Grab bag o' entertainment
The last few weeks have been a little odd. My typical form of entertainment is playing video games for the most part, but the only game I've really put any time into is Rock Band. It's almost at the point where I like thinking/talking about games rather than actually playing them, and that sort of depresses me. I suspect part of it is just simple time investment, I don't have a lot of unoccupied hours in the day, and I'm not home that often throughout the week. A bit of it, as well, is probably D&D, since it's both social and game-y. Also you can try to push people into lava a lot (or get shanked by an assassin...).
Regardless, to fill up my non-video game playing hours, I've been watching TV shows with the fiancee:
-Finished the first three seasons of Dexter. I think the first season is the best, and probably the one that I would call good. Season two would have made a great series finale (if not for damn Lila), and the third was entertaining, but I felt that Jimmy Smits's character should have been spread throughout two seasons. The crunched timescale of all the seasons (it's difficult to tell how much time has passed between and during each season) makes some parts of season three fairly weak. Season 4 though, looks to be really interesting.
-BBC's Robin Hood: hahahahaha, pretty much a modern Xena/Hercules with somewhat better, British actors. It's entertaining, but not what I would call good. I revel in Guy of Gisborne's ineptitude (despite the series trying to point otherwise) and the Sheriff's delightful evilness. Really, the Sheriff needs his own show, where he can just chew scenery and enjoy how evil he is, since he's pretty much a Disney villain without needing to conform to a PG rating. The weakest link of the show is definitely Robin, since he's the sort of prankster that you want to punch in the face, but the supporting cast for the most part are pretty good.
-Mushishi: Only through the first disc, I think. I really enjoy the series so far, I like the short little vignettes, and the little details you get about Ginko's life (though, there hasn't been much so far, aside from the eye thing). It's also pretty great that Ginko isn't infallible, and I like a lot of the mythology and folktales that they pull from. It's also neat how the concept of saving the day is fairly fluid, not everyone Ginko helps is necessarily better off from how most people would think they should be, but it's realistic, and it works.
-Carnivale: This one's a bit old, since I haven't watched an episode since September, but it's a hugely dense series that's a bit slow-going but is fascinating. Takes place in a traveling carnival in the Great Depression, and deals with the powers that two characters have, John Connor (err, Nick Stahl) and Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown, who voices Lex in most of the animated outings). Not a lot happens per episode, and you get little snippets, but a lot of the little touches are great. Like Stahl's character seeing "AVATAR" written in a cave, continuously, but not knowing what words he was looking for, so he scribbles down "TARAVATARAVATAR" or something like that, since he wouldn't know the term, or the incredibly creepy ghost town episodes, which is where we stopped watching, since it's hard to move on from there.
Regardless, to fill up my non-video game playing hours, I've been watching TV shows with the fiancee:
-Finished the first three seasons of Dexter. I think the first season is the best, and probably the one that I would call good. Season two would have made a great series finale (if not for damn Lila), and the third was entertaining, but I felt that Jimmy Smits's character should have been spread throughout two seasons. The crunched timescale of all the seasons (it's difficult to tell how much time has passed between and during each season) makes some parts of season three fairly weak. Season 4 though, looks to be really interesting.
-BBC's Robin Hood: hahahahaha, pretty much a modern Xena/Hercules with somewhat better, British actors. It's entertaining, but not what I would call good. I revel in Guy of Gisborne's ineptitude (despite the series trying to point otherwise) and the Sheriff's delightful evilness. Really, the Sheriff needs his own show, where he can just chew scenery and enjoy how evil he is, since he's pretty much a Disney villain without needing to conform to a PG rating. The weakest link of the show is definitely Robin, since he's the sort of prankster that you want to punch in the face, but the supporting cast for the most part are pretty good.
-Mushishi: Only through the first disc, I think. I really enjoy the series so far, I like the short little vignettes, and the little details you get about Ginko's life (though, there hasn't been much so far, aside from the eye thing). It's also pretty great that Ginko isn't infallible, and I like a lot of the mythology and folktales that they pull from. It's also neat how the concept of saving the day is fairly fluid, not everyone Ginko helps is necessarily better off from how most people would think they should be, but it's realistic, and it works.
-Carnivale: This one's a bit old, since I haven't watched an episode since September, but it's a hugely dense series that's a bit slow-going but is fascinating. Takes place in a traveling carnival in the Great Depression, and deals with the powers that two characters have, John Connor (err, Nick Stahl) and Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown, who voices Lex in most of the animated outings). Not a lot happens per episode, and you get little snippets, but a lot of the little touches are great. Like Stahl's character seeing "AVATAR" written in a cave, continuously, but not knowing what words he was looking for, so he scribbles down "TARAVATARAVATAR" or something like that, since he wouldn't know the term, or the incredibly creepy ghost town episodes, which is where we stopped watching, since it's hard to move on from there.