And so another year passes. I’ve been doing these for quite a :

…so I think perhaps you get the idea.

All together, I love collecting data and I find it interesting to take a moment to look through what all I’ve done in the year. And hopefully–you find it interesting as well!

Overall, it’s been quite a year for reviews! This year I

• Read 298 books
• Watch 17 seasons of TV
• Watched 11 movies
• Played 212 different (86 new) board games a total of 1521 times
• Played 47 games on steam

It’s so silly to see some stats like that. I love it. So let’s break it down a bit more!

Table of Contents

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Been meaning to watch this for years. Finally got around to it.

It’s interesting; especially for only have three episodes in the first season.

The first episode is kind of weird and by far the least ‘sci-fi’ of the bunch–this could happen now.

The second though starts out as fairly straight forward near future dystopia and then goes dark from there. I like it.

And the third–take a concept (recording everything), apply the concept to imperfect (honestly fairly terrible) people and see what breaks. It’s great.

I’m looking forward to season 2!

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Another year, another Loki. I really enjoyed Season 1. No idea if they could top it. And I’m still not 100% sure if they made it better, but they most certainly made it weirder. And I’m here for it.

The cast is great of course, with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki carrying the show. I really did quite enjoy Jonathan Majors’ new double role as He Who Remains but also now as Victor Timely. That’s most certainly something–and makes me wonder if they can/could have actually pulled it all off, depending on if Majors sticks around in the MCU.

As I mentioned in the last episode review below, it’s a crazy show, and there’s a lot to like about it. It could really change everything… but I have the unfortunate feeling they’re not going to let it. We shall have to see!

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Things just keep getting more bonkers and bloody. Really, if you made it this far, you’re probably going to love Season 3.

The Boys are (still) out to deal with Homelander… and they may just have found the weapon to do it. Only this time the solution is perhaps eve more expensive than the cost.

Homelander is really the (wonderful terrible) heart of the show. Anthony Starr is amazing.

We have a few new supes running around (in secret). And all sorts of ones we knew about doing even more terrible and deprived things in general.

And in the end, the more things change, the more things stay the same. But worse.

I’m looking forward to Season 4. It’s weird to be caught up.

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Overall, it’s fine. It’s interesting to see some spy stories in the MCU, even if they’re light on the spy stuff. It’s great to have Fury again, even if (in hindsight) I was perfectly fine without knowing more about Fury’s backstory. And the introduction of Super Skrulls? Well, I didn’t really need that in the MCU. Wasn’t a fan of it in either of the previous story lines I’ve read them in (Ultimate Fantastic Four and Runaways).

But you know what I really think bothers me about the Skrull? All through the Infinity Saga, we’re supposed to believe they’ve been here, working with Fury. And we never heard even a hint about them. I get it. They’re shapeshifters. The perfect secret agents. Still weird to add something like this after 15 years…

If it had been something tied into each movie and show, leading up to an event (like the Infinity Saga), it could have worked. As it is, it really feels like the concept of an MCU is working against them here.

So it goes.

Onward!

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Managed to get away for a bit since [[The Boys: Season 1|season 1]]; sometimes life happens (but not for everyone in the Boys…). But I finally made it through season 2.

Man this is a violent bloody show.

It’s still quite the exploration for ‘what if superheroes were real… and terrible’ that really draws you in, but now with more terrible corporations. And Nazis. Because of course we had to go there. It actually works really well, the conflict of benefiting from Nazi science is a big deal.

I still really enjoy (in a twisted way) how terrifying Antony Starr plays Homelander. If he goes off the rails, what exactly are you going to do to stop him?

Plus show Hughie (really all of the ’the Boys’) is far better than his comic counterpart. It’s fascinating to see him well out of his comfort zone, both in relationships (especially with Starlight) and all the madcap shenanigans Butcher’s gang gets up to.

Plotwise, mostly Nazis, but Compound V not only getting revealed the the characters, but also going public? We haven’t nearly seen the ramifications of that. Hoping to see more of that in Season 3.

Overall, great show. Very much deserves the R rating. Onward.

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The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time. But it was a beginning.

The Wheel of Time: Season 1 had a lot of potential… and also a lot of issues. Especially when it came to the last couple episodes. COVID, sure. A main actor leaving, I get it. But it’s still a rough ending.

So it was with cautious optimism, we approached Season 2.

It’s very much a new turning of the wheel. Some things they changed really do work well. It’s not the books, but it’s a new story in the same world. Some… less so. But not everything is perfect.

Things I loved:

• The casting. Ishamael was great in Season 1 and even better in Season 2. Lanfear is a great counter to him. Aviendha and Elayne fit really well.

• It bears repeating: Ishamael and Lanfear are great. Leaning a bit more into terrifying even than the books, which quite frankly they needed. I can’t wait to see (and hope they don’t screw up…) the rest.

• Almost everything about the Seanchan. They feel ‘off’ in just the right way. The one exception… the Damane pacifiers. I really don’t get that at all.

• Liandrin. She’s still terrible, but I really like how they turned up the reason why she is as she is. And she’s quite the actor to pull it off.

Things that I did not:

• The ending. Check out the individual review for more details, but … this wasn’t any better than the previous season. And they don’t even have unexpected troubles to deal with. I’m starting to feel they really just don’t know how to write endings… which is weird.

Anyways, other than a few things, I quite enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to Season 3. Onward!

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And so it ends.

Downton Abbey Season 6 is a strange beast. On one hand, we have what feels all the cast pairing off, sometimes with long known relationships and in the cast of the Family with guys we only met in the previous season.

For what it’s worth, I still do not really understand the relationship between Mary and Henry. I think it’s mostly Mary. She certainly ebbs and flows… but wow she’s a (sorry, but Edith says it too) bitch at times. On the other hand, Edith and Bertie? Delightful. If expected for the chaos.

On top of that, the world is moving on. Is Downton Abbey going to survive? With reductions in expected staff and families around the world failing, it’s

But with all those relationships wow do the last few episodes blitz through what feels like every plotline possible in only a few hours. I do wonder if they thought they’d have a 7th season. But so it goes. For the most part, everything is tied off neatly. And for everything else… apparently there are two movies?

As a final note, if you’ve been lamenting the torture the writers have put the Bates’ through over the year… well, they’re not quite done. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m glad for that.

Overall, I quite enjoyed it. Much more than I expected to, as I seem to say with all non-SF/F shows I end up watching. Still not something I would have chosen, still quite enjoyable.

Onward!

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