Current Media 3-7-16

Current reading material:
The Man in the High Castle (e-book)

I'm not even going to bother listing comics until I finally start reading them again.  At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to renew Marvel Unlimited if I can't seem to find time to read.

Current TV Shows I'm watching:
The Grinder
@Midnight
Phineas & Ferb
Legends of Tomorrow
Lucifer
Lupin III: The Woman Named Fujiko Mine
11.22.63

Podcasts I'm listening to fairly regularly:
Nerdist
Jay & Miles X-plain the X-men
Serial
Judge John Hodgman
Cracked
This American Life
Masters of Carpentry
Bullseye
Retsutalk
TV Crimes

Video Games I'm playing:
Disney Tsum Tsum 
Marvel's Avengers Academy
Suikoden

Stuff I finished since last time:

Deadpool - As predicted this was the next film I saw in a theater.  I had fairly low expectations going in, and ended up pleasantly surprised.  There was plenty of extreme humor to justify the R rating, but there was also a fair amount of heart.  Not just in the way that this was clearly a passion project from Reynolds and most of the crew, but in the character and story too.  My hope is that this will lead to Fox being willing to take more chances with their X-films from now on.

X-files mini-series - I would say about half the episodes were really fun, and the others just okay.  I always had a preference for the sillier episodes of the show, so it's no surprise that the were-man episode was my favorite of the bunch.  That ending was pretty infuriating, so let's hope everthing works out and it all gets renewed.  If nothing else, it did make me want to start a re-watch of the series, though it's going to have to wait until after this current season of shows are all over.

Books of Blood vol 1-3 - I'm glad they grouped all three volumes into one book, as it really allowed me to see Clive Barker's writing style evolve and strengthen over time.  There were some really weak stories at the beginning, though his vivid descriptions of gore were there right from the start, as well as some of his more fantastical things.  Like any short story anthology there were stories I enjoyed and others I was ambivalent about, but all in all it made me want to delve a little deeper into his work in the future.  I think I'm going to skip most of the movie adaptations though.

Lupin III series 3 - The ugly art style of this series was a strike against it from the start from me, not to mention the poor representation of African people and the need to rip a woman's clothes off at least every other episode.  But there is good to be going in this series, especially whenever the stories dropped all pretense of being serious action pieces and embraced silliness.  I'd put it behind the first two series in terms of quality overall, but I still recommend any Lupin fan giving it a chance.

Agent Carter season 2 - This was a good solid season over all.  I could have done without the love triangle for Peggy, but the addition of Ana Jarvis in all her glory helps to cancel that out.  It's not the kind of thing I have a whole lot to say about, but I enjoyed it.

The Muppets season 1 - The show took a while to find its tone and direction, even more so thanks to them changing the creative team halfway through the season.  I never had the problem with the first half that a lot of people did, though I'll also readily admit it's not as good as some earlier incarnations of these characters.  My biggest problem with the latter half of the season is the same problem I have with a lot of the Muppet films - I don't care about Kermit and Piggy as a couple and don't need a big long story line about the two of them getting back together.  Gonzo and Camilla getting back together was just the right amount of romance for me.  The Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepe moments are probably the best on the show, and a lot of the other background characters are great in their bits too.  Maybe from here on out they can just have Kermit and Piggy together and leave it at that.  If it's even renewed.

Ex Machina - Finally watched this movie after hearing so many rave reviews.  It's a little slow moving for my taste, mostly because I felt like I figured out most of the secrets ahead of time, and I was just waiting for them to unfold.  That said, I did enjoy a lot of the wait, and I was genuinely interested in both Caleb and Ava's fates.  I was mostly okay with the ending, though I did have to do some of my own deduction to make it alright.  I'd recommend the film for anyone into the more cerebral end of sci-fi.