Flavours of the Month: September/October 2025...

Expensive slop, gore-soaked punch-ups, and cool-but-frustrating indie vibes are just some of what's been setting the tone of my September/October 2025...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

LOOKS:

Peacemaker: Season 2 - the return of James Gunn's superhero black comedy drama set in the DC Universe, starring John Cena as the titular misguided hero as he is forced to come to terms with his past actions and the possibility of a fresh start in a new dimension. While Gunn's quirky sense of humour didn't sit especially well within the confines of Superman, his style is much more suited to those on the outer-reaches of the superhero world, such as here or with the excellent animated series Creature Commandos or, of course, the Guardians of the Galaxy films. The second season of Peacemaker isn't quite as strong as its first outing, partly because it's generally lacking a strong antagonist with a clear goal, something that doesn't really get illuminated until the season finale! I'd welcome a third season, but a bit more focus wouldn't go amiss.

Twisted Metal: Season 2 - ultimately the sophomore season concluded well, setting-up a third season in the process. However, it was certainly two-episodes-too-long and fumbled at the start line, failing to hit its mostly-confident stride until the fourth episode. Some streamlining and sharpening of the pace is in order for next season.

The Terminal List: Dark Wolf - created by Jack Carr and David DiGilio. Good solid meat and potatoes international espionage special forces action thriller stuff, which has often proved successful on a reasonable budget for Amazon Prime.

Alien Earth - the high budget and excellent production design are the smoke and mirrors behind which this show hides its catastrophically stupid characters. They blabber silly dialogue that makes them appear as if they have zero care for anyone's safety or personal professionalism, while supposedly clever people routinely behave like intellectually subpar children. There are plotholes galore riddled throughout the story, too, and it all comes down to poor writing and a total absense of basic logic within anything that any character does or says. By far the best thing about this show, frankly, is the attention to detail in recreating the set design styles of the original movie, but memberberries only go so far (and it's decidedly not far enough to save this crashing vessel). This has turned into a massive disappointment that is continually frustrating; the whole thing is incredible and NOT in a good way. I seriously doubt if I'd even bother watching a second season, even with my fondness for the franchise.

Four Seasons: Season 1 - created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield, based on the 1981 film of the same name by Alan Alda. This Netflix comedy drama had been sitting around on the watch list for a few weeks and I wasn't even sure if I would bother to get around to it, but I'm very glad I did. It just clicks with you and it's getting a second season, which is nice!

The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon: Season 3 - a marked improvement over the strangely underwhelming second season (I say "strangely" because season one had been so darn solid). A new location (Spain) breathes some new life into this spin-off series, particularly with a trip (albeit briefly) to the UK and the refreshing appearance of Stephen Merchant's lone survivor, who possesses the typically understated British sense of humour when in a crisis. The tale of warring factions and fraught alliances isn't anything new to the world of The Walking Dead, but at this point there's little ground that hasn't already been covered. However, Daryl's gloomy reluctance to yet again get dragged into someone else's business provides a nice dash of push/pull between him and Carol. The way they're forced to stay in Spain for the final season is a bit trite, but there feels like a good sense of momentum knowing that the fourth season concludes this story.

Only Murders in the Building: Season 5 - after season four's hit-and-miss notion of having a movie adaptation of the podcast being made during another murder investigation, season five hits the ground running by dispensing with such flim-flam and refocusing on the core characters and the world of the Arconia building itself. The second episode was particularly impressive, as it provided a deep dive into Lester the Doorman, replete with resurrected characters and younger incarnations of our leads, which makes for an illuminating, involving, and even somewhat emotional detour to provide some shading to the wider backstory. The middle of the season does ease off the gas somewhat, and it does get a bit bogged down into false discoveries and confessions (rather than proper sleuthing), but yet again the tease for season six leaves you wanting more.

Gen V: Season 2 - the University-set spin-off from The Boys returns, but gets off to a stumbling and somewhat meandering start that struggles to drum-up any great sense of anticipation for the season ahead, let alone any strong desire to watch the next episode; how many scenes of morose people having maudlin heart-to-hearts in dull rooms must we endure? There are moments of fun scattered around, but it just didn't grab me. Furthermore, the political satire is about as blunt as cutting a sponge cake with a bowling ball ("Make America Super Again" etc - see what they did there? How clever!). Satire should have some subtlety to it as well as some originality, not 1:1 facsimilies of the bizarre, grim, and altogether maddening things taking place in the USA right now.

The first season proved to be a bit wobbly throughout, yet managed to hang together, but impressions of season two are far from rip-roaring and I've just found myself fast forwarding through scenes because it's yet another plodding, mopey conversation in yet another drab room. The show really did feel like it was lacking spirit and vigour, and even from a cinematography perspective Gen V is plain and uninteresting as a matter of routine, while the sense of forward momentum is frustratingly slow. The season finale (sporting a few cameos from supporting players from The Boys), further struggles to make much of an impact: the climactic fight is contained in a drab concrete room and feels more like a skirmish than a raging battle, a damp squib after a procession of damp squibs all season long. If this is the quality of The Boys franchise spin-offs going forward, then it doesn't bode well for a further two upcoming shows!

Haunted Hotel: Season 1 - after the slightly jarring first episode threw me in at the deep end, Matt Roller's animated Netflix series grew on me more and more over course of the season until, quite rapidly, I came to love it. The last two episodes in particular landed unexpectedly emotional punches, and so I can't wait for the upcoming second season!

Futurama: Season 13 - the show's best years are long behind it (and more than one of several cancellations ago), but there are still fits and starts of that sci-fi comedy genius that shines through. Some episodes land like dull thuds, while others sizzle and spark.

Richard Hammond's Workshop: Series 5

Beavis and Butthead: Season 11

Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning (Blu-Ray) - the final Mission didn't do fantastically well at the box office, much like its predecessor, which is a genuine shame, but it's also fair to say that the franchise peaked with the sixth film (Fallout) in the pre-Covid era. The increasing scale of the action sequences have necessitated more and more CGI, but to be fair, how else are you going to show a nuclear submarine rolling down a deep sea mountain? When the stunts are clearly practical, most keenly felt with the climactic bi-plane chase sequence, then it still works a treat.

Make no mistake, I really enjoyed Final Reckoning, but similar to Dead Reckoning, a repeat viewing will be needed to settle my opinion of the movie on its own terms. One thing that was a bit lacking from Mission Impossible 8 was the tension cutting humour, which was never overdone in previous films, but reliably gave the audience a breather. It's fair to say that, with its world-ending stakes, the 8th movie is stunningly suspenseful and depicts an exceptionally high pressure situation spiralling further out of control - but it can get a bit too intense at times - however, it's also understandable why there's little room for quips and pops of humour in this particular context.

The two-part finale to the franchise might not have been able to scale the same heights of 2018's Fallout, but they'll age well and bed-in to becoming part of the whole, which is an expertly-made series of thrill rides with wit and intelligence and a great deal of behind-the-scenes skill and craftsmanship utilised to bring them to our screens for our continued entertainment.

How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge): Series 1

Mob War: Philadelphia vs The Mafia

Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers - Netflix true crime documentary detailing America's so-called 'first' female serial killer, even though a modicum of research would reveal that to not be the case at all (e.g. Jane Toppan pre-dates Wuornos' crimes by the best part of a century). Completely unconcerned with any real sense of impartiality, or removing the documentarian's own thoughts, feelings, and interpretations from the narrative, this muddled mess has to go into the growing stack of polemics that pose as documentaries. In terms of getting across any facts in the case, the doc fails miserably as it is almost wholly uninterested in exploring the circumstances of who was killed and how/why Wuornos was linked to a slew of shootings (her being a prostitute who killed 'Johns' was a juicy angle for the media to gleefully latch onto).

The tone of the doc is more than eyebrow raising, and suggests groupie levels of naivety, swallowing anything that Wuornos says in interviews without a microgram of scepticism; Wuornos' former romantic partner, even in this very film, describes the killer as being a gifted liar. It's also concerning that the doc appears to tarnish all of Wuornos' victims with the same brush (without any exploratory justification to that opinion) after the criminal history of Wuornos' first victim is revealed. It even goes so far as to suggest that the killings are justified because of past experiences of assault committed by completely different people upon both Wuornos and the Australian artist/filmmaker, the latter of whom is shown posing for a photograph with the serial murderer and years-long pen pal - the pair of them beaming from ear-to-ear.

The documentary also seems to completely miss the opportunity to comment on just how delighted Wuornos appears to be every time she steps into a room filled with lights and cameras for yet another interview. She's even sat there, putting on make-up, talking about how much make-up Montel Williams used, and then whispers into the interviewer's ear that *her* story will make the filmmaker *millions*. There's a streak of, perhaps, malignant narcissism to the killer's psychological profile, and while there's little doubt that Wuornos had a very rough life (although the specific details of that are similarly unclear and inconsistently told), to suggest that she was in the slightest bit justified in murdering seven individuals is a position that no other serial killer documentary would even dare posit (and the Hellstorm of criticism that would ensue would be deafening).

It is a complex story that is very poorly told, falling back almost exclusively on the opinions of those who are undeniably in Wuornos' corner (including the very Christian woman who legally adopted the murderer). Routinely ignoring Wuornos' own words and contradictory statements whenever it becomes inconvenient, the doc is similarly uninterested in the details of the multiple murders - and of the victims themselves - unless its a case of showing their lifeless bodies curled up in the brush alongside some out-of-the-way dirt road, that is. Wuornos' well-known temper, which could snap in an instant and expose the extremely dark side of her psyche, is also ignored to an almost all-consuming degree. There are some interesting details and glimpses behind the scenes, but it all comes tainted with a startling amount of wilful bias and a considerable lack of context.


SOUNDS:

AC/DC "The Razors Edge" (album), "Black Ice" (album), "Blow Up Your Video" (album), "Back In Black" (album), "Rock Or Bust" (album), "PWR/UP" (album), "Ballbreaker" (album)

Jerry Goldsmith "The 'Burbs" Soundtrack

Nine Inch Nails "TRON: Ares" Soundtrack

CKY "Can't Stop Running"

Rob Zombie "Punks and Demons"

Foo Fighters "Asking For A Friend", "Today's Song"

The Black Keys "Lonely Boy"


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

"The World According to Cunk" by Philomena Cunk

Limbo (Xbox Series S) - there was a lot of praise for this stylish black and white indie platformer/puzzler game, and it has certainly earned it. However, the lack of any difficulty settings means there's certain moments that just frustrate after repeated failed attempts because the margin of error or window for success is so friggin' narrow it's crazy (e.g. grabbing onto the mosquito, or doing the bit with the chain over the electrified floor). I got to chapter 27 of 39 and gave up, which is annoying, but the game had gone from being fun and intuitive to a semi-befuddling slog. A shame, because it started out so well.

High On Life (Xbox Series S) - there's a couple of serious bugs in the game, which haven't been fixed, and considering that one glitches out the earning of achievements (so you can't unlock things you've earned) and the other is in the final boss fight (the G3 boss disappears entirely, you get flung into the air, the character positioning gets totally janky, and even after reloading the checkpoint your gun vanishes as you're about to shove it where the sun don't shine), it's pretty bad to have not fixed those problems. However, it was quite fun all-said-and-done, even if the dialogue can occasionally ramble on too long or slump in the style of humour (the 'I'm not that thing, actually no I am that thing to be honest, but fuck you anyway' type dialogue gets a bit grating). Some finesse wouldn't go amiss, but this wasn't some gargantuan AAA budget game, so it'd be unfair to gripe too much (aside from those aforementioned bugs which have not been fixed).

Inside (Xbox Series S) - for the first half I was doing quite well, enjoying the impressive visual style of the game, which expands on the enjoyably grim atmosphere and level design of Limbo, and was finding the puzzles to be more intuitive and gameplay oriented (not quite so many zero-error-margin encounters). However, I then encountered a puzzle that just made sod all sense after the half-way point and I just packed it in, not wanting to go through a load of faffing around (or having to look up game guides online for a step-by-step walkthrough). So, the half that I did play I quite enjoyed, but when old habits seemed to be rearing their head again I just bailed out to avoid the irritation.

"Skeleton Crew" by Stephen King

Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate Edition (Xbox Series S) - okay, so what with getting some more playtime under my belt, while also discovering some 'kustomise' options to swap-out special moves to something easier to pull-off, and finding a few of the simpler combos (even for a handful of Fatalities and Friendships) has helped up-the-ante, same for discovering the simple way to get a Brutality ... although there have been a few times when I've done the inputs correctly and under the right circumstances and it hasn't worked (wtf?). Still, doing some of the towers has been fun. Mind you, I'm ruddy sick of battling Kronika over and over again at the end, and she doesn't half play dirty! Completed the Story and Aftermath modes, too, which was pretty solid (even if some of the cutscenes kinda went on too long, leaving you twiddling your thumbs as you wait for the next punch-up).