What's Rowan Watching?

World of Warcraft took a back seat to nominally more passive video viewing this week. I say "nominally" because the show Scooter and I spent the most time on was actually a pretty engaging mystery.

But first: We haven't spent our entire week sitting in front of the boob toob. On Saturday, we got out and went on a little road adventure that involved quite a few country roads and a tour through some model homes we'll never be able to afford, nor that we truly need. (I'd like a bigger place, but it's really only the two of us and the puppernauts. We don't need a house three times the size of our current one at four times the price.) After a very roundabout journey, we ended up at the oldest barbecue joint in Texas. Hands down, Southside Market and BBQ in Elgin has the best smoked brisket and turkey I have had in almost two decades eating Texas barbecue. Normally, I find smoked brisket to be a bit too dry, preferring the cut as the perhaps more familiar slow-cooked corned beef. Smoked turkey breast also tends toward the dry side, but usually has a good flavor. The folks at Southside have managed to keep their meats moist and tender and flavorful, perfection. I also had the pork, which is very well done, but not a stand-out. And their sausage is delicious; though again, not my favorite thing to eat. The sides are typical BBQ fare, I had potato salad and mac & cheese (with real cheese, not Kraft powder), while Scooter sampled the pinto beans as well as the potato salad. They did have salads available (for an upcharge), but the lack of fresh veggies or fruit has always disappointed me when going to places like this. In any event, I highly recommend that you try this place out if you're driving between Austin and Houston. Or just out for a little weekend adventure in Central Texas.

A rare phenomenon, Scooter and I stayed up late Saturday evening to attend a 10 pm showing of Beauty and the Beast. You don't generally come here for movie reviews, Dear Reader (or restaurant reviews either, come to think of it), so suffice it to say we really enjoyed this new live-action version of "a tale as old as time." If you enjoyed the animated classic when you were younger, I think you'll like this version. My only complaint was that Luke Evans, while performing admirably in the role of Gaston, just didn't have the stature/bulk of the animated character. I feel that there are actors in Hollywood that could have pulled it off both the look and the performance.

Lastly, for the past several evenings, Scooter and I have been watching Frequency on Netflix. The show was running on the CW here in the U.S. this past fall, playing out roughly in real time during the course of the short season. Apparently, it has not done well in the ratings, so they pushed it to Netflix along with another CW program in hopes that it might generate more interest. As far as I can tell from the news, that effort has not been successful. However, I think the show is a worthy successor to the 2000 film of the same name that starred Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel. In the show, Peyton List and Riley Smith star as a New York City police detective and her father (also a cop), separated by 20 years and communicating with each other through a quantum entangled (magic) ham radio. If you've seen the movie, the concept is generally the same, though it plays out differently over the course of the 13-episode series. I recommend it be watched on a binge over a few nights as I did. Unfortunately, I fear the premise of the show—with its time jumps and "butterfly effect" timeline—did not play well in weekly installments. Still worth a watch though, which is saying a lot since I hardly watch any television anymore.

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Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

A Different Kind of Game

A new month, and the dramatic increase in pageviews continues. We're not even seven full days in, and already I've gotten more hits than six of the past nine months [EDIT: 7 of the past 9 as of the afternoon of 8 June]. All this, without posting in the first six days. I say this not to brag, but out of personal curiosity. What drives traffic often seems mysterious. As I posited in my previous post, the impending Warcraft may have something to do with it. Now that I am looking, two of my three most popular all time posts are film related, and one in the top five was a Star Trek RP fic with what turned out to be a popular photo. It will be interesting to see whether the traffic drops off after this weekend.

Anyhoo, while I have played on my new Zabraks a bit over the past week (they're each up to 23), Scooter and I really haven't played much together. Unfortunately, the comfort of couch gaming is sometimes offset by the production of bringing the laptops out to the living room and setting the whole thing up. Watching the boob toob is easy enough, but last Monday evening, we didn't really find anything of interest on Netflix or Hulu. I reminded Scooter (yet again) that a copy of the first season of Game of Thrones had sat in our video collection (for over a year now) that we had yet to break the seal on. A fact she had somehow managed to forget even though I bring it up with some regularity whenever we are discussing entertainment options.

Thus began our binge. Those of you who have watched the whole series to this past Sunday—or who've read the books—probably think we are silly for waiting so long to start. And I agree. During one of my business trips, I caught the premiere episode; I have seen one or two more in hotel rooms across the country. However, we don't subscribe to cable TV, much less a premium channel like HBO, so we haven't seen the whole series. Moreover, when I started the book, I had a hard time with the capricious cruelty of more than a few characters and—perhaps worse—found myself bored by scenes that I had not seen in my sporadic viewings.

MINOR SPOILERS (Skip past the picture below.)

But the pacing of a dramatic presentation is different than that of a book. And we found ourselves enjoying the show, even though Scooter covered her eyes during some of the more gruesome parts. I do like how none of the characters are completely good or evil. The two that are most good in my estimation are Ned and Dany, though of course both have flaws—some of them fatal. Ned's incomplete support of John Snow, for example, and perhaps his over-support of old friend Robert Baratheon. Dany is just coming into her own, but even she makes mistakes, like trusting the shepherd priestess. On the other hand, even the "bad guys" show some redeeming qualities. Except Joffrey, I can't wait for that little prick to choke.

SPOILERS OVER

We watched all ten episodes of the first season in less than week, including four on Friday night, not going to bed until 1 o'clock in the morning. There have been plenty of reviews of Game of Thrones so I'll keep this brief, we love it. We need to get the second season and watch that, and I foresee us spending a pretty penny to get the remaining seasons over the next few months.

NOTE: I've set moderation on full. If I feel a comment is too spoilery (for any of the seasons), I will crush it.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

"We were a good team. Weren't we?"

So Scooter and I just finished Season 2 of Agents of SHIELD on Tuesday night. When the show premiered almost two years ago, I was pretty hyped, coming off the high of The Avengers. I even wrote up a short, positive review of the pilot. Unfortunately, the next few episodes were a little "meh," and I ended up losing interest, especially given how seldom I watch weekly episodic television. Also, unfortunately, I apparently stopped watching about the same time Season 1—like John Cleese—got better.

The benefits of Netflix include the ability to binge watch entire seasons of show in a relatively brief period of time, allowing weak episodes to be subsumed into the larger flow of a series. Such is the case with AoS. I watched the first season in December or January, when Scooter was busy with something else, and ended up really enjoying it. But Hulu didn't have all the episodes from Season 2, and I didn't want to start "in the middle." And Scooter still needed to catch up with Season 1. So we've been doing just that for the past few weeks, interspersed with SWTOR sessions.

Anyway, the second season was even better than the first, though there were still a few episodes here and there that were weaker than others. I like how they tie the AoS storyline into events from the movies without making it necessary to see either the movies or the show to make sense of what is going on. Some interesting plotlines have developed, and the season finale brought some good closure, while teasing a few new plotlines for Season 3. I don't want to spoil anything if you haven't seen the show. I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to see Agents of SHIELD in the near future.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

The Fall TV Schedule: What I'm Watching

I was thinking about mentioning what I did last night, which wasn't gaming, when I came into a conversation on Twitter between Sig, Jae Jae, and Mangle. Michael chimed in after. The conversation was about TV shows, and doing other activities, like phone-gaming, while watching. More and more with each passing year, a show has to be pretty special for me to even turn on the TV. So that's where I focus. That's not to say I leave the room if someone else in the family is watching a show, but there's a good chance it's just background noise to me if I am playing on my phone or computer. Having "cut the Cable," we watch shows through Hulu or Netflix, and occasionally on the network websites. Shows don't automatically bleed from one to the next throughout the evening because no one is really paying attention. Anyway, here are the shows I am making a point to keep track of this season:

Gotham

Three episodes so far. Also, the most talked-about show on my Twitter feed, probably because of the geek/comic book connection.
Premise: Young Bruce Wayne's parents were just murdered, and Detective Jim Gordon is going to find out whodunnit.
Assessment: I like it. But if not for the setting, this would be a fairly pedestrian police drama. On the other hand, it is not Smallville, or even Arrow. There doesn't seem to be the young adult angst those shows exude. Of course, there are a bunch of "stunt" characterizations, like the Poison Ivy cameo and a barely-there Edward Nygma. Some folks think there was a Joker cameo in the pilot, but I'm not so sure. Other colorful villains are a little more central to the plot (Penguin and Catwoman), but it's mostly about organized crime and corruption in Gotham. Robin Lord Taylor stands out as Oswald Cobblepot. I'm glad the main villain is not the Joker, who seems overdone. Taylor does a great job with the weasely, murderous Penguin. I got into a discussion on Twitter regarding this Penguin's similarity (or not) to that of Danny DeVito; regardless, I prefer Taylor's rendition. Jada Pinkett Smith is sultry and menacing as mob sub-boss Fish Mooney.

How to Get Away With Murder

Two episodes so far.
Premise: A group of law students intern under a criminal law professor who is also a practicing defense attorney.
Assessment: Intriguing. Viola Davis will probably get an Emmy nod, assuming the show gets a full season run (and there's no reason to think it won't). The show mixes a episodic bit of House in the courtroom with a presumably season-long murder conspiracy arc that keep you guessing.  Slightly annoying: Quick flashes of key events near the end of the episode, just in case you missed an important clue. I suppose this would be more helpful and less annoying if I hadn't picked up on things earlier in the episode. But it shows an underestimation of the audience, IMHO.

The Blacklist

Three episodes into the second season. The only show I stuck with last year. You can catch all of Season 1 on Netflix if you are so inclined.
Premise: Raymond "Red" Reddington has enemies. And the FBI is helping him eliminate them.
Assessment: Amazing. James Spader is pitch perfect as the likable, yet menacing "Concierge of Crime," and Megan Boone leads the rest of the cast giving solid performances. More than the case-of-the-week in "Murder" above, each villain-of-the-week on Red's blacklist ties into the larger story arc. Plus, each episode raises questions even as it answers others. I just hope the writers know where they're headed, unlike some other twisty-turny mystery shows. *cough*Lost*cough* I'm not sure what more to say here, except that I highly recommend the Blacklist to anyone who wants awesome television.

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Lazy Saturday

This is one of those days that I am basically looking at a blank screen and wondering what I am going to write. I didn't really do much today. Spent some time early in the morning doing some fence repair, then took some Benadryl to combat the itchy mosquito bites I'd received. This had the side effect of making me drowsier than expected, and I ended up sleeping the morning away.

In the afternoon, Scooter and I watched the recent movie "Noah" starring Russell Crowe. A friend had lent it to me. Strange movie, honestly. The cover tries to play up the action, but it is far more a character piece, in my opinion. It draws some of its story from Apocryphal books in addition to the account found in Genesis. Even accounting for that, the filmmakers took a lot of liberties with the plot. I also re-watched part of "Cloud Atlas."

I played some WildStar while Scooter ran some errands with her daughter. I really like my new solo toon, Lyra, but she's a bit squishy.

We ended up watching a mini-marathon of "Arrow" this evening. I actually kinda like this show. At first Oliver Queen seemed like a cheap imitation Bruce Wayne. But there's a great deal of intrigue and a web of lies that surrounds him. Bruce's enemies were always "other." Oliver's may be right in his own home.

If you're interested in joining the torrential downpour of blog posts, sail on over to Belghast's Blaugust Initiative Page on Anook and let him know you're there. It may even mean a small windfall for you, as Belghast will reward the faithful.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Coulson Lives!! A Review of Agents of SHIELD

Like millions of Americans—and a few Canadians—I watched the premier Agents of SHIELD last night. The eagerly anticipated Network TV follow-up to Joss Whedon's The Avengers had big shoes to fill. I don't normally watch network television anymore, too much MMO gaming to be done. But anything from Mutant Enemy is worth having a look-see.

Seeing the show "live" reminded me of a few annoyances about TV that I had sorta forgotten. Like the commercials. Now, I do watch a few shows over Scooterz' shoulder, usually on Hulu. Hulu has a single commercial during normal breaks in the show. Most are unobtrusive. There was this one commercial on ABC last night. I don't even know what it was for; but the most annoying sound came out of my TV for about 30 seconds. I think it may have been music. I must be getting old.

The show itself was pretty good. Without going into too much detail here, after a brief action-packed teaser, the various major characters were introduced, including what had appeared in the previews to be the epic reappearance of Agent Coulson, who had supposedly been killed by Loki immediately prior to "The Battle of New York" in The Avengers. (Not a spoiler, unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past 6 months.) True to form, Joss, knowing that the preview would include the epic "Welcome to Level 7," turned it into a humorous moment. My office mate thought that bit was a little forced, but I found it amusing.

The characters seem a bit stock—company man, rebel hacker, Asian badass, "twin" lab geniuses—but then so were the characters on Firefly—at least on paper. But Whedon has a talent for fleshing out trope characters, so I am sure these will be no exception. Several have secrets and/or troubled pasts that I am sure we'll get glimpses of in future episodes. And it fits here, since SHIELD is a quasi-spy agency.

I am interested and a little troubled with the way Coulson will develop as a character. As essentially a glorified extra in Iron Man, Coulson was a typically unflappable "Agent," played pitch perfect by Clark Gregg. This seems to be Gregg's talent: unflappable deadpan (cf The New Adventures of Old Christine). Not that he's not capable of anything else. On the contrary I think Gregg is an excellent actor. But as the leader of this team, Coulson the character will need to change and become more passionate (something we did catch a glimpse of in this premier). I'm thinking Hotchner from Criminal Minds. The big question will how passionate can he get and still BE Coulson.

The only other regular that really got some character development was Skye, the hacker/recruit played by Chloe Bennet. In many ways, she's the audience stand-in. And I look forward to seeing more of her.

It was pretty good, but the many of special effects don't hold up in HD. It's hard to transition the feel of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the smaller screen (and budget) of episodic television. Honestly, it felt a lot more like Heroes. I just hope Mutant Enemy can keep the show from becoming the mess that Heroes ended up being.

Overall, I liked it. But I'll be watching on Hulu henceforth. Long commercial breaks are too irritating.