awkward cough Well, it’s been a year. I did somehow manage to enjoy various media things, which is fairly impressive with the small children at play. Here are my favorites.
TV
The Mandolorian. Wrapped up the first season at the start of the year, and watched season two mostly inline with its release. It’s fun, and miles better than Rise of Skywalker.
Steven Universe Future. A small timeskip forwards, the final arc focuses mostly on Steven, and him actually taking care of himself for a change. They land the emotional impact well, and leave things open ended in a way that’s statisfying.
Anime
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!. A fun and creative series. A group of girls get together (for various reasons) to make Anime. The show does a beautiful job of illustrating their ideas visually, with a mix of styles to showcase their imagination. I suppose this would probably classify as a “slice of life” series, but that entirely undersells the visual experience.
Books
The Aleph Extraction by Dan Moren. Continuing his Galatic Cold War series, this one is much more of a caper story than just a straight spy story. Very fun, left me wanting more. You should buy it so he can write more of them.
A Memory Called Empire a very interesting science fiction novel. A bit of the classic “foreigner experiencing another culture” except in this case, both cultures are foreign to us. Additionally, the main character has to deal with knowing more than she can let on. It starts with court politics and quickly becomes a lot more.
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. The third book in, well it’s a loose series, continues to explore the universe setup in A Long to a Small, Angry Planet. This explores the (formally) migrate ship bound human population through the eyes of a few characters.
Games
Hades. Game of the year. The gameplay is hard, but not too hard (and has a support mode if you need it). The story and characters are engaging, and give a great payoff for when you don’t make it all of the way out. Even after winning, there is more reason to play to continue to uncover the story, and additional gameplay.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light. After spending over a year off, I decided to play the first mission of the new expansion. It was good, and I ended up buying in. There is still far too much to do for a casual player like myself, but it feels like there is more that I can accomplish than last year. I’m not entirely sure the season stucture works for me, but the content is good. The new super is fun. Bungie makes a good game, and it doesn’t feel like I’m missing as much as previously.
Movies
Not a lot of chance to actually watch full-length feature films, even at home. As I didn’t do a 2019, here’s my 2019 best movie:
Knives Out. A great, great movie.
What do I still want to watch? Weathering with You, which has been sitting in the Blu-ray pile for ages now.
scottr.org 