This early episode has Boone (Ian Somerhalder) undergo a vision quest at the behest/forcing of his mentor Locke (Terry O’Quinn). Boone has a fractious relationship with his stepsister; the episode reveals that they had a quasi-incestual sexual experience consummating Boone’s lifelong crush on her shortly before the plane crash that kicks off the series plot, which contextualises both their bickering and Boone’s obsessive protectiveness of her. In his vision, Boone sees her get killed by the Monster that haunts the island, and when Locke excitedly asks him how that made him feel, he admits: relief.
I’ve noticed that people tend to strongly dislike feeling conflicting emotions; at its most extreme, you get situations where people have to yes-and themselves into oblivion finding everything wrong with someone who pisses them off (yes, JK Rowling is a transphobe, yes her Harry Potter series contains conservative and even bigoted elements, no she doesn’t plagiarise Tolkien, what the fuck are you talking about). But it also extends to admitting the upside to an unfair, humiliating, or awful situation.
What Boone admits here is that if his sister were to die, his life would be a lot easier. He wouldn’t have to keep chasing after her, he wouldn’t have to keep throwing good money away, and he wouldn’t have to witnessing to her whining, hypocrisy, and laziness. It was something awful that he kept buried away, and when the vision quest brings it to the surface, he finds he can have a much healthier, more goal-oriented way of thinking.
I know the emotions of this are true because I’ve experienced them; indeed, the episode prepared me for them. Those who know me may know that my father died this year after a six year battle with dementia. As his symptoms progressed from ‘unignorable’ to ‘debilitating’, I found myself contemplating the lesson this episode taught; that it would – not might, would – be very convenient when he died, lifting the need to clean up after him, to find ways of occupying and protecting him, and to no longer witness his slow degradation.
Any carer in any capacity will know how awful it is to admit that your caree is a drain on your life, particularly when they will only get worse, not better. Being able to follow the example of LOST and admit to it freed me up to focus on the upside – that I still had precious minutes I could spend with him that I could use any way I wanted and which I would, most likely, futilely beg for later. Acknowledging that I would be frustrated right now helped me let go of it; it also prepared me for the inevitable grief I was going to feel when it happened.
About the writer
Tristan J. Nankervis
Tristan J Nankervis (aka Drunk Napoleon) has been a writer, pop culture critic, dishwasher, standup comedian, waiter, potato cake factory worker, gamer, TV worker, and various other things. You can find him in Hobart, Tasmania.
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Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Babylon 5, Season One, Episode Eleven, “Survivors”
This is Garibaldi’s big episode. I was wondering what his mysterious past would be, and it turns out to be a simple Last Good Cop story combined with alcoholism. Garibaldi is a fairly simple character and this feels like an appropriately cliche story (one apparently partially drawn from actor Jerry Doyle’s own issues with alcohol). Last Good Cop stories are one I love (regardless of actual career – TV Tropes still calls this archetype The Last DJ after the Waits song) because they’re easy ways to set up a character as idealistic, authoritarian, and sympathetic.
If the universe of Babylon 5 is a large system, Garibaldi is proudly one man in it, a personal idealist less concerned with the system and more about his own actions within it – I get the sense he’d operate equally happily in Ancient Rome or the Soviet Union or modern day LA as he would on Babylon 5, so long as he gets to Punish The Wicked. Very different in personality but very much kin to Claudette Wyms.
If there’s one place where the character wouldn’t work, it is, ironically, an Old West wasteland where there’s no system to use (or rail against, as the case may be). Garibaldi has the system against him in this case due to a misunderstanding, but it generally empowers him to act his ideals out. What resources would he have in the Old West?
Good timing as I just watched Fallout, which also asks what a person who grew up within a idealistic system would do in an Old West scenario.
Doctor Who, “Silver Nemesis” – Part one of this aired on November 23, 1988, the show’s 25th anniversary. But there is both little here that shows anyone cares about the show’s silver anniversary and little to celebrate. In be fair, the anniversary was sort of celebrated in “Remembrance of the Daleks” earlier in the season, and it’s not the fault of anyone involved with the show that the BBC refused to up the budget for this serial so that the anniversary could be marked better. But boy, this one is a dud. The plot is incoherent and nonsensical, trying to add a new level of mystery to the Doctor and coming up far short, and stuffing in neo-Nazis, a time travelling English noblewoman from the 17th century, and the Cybermen. The one saving grace is the Doctor and Ace. And maybe the decent footage filmed around Windsor Castle.
Kojak, “Death Is Not a Passing Grade”/”Die Before They Wake” – In the former, young James Woods is a student in a class Kojak is teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, but is using his lessons to be a better crook and to show up Kojak. Woods is his usual smarmy self. In the latter, a TV reporter is murdered as he gets close to the truth about women hard up on their luck being made heroin addicts and then forced into prostitution. Only the real work is done by the reporter’s widow. Very pulpy and very 70s in its attitudes about sex, drugs, and TV news. Guests include Tina Louise, Ann Jillian, and Isabel Sanford.
M*A*S*H, “The General Flipped at Dawn” – A new commanding general tries to change everything about the unit, but it turns out he’s nuts. A very funny if somewhat inconsequential half hour, most noteworthy for Harry Morgan playing the crazy general, as something of a test of how he would interact with the cast as it was already known that McLean Stevenson was leaving.
Lots of YouTube videos – Including a history of the 70s animated Tolkien movies (all of which are likelier to be remembered than the current one), an overview of Apollo 8, and a review of Beatles ’64 by a Beatles expert who was rather underwhelmed.
“Not now, Marjorie, I’m inspecting the troops!”
“The General Flipped at Dawn” is one of my favorites of the pure comedy episodes of M*A*S*H, but it’s bittersweet to think about how McLean Stevenson was already lined up to head out the door here, because Henry’s little hand gesture in the dance at the end is one of the perfect comedic touches he was so good at.
On this rewatch, with enough time passed since I have seen eight years of Harry Morgan, I can appreciate Stevenson more for what he brought to the show.
I’ll try and be nice. Silver Nemesis is imaginative with some interesting ideas presented in an unpolished and unfocused manner. But I liked the moment between the Doctor and Ace when Ace says she’s scared. Another scene supporting the argument for best Doctor/Companion relationship.
I listened to a podcast from someone who I was really clicking with on their view of the Amazon LoTR series. Then they reviewed the new animated film, calling it the best Tolkien animated film and the best Tolkien adaptation since PJ’s films. I haven’t seen it, but read quite a few reviews. I was kind of flabbergasted.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – was very disappointed with this when it came out, enjoyed it more on a rewatch back in 2020 when adventure was scarce. After a third viewing I’m sticking with “flawed but fun” as my verdict, there’s plenty of odd decisions and clunky CGI, and Cate Blanchett’s villain feels lacking compared to the charismatic villains from the first three movies. But the action scenes are mostly pretty good and frequently recapture the original magic, and Karen Allen returning to the franchise makes for some very sweet moments.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – feels like a bit of an over-correction from Crystal Skull, it feels like it plays it oddly safe for a film that has a time travel element. The new characters feel better integrated though, I enjoyed Toby Jones and Phoebe Waller-Bridge quite a bit and Mads Mikkelsen is a reliable bad guy. The de-aging stuff looks very video gamey which is a shame, because the video game that prompted this jaunt through the series kicks the shit out of these last two movies, even if they’re still a pretty good time.
Justified, S3E4, “The Devil You Know” – a solid episode with lots of setup after episode 3’s non-stop thrills. That’s OK, as long as this stuff pays off later, which I’m sure it will.
Live Music – my 74th and final gig of the year, I finally made it to the annual Christmas Covers event which has been going for 20+ years yet somehow I’ve never made it before. People always talk about it being one of the best nights out of the year and it lived up to the hype – a bunch of bands, including several local supergroups, playing short sets of covers – often including themed sets, fancy dress etc. A group formed from members of a couple of my favourite local bands did a really beautiful early set that took in Talking Heads, Alvvays and ABBA, and then later on folk-punks Cheap Dirty Horse did a riotous 15-minute Chappell Roan medley and my friend’s band that I’ve seen an unholy number of times this year closed out the event by doing “the kind of songs people expect you to play when you tell them you’re in an indie band” (Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys etc) which was a great choice for the part of the evening when most of the crowd was a little inebriated. So much fun, considering playing next year if I can think of a good enough set of songs and recruit some musician friends.
Woooooooo live music! Fuck yeah, that sounds like a great show — there’s a big tradition of Halloween covers shows here but I don’t think Christmas has the same deal. And 74 on the year rules, there’s still time to hit diamond!
If I spot anything happening post-Christmas pre-New Year then I might jump on it for a nice round 75, everything seems a little dead though.
Wooooo Dial of Destiny!! And live music!!
Rebel Ridge: “But then I was like, ‘Nah.'” A well-crafted contemporary spin on Rambo, with political relevance, charisma, and, oh yeah, ownage. Aaron Pierre has incredible presence, making his character someone aware at all times of his power and dignity–and the shitty, realistic necessity, in a non-emergency state, of downplaying both around these asshole cops in this bumfuck town. But as he ticks his way through primary, alternate, and contingency solutions to his high-stakes problem, he winds up in a situation where he has nothing to lose, and while that process is infuriating, the end results are cathartic, creative, and beautifully choreographed. Smart, deeply satisfying movie and Pierre should come out of this a full-on star.
Den of Thieves: A sloppy but oddly engaging synthesis of almost every ’90s crime movie. Gerard Butler chews the scenery until you hope he chokes on it–he’s doing a kind of wannabe Vic Mackey, but less competent, more “colorful,” and without any of the attributes that actually make Vic compelling, all in a kind of dirtbag Russell Crowe mode minus Crowe’s charisma–but some of the more lower-key performances are solid, the heist plot is clever, and the highway shootout is gloriously stupid in a very entertaining way. The final turn is foreshadowed by the fact that you can see there’s a movie they haven’t done an homage to yet, and the obvious influence there makes it kind of ridiculous, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Hacks, S1-S3: Not all over the weekend, but all crammed into the last part of last week. (Since I’m trying to get a regular job again, I figured I should marathon some TV while it’s still easy to find the time.) So I loved this, obviously. Incredibly sharp and funny, and well-plotted with all its consequences, escalations, character development, and warring priorities. Smart and Einbinder are fantastic and have terrific chemistry. And while the focus is obviously mostly on Deborah and Ava, it’s great to track how Marcus and Jimmy develop over the course of the three seasons, too. (In some ways, Marcus even feels like the person whose emotional fate is the most up-in-the-air, which gives his arc a lot of genuine suspense.) A+, am now stuck in limbo waiting for S4.
Den of Thieves is extremely sloppy, starting with the opening text not only being wrong but not being consistent on a line-by-line basis, but I wound up appreciating it more on a second watch — it is Heat for Dummies but that ain’t bad. And I think Butler works very well in this regard — the comparison to Vic is a good one, because Vic’s intelligence under his attitude needs the plotting of TV to really manifest. Here Butler has two hours and change, so he goes full Bozo Bluster Asshole mode and it suits both him and the character. EDIT: This is best realized through the hilarious mega-divorced angle, which is so tacky and tacked-on it plays as pure parody, but Butler’s character doesn’t realize it.
Woo Hacks! My campaign of
terrorpersuasion is working!The end of season 3 has the hardest moment of ownage on TV this year (non-Shōgun edition). I don’t even need to insinuate what it is; I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.
I do indeed, and it is exquisite. “Wouldn’t you?”
Positively Shieldian in its combination of ownage and forced recognition. (Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching The Shield again, but Shane talking to Vic is an obvious parallel – “You know how it is” comes to mind, never mind the confrontation in the most recent episode I watched.)
Elf – Somehow had never seen this before. Whoever thought to make a Christmas movie with Will Ferrell at the top of his game was on the ball. His wide-eyed exuberance rides a line between earnest and ironic that keeps the film wry without drying out into cynical. But my MVP has to be James Caan, who knows his tough persona is all that’s needed for funniest foil to Ferrell’s fool. And maybe the best Zooey Deschanel I’ve encountered. Probably not my choice for top Christmas viewing, but I understand for anybody considers it so.
The best part of Elf is of course the charming song over the end credits *runs away*
But yeah, Caan is great here. And almost meta, there’s a weird element of “James Caan in a family-friendly movie?” that adds to the out-of-place and almost antagonistic role of the Christmas Grouch in a film like this.
It’s become one of our yearly watches – not my favorite Christmas movie, but it’s funny and full of good cheer, and the singalong in Central Park always works for me.
Speaking of the Central Park scene, Charlotte the reporter also gives us some of the funniest moments of the movie, between Matt Walsh (credited as himself, haha) interacting with her, and Michael reading her entry in Santa’s book.
Yeah, that’s all funny, though the writerly part of me wonders why we’re establishing a new character this late in the game when our female lead doesn’t have a whole lot to do… but I think knowing Favreau’s fondness for improv he just kept a larger than normal portion of this stuff because the actors were adding so much on the day.
Heh, and from a writerly standpoint, I like the efficiency with which they establish that there’s a trend in her life of not getting the respect she deserves (still being condescended to by the male anchor; her boyfriend dragging his feet). But also that they manage to mine a lot of comedy from just a couple of traits, between those two scenes and Matt Walsh’s whole “you got a great mouth” routine.
My daughter and I watched Elf for the first time on Saturday. She loved it!
California Suite for Movie Gifts. Liked with caveats, more to come.
College Football
Well, I thought there was a chance all the underdogs in this round of the College Football Playoff would get blown out of the building, and I wasn’t wrong. It didn’t quite happen the way I thought– I’m curious if SMU could’ve kept it closer without all of those early interceptions (especially the two pick-sixes), and I thought Tennessee might have been more competitive– but by and large this was unsurprising.
The whole “automatic byes for conference champs” aspect might need to be revisited next year, because of the top teams, Oregon arguably has the hardest road of any team remaining. (They aren’t even favored in their game against the 8 seed next week!) The top two seeds have the toughest matchups in the quarterfinals, while the 5 and 6 seeds have the easiest. Anyway, Oregon-Ohio State will probably be the best game next week, and Notre Dame could definitely give Georgia a run for their money, especially without Carson Beck. Penn State is 10.5-point favorites against Boise State, and Texas is 13.5-point favorites against Arizona State. (As I write this, Ohio State is -2.5 and Georgia is -1.5.)
Also, Tulane got their butt kicked by Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl after their starting QB transferred to Duke. (Also, I had to ask around what “Gasparilla Bowl” was. ‘Cause it sounds like the farts you get after drinking sarsaparilla.) That was a bummer, but they really crumbled down the stretch, starting 9-2, getting in the CFP top 25, in line to host the AAC championship game, then dropping their final three (counting the bowl game).
NFL
Didn’t really watch much of the Saturday games. Some good finishes and exciting plays on Sunday. The Lions’ fake-fumble deep pass might be my new favorite weird trick play.
Elsbeth, “Toil and Trouble”
The most meta episode yet! The murder this time takes place on… the set of a long-running police procedural. And a really shitty one called Father Crime, starring, uh, a priest who solves crimes. With the help of a detective played by classically trained actress Regina Coburn, played by Laurie Metcalf. And the show’s on its twentieth season, with a brutal shooting schedule, and the fans have been shipping the two leads for a long time… and Regina has negotiated a break in the schedule to play Lady MacBeth on the West End, but the tyrannical showrunner Cal decides to push forward and give the fans what they want, which would also mean a shooting schedule that would kill her opportunity to be Mrs. The Scottish Play. So Regina kills Cal.
This is a pretty funny episode. There’s all the meta aspects commenting on how police procedurals aren’t how real life works. There’s the conflict between Regina and her co-star Jack, who seems like an idiot meathead but is much more self-aware about his limitations and what audiences want from him than Regina is, anyway. (“Regina wants to do boring period pieces that nobody wants. They want to see me save the world from aliens or robots or Russians or… a combo of those things.”) Metcalf is great as the faux-friendly, obviously pompous and full of herself Regina (who has one more Tony than Metcalf, by my count). And while Cal was a jerk, it turns out he’s not wrong about a couple of things that Regina’s ego causes her to overlook in her own performances… things which ultimately lead to Elsbeth catching her. (Her hubris is her downfall… how appropriate.)
Meanwhile, two simmering background stories collide: the divorce client Elsbeth’s firm handled back in Chicago, and Michael Emerson’s Judge Crawford, who knows Elsbeth suspects him of the murder last week… I think this is the end for 2024, but I’m very curious where this will pick up in January.
Elf
I’m always impressed with how quickly Elf moves. I had to take a break for a minute and noticed we were at the hour mark and hadn’t even gotten to the mailroom yet!
Bob’s Burgers, some Christmas episodes
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins” is a little weird, but okay. Better than “Christmas in the Car,” which we skipped. “Father of the Bob” introduces Big Bob to the series, and I kinda side with Bob on this one, although Big Bob isn’t so terrible this can’t be mended. (Seriously, though, don’t ambush people with major life decisions.) “The Nice-Capades” gives us Mr. Fischoeder’s great “Oh, Bourbon.”
The Shield, “Chasing Ghosts”
“It’s easier to make deals between federal agencies.”
“But you’re not a federal agent anymore.”
“No. Not anymore.”
What does Hiatt mean by this? Is he bitter about how his time in INS ended, whether personally or due to ICE taking on a bigger role? Is he hinting at something dark in his past we’ll learn more about? Is he just giving Dutch the runaround? We’ll never know, because Alex O’Loughlin puts absolutely nothing into his line delivery to read for meaning or intent!
I wonder if the writers even bothered to figure it out or just decided this guy couldn’t carry a backstory anyway and didn’t bother. (“The face is the backstory,” and the physicality, the body language, is, too– and O’Loughlin has the backstory of a guy who showed up out of nowhere to appear on TV. He’s just a blank slate.)
What did we read?
Black Sheep, Rachel Harrison
This has one central creative idea – which I will hide under spoilers despite literally being the premise showing up in like thirty pages, because I didn’t know it was coming and cackled when it was revealed – and is otherwise a solid, slightly-smarter-than-average thriller. If you’re familiar with trauma and general and religious trauma specifically, nothing about this will really surprise you, but the mysteries are doled out pretty well and the imagery is pretty cool.
SPOILERS
So the big joke is that the character grew up in a religious cult, only for it to be revealed that it was a Satanic cult rather than the Jesusy one you would take from context; the book legitimately tricked me on that one, and I found it very funny. If I have a problem with this book, it’s that the Satanic stuff is mostly aesthetic; it does lead into the big climax, but emotionally it’s literally just “Jesus, but with Satan”.
Although this is somewhat me missing the point; this is very much about religious trauma and how it affects its neurotic protagonist. Despite our different upbringings (and ultimately different conclusions) I found a lot to identify with her; she grated on me but I can’t deny she reminded me of myself at twenty-three and that this was why I found her annoying.
She doesn’t know what she wants and her trauma has made that worse; she sees the absolute worst in everything because that was how she survived, or at least that’s what she believes (one thing I liked and found grating all at once is that she’s not quite as smart or as worldly as she believes). Much of her action is caught between wanting to be loved and wanting to be powerful; much of her narration is caught between anger and guilt. She’s simply reacting thoughtlessly to things. Ultimately, she goes through a quasi-therapeutic experience and anger wins.
Prince Caspian, CS Lewis
The similarities and contrasts between Tolkien and Lewis fascinate me. The reason I set out on this project to read high fantasy books is to soak up the generation and cross-pollination of the genre; Lewis’s works are simultaneously separate from these concerns (being written independently) and more deeply embedded in them (being that Tolkien and Lewis talked every day in a manner not dissimilar from us here).
Lewis strikes me as having significantly less influence on the genre, I suspect mainly because his stories were direct and obvious allegories as opposed to Tolkien’s preferred escapism; unlike Tolkien, Lewis’s world doesn’t really stand up on its own, which I think makes marginally better stories (although this has Lewis delve into the mechanics of his world to a tedious degree and even a few Tolkienesque “and then they walked” sequences) but admittedly less interesting worlds.
Although the plot to this one is much worse than the first. I actually just kind of hate the kids (except for Edmund, who is hilarious); I think it’s less to do with them and more to do with the fact that they feel like people the story happens to rather than it being something they deliberately create. Caspian’s story within the story is a bit bland as well.
Ha, Edmund is the only interesting Pevensie because he’s a dick, the others are gormless duds — Lewis learns from this and his other kid characters are more interesting for their flaws; here he doesn’t even see his leads flaws, particularly how condescending and shitty they are to Trumpkin. Prince Caspian is definitely a weak book but I have a certain fondness for it that I think comes from reading it before LWW, the book’s one real interesting idea is how relatively quickly everything turned to shit after LWW’s heroics (hmmmm I see no relevance here) and how the heroes are walking through a world where their fact is myth if it’s even remembered. This isn’t some pointy-eared twit moaning about the time of the elves being over, the compression of time and dumbness of the villains (Miraz is a huge loser) makes things less epic but more strange. Because the real highlight of the book is not Miraz going down but that incredible scene where a few people attempt to bring back the White Witch, you can always tell when Lewis is getting down to the bone and this is metal as fuck:
“I’m hunger. I’m thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy’s body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.”
Still working on France on Trial. I think it is possible to say that you can try Marshal Petain for treason and know what the outcome has to be and yet wonder if the trial was a fair one.
Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg – Malzberg passed last week at the long lived age of 85, a somewhat obscure writer but one with a growing cult. I went back to his most well known book. The sole survivor of a two man mission to Venus returns to Earth completely insane, willingly to talk and wanting to write a book about it. The astronaut is institutionalized and debriefed. He tells us everything about the mission and his sex life but nothing concrete about what happened to the captain of the mission or what really happened upon meeting the Venusians. Maybe his story is one big hallucination of a man fighting the turmoil he’s experiencing from his sexuality and who was rendered impotent by his training as an astronaut.
Published in 1972 Malzberg writes in the po-mo New Wave manner of the time. At a fleet 170 pages and 67 chapters this moves at a quick pace but is packed with ideas. Told by an unreliable narrator who builds his story on non-linear kaleidoscopic tiny fragments of his recollections which overlap and contradict each other from chapter to chapter and paragraph to paragraph with shifts from first to third person narration. It’s interesting to read and reread the puzzle pieces of fiction and meta-fiction and determine what is truth and what isn’t, what is the timeline of events, and sussing what it all means. Could this whole tale be the book the astronaut is writing and a way for him to get his sanity back? Written at the height of the Apollo missions the novel is a commentary on the times with Malzberg writing a vicious, deeply cynical satire of the economic, technological, and mindset of NASA, the nationalism of the space program, along with the mental and physical toll the training had on the men who went. The optimism of the value of space flight found in the Golden Age of SF is not here. Instead it’s filled with a dark look at the nationalism behind being the first country to the moon and beyond, and the expenditure of resources that would probably be better used on Earth to relieve poverty and homelessness. There is also the take down of the cultural role and prestige of the astronaut in society as manly gods (the title again). The graphic sexual encounters between the astronaut and his wife, and the attraction the astronaut has for the male authority figure he’s stuck with in a capsule on a long distance journey are not meant to be horny and salacious but is important character work getting to the psychology of the main character and the satire Malzberg is going for. The love the astronaut has for going to Venus representing finding love whether it be with his wife or with his male counterpart is a popular reading. The novel is a bleak picture of heroically conquering the solar system for the betterment of mankind. Controversial at the time for the mission statement and icons Malzberg was knocking down, it may still be that way for many who put value in them. Personally, it’s the best adaptation of the kind of astronaut alienation and command module fatigue found in Bowie’s Space Oddity and a great example of New Wave SF experimentation. But I can also see the experimentation, rebellious iconoclasm, and the need for books to obviously be about something turning many people off.
The Good Lord Bird – Had to take a break from people buying the farm in the Grand Canyon and a story. Loving this so far, a fictionalized account of travels with notorious Kansas free-stater John Brown. It depicts Brown as something between a cult leader and a guerrilla fighter, and not particularly stable in either regard. Not really far into it, but my initial wondering is if justice needs a couple figures like this on its side – crazy individuals with a strict code in some areas and a flexible sense of morality in others – to combat the inherent illogical and insanity of an institution like slavery.
Oh, damn, you gotta see the miniseries. Ethan Hawke is mesmerizing as John Brown.
Seconded.
Would say so, yes. Harper’s Ferry was an insane disaster, and also someone with guns had to fucking do something about the owning of human beings.
What did we play?
Ratchet & Clank
One of the all-timers. This is relatively crude compared to what came after, which goes to show how slick the later games are; I remember first playing this when it came out and being delighted at how cool it felt just to double-jump. In a lot of ways, this is a slightly edgier Saturday morning cartoon; there’s a special feature where the developers all say their goal was to make a game where you ‘blow sh*t up’, and the fact that this was censored speaks to the relative restraint.
The gameplay is straightforward corridor-based platforming – though most of the levels are outdoors, disguising the corridor somewhat – where the complexity is the addition of simple systems, particularly the weapons and gadgets. In a lot of ways, R&C is a true evolution of 2D platformers into a 3D space; most enemies can be killed in three or less ‘hits’, Ratchet has very limited health, and the game even becomes a pseudo-2D structure in a few key areas.
What makes it complex is the RPG-like system of upgrades; weapons you buy, gadgets you pick up, ever-increasing health, fixing up your ship, and upgrades for Clank. It’s not even close to an open world or anything like that, but there is a pleasurable sense of progression and ownership over your choices. The platforming areas make you feel like you’re thinking on your feet while exploring a very cartoony, silly world, and the areas outside that make you feel like a mercenary, profit-driven space explorer.
The story itself is fairly fun too. I remember a lot of people found Ratchet deeply unsympathetic – self-centered and whiny – though I personally never felt that too much. It has a simple satirical point (the main villain is a businessman destroying planets for profit) and a simple single twist – the heroic Captain Qwark is actually working for the villain – and most of the universe is a satire of ruthless American capitalism, with big corporations making dangerous, unstable devices and places purely to try and make money off people who are, themselves, looking for the next get-rich-quick scheme. I’m not saying it’s 1984, but it is entertaining stuff, and it merges well with the basic gameplay as you scrabble for money to buy cool weapons and shit.
Sometimes I think we will never play Strahd again. We scheduled twice for last week. The first time, a player forgot we were playing. The second, as noted Thursday, the DM ended up at a holiday party that was more eventful than planned. And now we are on a break till after the holidays. Oh well.
We are in the same boat in our Pandemic Legacy campaign. We last played in October, twice, after a break of two months due to travel (me, mostly) and some other obligations. At that time we planned for a mid-December meeting because other people were traveling, and then a few days before that date came around the host had to bow out due to his son needing surgery (all went well). So now we’re hoping for next month.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – finished the second major area (Gizeh) and there are a couple of smaller, action-packed ones on the way to the third and final big open-world part which were an absolute riot. The set-piece that took place in (and over) the streets of a war-torn Shanghai had me cackling with delight. Such a joyous way to keep the Indy franchise alive, and immediately into my favourite games of all time – I’m having so much fun and don’t want it to end.
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Don’t tell the Ploughwoman but I am being assassinated by boredom with this series. She’s finding it a good stress relief, burning down towers and purchasing ancient landmarks with the spoils. But the games have overly complicated systems that can be memorized and used to their maximum effect… or you can just hit the square button a bunch of times until the thing you want to happen happens. I duck in to play through the story elements (also am not interested) and otherwise leave her to her portentous historical mayhem.
The Punisher – Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Nintendo Switch
Got a physical collection on sale (it even comes with a mini comic book that I haven’t read) and decided to start with this one, finishing it yesterday. This might just be Capcom’s best beat ’em up for my money: colorful, loud, action-packed and stylish, taking Punisher’s infamous ultraviolence and rendering it in in a fun, Saturday morning cartoon garb. Had a great time with this one.
F-Zero 99 on Nintendo Switch
Played the holiday update during the week. They added new snow-covered tracks, new rewards and a new nine-track tournament mode. It’s super fun, and servers are busy again to boot. Also, the obstacle cars with reindeer horns are back.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch
Had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and four of us played a cup. Lots of banter and shit talk and I ranked very low but still beat two of the other guys. My wife placed better than me, felt super proud about that.
X-Men: Children of the Atom
X-Men vs Street Fighter
Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Nintendo Switch
Played a few rounds of each during the aforementioned dinner. I won a few rounds and got to experience first hand the chaos people talk about when they talk about these games. I don’t think I did anything different in the matches that I lost than in the ones that I won, meaning I still don’t know what I’m doing but I had a lot of fun. Still early with these games, but my first impression is that playing them doesn’t fit the molds I’m used to (i.e. they’re not at all like Street Fighter or King of Fighters/Fatal Fury), so it will take some time for me to get the hang of them; time I’m perfectly willing to spend.
Animal Well – I’ve been making an amount of progress that even has me surprised. And largely without help! (There were a couple of spots I had no idea what to do and where there’s zero indicator what you should do.) I got stuck last night trying to figure out a way around or through those damn dogs to the fourth flame. (I might need to take an alternate path through the area.) This has been quite fun, largely platforming and puzzle-solving without the combat. And it’s been fun to figure out most of it on my own – although I do feel like maybe people overstated the value of not knowing anything going in. But maybe not – sort of impossible to know, and I did enjoy figuring things out, as I said.