Ewan McGregor’s fantastic as the titular Jedi master, who’s hiding out on Tatooine to watch over young Luke Skywalker while still haunted by the death of Anakin Skywalker — who, unbeknownst to Kenobi, has returned as Darth Vader. The Inquisitor side plot held promise but was a bit underwhelming. There’s been talk about a second season; not sure how I feel about that.
My Cultural Diet
I’ve never played League of Legends so I don’t know how faithful Arcane is to the source material. But I do know that I thoroughly enjoyed Arcane’s steampunk aesthetic, rich world-building, thrilling action, and superb (and dare I say) groundbreaking animation. A second season has been greenlit, and it can’t come soon enough.
I’ve always found classic serials from ’30s and ’40s fascinating. This one’s a bit less exciting than its premise — a hotshot pilot must protect an anti-gravity device from smugglers — might otherwise suggest, but it has the requisite damsels in distress and ridiculous cliffhangers. That being said, the real aerial stunts are pretty cool to watch.
I wanted to like this way more than I did, but I could never figure out the tone. Was it a black comedy like Four Lions, a parody of spy thrillers, or a spy thriller in its own right? Not that it couldn’t be a mix of those, of course, but not knowing how to react to, say, Gary Oldman’s scene-chewing was frustrating.
Mitsuo Iso’s long-gestating follow-up to Den-noh Coil often feels like a spiritual and stylistic sequel. And like Den-noh Coil, I was alternately fascinated and frustrated by Orbital Children’s storyline. It’s very clever and imaginative, but I kept feeling like I’d missed an episode containing some key details.
I still think the first season was the best, but this was a solid improvement over season two. Ultra violent and gory, as to be expected. I’m a sucker for the Lovecraftian “In Vaulted Halls Entombed,” but I also enjoyed “Mason’s Rats” and “Night of the Mini Dead.”
Drew McWeeny said it best: “it looks both wildly expensive and oddly cheap.” There was no reason for this to be made, other than so someone could finally say that they made a Halo TV series. It adds nothing to the franchise. Did not finish. Could not finish.
Oscar Isaac is great as always, and I like the fact that Marvel isn’t afraid to get weird, but towards the end, Moon Knight felt like it was getting weird simply for its own sake.
Aviation-themed anime from the early ’00s. Cool aerial sequences but a muddled plot about artificial intelligence, alien invasions, and PTSD (among other things).
Does a good job of filling that Parks and Recreation-shaped hole in my life. While not every joke hits (the “power clashing” line kills me, though), I enjoy the characters and premise, and am looking forward to another season.
We loved this delightfully bizarre series on Apple TV+. Filled with surreal humor, mysteries, and pointed jabs at American pop culture, and blessed with immaculate production design. Can’t wait for season two.
I saw this once described as “The Matrix, if made by Studio Ghibli,” which isn’t too far-fetched. Filled with interesting ideas and concepts but gets pretty convoluted near the end. Wouldn’t mind watching it again to try and make better sense of it.
Didn’t like this as much as season one. Some promising new story ideas were introduced but none of them were developed in a satisfying way. This season felt rushed and truncated, which wasn’t helped by the fact that it only had seven episodes compared to the first season’s ten.
I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Sometimes, you just want to watch a beefy protagonist who has no qualms smashing bad guys’ heads in while dropping one-liners. This more than fills that bill. Bring on season two!
Very enjoyable nature documentary series on Disney+. Stunning footage + Will Smith’s humor and charisma = A winning combination. I also wrote about it for Christ and Pop Culture.