Games:
- Horizon: Zero Dawn: Amazing — one of my favourite games of recent years. It took over my whole life for about two months. Loved the action, loved the story.
TV:
- 12 Monkeys season 1: Entertaining enough that I’ve continued with season 2.
- Westworld season 1: Very good! Just as Jonathan Nolan’s show Person of Interest looked at the intersection of surveillance and AI, and tried to figure out what the endgame was, with Westworld he looks at video games and AI and speculates about where that could go. It made me think a lot about the kind of games I enjoy playing, and the paths I like taking through them.
- Iron Fist season 1: Bad, for all the reasons you’ve probably already heard about.
Films:
- Hell of High Water: good, cautiously paced, tense, thoughtful
- Hardcore Henry: bonkers in a good way
- Mechanic: Resurrection: bigger in scope and budget than the first one, but with less heart. Some amazing action, though.
- Ghost In The Shell (2017): visually spectacular but dramatically flat
- Ghost In The Shell (1995): really weird and interesting
- Fast and Furious 8: double-plus bonkers, again in a good way
- Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2: fantastic, although it doesn’t get better than dancing Groot in the opening scene.
- Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: sure, whatever
- Alien: Covenant: fine, but predictable
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople: offbeat, funny and sweet
Books:
- Runaways vol 1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, and Takeshi Miyazawa: outstanding
- A Closed And Common Orbit by Becky Chambers: quiet sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Good, but didn’t leave me with quite the same fuzzies. Feels like a side quest.
- The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol 5: Like I’m The Only Squirrel In The World by Ryan North, Erica Henderson et al.: still good!
- Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States by Albert O. Hirschman: amazing. I’ve been talking everyone’s ears off about this. Written in 1970, it’s short but very insightful, with tons of relevance for modern politics, customer relations, economics, and employment.
- Saga vol 7 by Fiona Staples and Brian K Vaughan: Saga has never really been sunshine and puppies, but this volume is really dark and sad. Art and storytelling is still amazing.