I’m Not Getting Disney+…Yet

I did not jump on Disney+ the instant it became available. I feel wrong for this, but I don’t know that I’ll be getting it for foreseeable future. I’m not as excited about it as I probably should be, and I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Taking a long hard look at the launch line up did explain a few of my misgivings to me though. The list is way too long for me to copy here so I’ll just throw up a link if you want to check it out. Strangely, the biggest thing to jump out at me was that I never knew the Brave Little Toaster went to Mars. Where the hell was I when this historic space mission went down?

At first I thought maybe I wasn’t the right demographic. I don’t have kids, and I don’t want to watch Cinderella. I felt like I might be too old for it because I’m not interested in Lizzie McGuire. Then again, maybe I’m too young since I don’t want to watch Darby O’Gill and the Little People either. I am also not a fan of any Pixar movie. I’m a monster, I know. They do certainly have things I like. Marvel, The Simpsons, and Star Wars are all things I include in my fandom. Here’s the thing though. For now FXX shows around 6 episodes of The Simpsons five nights a week. I’m not sure how that will change with Disney+ taking over the territory. So I can see The Simpsons pretty much anytime I want without paying anything extra. If I see that they’ll be taken off FXX then I’ve still got time to get some of my favorites onto my DVR. I own every Marvel movie I’d want to watch again, and if I do get a wild hair up my ass for something I don’t already own my father has every single one of them on his computer hard drive. I can get a copy of Iron Man 2 pretty easily if that desire ever comes up. It probably won’t, but it’s there if that were to happen. Would I like to watch some varying degrees of awesome X-Men cartoons again? You bet, but not so much that I’m getting yet another streaming service for them. As for the newer Marvel cartoons I’m not invested. I’ve watched a few on Disney XD, but none of them really grabbed me.

Stranger Things 3

I was not able to start watching Stranger Things 3 the day it came out. Blowing stuff up on the 4th of July seemed more important than another tv binge. And, to be quite honest, I had been disappointed with the second season. I figured I’d get around to it eventually, but was in no great rush. It wasn’t that I hated it, but I just hadn’t been blown away like in season 1. Then social media started buzzing with how great season 3 was. Spoilers were everywhere, and I knew I needed to start it soon. So Sunday night I gave in and started it up. And once I started I didn’t want to stop. I had two days at work running on little sleep, but finally knocked out the last episode Tuesday night. I found myself very sad that it was over too. Season three was far superior to season two, and I need season four to come out like now. There are going to be lots of spoilers here so if you haven’t finished yet please do that first. I don’t want to be responsible for ruining your summer fun. If you are all caught up then come along while I run down what was good, and maybe not so good about Stranger Things 3.

Good Omens – The Series Review

I waited a long time for this show to come out. It was one of the things I was most looking forward to this year, and it didn’t disappoint. You don’t have to have read the 1990 novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman to enjoy the show Good Omens. It helps give you a deeper understanding, but it isn’t necessary. Gaiman has made the show different enough from the book that even if you just read it yesterday you won’t know exactly what’s going to happen. I don’t want to ruin anything for those of you who haven’t read/watched it yet. What follows isn’t really a review as much as a list of all the reasons you should just shut up and watch it. And then go read the book.

TV Review – 12 Thoughts About Game of Thrones “The Long Night”

SPOILER WARNING – THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 8.3 OF HBO’S GAME OF THRONES

I’m not our official Game of Thrones recapper/reviewer, but I have to talk about this episode.

I think Game of Thrones is the best show to have ever been broadcast on television. For more on that, check out episode 260 of the Needless Things Podcast.

I thought that the first two episodes of this, the final season, were fantastic. They gave me all of the character moments and setup I needed preceding what had to be the biggest and most brutal battle in the show’s history. “Winterfell” and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” provided countless payoffs and much-needed breathing room.

Going into “The Long Night”, loyal viewers were well aware of the kind of powerful and breathtaking action the show is capable of thanks to masterpieces like “The Watchers on the Wall”, “Hardhome”, and “Battle of the Bastards” – an episode I still find hard to watch thanks to its intensity.

Did “The Long Night” live up to its potential and deliver the most climactic Game of Thrones conflict yet or had the show already used up its bag of tricks? Read on and find out!

Game of Thrones: Winterfell

Game of Thrones: The Reunion Episode. Oh wait, it was called Winterfell. But there sure as hell were a lot of reunions. Arya and The Hound, Arya and Gendry (was she flirting?), Arya and Jon (so sweet), Jon and Bran, Jon and Sam, Theon and Yara, Theon and his balls (figuratively speaking), Tyrion and Sansa, and (most awkward of all) Jamie and Bran. It seemed like a lot of feels and set-up for it being a season premiere, but I appreciate that they’re getting all this shit out of the way quickly. Too quickly, since this episode wasn’t even quite an hour long. There’s a whole lot of action coming so we need to move it forward super fast I guess.

I’m not going to recap every single scene. I’m more here to talk about how I felt about the episode, what I think some of these things mean, and what could be coming next. Needless to say: spoilers are coming either way. If you haven’t seen the first episode of season 8 turn back before it’s too late.

Beth’s Very Best of 2018

Looking back on the year, and on our recap podcast, I think I can now safely say that The Good Place was my very favorite thing. How can a show that started in 2016 be my favorite thing of 2018? Because it’s still on, that’s how! I expect things that are awesome to get canceled. It’s why I don’t get too attached to lipstick colors. The minute you fall in love it’ll be discontinued. I’m sure there is some dude equivalent that you guys can relate to. You can read the rest of my recap or listen to the podcast, but I had a lot of favorites to choose from. The Good Place is getting it’s very own thing now because it’s fantastic, and not enough people watch it. Season 3 just finished, and it’s been renewed for season 4. I’m concerned about the future of this show though. It may be a critical darling, but ratings aren’t great. So if you’re not watching then let me try and convince you to start.

Home Again – January’s Blu-Ray Releases

Welcome to Home Again, where each and every Tuesday I’ll be running down some of the best genre releases coming to home media.

All info is from the excellent Blu-ray.com. This isn’t every genre release, just the ones I find interesting. For the full list, follow that link.

Game of Thrones is Coming

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting pretty impatient for the last season of Game of Thrones. There are only a few long months to wait, but I can’t seem to find any real facts about what’s coming up. The cast is keeping quiet, and they’re even filming fake scenes to keep leakers from leaking. Telling me that what’s coming will make the Battle of the Bastards seem like nothing doesn’t help. Personally, I thought Hardhome was a better fight, but I guess Peter Dinklage disagrees. Maybe I only prefer Hardhome because it looks like what would happen if the cover of a metal album came to life. Regardless, I can’t stand all this waiting without even a hint of what I’m waiting for. So in the face of no facts I thought I’d bring you some hardcore nerd conjecture. The only real spoilers are for a book that isn’t (and may never be) out yet. Either you’re already up to speed or you only watch the show and don’t care about the books.

TV Review – 15 Thoughts About Daredevil Season 3

SPOILER WARNING – THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE THIRD SEASON OF THE NETFLIX SERIES DAREDEVIL

Netflix’s Marvel’s Daredevil (or whatever the nomenclature is) has been one of the streaming service’s most consistent programs thanks to an excellent cast and mostly good plotting.

I loved the first season, liked the second quite a bit, and mostly loathed Defenders.

But the end of Defenders left one of our heroes, Matt Murdock – aka Daredevil, the man without fear – fresh for new stories and personal growth. I was excited for the third season, and even more so knowing that the focus would be back on Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk as the primary antagonist.

Did they pull off an excellent season of television or was this another hot start/middle slog/big finish? Read on.

The Death of Rick Grimes…or Not

I’m in an abusive relationship with The Walking Dead. No matter how many times it hurts me I just keep coming back. I guess the same could be said for AMC though since their latest ratings stunt really was a big old middle finger to the people who have been watching this show since the beginning. Yeah you may have put one over on me, but I’ll have a hard time trusting you again. So don’t expect me to care when you start plugging Daryl’s departure or the death of Negan or something.

I’ll admit that I was kind of okay with how the season started. It was still pretty slow, but things got just a little bit more interesting than they’d been the last few seasons. Maggie is executing people, Michonne is sneaking out at night to kill zombies, and there are a ton a Saviors around still just waiting to die. It wasn’t great, but neither was it endless hours of crying and gesticulating. I don’t care about all the different groups trying to learn to live together any more than I care about how Rick and Michonne are raising Judith. There’s been a herd on the move, and we finally get to see the survivors dealing with zombies again. I’m gonna throw out some spoilers here so be warned. I’m not going to go over the whole episode or even give a blow by blow of how he went out, but we will talk about what happened at the end.