The new season of Doctor Who is aces. At least, when it comes to casting, acting and overall production. The writing is a little too on the nose, with every episode feeling like a Very Special Episode, and lacking the suspense and sense of impending doom of the previous seasons, but I'm really enjoying it
Saw the reboot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Netflix, and was quickly hooked in spite of myself. Great production values, and solid casting. They do a great job of telling relevant stories despite the fantastic setting. The stupid stick gets passed around a lot, but I was willing to forgive it. The thing with the funeral was a little dumb though. I love the supporting cast, apart from Harvey, but I didn't feel like he was all that important; I hope they don't bork things by trying to make him and his relationship with Sabrina the focus of the show. Everyone else is awesome, and there's a lot of untapped potential. Note: this version does not feel like the beloved 90s version. Like... at all.
Started watching the latest season of Legends of Tomorrow. Missed it a lot. Not too keen on having to listen to Constantine's annoying voice for a whole season, but I'll take the bad with the good.
Finishing Shippuden was kinda bittersweet. Even though it's obviously geared towards teenagers, the themes and their approach to fundamental questions about life were mature and surprisingly nuanced--especially the series-spanning conversation about idealism in a world that is anything but ideal. On top of that, the setting is fantastic, the stories gripping, the characters extremely engaging, and the writing full--FULL--of #feels, with a lot of humour mixed in. The English version is absolutely top notch, but I had to finish the show in Japanese, for which the subs are substantially worse than the writing for the dubbed version (ditto for the voice-acting and sound-production). Many people have issues with the extremely slow pace with which the story movies, but it is a necessary element of the kind of dramatic storytelling the show's creators chose to embrace. Payoffs were very satisfying. Followed up with Boruto, which is fun but nowhere near as gripping, and then with the latest season of The Seven Deadly Sins--about which I'm ambivalent. Have now started Sword Art Online, and am enjoying it, but it needs more humour.
The first part of the latest season of Chef's Table is fantastic. They learned from their mistakes in the previous seasons, and learned from the strengths of Ugly Delicious, putting the people and their stories front and center, and reducing the focus on inane western food-critic commentary. The first episode about Cristina Martinez of South Philly Barbacoa was especially moving for a number of reasons, a great example of the best this genre can offer, but the second episode about Musa Dağdeviren of Istanbul's Çiya Kebab was also lovely and very inspiring.
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