Blogocentric Formulations

June Watch List

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I keep meticulous track of all the books, scripts, and comics I read every year. Plus the podcasts I listen to. But the one thing I don't do very often is write about the things I watch. I don't really know why I haven't until this point, but I recently noticed that a friend of mine writes up a "media consumption" post on Facebook every month and I thought I might start doing the same.

To qualify for the list, it has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, it just can't be reruns of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I won't list the stuff I lost interest in quickly, but I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish.

Movies

          Interceptor
          The Lost City
          No Time to Die
          Thor: Love and Thunder


Television

          The Bear
          The Boys (Season 2)
          The Boys (Season 3)
          Invincible (Season 1)
          Obi-Wan Kenobi


With a couple of exceptions, I was mostly disappointed with the movies I saw this month (except for Thor: Love and Thunder which I really liked), and I was mostly really happy with the television I saw (except for Invincible which I had a hard time getting into).

Interceptor was a garbage action movie about a nuclear deterrence platform that's taken hostage and Elsa Pataky is some sort of weapons specialist who is, of course, the only one that can stop them. The action is pretty weak, and the characters and the dramatic scenes are even worse. Unless you're an Elsa Pataky stan or will literally watching any action movie, it's safe to skip this one.

The Lost City and No Time To Die were both movies that came highly recommended by a number of people I know, and both fell short for me. They were okay, but didn't really knock my socks off.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was fun to watch as a Star Wars fan, but I'm really starting to wonder why they keep going back to the same well. The Star Wars universe is one of the richest, most well-developed, expansive media franchises in the world and they still... just... keep going back to the same core characters. As much as I enjoy these little glimpses at "the stories between the trilogies," I'm getting really desperate for new content about some of the characters and storylines that haven't been done before. I really hope they figure out to do more with the remarkably diverse IP they've created.

The Boys continues to be one of my favorite shows on television. It's so dark and twisted and satirical; I just love it. You haven't really experienced all the superhero genre has to offer until you've see "Herogasm," an episode that focuses on an annual super-powered orgy. This was honestly shaping up to be the second month in a row I picked it as my top choice, until a couple days ago when I started watching...

The Bear. Jeremy Allen White (Lip from Shameless) plays Carmy, a virtuoso chef who leaves behind a promising career in the fine dining world to take over his family's crappy sandwich shop in Chicago after his brother commits suicide. It's a really touching story about a talented young man struggling with his promise, trying to make something of himself, set against the backdrop of everyone who knew his brother coming to terms with his unexpected suicide. Hulu's really knocking it out of the park lately... between this and Dopesick which we watched late last year, they have two really outstanding series in the past two years to be proud of.


TOP PICK: The Bear