Retro punch-em-ups, a mixed bag of animated action, and something sticky is some of what's been setting the tone of my November and December 2024...
Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...
LOOKS:
The Sopranos: Season 6
The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon: Season 2 - the second half of the season saw a bit of an up-tick after the patchy first few episodes, but there persisted a curious habit of throwing away big characters. There were some quite satisfying parts throughout, but also far too many scenes that felt rushed, sloppy, or simply non-sensical - and why do so many people have zero reaction to their flesh being torn asunder during supposedly emotional moments? After such a strong first outing, season two proved to be a disappointment, but fingers crossed for the next season, which looks to be taking in the UK and Spain as its main locations to explore.
Cobra Kai: Season 6B - I'd forgotten it's a three-stage final season, so the somewhat slow pacing of this middle tranch of episodes was unintentionally distracting. The first four seasons was where it was at; season five felt particularly padded and somewhat directionless, and while season six has regained some purpose it doesn't feel like it needed to be fifteen episodes long at all.
Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? - a fascinating true crime doc from Joe Berlinger, revealing some pretty appalling actions and ineptitude on the part of the police department charged with investigating the case from the get-go. It also reveals the disgusting nature of the tabloid press during that time.
Secret Level - from the creators of Netflix's Love, Death, and Robots, this series follows in a similar vein for Amazon Prime, but the focus shifts to videogames. Similarly, it has been poorly reviewed, but LD&R received a much more positive reaction from the viewers compared to po-faced critics. However, LD&R had much more freedom in its storytelling - as long as it contained one or more of those three things, you could tell absolutely any story in any way you wanted. Secret Level, on the other hand, has to represent the games in question, and when it does try to go 'off base' you end up with, for example, the very weird episode supposedly about Pac-Man.
The first half of the season was pretty solid: the highlights being the episodes covering Sifu (It Takes A Life), New World (The Once and Future King), Unreal Tournament (Xan), Warhammer 40,000 (And They Shall Know No Fear), Crossfire (Good Conflict), and Armored Core (Asset Management) all providing a mix of thrilling action, gruesome violence, and some wry humour. The second half of the season, however, was a big step down. The episode covering The Outer Worlds (The Company We Keep) was good until the bizarre (lack of) moral conclusion to the episode, while the Mega Man episode (Start) was pretty pointless because of its extreme brevity.
The Honor of Kings episode (The Way of All Things) had some interesting ideas, but felt a bit obtuse, while Playtime (Fulfillment) was a confusing mish-mash, and Exodus (Odyssey) felt like a drawn-out riff on Interstellar. The Spelunky episode (Tally) was okay and, weirdly (considering the unmitigated disaster that was its extraordinarily short lifespan), the episode for Concord (Tale of The Implacable) was pretty decent and brandished some inspiration from the Guardians of the Galaxy. Why didn't they make a single player game more like that instead of trying to hop onto an overloaded bandwagon with a Fortnite rip-off that cost a preposterous amount of money? But that's another avenue of discussion entirely.
Secret Level, then, proved to be a very mixed bag. When it works, it's jolly good fun, but when it stumbles it just ends up being a bit confusing and dull. Perhaps utilising some more broadly recognisable names from videogame history would help going forward? Certainly, it doesn't aid easy storytelling when you've got to introduce an audience to a complex pre-established world and tell a complete story in fifteen minutes or less. Some episodes sidestepped this pitfall, while others tumbled into the abyss.
No Good Deed: Season 1 - from Liz Feldman, creator of the excellent black comedy drama series Dead To Me. It's not got quite the same focus as DTM, nor the unrelenting nature of the gripping climaxes to each individual episode, but there's plenty of twists and turns and biting humour to draw you in and keep you invested in finding out the little details and truths that are revealed along the way. It ramps up towards the end of the season and hooks you in, but where will they go from here and how will a wider story unfold? If a season two is given the green light, I'll certainly be looking forward to it.
The Sticky: Season 1 - created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro. Quirky Canadian crime comedy about a multi-million-dollar heist ... of maple syrup. Six half-hour episodes make for a brisk pace, and a second season would be most welcome as far as I'm concerned.
Deadpool & Wolverine (Blu-Ray)
Squid Game: Season 2 - from Hwang Dong-hyuk. The potential for 'difficult second album syndrome' was high going into this one, but overall season two pulls it off, save for some pacing issues, with the inherent tension and drama of the life-or-death games as palpable as ever, even though the climax feels cut-off at the knees as we now wait for the third and final season releasing some time in 2025.
SOUNDS:
Carpenter Brut "Death Racer"
Howard Shore "Gun in Gut", "Condemned Vessel", and "Scanners Main Title Theme"
Marilyn Manson "The Golden Age of Grotesque" (album)
Ville Valo "Neon Noir" (album)
Rob Zombie "The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy" (album), "Hellbilly Deluxe" (album), "The Sinister Urge" (album)
ZZ Top "Afterburner" (album)
VIBES & FLAVOURS:
"Calvin & Hobbes: Weirdos From Another Planet" by Bill Watterson
Sniper Elite 5 (Xbox Series S) - into the complete edition levels now, and you better believe I shot the head honcho himself in the bollocks (well, it is an in-game Achievement, after all). All said and done, despite a couple of iffy levels that forced you into closer combat, the range of settings and the level design was great stuff. It's a shame, though, that the next game in the series just looks like a copy/paste re-skin.
The Sega Mega Drive Classics Collection (Xbox Series S) - a fiver for over 50 games from the heyday of the Sega Mega Drive? Oh, go on then! Many of these I either never played, or only got to play a little bit around someone's house. It's nice to see some old familiar cheat codes still work, like the level select in Sonic The Hedgehog (Up, Down, Left, Right, A+B, Start) ... talk about muscle memory. I like the addition of a rewind/fast forward feature when using the left and right triggers ... it certainly helps un-do your fuck-ups, say when battling into the higher levels of Streets of Rage that you never got to (when playing solo) back in the day.
Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is a real son-of-a-bitch of a game, but Sonic Spinball is darn good fun (even if the layout can be a bit tricky to get where you intend to go). Streets of Rage 2, while not having the same vivid nostalgia, does inject some finesse into the winning formula, whiles SOR3 ups the speed and fluidity with even more flourishes. Having sampled Columns and Columns 3, I don't get the appeal (they're certainly no Tetris, that's for sure). There's many, many more games to sample in due course, but it's a shame that more titles couldn't have been included, but no doubt weren't for licensing reasons (e.g. RoboCop vs Terminator is an all-time great and one of my favourites).
Lovely Beasts - there'll be much more info on this in 2025, but we got the For Want of a Nail gang back together and shot a new short film (my roles were Screenwriter and Script Supervisor). I'm very pleased with what we got and I think it'll make for a cracking short as well as a proof of concept. Each scene has something different and interesting about it, and it's going to be really strong visually, as well. The creative juices were flowing and popping on this one, so I'm really excited about it and eager to speak more about it when the time is right.
"Diddly Squat: Home To Roost" by Jeremy Clarkson
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