A Green Mushroom

The Crown is the latest Netflix Original that my wife and I checked out and we simply love it.  It's a show about Queen Elizabeth and Season 1 is all about her transition to Queen when her father dies. It deals with British monarchy, has a fantastic cast, and is really good drama.  I don't know how to sell it though.  I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of a way to explain why I like it. I don't watch a lot of straight up dramas.  I guess this isn't quite that, since it is a historical piece and seems to be historically accurate.  Maybe part of the appeal is being an American and just not having a Monarchy.  It seems so foreign and interesting. But part of it is just that the cast, setting, and plot are great. My only complaint is that there's only one season so far!  We finished it and immediately wanted more! If anything above sounds interesting you should most definitely check it out.

Luke Cage is good!  If you're on the fence about trying it out, you really should.  It might not be for everyone, but I think it's a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Luke Cage is all about Harlem, coming to terms with your past, community, and culture.  It's also about street level superheroes and gang warfare. Just as much as Jessica Jones or Daredevil, Luke Cage is about it's villains.  They get at least equal screen time to the main hero cast of characters.  This character development on both sides makes confrontations and payoffs feel like they have true weight. Overall, Luke Cage has just made me even more excited for Iron Fist and The Defenders.  I can't wait to see all these New York street heroes come together to form a rag-tag team.  There are some nods to this in the story, especially with a recurring crossover character from the other Netflix MCU shows. I still think Jessica Jones is the best season of TV Marvel h...

I don't really watch cartoons and haven't since I was a kid.  That's why it totally caught me off guard when I had a ton of people recommend the new Netflix Original Voltron series to me.  These are people I trust who know my taste, so I gave it a shot. And... I really liked it.  I didn't think I would, but I did.  I watched the entire first season that's available on Netflix right now and I'll definitely dive into a season two if they decide to make one. It's fun and it's a throwback to when I was a kid and everyone needed the color coded power to transform into better versions of themselves and then get giant mechs.  Although I was more of a Power Rangers kid and Voltron passed me by I still see enough similarities in this new one to truly enjoy it. I can easily recommend this show to anyone who likes cartoons, Sentai shows , or was a kid in the 90s.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

House of Cards season 4 gets the series back on track compared to season 3.  Where season 3 found the Underwoods in power... it didn't really know what to do with it and the season stagnated. Season 4 takes a few episodes to transition from that feeling to new sorts of intrigue and shifts in power and it's all the better for it! Claire truly gets to shine this season and she ends up being an even more interesting character than Francis.  I actually found myself wanting him in the show less so that she could be in it more. It's also nice to see all the threads from previous seasons start to pull together as the past catches up to the Underwoods.  And the season finale left me wanting more, which is always a great sign. After season 3 I didn't know if I would keep going with this show but after watching season 4 I know that I'll jump into season 5 as soon as it's available!

DareDevil season two is so much better than season one!  It's on Netflix and if you made it through season 1 you definitely need to go watch season two! Where season 1 was full of inconsistent pacing and quality, season two is good all the way through.  I really came away from season one feeling very "meh" about it.  I wasn't sure if I would come back for season two but a friend convinced me to at least give it a shot and watch the first episode.  He was so right. Season two picks up and gets moving so much faster now that we have all that annoying origin story out of the way.  At this point I realize I just hate superhero origin stories.  They tend to be boring and take way too long.  Season one was basically one long origin story.  Season two tells an actual story with the characters. Speaking of characters, The Punisher is super interesting.  I've never read about him before, I just kinda knew he existed.  This incarnation o...

I don't know what I expected from Fuller House, but it blew away whatever those expectations were.  I had no idea if this show would click with me... but it definitely did. It's weird in a way because it's a 90s show made in 2016 through and through.  The production values and topics have been updated but the characters and the structure of a given episode feel straight out of the 90s. It's basically the same show as the original Full House... but somehow it works.  It just works. I was a TGIF kid.  If you don't know, TGIF was a block of shows that aired on prime time every Friday night.  Most people from my generation would tune in for at least one show in the block, if not all of them.  I remember many Friday nights ordering pizza and watching TGIF. Fuller House sees almost the entire old cast return to make cameos and be part of the story.  But the new main cast of the show are three of the kids from the old show (played by the same ac...

I really liked this show.  Master of None is about modern life in your late twenties or early thirties.  And it's definitely a show aimed squarely at people in their late twenties and early thirties.  This is exactly where I am in my life at the moment. It's quick 20-25 minute episodes each focus on an aspect of life and explore it.  They never overstay their welcome and it's always easy to just click to watch the next one. The acting can be a bit off sometimes but I think it's mostly the actors figuring out their roles.  By the end of the season it's not evident anymore. Overall it's another good Netflix Original Series.  I love seeing things like this that we wouldn't ever get to see on broadcast or cable TV.  And I still love Netflix's model of releasing an entire season at once.  My wife and I watched all of Master of None over two nights. I'm also starting to really dig this trend of 10-15 episodes in a season of a show.  A l...

I think this is the best thing that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has created so far.  It's so much better than the other shows I've watched, especially compared to DareDevil. Where DareDevil left me frustrated with the pacing problems and inconsistency in quality, Jessica Jones is well paced and interesting the entire way through.  I watched it in two sittings but stopping that first night because I had to go to bed was painful since I was so engrossed in the story. The premise is that Jessica Jones has super powers but doesn't want to be a super hero.  She's super strong and can heal faster than normal people but she mostly just uses her powers in an everyday sort of way while doing her job as a private investigator.  The story is all about her dealing with her powers and confronting her past with the villain Kilgrave, who is played by the amazing David Tennant.  I thought he was good in Doctor Who but he's amazing in Jessica Jones. Kilgrave is a min...

Last week while I was traveling I got some time to dabble in various distractions.  I was away from my main gaming PC and consoles, so I got away from the newest game releases and dug into other things. I listened to a lot of podcasts on the trip.  I even picked up a new one, Rebel Force Radio, which is an awesome Star Wars fan podcast. I got caught up on all the Star Wars comics I've purchased on Comixology.  Then I started picking through the 80+ unread comics that I got for free through Comixology last year on free comic book day.  They were a lot of either one-off or issue #1 and I didn't get through them all yet, but there were a couple that were intriguing and I might actually go purchase some more in those series to see if they hold my interest. I'm basically up to date on playing all the 3DS games I wanted to so I browsed the Nintendo e-shop and realized I had never picked up Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire... they were after my prime time with Pokemon Red/Blu...

DareDevil is another show I got to catch up on while I was sick the other week. Oh boy, does this show have some pacing problems. I don't exactly know how to review DareDevil for you because it has some great episodes and it has some absolutely amazing scenes in certain episodes.  But it also has episodes where almost nothing happens and the show seems to drag on for way too long. That's especially bad as a Netflix Original since the show can be any length it feels is appropriate.  It doesn't have to fit into the normal 42 minute block for an "hour long" TV show airing on network TV. But then we have scenes like the hallway encounter at the end of episode 2.  It's one of the most interesting fight scenes I've ever seen. And then there are amazing moments with Wilson Fisk, the bad guy.  He's portrayed so incredibly by the actor. I'm honestly torn.  I'm glad I watched season 1 of DareDevil but I don't see myself ever wanting t...

Having watched my backlog of movies I figured it was time to move on to TV.  There are a bunch of shows that I've been meaning to try out.  I watched the first couple episodes of each to see if they would stick. Humans  - In the near future there are androids (called synths) that are sufficiently advanced to pass for human.  A few of them seem to be on the verge of consciousness and that's where the tension of the show resides.  And this show is full of tension.  Instead of the deep philosophical look at humanity I was expecting instead I got a show that's trying to be subtle drawn out horror sci-fi.  The first few episodes are all about setting up the tension between the synths and the humans, but with no payoff at all after watching hours of the show I had to give up.  If Humans had picked up the pace I would have kept watching. Dark Matter  - Six people wake up on a spaceship as the life support is failing.  They don't remember wh...

Last week I wrote a little bit about my impressions of Daredevil after the first few episodes.  This week I checked out Marco Polo, another Netflix Original Series, and I'm reporting back after watching the same amount of episodes. I like it so much more than Daredevil. This is my kind of show.  There's intrigue and competing objectives.  It's epic in scope, yet based on real events of the past.  In some ways it reminds me of Game of Thrones. Marco Polo is the son of a merchant who travels the world looking for new goods and trade routes.  He tags along while his father is visiting Kublai Khan and ends up unexpectedly getting placed as a servant in his court to save his father's merchant dealings.  It's the story of a westerner thrown into an eastern culture. It's all set in the 1200s and based on historic facts.  I think that's so cool! I love the characters and I'm already very invested in seeing what ends up happening.  This s...

I love Netflix original series.  It's fantastic that one of the modern streaming media services is getting so much into content creation.  I've been hooked on House of Cards since it first came out and it's given me interest in every project they've done since then. Daredevil is the first Netflix original series created in partnership with Marvel.  I really like what Marvel has been doing with movies lately, so the show intrigued me.  I remember watching the first Daredevil movie with Ben Afleck, so the bar is set pretty low for this show.  I thought I would give it a try. I watched the first few episodes and they're ok.  I've been hearing friends rave about how amazing this show is, but maybe it's just not for me.  That's not to say I can't see the positives in it. Daredevil is an interesting take on a gritty world.  He's a hero without the typical superpowers.  When he gets into a fight he actually has to expend effort.  He g...

The release of House of Cards Season 3 on Netflix last week gave my wife and I another opportunity to binge watch a good show.  We loved House of Cards Season 1 and 2 so we were excited to jump into Season 3 right away. It's still good, even if it has gone off the rails a bit this season.  It's definitely not as good as the first two seasons.  The first two seasons were all about the dirty and desperate power climb in the American political system.  Season 3 starts out with Frank Underwood already being president and most of the season he doesn't quite know what to do with himself.  It's a disappointing change compared to the other seasons. Another thing that bugged us is that anyone who has looked into the actual daily life of a president would notice a ton of inconsistencies and things that aren't realistic this season.  I'm able to let it go, but it bugged my wife throughout the entire season.  Frank Underwood barely seems to have any kind o...