Time is a weird soup

Prologue

This is an intentionally browseable set of weeknotes regarding things I “beheld” over the previous “week”¹.

So, how to divide up this mass of half-written notes and turn it into something useful to both of us?

These “weeknotes” support two purposes - recommendations to the handful of people who read it, on whether they should consider spending their time on a piece of media. And also giving me somewhere to look if I’m trying to remember if I watched something or not. Oh, and to practice getting thoughts out of my own head into other people’s heads in a format that makes sense. So I’ll support that first purpose as best as I can, while resisting the urge to turn this into a long table, marking each piece of media as “yes”, “no”, or “maybe”. But I am going to do that in a slightly longer form.

Depending in how my exploration of Hugo² themes is going there will be a Table of Contents at the top, or below this line, that you can use to navigate to the bits you’re interested in.

Media you should consider spending time on:

All Madden

A documentary about legendary NFL head coach and commentator John Madden, focusing mainly on his time in the commentary booth.

As per this IMDB synopsis this is a great summary of a career. If you’re going to watch this you’re almost definitely a fan of the sport anyway, but I particularly liked that this ignored a lot of the football, and the video game, and - as per it being made by Fox Sports - it concentrated much more on the person.

Audible

A relatively short Netflix documentary about the players of a Deaf High School Football Team. Oscar nominated, trailer on YouTube, worth your time, inspiring in the best possible way. There is no pity framing here.

Barbie

Delightful treatise on the human condition, which I’m trying not to mean pretentiously. Whimsical, thought provoking, immaculate, not a wrong choice in the film. Genuine LOLs, if you somehow didn’t watch this when it came out I’d recommend you don’t watch the trailer and just dive in.

Bo Burnham - Inside, and Inside:Outtakes

Two funny and thought provoking and honest and meta, er, “musical comedy specials”? Whatever they are, I recommend watching both together. As per my appreciation of Stewart Lee, I enjoy seeing someone take their craft apart and show how it works, at least to some extent. It’s funny, at times, but this isn’t really a comedy show… more theatre, or, performance art?

Weird in that it seems very authentic, very open about mental health challenges, but also in that observational “a funny thing happened to me on the way to the theatre” way, it appears as though Burnham is living alone in a relatively tiny one room house, whereas this is the guest house of his LA property he shares with his long term partner.

Business War Games, by Benjamin Gilad, PhD

An intriguing and relatively short book about the practice of business wargaming, from an experienced practitioner.

Overall, if you’re interested in or participate in this area, I think the book is worth finding and reading. I’m always intrigued by the generally poor processes involved in business decisions at the executive level, but don’t think there’s enough potential work there, or willingness for self-examination, for “the juice to be worth the squeeze”; so it’s an area I’ve a constant professional interest in, but it’s just one of many things I do.

There are some really useful references in this to other works or concepts, for example Rosenzweig’s “The Halo Effect… and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers” looks very useful to read and cite, do check out the Wikipedia page on issues you’re bound to have experienced before. Also other mentions in the book against errors - leaning too much into “political correctness” to avoid stereotypes when those stereotypes accurately reflect how a competitor might behave or think; and there’s a good couple of pages at the end of part II on why Game Theory just isn’t relevant here.

But there’s some irksome aspects to it, the author unrelentingly has no time or use for computers, and can’t appreciate that their ability to rapidly process data, or act as an interface between teams, has considerable value. His situations for the practice are really limited, it’s either strategy forming, or a rehearsal - there’s no analytical gaming, or just exploratory, or replaying the same scenario repeatedly to experience with different choices. Worst is the short list of people not to invite, on page 118 - including junior people, or shy people, or people who are too loud or domineering, or too politically correct or thin skinned… I mean, I maintain casting is a key part of any professional game, or any sophisticated recreational game such as a megagame, but thinning out your audience through limited design choices isn’t the way to do it.

But as I say, some of it is just so citeable, for example this on page 102: “Companies should work on developing rapid response capabilities, not plan against all emergencies in advance.” Succinctly put, obvious yet often ignored, you could write a book explaining why this is the case, but that sentence works as well.

If you’re a business game designer in 2025 I think you’ll question some of the points and approaches of this book from over fifteen years ago, but I think it’s still so succinctly and directly put that it’s worth your time.

Confess, Fletch

A genuinely funny light comedy, based on the novel from 1976, and a sequel to the Chevy Chase films from the 1980s. Er, that’s it - it won’t change your life, but I did chortle throughout. If you’d like a chortle, and find Jon Hamm endearing, trust me and watch it, if you don’t trust me, try the trailer first.

Delicious in Dungeon

An Netflix anime television series about a dungeon raiding party, set in recognisable medieval fantasy times. A great watch, yet again something I wouldn’t have made time for if it wasn’t for my lovely partner. This starts well, and plays with the tropes of D&D and fantasy in general. As well as that, the main characters are wholesome, in the best way - combined with this very definitely being Japanese, which just keeps it slightly unfamiliar - that was interesting from the very start. But then… it gets… more intense. It’s rated 15 in the UK, which feels a little high, but this is recommended watching.

Doom Patrol - the comic

This was a “trade”, I think, volume 1 of the most recent version of the comic, about the DC Superheroes. I have vague but fond memories of the Doom Patrol TV show from 2019 onwards, so was given this as a present. As per the text on the work itself, it’s something to be experienced rather than reviewed, so give it a try if you want a weird ride, and a glimpse into what this format is capable of.

Dracula 2000

A film called Dracula 2000, made in the year 2000 - if you’re from the UK, or even “The West”, you can probably correctly guess a lot about this from those two facts alone.

Very much of its time but its incredibly low score on Rotten Tomatoes isn’t deserved. There’s tight storytelling, that kind of “no fat” approach when it starts quickly and just keeps going - because it’s the turn of the century, you’ve got 100 minutes at best, and you can’t just shoot everything that feels good and give it to an editor to “fix in post”.

I liked the mix of fun and horror, the snappy lines were delivered well, or well enough. I won’t reveal much because I actually like the plot idea and twist. If you’re OK with some blood, and are OK with something you don’t have to think about too much, this is genuinely fun.

Dracula’s ex-girlfriend

It’s official tagline I think: “A recovering ex-vampire is forced to revisit a dead romance when an old rival invites her out for a quick bite.” Recommended watching if you’ve got nebula.tv , and a good reason to subscribe if you don’t. I always like it when creatives really think through supernatural concepts, and the effect of those concepts / responsibilities on both mythical creatures, and the humans around them… I’m pretty sure the title is all you need to decide to spend time on this or not.

Excalibur

A classic of both films of the nineteen-eighties, and the fantasy film genre in general. An authentic a telling of King Arthur as all of the others. It does deserve it’s “15” rating.

This is a good summary, ending with the trailer.

Fantasy Island ( 2001 )

A sequel to the more well known series from the late 20th century, in the same tv series format.

If you want a lovely watch with some feelings and peril… then this contains fully formed humans and complicated relationships for the islanders and their visitors, contrasted to the magical setting. I love that contrast, and the conceit that - as far as I remember - no guest asks how the island works.

Standout performances all around, especially Kiara Barnes though, who plays two characters… kind of, maybe one and a half characters? It’s complicated.

As often seems the case with something this imaginative, it was cancelled after two series but it’s well rounded if you want to spend time on it without being caught out by the short run.

Fast X

The tenth instalment of the Fast & Furious franchise, where I’ve completely lost track of who is working for or against who, and why; but the car chases and similar stunts are even more spectacular. And I thought this was wonderful, I particularly loved Mamoa in this, while being a little disappointed at how much personality Vinn Diesel seems to drop to play Toretto.

I think I’m kind of an anti-goldilocks when it comes to realism in movies, as long as it’s internally consistent I’m happy with a story being realistic, or the film just leaning all the way in and ignoring whatever gets in the way of getting the right characters into the right location to throw vehicles at each other, like physics and time-zones and jet lag and how humans normally react to loss. Because this was truly ridiculous, but internally consistent, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fionna and Cake

An Adventure Time spin-off, and animated series that is very… something. Incredibly weird. Dense. Very surreal. Watching it you’ll have no idea what will happen next. I don’t think I missed too much by not having seen Adventure Time.

If you want to be side-swiped mentally, this is currently available on several platforms.

Hilda

I’ve mentioned this before but the final series made it to Netflix. This is just a high quality animated show, ostensibly for kids - very well put together, excellent world building, and smart with how plots and confrontations are handled. It’s not afraid to handle complex issues, such as how families and the relationships within them are handled. If you want something your children will enjoy, or that you can watch as an adult without being drained of all hope, do look it up.

Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans

Again something labelled for children, but a film set in ancient Britain during the Roman invasion and occupation. On the one hand the history and tactics and clothing in this were far more realistic than other media you might watch, yet at the same time this feels like - in the best way - you’re watching a really good LARP or “live play” of a TTRPG. A rare balance that I think works really well.

I think it’s helped by everyone, as far as I can tell, having a good time making it, and putting that enjoyment into the work. Some films you feel like the cast had a great time making it, but you’ve stumbled into someone else’s party, “Thor: Love and Thunder” being the Ur example. For this film, it seems like they had a great time, but you were the most important guest.

Horrible Histories on Castles

My partner thankfully started a jolybookflood tradition a new years ago, the Icelandic practice of giving books as presents on Christmas Eve. If you’re familiar with Horrible Histories, the British history series aimed at children, this is what you’d expect - a quick and relatively shallow read considering the audience, but intriguingly grim - from detailing the unusual punishments and executions those societies created and advocated, along with the seemingly constant deception and betrayal amongst the ruling class.

Hot Frosty

A kind of Hallmark romantic comedy, very sweet, well made, as with Jackpot below, “a film that knows it’s a film” but without all the terribly post-modern irony and smug smiles to camera. If that sounds like it would suit you, best that you go into the film… pun intended… cold.

Identitease

A film by Jessie Gender, on the Nebula platform, that does a lot with a little. For forty or so minutes two new employees explore their corporate metaverse… but there’s so much more to it than that. Predictable in the best way, great to see an artist make the art they want to make. Do make time to watch it if you have access to the service, or as a reason to try it out.

Interview with a Vampire

Amazing. A fantastic cast present an engaging story - this is a a TV adaptation of Anne Rice’s original book from waaaay back in the 1970s.

As you’ll know if you’ve read through this post, or others, I’m always intrigued by the big fantastical themes, like time travel. In this case, you’re an immortal vampire… now what do you do? And I adore how the characters handle that, well or badly, and the kind of personalities that emerge from being alive for so long, and seeing so much of the world change, while so much of humanity’s societies stay the same.

And one final point, as I’ve flitted backwards and forwards while putting together this alphabetical list, unlike other series I’ve watched recently, at no point does this feel like an adaptation of something bigger and deeper, it’s self-contained rather than feeling like an echo of something else.

Jackpot

A fun contemporary film set in the near future, about winning the lottery. Imagine The Purge but good, and that knows how stupid its central conceit is - also great casting, everyone playing to their strengths. The trailer.

Kiki’s Delivery Service

A Japanese animated fantasy film from 1989, based on the 1985 book of the same name.

Another film where I’ve tried to write more but really “lovely” covers it. Great balance of likeable characters but with tension between them, with a narrative that doesn’t need to be surprising. Essentially, having finally made time to watch this, I can see why it’s such a classic.

KPop Demon Hunters

A South Korean animated fantasy film from 2025.

Delightful. Just really likeable animated joy, that seems to have been a passing fad in some parts of the world but has really resonated with others at a level with, say, Frozen. The trailer is here, it’s currently available on Netflix, treat yourself.

Little Miss Sumo

A great short documentary about female sumo wrestler Hiyori Kon. You can see the trailer here.

Loki

The Marvel TV series… which has been out for quite some time now.

I write this blog to get my thoughts in order, and in the expectation that people who know me will skip through it for recommendations - but in this case I suspect if Secret Invasion didn’t knock you off the MCU train you’re onboard for everything. But I wrote that line sometime in 2024, maybe earlier… and now in 2025 it feels like staying up to date with the MCU is a full-time hobby, rather than something you can dip into and out of.

Anyway - this was really, really well made, but to get the most out of it you probably need be firmly embedded in Marvel’s work already, or - like me - be blessed with someone willing to answer the occasional “why is this happening?” question. I’m not sure what the answer is - but the showrunners don’t appear to have learned from the comics’ struggles, is my second hand opinion based on second hand knowledge.

A benefit of having written up what I’ve watched, I’m conscious of how much of it involves time-travel or multiverses, which I don’t think is a universal trend. In this case those concepts are at the core of the narrative, and are handled really well.

As always with this kind of work, the fantastical scenario works because the characters are well illustrated, likeable, or sympathetic in some way - I’m always impressed when any story makes “each villain believes they’re the hero” work, rather than resorting to “we need someone eevviill for the heroes to fight”.

This was so good, that even if you’re not a Marvel devotee, if you have access to a service it’s on, try an episode or two and see if it makes enough sense.

Love Death and Robots

An “animated anthology” series, essentially a series of short animated stories connected to one or more of the three themes in the title. They span “the genres of comedy, horror, science fiction, and fantasy”. A few thoughts on a few episodes I watched or the original series:

Blindspot

In a different tone to the other two I’ve described below, covering a small team of cyborgs attacking a convoy, and thinking on both robots and death. Overall I enjoyed the compressed format of all of these - although they all allude to far more than they present. I wonder if I found, and maybe their authors found, the world building much more interesting that the specific stories. I liked how ambitious these were, but maybe too short for the worlds they were set in? This one stopped just when it was getting going, with interesting ramifications of the technology shown.

Secret War

In World War 2 Russian soldiers are on a mission in the steppes and discover… something else. Incredibly well made, incredibly bloody, and incredibly grim. Excellent 3D animation, on the right side of uncanny valley that it took me a while to be sure wasn’t live action. But something I admired rather than truly enjoyed.

Shape-shifters

Similarly grim. Interesting exploration of the use of werewolves by the US army in Afghanistan. Again really well made, but just bloody and grim.

Overall

After those three I decided not to watch any more, looking through the episodes none of them made me wonder how they’d play out. But really well made, easy to try, and Wikipedia has good summaries if you want to see if they’re for you first.

Also the website Does The Dog Die can help you navigate quite whether the episode is for you, from a ickiness perspective.

Machiavelli, A Graphic Guide

A great and engaging book format, that seems to have fallen out of favour - as you’d expect from the title, an illustrated guide to the life and times of Niccolo Machiavelli.

Quite a deep read for something in my pile to grab after waking up or going to sleep, but still an interesting read. Reminds me that I really need to get to grips with his book The Prince.

Marcel The Shell With Shoes on

A film about, well, a shell with shoes on. Incredibly well made and affecting, I can see why it has won 38 film industry awards according to IMDB. Delightful combination of live-action and stop motion animation. I often say in these reviews that I like stretching fantastical concepts into the real world to explore how people and cultures and processes would react… but sometimes it works when a movie just doesn’t do any of that at all.

Don’t look at a trailer, just start watching it - you’ll know in about two minutes thirty seconds whether this is for you or not.

Murder Is Easy

The BBC TV series version of the Agatha Christie story, made in 2023, which you can find on iPlayer if you or your VPN is in the UK.

Based on the original Agatha Christie story set in the 1930s, but with a race-swapped lead, and still set in the UK but in the 1950s. This rattled along, with intriguing characters and well imagined settings. Strongly recommended.

Mythical Creatures

A short series of short radio programmes, on BBC Radio Four in the UK, undoubtedly available elsewhere. Great to see an emphasis on relatively obscure creatures from British folklore in these bite-sized pieces - so more redcaps and selkies, less dwarves and elves. I particularly liked the culmination into discussing the nature of folklore versus fakelore, the latter of which gives you all sorts of insights into contemporary thinking, and our enduring interest in myth and story - Slenderman being the most prominent example.

One Knee Equals Two Feet: And Everything Else You Need To Know About Football, by John Madden with Dave Anderson

I could explain the title, but if you don’t recognise the phrase, this book probably isn’t for you.

Ostensibly a guide on how to watch the NFL, but from way back in 1986, but really just a reason for Madden to be Madden. Even though it was ghost-written, his personality is immediate brought to the fore.

I’m now at the age where limited time travel is possible, and interesting. For example, in 1986 Madden advocated for rules protecting Quarterbacks, noting that their specific role prevented them from protecting themselves while being hit, unlike another other position on the field except kickers and punters, who were already covered by specific conditions.

Similarly sometimes Madden is prescient - “Another rule I’d like to see changed is the return of the 2-point conversation after a touchdown”, but rather than the relatively recent inspiration for the NFL from college football, I believe, Madden recalls this being tried in the AFL, an alternate league to the NFL, back in 1970. But other times, his predictions are less accurate “That’s the difference between placekickers and punters. Guys who never really played [American] football or guys from other countries can be placekickers. But you’ll never see a punter who isn’t an American athlete.”

Overall this is meandering and random in the best way, recommended reading if you know the sport and period and are a fan of Madden the man.

One last point, while getting the context for this. The book is written with Madden’s voice throughout, although it very clearly says “John Madden with Dave Anderson” on the cover. Maybe ghostwriters were given the respect they deserved back in the 1980s, or feels very like Madden that the ghost writer is highlighted so prominently. My guess is that this was Madden’s choice, judging by an interview with him on Anderson’s passing.

Prey

An “American science fiction action horror film”, and part of the Predator franchise - which has, at best, been variable. Unlike many of the films I’ve mentioned already this isn’t “endearing with a twinge of peril”, and that’s very clear from before you start the movie.

The Characters and situation is set up quickly, with the expectation that the audience is somewhat familiar with Predator lore. Among the amazing scenery the pacing is slow, especially for this genre of film, but that wasn’t a bad thing.

I found this surprisingly good, especially considering that the progression of events is relatively expected if you’ve watched any of the other movies.

Without going into detail, and this is worth your time, it made the weird world-building of the predators, the “we hunt as a challenge while being vastly superior to you” position, make more sense. And the performances were particularly good - it felt authentic. Making all sorts of assumptions of heritage based on name, having actual Native Americans must have helped here.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

This is the animated film from 2011, a spin-off of the popular Shrek series. Genuinely good, and much better than I expected as the drive for it existing seemed to be the films it spawned from. If you’ve not watched this and are considering it do bear in mind that there’s more than mild peril for the kids, with a dollop of existential angst for the adults.

Rye Lane

A contemporary movie about realistic Londoners in real London. A lovely film, a great example of all the strengths of the “rom com” format. Another film where really the only analysis I had at the end was that everyone made the right choices, from framing to casting to acting choices, so the immersion was never broken.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In light of the new version, that seems mostly awful, we re-watched the original. A very simple film, a little “of its time”, interesting for what it doesn’t include due to the cost of animation - there are no citizens or soldiers or world building, but I think it still held up beyond nostalgia. If you’re reading my blog you’ve probably seen this before, but it is worth watching again.

Spiderman - Across the Spiderverse

Technically an “animated movie”, but more of an artistic explosion, as with previous versions this rightly leans very very much into making the most of being an animated movie. Spectacular, very funny - although without giving too much away the end left me a little deflated. From a little reading around, the choice made is understandable given apparent pressures meaning it was that or rushing the film. As usual when I’m being very obtuse about content, I think this is something you should see.

The film handled the multi-verse concept well, both narratively and visually. Considering the grim-dark mess that some films present I was struck by being able to track and enjoy highly complex multi-dimensional fight scenes.

( And if you could do with a lift, this is a nice story about a viral re-imagining of the trailer getting a young animator a scene in the actual movie )

Spongebob the Musical

As someone who knows Spongebob through very occasional clips and gifs I wasn’t sure what I’d get from this - as with Susume, very much rooted in its American culture, and just well paced. I’m never quite sure what I mean by that, just a story that manages to ebb and flow, to increase and decrease tension with it being obvious.

As always with anything to do with musicals, do make time to watch the Wait in the Wings analysis.

Star Trek Discovery

For reasons I watched the third, fourth, and fifth series of this. I’ve complained elsewhere in here that Paramount doesn’t seem to know what to do with such an iconic “property”, but this seemed to be mostly well managed. I adored the character development, and how the series leaned into telling “real” stories but in the context of time travel, and multiverses, and a context you could justifiably call Science Fiction or Science Fantasy.

I think that, with what’s called “hard SF” - which I know little about because I tend to avoid it - you can explore the ramifications of technological progress and the challenges that humanity might face, but the - frankly weird - universe Star Trek inhabits gives so much more space to handle anything from a single romantic relationship to the rise and fall of empires, and is all the better for it.

Star Trek - Strange New Worlds

Regardless of your opinion of any of the other series I think this is worth trying - it should make enough sense if you’re only vaguely familiar with the Star Trek world-building, and they make some good choices about the subjects covered and the angle they take. It can be a little variable but always thought provoking, or they pull off handling the profoundly weird universe that Star Trek is set in.

Stewart Lee - Basic Lee Live At The Lowry

Classic Stewart Lee, meant in the best possible way. He still manages to be trenchant³, uncomfortable, and in the best way I’m watching someone “bring their whole self to work” rather than watching an onstage persona do comedy by numbers.

Storyville: War Game

A documentary covering a war game on the American presidential elections, and how some groups might be expected to respond, and the challenge to the authorities if that happened.

As a designer of professional wargames I’m very envious of the budget and the talent here, they do make the most of what they’ve got access to. In-particular I liked the immersive environments they used to really get all of the participants into the game.

Because we, as the viewer, get an insight into how the wargame was played, I particularly liked the presentation of the “red cell”, carrying out actions based on real world experience. Overall, while this was clearly “edited highlights”, I liked the depiction of the medium for a general audience. As someone in the area, to continue the metaphor, I would have liked to see the “all-22”⁴, but apparently this took a year to edit as it is.

Trying to find this on iPlayer can be a challenge, if you’re in the UK you can watch it here.

Suzume

Meant in the best way, a “very Japanese” animation, in that it’s from a culture I know just enough about to understand how little I know, and enjoy the variance between how some of it is familiar, and some of it so unfamiliar. We follow a high school girl on her journey to prevent earthquakes and their supernatural cause. To be even vaguer than usual, delightful and perplexing in the best way, and the film has a lovely pace to it. If you’re pressed for time, you could watch it in three parts.

The Fall Guy

A re-imagining of the original TV series from way back in the 1980s. This is a great action film, and fitting a reoccurring theme of my very brief reviews, knows what it is. Just the right tone, just meta enough for a film about the film industry. Like Fletch in that it won’t change your life, but it will make you smile a lot.

The Old Guard 2

This Netflix film, a sequel to the comic-book adaptation The Old Guard from several years ago, just about squeaked into this section. It was good enough, but, was deceptively a set up for a third film… which given Netflix’s record, may or may not happen.

An enjoyable action film, but the motivation of the characters felt unclear, so as viewers we ended up confused as to why the action was happening. In retrospect I can see how what happened made sense, but it seemed to happen a little too quickly.

Watch this if you enjoyed the first one, but don’t if you didn’t.

The Pod Generation

A slow and gentle satirical look - probably satirical - into the future of parenting. Not a complete story, but in a good way, something to watch and think around, with immaculate world-building.

The trailer probably tells you a little too much, but if you’re interested in the future, this is worth your time.

The Thursday Murder Club

Netflix’s adaptation of Richard Osman’s book of the same name. A lovely and very British film about a group of pensioners, from a spectacular retirement home, who solve murders. An amusing film with a stellar cast, and some genuinely nice and surprising plot points, as befits a mystery.

The Traitors - Series 3

The latest version of the “social deduction reality show”, where a group of people attempt to win a significant amount of money between them, while eliminating the “traitors” in their group.

As good as ever, I really like the casting, and I really liked the new wrinkle of having shields available during team challenges. “Shields” protect their bearer from being eliminating that evening, and individuals going for them adds to the information players have about each other… is that person just not a team player? Or in an environment where eliminating someone is mandatory is going for a shield just sensible? Or does it reveal that that player is a traitor, removing a protection mechanism from the non-traitors, from the “faithful”?

As always with this show I liked that, in general, the people appear to mainly be likeable, and there doesn’t appear to be malicious editing - certain actions are focused on to give each day a coherent narrative, and ensure that the drama at each day’s “round table” make sense, but without clearly portraying “goodies” and “baddies”. Also I really enjoy the Uncloaked interview shows, host Ed Gamble is particularly suited to this, and I’m impressed that the celebrities give so much time and space to the contestants.

As per my common complaint about recreational games, or televised sports, while the action is happening I want to hear who’s doing what and why, what are the players thinking, what’s their view on events? That takes place both in the main show and in Uncloaked, which I find particularly interesting. I would love to see televised games or wargames use this format, I think viewers get a lot out of it.

Even if you know the result, or aren’t that interested in the people, it’s worth watching from a design perspective. I’m pessimistic about the celebrity version, due in October of 2025, but we’ll see.

Thunderbolts

One of the latest Marvel movies to be out, at the time of writing anyway. I really really liked this, especially as I watched it after writing most of this post, and through that reminding myself how many superhero films had disappointed me recently. Great casting, a variable tone that works well as you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen next, very well paced, I loved the performances.

And I adored Red Guardian.

If you going to get something out of this I would imagine that you’ve watched it already though, and I can’t imagine what you could get out of this if you weren’t pretty deep into the MCU ⁵ lore already though.

Tracker

An American TV series about a “freelance problem solver”, kind of a bounty hunter but with an emphasis on finding missing persons. Available in the UK on Disney+ and now ITVx. Basically, this is great. There’s a real chemistry between the characters, and it works well even with its general “monster of the week” format where you know/hope everything will be resolved by the end of the hour. One of those shows where the casting is the foundation of everything else, both the leads and all the characters who turn up for just a week, everyone feels believable and fully formed. Recommended.

Virtuosity

If you recognise the name, yes, this is in the right section.

A very nineteen-nineties film, about a malicious AI, so kind of timely too. As that malicious AI villain Russell Crowe’s performance is wonderfully and completely over the top, and arguably is what makes the film work. I mean I assume I’m partly influenced by nostalgia for this kind of film - that rapidly sets up the story and then simply gets on with it. But also, as I’m sure I’ve said often before about these older films we’re catching up on or re-watching, there’s no irony or half-measures here - this is “full-on” and assumes that the viewer is gleefully along for the ride.

Highlights for me were how a pre-Internet threat from AI was imagined, to generate a viable adversary in the film the AI had to compromise nanotech to gain a real world body. Similarly to see how the speed of progress was imagined, the film was made in 1995 but set only four years later in 1999, but with considerable scientific and societal changes.

Wheel of Time

An adaptation of the well regarded series of fantasy books into a TV series, now disappointingly cancelled by Amazon.

Obviously a premium show, with the budget to match. I liked the long episodes, the slow pacing, and the epic scale, the epic vistas, the scale of the story across the world and across time, and just the epic subject matter. It was slow, but I think the complexity called for that, because it was more than solid and single minded forces of good versus the forces of evil; and the forces of good aren’t universally good or beyond reproach.

But sometimes it did feel that it was, er, what it was - which was an adaptation of a deep and complex series of books. Even not having read them I could feel where lore has been missed or glossed over, or the motivations of characters were overly simple.

Wish

Made for Disney’s 100 year anniversary, with many references to the cinematic highlights of their history - according to the Internet anyway, I would have missed them. If you look up online reviews many people seem underwhelmed, but it was a perfectly good Disney movie, not as good as those you remember, but nostalgia is deceptively powerful.

There’s an intriguing idea at the middle of this, a ruler who looks after your wishes for you, and decides which are granted and which are dangerous for the good of all. And then… to reveal the plot, but this is a Disney movie after all… the ruler is toppled by the will and collective strength of the people, rather than him continuing to feed off their despair and misery. There’s all sorts of issues and allegories there, especially in the United States, or at the Disney Corporation - potentially, depending on your opinion and knowledge.

Enjoyable, fun, I think a lot of the reviews say as much about the reviewer, or the requirement to have a hot take now, than the film.

The summary of audience sentiment from Rotten Tomatoes is a great summary: “If you’re looking for a beautifully animated movie with fun characters and memorable songs, Wish delivers.”

Year of the Scab

During the 1987 NFL strike, pro teams scrambled to assemble temporary replacement players to fill in for their striking stars. The Washington Redskins were notable for their “scabs,” a team of cast-offs and has-beens who rode a surprising wave of momentum against all odds. These were men who had dreamed of a career in football or even come close to it, but their dreams had never been realised until that fateful season. In the end, crossing the picket line to play in the NFL did change their lives, but not in the way they’d expected or hoped. For many, this was their final chance to live the NFL dream. What they didn’t know was that their golden ticket would become a scarlet letter.

Year of the Scab revisits this ultimate underdog story, and the men whose ordinary lives were interrupted, who broke the strike and brought their team to victory, only to struggle for their place in the sports history books.

I liked the focus on individual players and their stories, where the bigger events were a background to them, rather than the focus.

Interesting variety of players - has been or never was or just cut at the start of this season. And of course the idea that these players are awful, but they’re just one step beneath the regular players, and maybe as good if they only find the right system or team-mates.

Loved the comparison with the America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, and the value of a team thinking like a team. And like the rest of the documentary they don’t tell you how to interpret the situation, they just list some events… the Cowboys had two losing seasons and lost Tom Landry while loaded with HoF talent… the Redskins went on to win the SuperBowl.

Excuse the “spoiler” to events over thirty years old, but checking Wikipedia these players, deservedly, did get their rings. But thirty one years later, which is insightful into how the NFL treats its players.

Zagazoo

If you’re the one scrolling through this looking for a unusual or different recommendation of something to watch, this kind of show is why you’ve spent time doing so. This - available in the UK on iPlayer - is a lovely animated story, gently and artfully done on families and love and growing up.

Media you should read my thoughts on first, it might save you some time:

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Yet another superhero film - if you’re working your way through this post you’ll have seen a lot of these, with more to come. As a film, Aquaman 2 looked great, and many of the actors performed well, but at its core it was a nonsensical Guinness advert.

Stupid trailer for a stupid film here, which reminded me too much of the legendary Auralnauts movie trailer.

Black Adam

Another superhero film. By the end of the film it had elevated itself to “alright”. At the beginning, with a voice over and clunky exposition I thought this would be as bad as Morbius, but in the end it was merely disappointing.

Overall the CGI was good but variable, and this kind of subject lives or dies by the quality of its look overall. The performances elevated the material, but at times you just can’t past the feeling of seeing something unreal in the middle of other things which feel more real. Also for me personally, I wasn’t sure why I should care? Sometimes I can get swept away by the moment, but otherwise, a lot of the character motivations didn’t make sense if you thought about them too much, so as a viewer you’re not sure who you hope should win, or why.

As with many of these films, I’m conscious that there’s so much talent here, and so much that’s done well - just organising this kind of project, editing it into a narrative that makes sense, and all the technical expertise of just building something out of audio and video recordings and sound effects and special effects, all of that felt very well done, as you need for a film at this level. But it felt like behind all that, the film didn’t really have a strong “core”.

As is often the case, the trailer tells you more than you need to know, and shows off how spectacular this all is.

Captain America: Brave New World

Yet another superhero film, I do enjoy the genre, and I’m intrigued as to how the authors manage that kind of world. I mean, It was alright. I think as an actor Andrew Mackie deserved better, and as a character and concept that Captain America deserved better. As is often the case now with each Marvel film, this felt like it was just connecting tissue between other parts of the MCU⁵. But also, as always with these films when they’re not a full Avengers movie, you can’t help wondering where everyone else is, both heroes and villains, while the events transpire. That’s kind of part of suspending your disbelief, but… as I’m sure I’ve said before… I’m not quite sure why, but I’ve found it really easy to suspend my disbelief when watching superhero movies, but that showed cracks during this.

Cursed

A Netflix show re-imagining the legends of King Arthur, which I was intrigued by, but not enough to watch all of it; so I ended up “speed watching”, catching some scenes, forwarding through many others. ( don’t depend on the plot summaries on Wikipedia, they are terrible ). I wanted to like it, but, it’s not very good - logically inconsistent with weird choices by the production team and the characters alike. Princess Weekes does a great review. I don’t feel as though I watch that much fantasy, especially compared to how much there is overall, but even to me this felt generic, I wasn’t really surprised by anything.

And at the culmination of it all the ending felt very unsatisfying, written with the mindset of “I hope we get another series” rather than a logical and/or emotional progression of the all the preceding events, and what the characters deserved.

Elementals

Another MCU⁵ film that attempted to expand the universe even further, and mostly failed it seems. I’m always wary of any negative reviews of this kind of property, so I wanted to like it, but couldn’t.

I wrote at the time “Feels like a Pixar short that just kept getting bigger.”, but didn’t have the tight frame of that kind of work, it was dominated by an immigration allegory that made little sense, especially within the world building of the film. At a more micro level the decisions by charactors, both minor and major, made little sense, and didn’t give us a reason to empathise with them or root for them, they just kind of appear and that’s it. I originally noted “your home in your homeland was destroyed, so everybody else rebuilt theirs but you left” - so my response to this is just a shrug.

If you’ve read any other points I’ve made in this post, you’ll see internal consistency is key - one point that stuck out was narrative confusion about who does or doesn’t catch fire…. water is water but also flesh. That threw me right out of something I wasn’t particularly into anyway.

As part of the problem with the MCU⁵ though, this film tied into Captain America - so it’s part of the homework.

Last Knights

This is in the “don’t watch” section but, I mean, it was watchable, but only in a “too tired to read, too awake to sleep” way.

A 2015 film set in a kind of alternative medieval past, where the last honourable knights are devoted to their code and their masters, in an unnamed country that feels very Northern European. It’s a “westernised” version of a Japanese event/legend about honourable warriors avenging their master at the turn of the 18th century. By putting it in a European setting, and a medieval one, that devotion and version of honourable behaviour just felt out of place and disconcerting, which is particularly damaging to this as it’s the core concept of the plot and many of the characters within it.

Yet even with that issue the cast should have elevated this to something stronger, most notably Morgan Freeman and Clive Owen, but also including a woefully underused Shohreh Aghdashloo… actually the entire female side of the cast were barely present. At the extreme level of failing the Bechdel test, I’m not sure that two women actually spoke to each other at any point in the movie. But instead they seemed a little flat, following a framework of honour and rituals to their inevitably fatal conclusions.

Also we didn’t have much opportunity to get to know and like the warriors we were meant to be rooting for, those last honourable knights, so many of the valiant heroes giving up their lives were also kind of just some guys you kind of recognised being killed by some guys you didn’t recognise. It’s not often the case for me, but I wonder if this would have been better if it had been longer? Or maybe spent less time on the lead warrior Raiden pretending to fall back into dishonourable and drunken ways, and more on everyone else.

Other quibbles - I think it was filmed digitally, rather than on film, which lent a weird “TV studio” quality to parts of it, but that might have been my ageing TV. Also the audio sounded unusually bad, that might be me, my tv, my headphones, the service I used, or some combination of the above.

Also the ending was weirdly open, like they hoped for a sequel? But that’s made it more unsatisfying. For me films are either two to three hour long episodes of some elongated series, as per all the superhero films I’ve tried, or they’re self-contained stories. Leaving the end open feels like ripping out the last ten pages of a novel. Or again that might be a Western interpretation of a Japanese concept or trope.

And as a final note - this is one of the last reviews I’m writing before getting these very very overdue weeknotes online. I’m conscious of how other films from Japanese culture have intrigued me, but only because I knew I was visiting somewhere foreign, and looking in from the outside. In this case, especially as someone who’s read a little about what honour was to medieval knights, it felt deceptive, especially combined with directorial decisions on what parts of the knights’ plan to reveal to the audience.

Oh, and as a final final note, I could find no analysis or derision of this film on YouTube, but I could find two complete copies that appear to have been up for several years - no copyright strikes, no DMCA takedowns, that’s the level this film ended up as.

Despite all my reservations, more than anything else this film feels like a missed opportunity.

Million Dollar Secret

Another spin on the Social Deduction Reality TV genre, made most popular here in the UK with the TV show The Traitors. Twelve contestants compete for a million dollars in this Netflix series.

We watched an episode and a bit but then decided not to spend more time on it. Peter Serafinowicz was good, but otherwise it was too artificial for me - reminding me why The Traitors is the only reality show I tend to watch.

Of course the Traitors is edited carefully, but Million Dollar Secret was more in line with other shows, where I felt that people had been cast at the more extreme ends of personality and attitude, and given more prompting on how to behave. To this old man who doesn’t have a Tiktok account, the players felt mostly a little too much like influencers rather than people.

And from a format/mechanics point of view, I didn’t like many of the design decisions - Traitors has a flow from the players being rivals to colleagues to rivals, and the way the players are watched is more natural. With only 12 players at the start, there was much more emphasis on immediately putting them together in tighter confines to force interactions.

If you like the drama and have the time it’s worth giving a chance, but this was too contrived for me.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

As per other descriptions of other films, I like the fantastical, but for this, the AI was essentially magic.

Meh.

Morbius

Yet another superhero film in this section, and one that deserves its legendary status, this is probably far more interesting to examine than to try and just enjoy. Firstly, there’s so much exposition - which is understandable when you’re converting a comic to a film, because comics have so much more “bandwidth” in their presentation - but still, other films find better ways to do this, or just decide to tell new stories.

Also there’s massive leaps, that are jarring to the viewer - my suspended disbelief collapses when you turn the counterfeiting lab into a blood lab by rearranging the pieces. Similarly for the sense of location, it was filmed in the UK, which makes the “subway” scene jarring, and the park scene weird… as Central Park is so flat.

I can see why it was derided, only to be watched ironically or for Marvel completeists.

Poker Face

We thought we’d give Poker Face a try - a show about a woman with an interesting ability of a sort, not quite a super-power, but in that direction. I found it a really interesting concept, but it was clear from the first episode that this was going to be unrelentingly grim, and felt a little bit like style over substance. The trailer is here.

Section 31

Paramount doesn’t seem to really know what to do with Star Trek, or how to make the most out of the property for profit, or out of the history for world-building. This Star Trek film is the symbolic epitome of that. It obviously suffered from originally setting out to be an eight part series, and being chopped up into a short film, but still some of the choices made were sub-optimal. As always, any film actually existing is impressive considering the logistics involved, but also I always wonder what else could have been done with that much time and talent.

And as per what I’ve often said elsewhere, fantastical worlds really work for me if they make sense, but the nanokin with wacky accidents, and the inherently sexy aliens, just stretched me too far, and I’ve loved the whimsical and musical episodes that have featured in this franchise before.

Both of these are worth your time on showing why it just doesn’t work: with spoilers and without spoilers.

The Boys

I didn’t realise just how much of what I watch is superhero related until I put this post together.

Well, how much of what I try to watch, I lasted three quarters of the first episode.

The premise is fascinating, super-powers treated realistically in our current society - I love it when creators take a fantastical concept and extrapolate all the effects it would have, both the realistic consequences of such powers existing, and how the rest of the world reacts. But the world building feels undercooked. I mean I didn’t give it much of a chance, but I got the impression I’d be thinking of all the second and third order consequences of such super-powers, and the super-powered, that were missed for plot-based reasons.

So I found it illogical, but also wilfully grim… “dark” would have been interesting, but there’s no light and dark here, contrasting between the two, showing a complete view of life, but just anything good is a set up so your hopes can be squashed. I gather the series only continues in that vein through subsequent episodes, just an unwavering tilt towards miserable outcomes. Ha ha audience, fuck you for caring. I have my moments, but I’m mostly out of puberty now, so that approach just leaves me dismayed and looking for something with more to it.

Also, I’m usually a Karl Urban fan, but I’m really not sure about that accent…

The Longest Yard

The 2005 version of the classic film about a group of American prisoners playing American Football against their guards. This updated version still kept a lot of attitudes from the seventies - on punishment, sexuality, prison and prisoners, mental illness…

This is impressively awful, a waste of the talent available, such as Terry Crews and Michael Irvin. From memory - the original had some depth to the characters, and you were rooting for the prisoners in some way, in this version none of the characters are likeable, so you’re rooting for them just because they’re less awful than the guards? This means that the character death, unlike the original, carries no weight - because it mainly seems to happen in this version because it happened in the last version.

One thing that really stuck with me was that the musical cues are amazingly and hilariously blunt. I’m no student of the genre, I’ve just watched quite a few films, but these seemed especially willing to tell you what you should be feeling now.

The Mother

“A deadly female assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.”

Competent but under-whelming, predictable, with disappointing music choices.

The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship or the Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating

A set of books on “Gamesmanship”, as the title says, that’s supposedly the art of winning games without cheating.

For someone so interested in strategy and hacks and psychological warfare I really wanted to like this, and I just bounced off. I’m intrigued by the idea but the humour is dated for me, and it all felt laboured. Also to me there’s something unsavoury about the “contract”, where one player or team is playing a different game to the other. There’s no wit or charm here, it’s just made up stories about being mean.

Also it was all so petty, considering the subject matter I was expecting grand intrigue, or innovative attempts at social climbing, but in practice the stakes seemed so low.

Venom: The Last Dance

Oh, another one… are superhero films just not as good now, or am I tired of them? From the weird “lore dump” right at the start, it was clear this was going to be awful.

To me this was such a waste of talent - some parts were excellent: the CGI, some of the acting, some of the jokes or scenes worked so well… otherwise it was a mess of different tones that, from my limited experience, probably indicates production problems. There’s some kind of analogy to the Venom character here… you can almost feel a good movie trapped inside a bad one.

As is often discussed in creative circles, well, in the few I see - stories are driven by characters not plot, this felt like it was plot driven… especially Venom, who varied between impulsive child, violent murderer, heroic warrior with a universe wide view of the stakes, depending on the set piece.

The trailer will tell you whether this is for you or not, revising the rest of the ⁵ isn’t necessary. Probably only worth watching if you’ve followed the rest of the Venom film series.

Warrior Nun

To borrow the premise completely from Wikipedia: “Warrior Nun revolves around the story of a 19-year-old who wakes up in a morgue with a new lease on life and a divine artefact embedded in her back. She discovers she is now part of the ancient Order of the Cruciform Sword that has been tasked with fighting demons on Earth, and powerful forces representing both heaven and hell want to find and control her.”

Done well, this is exactly for me - so I kind of watched the first episode and a bit, mainly to see if any of the ideas struck me… they didn’t. Underwhelming.

Media that, I don’t know, it’s complicated:

17776

I really liked the experimental approach to fiction, you can find it here.

There’s some really interesting ideas here about immortality and invulnerability and play and sport and media. Especially for me I was intrigued by the nature of a game where time and injuries don’t mean anything, so you can throw yourself into a tornado, or hide for 10000 years.

But in the end some parts were weirdly blunt compared to the weirdness of it all, the commentary on the complexity of NFL rulebooks for example.

Overall it feels like a collection of ideas that each deserved more attention, I didn’t really care about anybody or what happened to them, I think I actually would have liked something more literal. It was interesting to see the choice of format, but - to me - that didn’t add anything, and didn’t convey atmosphere, it was there for its own sake.

Cloud SLAW

I didn’t know where else to put this so it ends up in this weird catch-all section. This is a free course teaching you how to get to grips with AWS. I enjoyed it for a while, but the most I got out of it was just seeing the state of this kind of tooling. In the end I was put off by two things:

• The AWS console was horribly slow. With random errors that would go away after a refresh, but fighting that kind of awfulness is only in the “someone is paying me now or in future” box. I’m genuinely interested in whether this is accumulated cruft over time because the underlying technology evolves so quickly, or is an intentional decision to exploit a sunk cost fallacy in its users?
• Manually editing JSON files to change configurations, like autoexec.bat in 199something - so there’s no display of permissions or models of what I’m doing, I’m having to infer it all during the course.

If you’re interested in Cloud this is definitely worth looking at. And it was something I ended up doing in bursts every month or so, rather than regular and repeated learning… but as well as as an idea of what cloud admins have to work with, it left me with a strong impression of how easy it must be to make configuration errors.

Doctor Who

Er, erm, I’ve left my “weeknotes” so long that I think an entire Doctor has arrived and departed since I started making notes on this.

As always for me, fantastical shows stand or fall by their internal logic - and Doctor Who is increasingly creaky in this regard. For me there’s been some great highlights to Gatwa’s stint, but also some episodes that just left me wondering if the concept worked. From a quick look at the episode list on Wikipedia, 73 Yards and The Robot Revolution stick out for this reason.

Of course the traditional “defence” is that it’s just a kids show, whereas something like Hilda, mentioned way above, shows what you can create with that commitment to the world you’ve built - and how much we can all get out of the art, children and adults alike.

So sometimes I enjoyed it, sometimes I just watched it out of interest in what decisions were made, sometimes I’ve wondered what everyone else was excited about, and sometimes it’s been interesting to hear about the production challenges.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Am I watching the wrong films, or the right films for the wrong reasons?

This was firmly alright, and was more stimulating in examining the choices made, than in following the story.

Yet again another time-travel based plot, but after the aliens last time, that wasn’t much of a leap… where do they go from here?

The goofs on IMDB are an absolute joy though. Partly an example of how difficult historical drama is, which the 1960s are now, partly just a sign of how many experts there are in the world, combined with the wonderful Internet and being able to check facts. Really, I expect only one person reading this blog will get the joy we did from people who understand drugs and guns and planes and cars and trains and light switches, but after two and a half hours of being underwhelmed by the film, reading the goofs made it all worthwhile.

Northamptonshire Folk Tales, by Kevin Manwaring.

A collection of local folk tales, of varying quality really. Some are intriguing or insightful to the past, say the great fire of Northampton. Others are “a weird thing happened, the end”. If you’re looking for a riveting read this isn’t for you, but if you just want some colour around historical beliefs do check this out.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

A TV series, based on the Percy Jackson & the Olympians fantasy novel series by Rick Riordan, which is in turn inspired by Greek mythology.

I liked it, and if you’re an adult I’ve advise against being put off by the young cast or the YA theme. But… by the end of the first series it didn’t quite “stick the landing”. And I did get a little lost about who was related to who, and quite what the protagonist’s plan was - that might not be a problem if you tend to work through a series more quickly than we do.

Podcasts should go here, but don’t

In the end there’s no space or time for all the podcasts I’ve listened to in the last couple of years, I will - once again - try and get into the habit of writing up a quick review after each one, as I tend to do on LinkedIn.

Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures

This is a book about, as you’d expect, the sports and games of medieval cultures, and impressively pretty much covers the whole globe. I found it interesting, but much more of an index and summary than I expected, and less academic than I had hoped. I mean I was looking for lots of intriguing terms and terminology, but this was much more aimed at light descriptions and advice for teachers on how to enable children to play the games themselves.

The Beauty of Games, By Frank Lantz

An interesting philosophical treatise on whether Games are Art… well, I say interesting, it might be to you, it wasn’t interesting enough to me, and I ended up skimming a lot of it for intriguing ideas. For example, games as aesthetics on page 26, poker as an intriguing mix of a game “world” and the real world because money and what it represents passes into and out of the game, and the probabilistic thinking it requires.

The Trust: A Game of Greed

A Traitors-like “social deduction reality show” on Netflix. I found the design choices interesting, in this the players don’t need to directly attack each other, but also there’s an exclusion mechanism that means you can’t “return fire”. Another interesting choice was players being sent down to “the vault”, a room containing offers that benefit them or the group; when this happened two players were sent, a great way to create tension or generate alliances. This creates trust issues between them, as well as the rest of the group who have to trust what they come back with - that gives so much scope for “gameplay” beyond the more simple “he said, she said” of these kind of formats - which I think is a smart step considering that the format is becoming familiar to viewers and players alike.

As with all these shows, casting is so key, getting the right people so you’ll have some affinity with a background or a value.

But, er, I/we just stopped watching it. I would love to be involved in the design of these kind of shows, in brainstorming the next step of the format, so I think this is only a show I’d like to study, rather than try and just enjoy.

Videos on Nebula and YouTube should go here, but don’t

In the end there’s no space or time for all the video vlogs or documentaries I’ve watched over the last couple of years, I will - once again - try and get into the habit of writing up a quick review after each one.

While YouTube has become a much more hostile platform, to creators and their audiences alike, in the last couple of years, there’s still some thought provoking gems on there, I ought to highlight that work more often.

A couple of highlights, for YouTube, if you’ve any interest in Japanese baseball, Japanese players, or just seeing a genuinely different sports culture to that in the West, do watch this on YouTube. And I’ve mentioned so many “social deduction” shows on here, a very quick pointer to The Getaway, which takes the format to its logical conclusion. Which they explain in the trailer, you should watch the trailer.

Epilogue

All constructive feedback welcome over whatever communication medium suits you, including whichever social media service I used to attract your attention to this in the first place.

I’ve enjoyed putting this together, especially aiming for nothing more than a kind of glorified listicle. While these always take longer to write than I expect, and I’m pretty sure I can still count the readership on one hand, I find it really useful to collate and curate my thoughts ⁶ in this way. Do consider doing the same, blogging or journalling or something in-between.

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