Lots of animation recently. 

King of the Hill S15: It's amazing how well Mike Judge and co have been able to maintain the quality of this series. Another great season. 

Spy X Family S3: Still cute but I wish the show would stop spinning its wheels and advance the plot a bit more. 

Umamusume series: Seen various references in recent years and decided to give it a chance over time after watching a video that I think sums it up pretty well in hindsight: 

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender: Despite all the highs and lows of the franchise since the original series, it's great to see Team Avatar again in a solid movie that really deserved to be in theaters. In any case, if this is representative of what to expect from the new Avatar Studios then there is hope for the franchise yet. 

Medalist: I never really cared about figure skating or sports anime until I gave this one a try. I'm fully bought into this one now and eager for the next chapter. So cathartic! https://youtu.be/lymfyRBPd14?si=RSVJzYZJtV5lw8rM&t=750 

Sad news, Hayden Panettier, the actress who portrayed Jessica, a recurring character on Malcolm in the Middle, has passed away at the age of 36.

The Ghost in the Shell 2026

Decided to do a full watch of X-Files, only watched it very intermittently when I was younger. Almost finished season 1, enjoying it.

Saw the new Resident Evil in IMAX a couple weeks ago. Can proudly say Zach Cregger is the next big horror director because the movie was great, it once again perfectly blended horror and comedy like his other 2 films. Bryan really carried the movie with some laughs and, dare I say, great tension. There was never a singe moment I was looking at my phone to see how much time was left. And it definitely followed the formula of the games even if it lacks any of its main characters (or any characters, period).

Which brings me to my next point: some people crying about how it’s “REINO”. Well, the Outbreak games didn’t have a single recurring character, so it’s not exactly out-of-left-field for even the games to do this. The first PWSA Resident Evil movie is ironically viewed as the next best Resident Evil movie and it likewise didn’t have a single character from any of the games in it (it did have Lickers, though). OTOH WtRC had all the main characters from the games and it sucked.

And as an added bonus, I got a couple collectible IMAX tickets at my screening.

The Bear S5: Seasons 3 and 4 were a bit wobbly for me but the show finished strong with a tight and engaging final season. The show found its rhythm and its sense of humor again which was nice to see. All in all a great love letter to the restaurant industry and I'm glad to see everything tie together in the end in a satisfying way.

The Ghost in the Shell: While I still prefer the more serious tone of the films and Standalone Complex, this is definitely the best the show has been since those hallowed days. Can't say the new animation and closer hew to the manga doesn't freshen things up but it does also feel rushed and I wish it has more time to breathe. In any case, would definitely watch more if they made more.

Lanterns: I wasn't really anticipating this show but it ended up exceeding my expectations. The highlight was definitely the character development of our leads. By the end they both feel truly three dimensional and John in particular has such a satisfying arc. I hope we get to see a lot more of him. True Detective With Power Rings turned out to be a solid idea for a difficult character to get right.

Just finished up the new Carrie series on Prime Video, really enjoyed it until the final episode. They had some nice expanded lore moments (which they would obviously have to do if they wanted to stretch Stephen King’s book out into a miniseries) involving social media and whatnot throughout the show. Without going too deep into spoilers, they expanded on Chris’ character in a way that makes you feel like she’s more of a monster than what either of the movies showed while also giving you context for why she’s the way she is that was absent from either film adaptation, same with Margaret (Carrie’s mom). Then in the final episode, it just kind of… ends. It didn’t help that they completely undercut her tragic downfall in the final episode, which I also won’t spoil specifics of.

The prom scene (which is what we’re all here for) also felt kinda rushed after being built up well and the documentary storytelling somewhat hurt its tension and pacing.

Apparently Mike Flanagan is trying to get at least one more season (he said it could go on as much as 3 seasons) and the ending may well be a cliffhanger for a potential S2, which could really expand on Carrie’s fallout from the Chamberlain/prom massacre (S1 could be Fuck Around for Carrie and S2 her Finding Out), but it’s unfortunately also climatic enough that Amazon could end the series on that if they really wanted to (if they don’t renew). I hope it gets renewed because S1 was great outside of that obvious ending hook and they could really expand on Carrie’s character and also Emaline, maybe a potential legal battle (it would be interesting to see how they’d plan to prosecute 200 telekinetic murders and if a jury would really believe a HS prom queen did all that). They also left breadcrumbs for more potential seasons (that I also won’t spoil), so here’s hoping.