watch at the end of the day. On Hulu.   Final Grade :  B     Ha...
18. Friday, August 05, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       Booksmart  (R): This coming-of-age movie plays out kind of like a female version of  Superbad  (and also stars Jonah Hill's sister). If that's the kind of movie you need at the moment, this one hits all of the right marks and is full of pleasant and vulgar laughs. On Hulu.   Final Grade :  B     Cascadia : We got this board game for Rebecca's birthday. You build an ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest and place different kinds of animals, with points based on best habitats (longest salmon runs and number of hawks not near any other hawks, for example) and longest terrain run...
19. Friday, July 22, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       The De2our  by Ekoh: I liked a few of this rapper's songs on Pandora so I purchased this album. The marketing around it isn't great, as his three albums are titled "The Detour", "The De2our", and "The D3tour", making them confusingly undiscoverable in searches. Most of this album (De2our) was underwhelming -- nice beats but few great hooks. Ekoh sounds like a cross between Lil Dicky and Chris Webby but doesn't seem to bring anything unique to this style of music that those guys haven't already done.   Final Grade :  C+     Stranger Things, Season Four : This season is self-indulgent...
20. Friday, July 08, 2022:
    Review Day   There are no major spoilers in these reviews.       The Essentials III , by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox: This compilation album is a mixed bag -- while it has some definite classics like Haley Reinhart's cover of   Habits  , it's also dragged down by some forgettable early covers (that were later redone) and weak voices.   Final Grade :  B-     Happiest Season : This is a pleasant, by-the-numbers Christmas rom-com whose main point is to reassure us that Victor Garber is still alive. It features a fun, recognizable cast playing in their comfort zones.   Final Grade :  B-   ...

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