Content Consumption Log (Since May 24, 2018)

[flamebyrd]

I'm back home! I haven't done one of these in a while, so here's a quick, probably inaccurate update on what I've been doing to conquer pop culture.

Books
Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells (Murderbot #3)
Exit Strategy - Martha Wells (Murderbot #4)

Audio (I only list narrative audio here)
The Adventure Zone: (K)Nights, 1-3
The Adventure Zone: Amnesty 8-12 (I'm not sure how much longer this has, but I think I'll wait a bit longer before listening to more)
The Adventure Zone: Dust
The Adventure Zone: Balance - All live shows through 1 November (Seattle, Halloween Special)
Lawful and Orderly - 1-2
The Strange Case of Starship Iris 1-4

If anyone has any narrative podcast recommendations, please send them my way!

Television
Guardian (镇魂) 1-4
Some random episodes of the classic Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Movies
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)

Live Events
Pittsburgh Penguins @ Toronto Maple Leafs, October 18 2018
Skate Canada International (Laval, QC) - Exhibition Gala

I also watched the entirety of Griffin McElroy's Pokemon Nuzlocke Run, despite never having played a Pokemon game. It was nice, chill plane viewing.

Comments

[donutsweeper]

via the Yuletide tagset I found The Twenty Percent True Podcast which has 12 episode arcing storyline for Season 3 called "Chicago Center for Supernatural Support" which made for a good listen. I found it via itunes but it's also on its website here: http://twentypercenttrue.blogspot.com/2018/07/chicago-center-for-supernatural-support.html

[flamebyrd]

Ooh, thank you! Is there a page somewhere that contains a blurb or something telling me what it's about?

[donutsweeper]

Hmm oddly none that I can find. Probably because it wants the story to unfold naturally?

Basically it's about people adjacent to the orbit of the Chicago Center for Supernatural Support (which is kind of what it sounds like - a center that helps support the supernatural) all the while taking place in the normal, non-supernatural/unknowing-about-supernatural world.

[flamebyrd]

Hmm. Is it more horror or urban fantasy? Light-hearted or gritty? I love supernatural stuff but I have to be careful when engaging with it because I'm pretty easily freaked out.

[donutsweeper]

not remotely horror at all. Pretty light hearted, despite the subject- like it includes the description of a werewolf attack but it's very 'mad dog and wtf'' kind of thing. I'd definitely say much more urban fantasy than SPN or anything

[flamebyrd]

Awesome, thank you so much!

[donutsweeper]

Hope you like them :)

[alexseanchai]

Wolf 359, in the one episode I've heard, is entertaining. Not really my style, though.

[flamebyrd]

Thanks! I'll check it out.

[velithya]

What did you think of Solo? I haven't seen it and I'm not sure I actually want to.

[flamebyrd]

It was a perfectly fine movie to watch to kill a few hours on a flight to Singapore, which was how I watched it XD

I didn't have any particularly strong feelings about it either way. Fun, not very deep.

[bunny_m]

I didn't have any particularly strong feelings about it either way. Fun, not very deep.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

[lynndyre]

Guardian!! They've got so much chemistry and identity porn and h/c -- I loved it. The show's not perfect at all, but the leads are so good.

A silly vid for it that with early episode clips and no real spoilers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc7Tk3d4KRE

[flamebyrd]

It's so silly and yet I cannot stop watching. The two leads really make it.

I'm up to episode 9 now. Like I just said on Twitter, I'm continuing because a) I'm very into Shen Wei's everything, and b) I'm informed they don't drag out the Big Reveal forever, and I'm dying to find out how it goes.

[lynndyre]

Shen Wei is SO PRETTY and SO INTENSE and SO EVERYTHING I love him.

Fun thing I ran into people discussing that I didn't know- apparently in China there's a recognised trope that women change their hairstyle when they get married? -- Zhao Yunlan changes hairstyles between two episodes. XD

[flamebyrd]

And the identity porn plus his past makes all his interactions with Zhao Yunlan so weighted and his expressions are so great. Hnnng.

Haha, I assume you're on disgracetoscholars too! It's so useful, I hope the recaps continue so I can catch up on cultural cues I've missed.

[lynndyre]

Oh, cool, no, I didn't know that comm- have subscribed to it now! That looks super helpful.

Whenever you get to ep 23, (and there are so many shiny moments before that) there's one scene that is my favourite in the whole show, Zhu Yi Long's acting is what makes it. He's amazing.

[flamebyrd]

Ah! That's where I read the hair parting info, so I thought you might have found it the same way XD

Not to be that fan, but on the subject of canons that suffered the unnecessary addition of "science" to explain supernatural elements... this canon is dying (ha ha) for a Highlander crossover.

[lynndyre]

That could be amazing. With pre-Immortal Zhao Yunlan? And there's a later bad guy who would also map across.

[bunny_m]

*watches video*

Okay, what the hell was that all about? Looks adorkable though.

*googles and avoids the almost-certainly-spoiler-filled wikipedia entry*

Huh. That looks like it could be fun.

[lynndyre]

It is fun! It's about a college professor who's also secretly the powerful envoy from the underworld, and the boss of the police division that investigates underworld/superpower related crimes. They have A PAST thousands of years ago that the professor remembers and the detective doesn't, and together they fight crime, have identity porn, and fantastic UST and hurt/comfort.

It's based on a BL novel, but chinese censorship cut the gay while essentially leaving SUPER INTENSE FEELS (and things like the hairstyle change we were talking about to indicate they got with in a way that goes around the censorship). The leads are what makes it, they're both excellent and they've got really really good chemistry with each other. The plot gets a little (sometimes a lot) weird, moreso later on as they diverge from the book, and it's made on a budget, but if the characters hook you it's a lot of fun.

[flamebyrd]

What lynndyre said! It's got a minimal special effects budget, frequently the writing is incoherent, the supporting cast is more "enthusiastic" than "good", but there's just something there I really enjoy.

(Just in case, episode three needs a warning for sexual assault [not explicitly depicted on screen, but plot-important].)

And the entire thing is available on YouTube here (English subs in the closed captions) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvpAVnYN4lb2Gfz6Feq3KA1r5trkUxMU-

[bunny_m]

Thanks! =D