Tag Television

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 70

robertjames1971

This isn’t so much a stir crazy moment as it is a monthly check in. Consider it more like The State of the Lock Down.

Yesterday marked 10 months since the last time I was at my desk in Waltham. Ten. 10. 10 months. Unbelievable. So much for two or three weeks. I keep writing that same thing every month, but it’s true. Harry is half way through his senior year in high school. Bellana is a couple of weeks away from staring her fourth semester in college. Jen and I are still plugging away at working from home. Life inside the house is still going well. Life outside of the house is crashing and burning in spectacularly horrifying fashion. Jen just told me that Massachusetts is sending National Guard troops to Washington, DC. 2021 is a nightmare and it’s only two weeks old.

We binge watched The Queens Gambit and it was every bit as riveting as you’ve heard. The first Disney+ Marvel series, WandaVision, premiers tomorrow. I just read they are releasing two episodes, which means I probably won’t be caught up before work in the morning. Wonder Woman ’84 was probably not as bad as most people are saying, but it wasn’t very good. I’ve seen Pedro Pascal in three roles now. He was outstanding in Game of Thrones. He is perfect in The Mandalorian. He was horrendously awful in Wonder Woman. What the hell happened? As for Diana, wishing for her lost love? The goddess who hangs everything on some man? I don’t buy it. It’s clear what she would have wished for. She would have wished to be able to go home. Whatever. Bellana and I started watching The Stand. My favorite book by my favorite author (arguably, it’s either him or Clive Barker) has been turned into a television series and… we’re a few weeks behind now, but it’s not that good. Cobra Kai season three is out there but we haven’t started it yet. Bellana’s not interested so we’re holding off until she goes back to school at which time Jen and Harry and I will likely binge the whole season in a day.

Our Christmas decorations are down and put away. Everything except the lights outside. We had originally agreed to leave those up until inauguration day. Now we’re joining up with a little movement one of our local hospitals is pushing to leave them on for the month of January in honor of those risking their lives to fight Covid-19. Absolutely. We are on board.

One of our cars has it’s check engine light on. I am assuming it’s something to do with air leaking into the gas line, but messing with the gas cap hasn’t helped. It’s low on gas right now so hopefully it will resolve when I fill it again. Unfortunately the car also has an expired inspection sticker and I just don’t want to risk exposure for it. The other car doesn’t expire for a couple of months. That one had tire pressure warnings so I did go to a gas station to top them off. I didn’t run into anyone. It was safe.

Obligatory thank yous to folks on the ground from amazon and grubhub and instacart. You’re all helping to keep my family safe and I will never stop appreciating it.

Jen and I are still lighting candles in every room in the house for no reason at all. Amazon just delivered a big box of fresh supplies. We’ll be telecommuting by candle light for a while longer.

I’m really tired of all of this crap. The upside is that we’re about a week away from having an actual government Covid-19 response plan. It’s probably too late, but maybe it will straighten out the bullshit we’re seeing with vaccine distribution so far. Fingers crossed.

Mostly, fingers crossed that this ends soon.

No Spoilers

robertjames1971

The downside of watching the finale of season 2 of The Mandalorian right after I woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, is that no one else has seen it and I can’t talk about it. Normally I would listen to a recap podcast or five and I can’t even do that. I beat them all to the punch.

I need to share my fanboy happiness with other people and no one around has seen it. It’s like some new form of torture!

This has been a brutally long week for some reason. Well, the last two days at least. Just loooooong. We’re going out to look at Christmas lights tomorrow. Fully masked up, with armor plated windows on the car. The ‘rona’s gonna need a tank to get at us, and that’s how it should be. The city actually released a map of quality light viewing locations. We’re going to pick a few off tonight. Wish me luck, both with the light displays and not spoiling Mando.

Perfect

robertjames1971

It’s official. Season two of The Mandalorian is the best Star Wars story since Empire Strikes Back.

Oh my god the ending was perfect. Perfect, I tell you!

So Much Star Wars

robertjames1971

I’m a few days late for this, but I’ve been reading up on some of the new Star Wars projects that Disney and Lucasfilm announced the other day. There is little to no info on most of them, so there’s not much to say, but here are a few thoughts.

Rogue Squadron. A stand alone movie that sounds like it’s probably related to the old video games and is directed by Patty Jenkins. Umm… TAKE MY MONEY!

An as yet untitled and still unwritten Taika Waititi film. No info at all. Thor Ragnarok was wonderful, but after seeing Jojo Rabbit, Lucasfilm can TAKE MY MONEY!!

Obi-Wan Kenobie. A Disney+ series staring Ewan McGregor AND Hayden Christensen returning as Darth Vader? I am more excited about this than all of the others. Imagine… if this is good it could erase a lot of the bad feelings left over from the prequels. Then again, it might require some serious retconing of the events leading up to A New Hope. I’m a little scared about that, but if it works it could be incredible. In short, TAKE MY MONEY!!!

Ahsoka. After about 6000 episodes of the Clone Wars and Rebels, our favorite animated Jedi Padawan finally made the leap to live action in The Mandalorian a few weeks ago and Rosario Dawsom absolutely nailed it. TAKE MY MONEY!!!!

Rangers of the New Republic. A story that parallels The Mandalorian. I wonder if it will center on the two X-Wing pilots we’ve seen this season. No clue, but TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!

Lando. Enough said, TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!

Andor. This one is interesting. A Cassian Andor based spin off of Rogue One. I didn’t think I would be interested in this, and it’s been rumored (at least) for quite a while. Now that I see it spelled out, and knowing that it just went into production a few weeks ago, I realize I really want to see this. TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!

The Acolyte. We know it’s going to be a mystery series that will take us back to the High Republic. All good stuff. Then add that it’s coming from the creator of the Netflix show Russian Doll and this becomes really exciting (Russian Doll is fantastic, go watch it). TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!!

The Bad Batch, Visions and A Droid Story. Eh. Given the wildly spectacular success of The Mandalorian, I think my patience with animated Star Wars is pretty much run out. I’ll probably watch them, but mostly just because they will exist.

In summation allow me to make this blanket statement to the folks at Disney, Lucasfilm, and Disney+: TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Mandalorian: How Good is it Really?

robertjames1971

No spoilers.

I just watched the new episode of The Mandalorian and it’s lead me to ask a rhetorical question of the universe.

Is this show really as good as I think it is, or am I just such a complete Star Wars fanatic that it appears fantastic to me when it’s actually less than stellar?

I think we’ve had six episodes in season two. With the exception of episode two, I have finished each viewing thinking to myself something along the lines of, well they’ll never top this one. The second episode was excellent but probably not better than the first. Three through six just kept one upping the awesome. Some of it is formula; Mando goes to someone for help and they say sure, but you have to do this quest for me first. The season has felt like an old TV western about the traveling gun fighter. The Lone Ranger with a cooler mask. There have been call backs and cameos the likes of which we never expected. The action sequences and special effects are movie quality and the story we’re following is gripping. Even given how good the first season was, I can’t believe how good season two has been.

But has it been that good, really? Speaking as a lifelong Star Wars fanboy, is my reaction to the quality of the show accurate or is it so colored by 40+ years of fandom that I can’t see the Endor forest for the trees?

My one complaint is still that the episodes tend to run really short. This week’s was less than 30 minutes. That doesn’t take away from anything, but it does leave me wanting more.

Just watch it. I may not be 100% objective, but I think it’s pretty close to perfect.

Take the Bad, Take the Good

robertjames1971

I have a bad feeling about tomorrow. I’m not sure why, but I think tomorrow is going to be a grade A shit day.

On the plus side though, there will be a new episode of The Mandalorian.

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have the facts of life. Yeah, the facts of life.

This is the way.

I have spoken.

Distraction

robertjames1971

Between watching The Flash and playing guitar and writing a few songs worth of lyrics and watching 30 Rock with Jen and Harry I have successfully managed to avoid stressing out of the coup trump is attempting. Mostly.

So Georgia is going to do a hand recount. What is cheeto going to do when the results come back for Biden again? Is he going to want a second recount?

Oh so there I go paying attention again.

Fucking nazis.

A Good Start

robertjames1971

I just watched the first episode of season two of The Mandalorian. It was good. No spoilers but Baby Yoda on a speeder bike is my new favorite thing.

So that’s step one.

Up next is eliminating the fascist infestation from our government. Election day 2020. Tuesday, 11/3/20. Yeah I’ve already voted, but I’m so excited/nervous/thrilled/scared/hyped/terrified that I can’t even think straight.

Star Wars and Democracy, just a few days apart. Brilliant!