Another year’s over… and a new one just begun. In years past, I’ve done a seperate post for my 2021 Reading Retrospective and 2021 TV & Movies Retrospective, but… that seems silly. Let’s do them all together this year!

In summary:

• 126 total books: 40 graphic novels, 52 audiobooks, and 8 short stories / children’s books)
• 24 seasons of TV shows
• 31 movies
• 2245 (!) plays across 207 different board games, 88 of them new to me!
• 45 different games played on Steam, 29 of them new to me

I really should add board games and Steam games to my lists. Not sure how to do that though. We’ll see.

Table of Contents

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It’s a Star Trek parody that’s more Star Trek than most (new) Star Trek. It’s got a really rough start while it’s still trying to lean into the humor, but as the show goes on and it gets more serious, it’s so much better. I’m looking forward to what they can do in season 2!

Reviews by Episode

1. Old Wounds

The truth is, you’re nobody’s first choice for this job. We have 3000 ships to staff and we need captains.

Wow. That was an awkward meet and greet. Supposed to be funny and an introduction to the characters I suppose, but… who would possibly think that’s okay?

Arts and crafts meets tardigrade redwood. Hilarious.

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No one ever has the right to take the life of another.

But perhaps, sometimes, you do have the responsibility to do so.

So that… was certainly a show.

It’s an absolutely fascinating combination of weird anime sci-fi and more than a touch of weird western. There’s quite a few memorable characters (some perhaps… too memorable), some weirdly wonderful worldbuilding and setting moments, and all sorts of gunfights.

Overall… I don’t know if I can really recommend it. It started out weird, took a while to make any particular sense, and just when I felt it was getting there… it ended. It’s certainly interesting, I’ll give it that.

A few question I still have after the show (spoilers):

And:

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It’s not easy being green.

Well that’s a strange one. She’s the Hulk’s cousin. One things lead to another, and she gets all Hulked out… but without any of the downsides?

The contrast between being a Hulk and being a lawyer (and being a big green lawyer) is pretty cool, Tatiana Maslany does a wonderful job in the titular role, and it was great fun to see Tim Roth’s Abomination again, not to mention Charlie Cox’s Daredevil. Fun casting.

Plotwise, it’s a really weird show. And they’re rather solidly into the whoe 4th wall breaking thing, which is kind of amusing. Weird. But amusing.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. Not my favorite of the MCU TV shows, but I’m glad to have watched it.

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I’ve previously watched the first season and read the comics, but with season 3 out now (and I haven’t reviewed the show previously), let’s watch it again. Should be interesting seeing what’s different this time.

Wow that’s violent. Just as bad if not worse than the comics, since you get to see it all on screen. But in a way that actually has some solid visuals and crazy scenes.

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Saints become martyrs before they get to be heroes.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I hadn’t actually read the books (although now I really wanted to) and for the first episode or two, I really thought it was some sort of cheesy YA fantasy, a la Hunger Games and the ilk.

But a few episodes in… and it really started to grow on me. The world building is fascinating, primarily the basis on a broad Asian setting, but with an emphasis on Russian roots, with some influences (in other nations) from China and India. The magic system is a bit cheesey and somewhat unexplained (so far), but at the very least it’s pretty?

On top of that, you have absolutely wonderful characters/actors. Jessie Mei Li nails it as lead Alina Starkov, Ben Barnes as General Kirigan–plays his character rather well (he actually has the gravitas of old, powerful, and twisted, which not everyone can pull off ). But the ones that really shine are the Crows (I don’t think they’re referred to as such in the show?): Freddy Carter as Kaz, Amita Suman as Inej and Kit Young as Jesper. There are rumors that they might get their own show and that would be awesome.

In any case, worth a watch. And we’re getting Season 2, hopefully sometime next year? Onward!

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That’s a fascinating expirment. I’m not sure who got that made, but I’m glad they did. Take Star Wars, give it to a bunch of different Japanese (or Japanese inspired) animators, and make sure that nothing in this will be canon (so you can tell all sorts of stories). There aren’t any particularly deep, they’re too short for that. But beautiful, oh this series has that in spades.

Worth a watch!

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They’re ~3 minute shorts (with 3+ minutes of credits each) about a young reincarnation of a tree-person who can’t talk, other than to say ‘I Am Groot’. I don’t know what I was expecting, but for what they are… they’re cute.

Worth the 15 minutes to watch them all. :D

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I don’t know why I started the second season…

On one hand, we do get a bit of backstory with parent issues (oh so many parent issues), the rest of the zodiac (more or less), and some answers about Akito.

On the other hand, there are piles of weird age issues (I know this is apparently an anime staple; that doesn’t make it better) and episode after episode dedicated to … the student council of all things.

We made it through 15 episodes of this season. Fin. Onward.

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I expect there are those who really love it, but … this is not a show for me. I don’t like most of the characters (and really don’t like some of them), most of the plots are entirely too high school, and the magic of the world/zodiac is criminally underused/explored.

So it goes.

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