Media Logs

We blasted through this one in fairly short order. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the second season, but it was still utterly fantastic. I didn’t think it was possible to loathe Logan Roy any more than I already did, but then that finale happened!

All I can say is “wow.” The second season of Succession took everything I loved about the first season and cranked it up to eleven. The finale might just be one of the greatest season finales I’ve ever seen. Ever. I continue to be amazed that the show writers manage to make me feel so sympathetic at times for utterly unlikeable, monstrous characters. I can’t wait to watch season three!

After two seasons that felt like little more than narrative throat clearing (with a few flashes of brilliance here and there), things are finally heating up for House of the Dragon. I found the pacing of the third season far more engaging than the previous two seasons, and much more reminiscent of Game of Thrones’ earlier seasons. The whole cast brought their A-game this time around, but Emma D’Arcy deserves praise in particular for their portrayal of Rhaenyra’s descent into typical Targaryen insanity. It’ll be a long two year wait for the final season!

It was somewhat of a rough week, so my husband suggested a comedy for movie night. We watched the original British version of Death at a Funeral, which was quite funny and exactly what we needed! It’s not a perfect film by any means, but worth watching if you’ re a fan of Matthew MacFadyen, Peter Dinklage, or Alan Tudyk.

This film was utterly bonkers, and easily one of Michelle Yeoh’s best performances of all time. “Multiverse” movies seldom capture the insanity of multiple universes existing at once, and this is one of the rare exceptions to that rule. Highly recommended if you want something fun and different to watch. The only thing that kept me from giving this a full five stars was the length of the film; as much as I enjoyed them, I felt like the martial arts action sequences began to drag on a bit.

I loathe every single awful character on this brilliant show about the rich and powerful, and look forward to seeing what new depths they sink to in the second season. Oh, the schadenfreude I feel every time they get what they deserve!

While I do think that at least half an hour could have been trimmed from the runtime, and while I could have done without Spider Man talking about his “dad” in a whiny American accent, I found The Odyssey enjoyable on the whole. I would have never cast Matt Damon in the role of Odysseus, but he did a phenomenal job! We decided to save a bit of money and watched it on the regular big screen instead of IMAX. Our wallets (and our ears) thanked us. Highlights for me included the naval scenes, the encounter with Circe, and the elder Odysseus’ reflections on the atrocities of the Trojan War.

My husband wanted to watch this one in honour of Sam Neill (RIP), and because it’s a Taika Waititi film neither of us have seen. We both really enjoyed it! Some of the humour falls flat at times, but it was charming and enjoyable on the whole.

While my husband and I both found it a bit off-putting to watch Adam Scott playing an asshole, Hokum was enjoyable enough and genuinely scary at times. Characters often make baffling decisions that’ll have you rolling your eyes, but that’s not unusual for the genre. The film is worth watching if you go into it with the understanding that it’s not really doing anything that hasn’t already been done before in horror.

I unfortunately found the final season of The Bear overwrought and difficult to follow. The “one shitty, chaotic work day spread out over an entire season” thing works extremely well for The Pitt, but I’m not so sure it works all that well for a show like The Bear. That being said, I do think the final episode was at least a satisfying conclusion to the series, and the entire cast performed extremely well overall in spite of the lacklustre premise for the season.

Well, I don’t think I’m going to be able to go to the dentist again anytime soon... A thoroughly entertaining conspiracy thriller starring a young Dustin Hoffman as the titular marathon man. My husband suggested this one — in part, he said, so that I can understand the reference when he asks me “is it safe?” in a bad German accent.

Three words: “amaze, amaze, amaze!” I adored this film. I understand that it has received some criticism for being a bit “hand-wavey” re: the science and linguistics of it all, but I don’t care. It’s a lovely story about empathy and self-sacrifice at a time when I really needed it. I look forward to reading the novel.

My husband suggested this one; he watched it a few years back without me, much to my mild annoyance. 🙂 (I’m the horror movie buff in our family, dammit.) I wouldn’t say Midsommar was scary as such, but it was a deeply unsettling take on unresolved trauma, failing relationships, and creepy cults.

My husband and I loved this dramedy about a recently-widowed therapist, his teenage daughter, and their friends. We binged through the first two seasons in May and finished up season three in June. I did not enjoy this latest season as much as I enjoyed the first two, but I’m still excited to see where the series goes. It was nice to see Michael J. Fox on screen again — “fuck Parkinson’s,” indeed.

This film is extremely Wes Anderson. I mean that neither as a complaint, nor as a compliment. It just is. If you’re in the mood for a wacky comedy set at some point in the vaguely-distant past, beautifully colour-graded cinematography, an all-star cast that seldom smiles while delivering all their lines deadpan, an overabundance of wide lens shots, that “classic Hollywood” feeling, and Bill Murray, Wes Anderson has yet another offering for you.

The classic 1954 Hitchcock thriller. I hadn’t seen this one before and my husband hadn’t either, so we decided to check this one off the list last night. It’s not hard to tell that the screenplay was originally written for the theatre stage; an impressive amount of action occurs in one location! An extremely well-directed and well-performed film, as is to be expected, given the cast and crew.

An entertaining critique of wealth disparity in South Korea. The flood and bunker scenes were something else...

This movie, though it is monumentally stupid, is an all-time favourite of mine. I’ve seen it dozens of times since its 2001 release, but I’ve never watched it with my husband! We decided to rectify that. “... but why male models?” remains one of the funniest moments in any film ever.

Despite the writers’ rather tenous understanding of how tenure works, we enjoyed the first season of this wholesome comedy starring Steve Carell.

We didn’t have a chance to catch this one in theatres — a shame, as it was a visual treat! I found the second instalment of the 28 Years Later trilogy a bit better than the first, but nowhere near as good as 28 Days Later or 28 Weeks Later.

Alas, Abbott Elementary continues its recent trend of falling anywhere between “meh” to “just OK.” It’s something quick and occasionally amusing for us to watch over dinner. That’s it. While I do still enjoy the characters for the most part, the writing took a noticeable dip in quality this season.

Couldn’t get into it. My husband and I stopped watching after the first episode. It’s highly rated and has a good cast, so we may return to it at a later point and give it another chance.

A baffling disappointment, given that the first season was pretty decent. We gave up after three episodes.

A tightly-written, welcome departure from the royal intrigues of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.

A solid conclusion to the series. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins were exceptional in their roles right up until the end. I’ll miss that bromance!

Dreadful writing. A waste of Emma Thompson’s talents. My husband and I threw in the towel after two episodes.

A slow burn that I really enjoyed. It’s fun to see Vince Gilligan getting back to his X-Files roots with this sci-fi/post-apocalyptic drama.

The latest season of Slow Horses was a fun romp, as always. It never ceases to amaze me that you can practically smell Gary Oldman through the screen!

Ursula K. Le Guin’s beautifully-written coming-of-age fantasy novel, set in the richly-imagined world of Earthsea. I didn’t read the Earthsea series while growing up, much to my regret; I would have been all over it when I was first getting into fantasy! Better late than never, though. While A Wizard of Earthsea was technically written with teenagers in mind, it was still plenty enjoyable to read as an adult.

Andy Weir’s novel was almost as enjoyable as the film adaptation. I’ve always been a science nerd at heart (at one point in my life, I was fairly certain I was going to an astrophysicist), so the lengthy asides on things like relativity and noble gases didn’t bother me as much as they’ve bothered others. What did bother me a little was the very informal, trying-a-bit-too-hard-to-be-funny narrative style. Ryland Grace’s inner monologue feels a little like a Marvel movie at times, and not in a good way. On the whole, though, the friendship between Grace and Rocky was every bit as delightful as it was in the film. Amaze.

I really enjoyed the second instalment of Mick Herron’s Slough House spy series — not quite as much as the first, mind, but it was still a fun read that was hard to put down. Jackson Lamb had me laughing out loud multiple times, and it was great seeing a few more brief flashes of competence from his crew of screw-ups (especially Catherine Standish).

Mick Herron’s excellent spy novel about MI5’s best rejects. I seldom read books after watching the film or television tie-in; the opposite is what usually occurs. In this case, I’m so glad I watched the TV series first, as I don’t think my own brain could have done quite as good a job of conjuring up a mental image for Jackson Lamb.

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that this is only my first time reading this sci-fi / horror classic by H.G. Wells. I knew the basic story and understood the cultural significance of it, of course, but never actually read it. I’m glad I finally got around to it! The novel feels surprisingly fresh for something written between 1895 and 1897. “Surely, if we have learned nothing else, this war has taught us pity—pity for those witless souls that suffer our dominion.”

Antonia Hodgson’s first foray into fantasy could have done with a few more edits and it was a bit of a slog towards the end, but it was nice to finally read a well-imagined modern fantasy novel that wasn’t simply a delivery system for smut.

I quite enjoyed John Scalzi’s second installment in the Old Man’s War series. I didn’t find it as good as the first novel, but it was worth reading nonetheless.

Carrion was an absolute blast on my Mac Mini, and felt quite unlike anything I’d ever played before. In this game, you are the horrific, slimy creature that goes bump in the night. You navigate your way through a labyrinthine underground research facility, becoming more powerful with each mutation you undergo. Your ultimate goal is to break free and continue your voracious quest of becoming ever-larger and more disgusting. I did get lost and stuck in frustrating loops a few times (it is a Metroidvania, after all, and there is no map), but my determination to see what the next mutation would help me unlock is what kept me pushing through. Highly recommended! Best $2.98 I ever spent.

Boy, am I ever glad that’s over... I’d heard great things about this remaster going into it, so I was very excited to play it. Alas, the janky gameplay left an awful lot to be desired. Don’t get me wrong, the basic premise of Alan Wake is pretty neat, and I definitely enjoyed the story. The literary references and throwbacks to The Twilight Zone were fun! I just, you know, didn’t appreciate jogging along at a snail's pace while listening to Alan’s puffing and panting, or the incredibly clunky, repetitive combat. Every single stretch of gameplay between cutscenes tested my patience. I should’ve just watched a walkthrough...

I knew going into the game that it would still have the old-school 1996/2002 tank controls, and was fully prepared to abandon the analogue sticks on my controller in favour of the directional buttons ... but I just couldn’t handle the jank, the fixed camera angles, or the atrocious voice acting. Uninstalled after twenty minutes. I’ll wait for the remake that is reportedly in development. At least I’m only out $7...

A phenomenal follow-up to Horizon Zero Dawn, and easily the prettiest game I’ve played on my PS5 Pro to date. I’m not sure if it’s because I did most of the side quests after I finished the main quest line, but I found Forbidden West much less of a grind than its predecessor, and I really appreciated the various quality of life additions the devs made (e.g. flying mounts and gliding). I haven't played the DLC yet, but I plan on purchasing it at a later date.

This game has been in my backlog since 2021. I finally decided to play it, and soon discovered that it unfortunately wasn’t for me (at least I only spent $10 on it). While there certainly were some fun moments during the three hours I put into the game, I kept getting frustrated with “immersive” gameplay elements that increasingly felt like chores (e.g. having to wipe the visor of my gas mask, having to replace the filters on my gas mask, having to clean my weapons at crafting benches, having my guns jam up on me during tense situations, and so on). Imagine if Fallout went for gritty realism and removed all of the whimsical elements that make Fallout fun to play: that’s Metro Exodus, in a nutshell.

This one had been sitting in my Steam backlog for a several years ... finally decided to complete the campaign! It was a short, fun romp through Mars and Hell. I have zero interest in the multiplayer mode, but may return to the arcade mode from time to time whenever I feel like blasting demons to bits.

Well, then. This “game” (and I use that word with some hesitation) was a great case in point for why you should always try your Steam games within 14 days of purchase and avoid building up a big backlog, so you can actually refund games if necessary... When I read the “part game, part live action show” bit of Quantum Break’s product description, I didn’t realize that literally meant “you’ll spend a small amount of time gaming between watching lengthy cutscenes, then make a decision that will lead to a 20 minute live-action sequence based on the decision you made.” I really appreciate some of the actors involved in this project (Lance Reddick, Aiden Gillen, Dominic Monaghan), and I ordinarily love anything developed by Remedy Entertainment, but I thought this was supposed to be a video game, not a TV show. I gave up after an hour. Glad I bought it on sale for 80% off and only wasted $10...

I never played the original Silent Hill 2, so this was a treat ... a constantly terrifying treat, yes, but a treat nonetheless. This is probably the scariest game I've ever played after Alien: Isolation, which is saying something (I couldn’t even finish that one, as it was giving me night terrors). I also really enjoyed the story, which was unusually coherent for something set in the Silent Hill universe. Visually-speaking, the game looked spectacular on my PS5 Pro, especially after I tweaked the HDR settings to achieve deep black levels on my new OLED monitor. I highly recommend this remake if you enjoy puzzles and enduring a constant state of dread!

A fun game that got the general feel of the Guardians of the Galaxy universe just right. Drax’s matter-of-fact commentary had me laughing the whole way through. I also really enjoyed the combat mechanics, and appreciated it that my narrative decisions felt like they actually impacted the outcome of the story. And oh man, that soundtrack! It is hilarious to beat up a bunch of comic book bad guys with Rick Astley or Wham! playing in the background. That being said, I did find the game overly long (it took me 20 hours to beat it) and found the “huddle up” cutscene way too repetitive.

This one took me by complete surprise. It’s a classic puzzle-based horror game (the mechanics and camera angles remind me a little of the original Silent Hill) based on Nordic folklore. Think Grimm’s fairy tales on steroids... The game is quite short (I finished it in six hours over two game sessions) and it becomes progressively harder and scarier. There is no difficulty slider, so do keep that in mind if you’re interested in checking it out. I found the final boss quite challenging — almost on par with a FromSoftware boss. Give it a go if you like difficult horror games with great stories, and never forget: the Lemus always looks after his friend.

The 2026 remaster of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is all the rage at the moment, and it occurred to me that I’ve never played any of the classic Assassin’s Creed games before. I didn’t enjoy the last AC game I tried (Odyssey), but that was mainly because it suffered from the sort of excessive point-of-interest map bloat that most modern open world games suffer from. I figured the much smaller open world experience of the game that made AC famous might be more up my alley. As it turns out, I think I’ve maybe just burned out on open world games in general, because I found the gameplay exceedingly dull and repetitive. Don’t get me wrong, the first two hours or so were fun, and I really enjoyed the parkour mechanics ... it's just that after a while, each subsequent mission felt too much like the previous mission. I appreciate what the game was trying to do, but it ultimately was not for me.

I tried very hard to get into this game, as its fans rave about it ... but after defeating the first three bosses, I deleted it from my PS5 in a fit of frustration. Ultimately, I found the controls too clunky to deal with, and also found the gameplay loop incredibly boring and repetitive. Even travelling between bosses on horseback annoyed me. Aesthetically-speaking, it was quite beautiful for a PS4 remaster of a PS2 game, but that's about the only positive thing I can say for Shadow of the Colossus. I'm glad I didn't actually purchase the game; I would have wanted a refund.

From a gameplay perspective, Gris is something I'd ordinarily find rather boring: the controls are simple, the puzzles are easy, and it’s impossible to die. Even so, it’s one of the best short indie games I’ve played in a very long time. The watercolour-based art style is stunning, the soundtrack is incredibly moving, the little characters Gris meets along the way are charming, and the story (such as it is — there is no in-game dialogue and nothing to read) is emotionally complex. I initially thought the game was about pulling oneself out of depression, but that’s not it at all (I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t played it yet). I played Gris on my PS5 Pro via PS Plus Extra, but will be revisiting it on iOS as well next time I have to travel anywhere.

I absolutely loved this game — in fact, I think it could very well end up being my all-time favourite Ratchet & Clank title! Insanely fun combat, hilarious script, and utterly gorgeous to look at. I originally bought the game on Steam and started it on my outdated Windows gaming laptop; I’m glad I finished it on my new PS5 Pro, because holy moly, it is absolutely stunning with maxed out ray tracing enabled. I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of the older Ratchet & Clank games, or if you enjoy cartoony 3D platformers.

I was eagerly looking forward to playing this on release; alas, having my OG PS5 stolen sort of put the kibosh on that. I finally got around to trying it out on my gaming laptop this month, thanks to the Steam Summer Sale. I’m glad I bought it on sale, because I had to stop playing it after putting just five hours into it. It’s beautiful Lovecraftian horror, the gameplay loop is quite addictive, and the overall concept is so cool ... it’s unfortunately just too hard for me. I love a good challenge and don’t mind dying a lot in games (see, for instance, my platinum PS5 trophies for Demon’s Souls and Elden Ring), but I hate it when it feels like my deaths are due to random poor luck. I may return to the game at a later date. I’ve given it a higher rating than I ordinarily would for something I’ve abandoned so quickly, because I do appreciate the obvious care that went into making this game.

AoE II was my favourite game to play at LAN parties as a teenager (oh, the friendships I almost ruined...), and I was delighted to find out that there is a native MacOS port now available on Steam. The port performs extremely well on my M4 Mac Mini, and it looks fantastic! My understanding is that the online multiplayer scene on MacOS isn’t great, since there is no cross-play between PC and Mac, but I’m content to just replay the old campaigns and run skirmishes for now. My husband is also a big AOE II fan, so we may soon test the strength of our marriage by playing against one another locally!

Another blast from the past that has been running pretty well on my Linux-powered laptop, with only a few audio-related hiccups from time to time. I unfortunately can’t use sims2pack mods, but regular package mods from MTS work great!

A blast from the past that I’ve been playing with a crappy old laptop running on Linux (Kubuntu). The UI is as clunky as it ever was, but that only adds to the old-school charm!

An adorable, extremely well-designed game that’s worth playing if you’re into roguelikes and sims. It ran very well on my M4 Mac Mini (purchased through Steam), so I highly recommend it if you’re on MacOS and looking for something new to play. It’s too bad the iOS version requires an Apple Arcade subscription, because it would be fun to play on mobile as well.