David: The Witcher (Netflix)

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Gratuitous nudity aside, I really enjoyed this series. I went in without much knowledge of the universe. I’ve never got around to playing more than an hour or three of the games, and haven’t read any of the books.

It’s funny, it’s brutal. It’s dumb fantasy stuff.

David: Mr Robot

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Mr. Robot concluded its run last night.

It left more loose ends than a woman's scarf.

I love the mystery box concept. I hate when they're left unopened. If I'm investing in your show because of your mystery box (and why else would you put one on the table if not to get my buy in), you have an artistic obligation to pay it off. If you want to leave it unopened, then you're obligated to explain that.

The overall story of the show was excellent, and it's main narrative resolution satisfying. But it's overshadowed by all the unsolved mysteries that were introduced.

Thanks for the blue balls, Sam Esmail.

David: The Mandalorian

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I didn’t want to fall for Disney+’s bait, but after 3 weeks of seeing The Mandalorian everywhere I finally surrendered and subscribed.

As I type this, the top post on Reddit accuses this of being a $100 million show about nothing. I disagree, but also see their perspective.

My beloved LOST (not ignoring Twin Peaks) and the modern habit of binge watching have ruined the old school serial. There’s an entire generation who don’t understand that television series didn’t used to be 10 hour movies broken up into roughly 1 hour chunks. The tail end of every episode wasn’t a cliffhanger leading directly into the next.

Have you ever tried to get a friend to start watching a show you discovered on Netflix? Inevitably you have to say something similar to, “It starts slow, but if you power through the first few episodes it really takes off.” While that type of world building is great it’s such a modern luxury. You couldn’t dangle the promise of future excitement in a weekly serial format. Episode 1 had to be great, episode 2 had to be even better. Then you had to deal with the people who missed them both and make an episode 3 that stood on its own.

Take one of my favorites from the 90s: Quantum Leap. I don’t know where in the cycle I even started watching as a kid, but I immediately picked up what was going on (it was explained word for word in the opening credits narration, but I digress). Sam wasn’t searching for some macguffin. He was just trying to complete each week’s time hopping task with the vague hope of scoring a “leap home”.

That’s kinda what we have with Mando. He’s on the run trying to protect a kid, but he’s still got to survive, and therefore earn, in this galaxy. We drop in on the more interesting escapades and enjoy the spectacle before he rides off into the sunset. We get a little Star Wars world building along the way.

And Bill Burr. Bill fucking Burr in a Star War. That was great.

David: Half-Life

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I’m glad there’s something coming, but I ain’t getting into VR. Looking forward to reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia, though if it’s not Laidlaw I’ll be doubly disappointed.

David: Death Stranding

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I'm staring at a countdown clock that says a little over 5 hours to go before I can play Hideo Kojima's new game.

I think I'll turn the Twitch stream on for this one.